Surfers race to catch massive waves across Southland

 

Mike Lucas charged into the surf at Newport Beach's legendary Wedge, 

paddling out to brave waves so big they seemed to fill the sky.

"You quickly realize you could be dead in a second if you don't know what you're doing," 

said Lucas, 26, of Huntington Beach.

From Santa Barbara to San Diego, the pounding surf

 — unleashed by Hurricane Marie circulating off the Baja coast — 

whipped up a quintessential Southern 

California scene: surfers and body-boarders scrambling to the beach 

to ride the monster waves while thousands of spectators arrived

 — where a rock jetty thrust into the ocean amplifies waves' height and force —

 lifeguards and surfers estimated the waves were reaching heights of 25 feet. 

Lucas said he hadn't seen breakers so large in years, 

and it filled him with nervous excitement.

 to bear witness, clogging the roadways and lining the seashore.

At the Wedge 

— where a rock jetty thrust into the ocean amplifies waves' height and force — 

lifeguards and surfers estimated the waves were reaching heights of 25 feet. 

Lucas said he hadn't seen breakers so large in years, 

and it filled him with nervous excitement.

But "once you get out there, you get in ...more