When a hurricane named Marie starts spinning in the Pacific, Southern California surfers are inevitably going to think back to 2014. It’s the benchmark, the stuff salty old surfers will be reminiscing to their grandkids about for decades to come.
Marie was, and still remains, the best. Period.
The OG Hurricane Marie occupies a legendary space in SoCal surf lore. Newport Point saw faces reportedly reaching 15-to-20-feet, while the Wedge went into full mutant mode, producing monstrous walls of water in the 25-to-30-foot range. It was an all-time tropical swell—one that set an impossibly high bar for every hurricane swell that followed.
So, when Hurricane Marie 2.0 sent another pulse of tropical energy toward the coast, the comparisons came quickly.
“Marie 2.0…all the hype,” mused Santa Cruz-based photographer Ryan “Chachi” Craig, who came down to Orange County to chase waves and capture images.
The swell certainly delivered moments of glory at Southern California’s marquee breaks, including the Wedge and Newport Point, while also bringing the less glamorous side of big surf: dangerous currents, coastal flooding, and erosion. Officials warned of hazardous conditions, with Newport Beach lifeguards performing 177 rescues on Saturday alone.
“I shot Sunday and Monday,” Chachi said, “holiday weekend in Newport. Parking was hectic. I don’t have any idea half the time I’m down here in this area. I don’t know the secret parking spots. I only know the surf spots.”
So, Chachi headed where everyone else did, like flies buzzing to a light. He said:
“Everybody had the original Hurricane Marie on their mind, and how good the point got.”
And while this Marie may not have rewritten the record books like its infamous 2014 namesake, Chachi still found plenty worth pointing his lens at.
“It was a proper goose chase,” he recalled in the aftermath. “It was totally worth coming down for. But overall, I’d say the OG Marie was pretty unbeatable.”
From detonating Newport wedges to moments of clean, tropical glory, these are the images from Hurricane Marie’s Southern California strike.
Related: Hurricane Marie Never Made Landfall in California. She Destroyed the Coast Anyway.
All photos courtesy of Ryan “Chachi” Craig. Keep scrolling.
Related: Hurricane Marie Swell Unearths a Piece of Wedge History (Video)