The surfer on the air mattress at Newport’s Wedge? Not the 1st time people have pulled crazy stunts on those wild waves

The Wedge can be a crazy place, with surfers, skimboarders, bodyboarders and bodysurfers all trying to get a piece of the wild wave.

Last Friday, they had to make way for the massive, inflated air mattress in the line up.

A Newport Beach surfer’s Wedge antics caught on video made waves around the globe, with international media buzzing over the shots of Quinn Kasbar riding down the face of a big wave while laying down on an air mattress.

But Kasbar’s jaw-dropping rides last week aren’t the only memorable moments caught on camera at this unique surf break just north of the Newport harbor entrance.

Since the ’70s, Wedge enthusiasts have been testing the limits on just about anything that floats.

Before you read, be warned: Don’t try this yourself.

The Wedge is a spine-shattering, bombing break that slams surfers onto shallow, hard-packed sand. It’s sent plenty of people to the hospital through the years, and even taken a few lives.

Here are four times wave riders have survived – some barely – during memorable moments surfing the Wedge.

1. Odie dominates the Wedge

No one knows surfing inflatables at the Wedge better than Mel Thoman, an original Wedge Crew member who has been bodysurfing there for decades.

“I used to take so many weird things down there,” he said with a chuckle.

He started with the “Mel raft,” a surf mat that was popular back in the day.

Then he found Odie, as he was dubbed: a big, orange dragon that Thoman started riding at the Wedge in the ’80s.

It’s unclear what happened to Odie back then  — Thoman says there was a lot of partying happening those days and things are a bit fuzzy — but in the ’90s, a green, smaller version named Odie 2 made its appearance at the Wedge.

Sadly, a drunk friend decided he was going to kill the dragon and took a butter knife to its body, Thoman said.

“I kept re-patching him and re-patching him, and eventually I gave up,” Thoman said. “I can blow up his head, but I can’t keep his body from staying full.”

2. Inflatable boat

Testing out inflatables at the Wedge goes back to the early ’70s.

Steven Ekenstam has a shot from the early 1970s taken on a sunny summer afternoon of three “knuckleheads” who seemed to be under the influence launching an inflatable boat out by Cylinders, the break just next to the Wedge, when the lifeguards weren’t looking.

Ekenstam recalled:

“They were able to use just their hands to paddle into the lineup at the Wedge. Barely making it over the top of the first set wave, they started to get nervous realizing what they got themselves into.

“The crowd on the beach cheered as they made over the next one. Finally standing in their boat, they bailed out just before the next set wave took it over the falls.”

The riders weren’t cited or arrested, but they got a reprimand from lifeguards when they made it back to the sand.

3. Is that a pink flamingo?

In 2016, a pair of teens from Manhattan Beach decided to drag a pink flamingo out into the water.

They were tossed around the shorebreak as a south swell brought strong surf to the coast. The waves weren’t huge that day — but even small waves at the Wedge could pack a punch.

The big inflatable bird was all the buzz on the sand where onlookers chuckled and let out “ooh”chants with every wipe-out.

“It’s so fun,” said a winded Canyon Crespo as he took a quick break on the sand to catch his breath after getting slammed by a wave.

3. Oops, you missed the harbor entrance

This was a case of wrong place, wrong time.

A couple was out for a cruise on a personal watercraft in 2016 when they found themselves in front of a 20-foot wave that crashed on top of them. 

The bizarre accident near the Newport Harbor entrance sent the couple flying off their watercraft and into the turbulent waters. The watercraft was punted onto the rocks and stuck on the jetty, as bodysurfers and lifeguards scrambled to rescue the couple.

“Apparently, they were just kind of lost or something. He just drove straight in,” said Newport Beach Marine Safety Capt. Skeeter Leeper at the time. “They rented a jet ski and they were at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

A video of the incident, viewed nearly 2 million times, shows the watercraft trying to outrun a wall of whitewash. After the wave disappears, the jet ski is on the rocks and the couple is bobbing in the water.

A handful of the “Wedge Crew,” expert bodysurfers familiar with the waves were in the water, and jumped into action to help the couple. Lifeguards quickly reached the scene.

Leeper said had it not been for the life vests the couple were wearing, they may not have come up from the dangerous surf.

“They were very lucky,” he said of the couple, who made it to shore unharmed.

The watercraft was washed out to sea, then destroyed when another wave crushed it.

4. Outriggers stay out

A big wave appeared in front of Omar Simsek back in 2015, and he knew he was in trouble.

He was in his 21-foot outrigger trying to take on the Wedge, which was beefed up with Tropical Storm Dolores delivering waves in the 5- to 8-foot range.

But there were the occasional 10-footers, like the one that came out of nowhere and knocked Simsek over.  It dragged him – still attached to his canoe – under the raging water.

“I thought to myself, ‘You better get over this.’ Then in that instance, I thought, ‘Oh my God, you’re not going to get over this,’ ” the Newport Beach resident recalled at the time.

Simsek was still in his canoe when another wave took him under. Then another appeared, slamming the boat into the rocks.

“I got sucked in like a toilet,” he said. “I was literally drowning.”

A few teenage bodyboarders, Nick Furlotte and Jaren Harrel, both of San Clemente, quickly swam over. Furlotte gave Simsek his board and pushed him into a wave toward shore to get him to safety.

‘Pretty disappointing’

Newport Beach Marine Safety acting chief Brent Jacobsen said that all flotation devices – no matter what they are – must adhere to the blackball rules: none allowed in the water between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. between May 1 and Oct. 31.

As for the air mattress incident, Jacobsen called it “overrated.”

“I’ve seen way bigger and worse stuff ridden at the Wedge,” he said. “Reality is, the air mattress is pretty disappointing.”