5: The Day They Tried to Wipeout the Wedge

In a traitorous act to bodysurfers, Newport Beach Lifeguard Chief Bob Reed asked the City Council in 1962 to permanently close the Wedge because the world's most dangerous bodysurfing spot was, well, too dangerous. The council voted 6-1 to approve the new ordinance to ban bodysurfing at the Wedge. But at the next City Council meeting, where the ordinance would get a required second reading (usually a formality), bodysurfers turned out en masse to prevent the proposed ban from becoming law. Here's the story.