Wedge body surf starts

More than 23 years ago, body surfers at The Wedge in Newport Beach won a small victory they commemorate every year today.

In a 1985 resolution passed by the City Council, all flotation devices including boogie boards, surf mats, surfboards and such were banned from The Wedge whenever a blackball flag was displayed. A resolution seven years earlier didn’t even mention body surfers.

On May 10, 1993, The Wedge was officially designated body surfing-only from May 1 to Oct. 31, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. It took rescinding an earlier resolution from 1989, that left the language too ambiguous for the big-wave riders.

Today, at 10 a.m., nearly 16 years to the day The Wedge officially became no-boards-only during the big-wave season, Mel Thoman and his crew are making their annual return to The Wedge, this time with a gift to the city and beach that has given them so much.

They’ve created an aluminum sign they’ll post near the West Jetty park entrance that dubs The Wedge the “World’s Greatest Body Surfing Beach.”

When Thoman and friends picked their fight in 1993, body surfers didn’t just want the famous surf location — known for its fast-forming and tall-faced waves in shallow waters — for the occasional blackball day. They wanted specific times and dates when they knew they could go out there and charge a 20-foot face without having to be overrun by a bodyboarder or surfer.

It was Thoman and his friends in the Wedge Crew who called themselves The Wedge Preservation Society for professionalism’s sake. Sixteen years ago, Thoman and his crew campaigned for the city to lay out specific days and times that they could body surf The Wedge all to themselves.

During that 1993 fight for the waves, surfers gathered more than 600 signatures petitioning to keep The Wedge board-friendly. Thoman and his friends had about 112 signatures backing their side, according to City Council minutes of the meeting where the resolution was approved.

“It’s considered a unique area for body surfing. There aren’t places where the waves form like they do at The Wedge,” said Jim Turner, Newport Beach lifeguard battalion chief. “May through October are when the south swells occur. During the winters that area can be among the calmest on the coastline.”

It’s an annual joy for some and headache for others. If you pass by The Wedge just west of the harbor opening, look for that yellow flag with the black circle in the middle.

Reporter JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619 or at joseph.serna@latimes.com.