This past Friday night I made a commitment to myself to wake up early…  How early?  2:35am!!

Why?  Because the forecast for The Wedge was 6 – 8 ft with very little wind.  And because I don’t really like crowds in the water… So getting there early is always the best for me.

So, I got all my gear together the night before and was out the door and in my car at 3 am on Saturday morning.

When I got to Newport it was still completely dark.  But it was black on the horizon looking out at the ocean, which meant it was not overcast at that time.  Which was good news since I wanted to get a sunrise.  One thing about that walk up to The Wedge.  You can never really see the waves until you get by the life guard tower…but you sure can hear them.  This was the biggest I have ever shot at The Wedge.  Walking up in the pitch black, all you could hear is waves exploding on the shore…one after another…  I started to get that nervous excited feeling…I stayed down there just watching the sets roll in for like 20 min while also looking for the best section…

I then went back to my car and got my gear ready.  As time went on, I could see that the sun was not going to make an appearance this morning, so I decided to shoot flash.  One of my favorite things to do now..  By the time I had everything ready and was back down at the beach, it was about 5:25 when I got in the water.  The water was nice…the wind was light and offshore and the waves were BIG and glassy at time…

Getting up that early really paid off.  From the wave and confidence standpoint…this was one of my favorite sessions.  Any new wave makes me a little nervous, but The Wedge adds to that because of the sheer power that comes along with it…by far, the most powerful and turbulent wave SoCal has to offer…  Here are some of the shots that I got from this morning…Hope you enjoy..

The first click!

As seen on my Facebook Page

Still always working on timing with the flash

Flashing the curl

The one draw back to using the flash is that you sometimes can't get all the detail you want out of the shot...But I do enjoy the motion that is captured..

SmartCar Parking lot

Lip close up

The Green Tunnel

I will post my land shots later this week!

Thanks