SURFER WATCH : Wedge Issue

Tired of the usual apocalyptic issues? You know, nuclear proliferation, ethnic cleansings, serial killers, the L.A. mayor’s race, things like that. If so, we have a break for you.

Meet the Wedge--famous among surfers in Orange County as a delicious caldron of foaming water off Newport Beach. But, wait, there’s trouble in surfer’s paradise.

The trouble involves contending body surfers and board riders, who petitioned the Newport Beach City Council with their dispute. Seems that in the olden days of Moondoggie and long boards, body surfers had use of the Wedge all to themselves. But, inevitably, times changed, technology intruded, small body boards proliferated and now a hardy band rides the Styrofoam at the Wedge--much to the disgust of body surfers.

This spring an organization calling itself the Wedge Preservation Society (bodysurfers) urged the council to extend a partial ban on boards, making it effective around the clock, for safety reasons. A rival group called Save The Wedge (board riders) opposed any extension. Don’t underestimate the intensity of the dispute. One councilwoman’s husband is a bodysurfer but her son favors boards.

On Monday night, at an opening meeting packed by surfers from both camps--some sported long hair and thongs, others wing-tip shoes, suits and ties--the council deftly bridged these two worlds by giving bodysurfers sole access from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. between May 1 and Oct. 31 but allowing boards the rest of the time.

If only all the world’s differences were so easily resolved.