Dirty Old Wedge Page #6

and the whole crew, we were

styling.

So, we presented our case and

you know,

Newport Beach, they loved us

(laughs).

- On the final decision,

that place was packed.

I mean, there was probably

five to six hundred people

jammed into this place,

standing room only.

- Let me get back to the council

and see if we can't come

up with a decision here

that will make everyone

go out of here smiling

and happy and probably hit the

surf.

- And, it ended up where

three had voted yay

and three had voted nay.

- [Voiceover] Mr. Cox?

- I'm just gonna comment that

I won't support the motion.

(applause)

- And it came to this last

city council member, a woman,

who I'm gonna say, she was

probably in her late 60's,

maybe 70, had lived in Balboa a

long time.

And, it was all quiet and

everybody waiting for her

response

and she said--

- Well, last night my husband

happens to be a quite a young,

considers himself still

a body surfer and my son,

of course, has a board.

And he's (laughs) real conflict.

And, we ended up with

something very similar

to what the (mumbles)

motion said this evening

and I will be supporting that.

(cheering and applause)

- All hell broke loose.

We all stood up, began

celebrating, hugging,

and there was a giant parade

that went right across

the street to Malarky's.

(bright, pop music)

- I don't think anybody really

realized

what they were fighting for

until they'd go down there

in the summer and you'd be

out and that black ball flag

would come up at 10

o'clock and all the guys

would get out of the water

and you'd just kind of go, oh,

yeah.

- [Voiceover] Boogie boarders

can kiss their Styrofoam

goodbye.

Beginning immediately,

knee boards, skim boards,

and body boards must stay

on dry land from 10 to five

May through October.

- Well, once they put the new

ordinance in

it was like I lost a friend in

the summer.

I mean, you couldn't go down

there and knee ride anymore.

You could go down there and body

surf

but that wasn't my gig,

I was a knee rider.

- There'd be so many days where

when they'd first started

blackballing,

I remember sitting on the

beach just like, really,

like and I'd just be

like seeing Mel and Terry

and all those guys just like

(laughs).

You know, and just laughing

it up, getting so many waves.

But I was stoked for them.

And then, but you know

what was cool about it

was when the blackball thing

came,

I body surfed a lot more,

you know, I went out

cause I love riding Wedge.

- I told Box the other

day, I said, you know,

if anything that's kind of a

cool legacy

that we worked our tails off on.

We did it the right way

and it worked, thank God.

I mean, seriously, because

boogies,

I would not be riding there.

Boom, it would've been over.

- [Voiceover] Lifeguards

believe it will take the boys

of summer a few weeks to catch

on.

- So far the Wedge has been the

only beach

to have that rigid

separation between surfers

with boards and without them.

(machine buzzing)

- [Voiceover] Here I am a knee

boarder

and I'm stoked out of my mind

that the guys got the blackball.

The Wedge was pioneered

as a body surfing wave

and the city council helped

to protect that culture.

But waiting down that road,

the guys didn't really count

on that thing we know as time.

- When the blackball happened in

'93,

we were all hoping it would

be kind of a resurgency

in body surfing but I think

it hit at a perfect time

when a lot of the guys were

getting older

and starting families.

And, they thought they'd have

the time to get out there

and utilize the freedom they had

now

with no bodyboarders out there.

And, in fact, that really didn't

happen.

- After our generation

started getting older

and having kids and families

and a lot of guys moved on,

financially I guess guys

couldn't just take off

for a summer

and screw around anymore.

Ya know, that happens when

you get a mortgage and kids

and car payments and all that

stuff.

- Personally, I was single

longer than most of the guys.

I was 42, almost 43.

So, I had a good 25

years of non-stop waves,

women, whiskey, you know

(laughs).

(upbeat, folk music)

- When you're young, you go

under waves,

it's a huge set coming in.

You're going under waves

and you are praying to God

that there's a bigger wave.

I need this to be bigger.

Bring it, bring it, bring it.

- [Voiceover] Tom Kennedy,

what's a perfect day

at the Wedge?

- Well, a lot of girls

on the beach (laughs).

- [Voiceover] (laughs) The

scenery.

- And, I like a big wave of

course.

As you age and you become more

wise,

you hope not that there's bigger

waves.

- Having a family and four

boys I would just flash

every time I was out there

when I'd take some poundings,

ya know?

This could be the last,

ya know, and I'm like,

I wanna see my kids

graduate from high school

or get married one day, ya know,

those things started going

through my mind

and as like an athlete

knowing when to walk away

from their profession or their

thing.

(people chattering)

- You gotta wash your

hands off in the water.

- [Voiceover] Dale's gone

from distributing vibe

to distributing goldfish

(laughs).

(kids chattering)

- Ya know, there was a depleted

Wedge crew

and it was really sad

because you didn't wanna see

the division or you didn't

wanna see people moving on

with their lives.

You wanted to see people

still show up everyday.

- There was that period,

it was 15 to 20 years ago

because all the skimming

came in and the sponging,

body surfing kind of went out

and there were no younger guys

doing it.

And, a few of us were

worried that body surfing

was actually gonna die out at

the Wedge.

- With '89 being my year of

starting my Wedge body surfing

and becoming a part of the

group.

- [Voiceover] The boats, boaty.

Oh, where'd he go?

- But I recall showing up at the

beach

and none of the guys I

knew were there anymore.

They were all gone.

I was on the beach by

myself for days on end,

riding waves by myself

with guys I had no idea

who they were.

And, the glory of the

Wedge crew kind of went off

by the wayside with the

advent of the boogie board.

That was it.

- The idea of crew was, and

riding Wedge

was held together from the

most unexpected places.

Some of the fringe riders of

Wedge and it really surprising

if you look back and

think about, you know,

some of those guys like Gene.

- When I first started going to

the Wedge,

I was really not a good body

surfer.

I was just learning.

I was 42 years old and

I was learning a sport

so, I was treated like

sh*t for a long time.

But, I just stuck it

out because I loved it.

- Gene was kind of a good figure

to add in

to the 21st century for a lot of

us.

It was like, okay,

here's an old guy that's

pulling the weight still.

(waves crashing)

- [Voiceover] Mean Gene.

- [Voiceover] Was that Gene?

- The first kid to come in

and started making body

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