The Wedge

The Wedge is a notorious bodysurfing and bodyboarding break at the southern tip of the Balboa Peninsula, where wave refraction off the jetty produces massive shore-break waves up to 30 feet on the right swell. Surfboards are banned here in summer hours; this is a body-only spot, and a dangerous one.

For most of the year the Wedge is just a pleasant rock-jetty viewpoint at the end of a quiet residential street. But when a major south swell rolls in from a New Zealand storm — typically June through September — the place transforms into a circus: dozens of bodysurfers tow themselves through enormous waves while a crowd of spectators watches from the sand. Lifeguard injuries on big days run into the dozens.

things to do sight balboa peninsula
A story
The Wedge was created by accident. The 1936 extension of the West Jetty at the harbour entrance produced an unintended wave-mechanics effect: incoming south swells bounce off the granite blocks of the jetty and combine with the open-ocean wave, doubling or tripling the wave's height into a near-vertical wall that breaks directly on dry sand.