Just swell

Deepa Bharath

Dozens of surfers, bodyboarders and bodysurfers crowded the beach

Wednesday in hopes of riding those dream waves that eluded them over the

summer.

Their faith was triggered by a south swell expected to arrive in

Newport Beach as a result of stormy weather off the coast of New Zealand.

“It came in pretty much the way we wanted it to,” said Adam Wright, a

forecaster for Surfline. Wednesday “was a solid day.”

The waves were overhead in Huntington Beach and just over chest high

in Newport Beach, but Newport Beach had more of the “fun-looking” waves,

Wright said.

“If you want size, you go to Huntington, if you want shape you go to

Newport,” he said. “Newport Beach had the quicker and more powerful ones,

the fun ones.”

Edward Batista of Costa Mesa, who was surfing off of 48th Street near

the jetty Wednesday morning, said he thought the waves were “awesome.”

The waves “broke my leash,” he said, pointing to his leash, which

dangled from his surfboard. “They’re coming in with a lot of power.”

Batista said he will definitely be back today as well.

“It’s making up for the lousy summer a little bit,” he said.

But lifeguards and other bodyboarders were not too impressed.

The waves were coming in pretty good, but a brisk wind ruined most of

them, making it a quieter day than expected, said Newport Beach lifeguard

Jon Mitchell.

“We were out on stringent patrol because of the size of the waves,” he

said. “But the wind was blowing at 10 knots around 9:30 this morning and

that made the water choppy and windblown.”

Bodysurfer Doug Jackson of Tustin said he was a little disappointed.

“We had an overhead wave once in a while,” he said. “But it wasn’t too

good. But yeah, we’re checking those surf reports every day and looking

forward to a good winter surfwise.”

Wright said the good surf is expected to last for the next few days.

“It’ll probably slow down Friday but there will be a lot of juice left

until Saturday,” he said. “These are the strongest south swells we’ve had

since May.”

* Deepa Bharath covers public safety and courts. She may be reached at

(949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at o7 [email protected] .