Wedge ripper fights cancer

Kevin “Mel” Thoman is a tough man. Few who know him would argue otherwise. The Newport Beach bodysurfer, one of the small group that has braved the Wedge at the tip of the Balboa Peninsula, has taken countless spills, surfed with oil in the water and fought City Hall to keep his prized wave spot out of the hands of boogie-boarders.

This weekend, though, the surfing legend is embarking on a fight of a different kind. Thoman, 51, underwent surgery Friday for prostate cancer, and the friends who have joined him at the Wedge for more than three decades are rooting for him to be back in the water soon.

“I’m certain he will be,” said Thoman’s brother-in-law, Mike Kennedy. “And I’m sure he’s certain he will be, whether it’s recommended or not.”

Thoman, who works as a supermarket night clerk, was diagnosed with prostate cancer after a biopsy in July came back positive. Friday, he went in for surgery to remove the growth at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian — one day after heading out to the Peninsula for his last romp on the waves for a while. Even with the stress of treatment coming up, Thoman’s mind was still on the surfing conditions.

“This summer was very poor until we had two swells in a row in early September, and then we had a third one,” he said. “We’re jumping on it while we can.”

He added that he didn’t expect to be incapacitated for long.

“I’m pretty positive about it,” Thoman said. “This doctor is top-notch.”

The Wedge, long considered one of the most fearsome surfing spots in California, was created in the 1930s when the federal Works Progress Administration built a jetty at the end of the Peninsula. Starting around mid-century, bodysurfers began braving the large waves, which turn downright ferocious on days when the surf is up.

The men who bodysurfed the Wedge were so few that they eventually acquired a nickname — the Wedge Crew — and many of the group’s founders have stuck together over the years, even as old members moved on and younger ones joined.

Thoman was the journalist of the group, more or less, keeping daily calendars of surf conditions and offering a “Wedge report” predicting the waves on his answering machine.

In the 1990s, the group became politically active, as Thoman, Terry Wade and brother-in-law Tom Kennedy successfully lobbied the Newport Beach City Council to keep boogie-boarders out of the Wedge from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. May through October.

Thoman, who is married and has an 8-year-old daughter, has retired the Wedge report and much of the partying that once centered on his home; but even after his diagnosis this year, he’s still hitting the waves.

Moreover, Kennedy said, his sense of humor hasn’t diminished. At least once recently, while surfing at the Wedge with friends, Thoman jokingly insisted that they let him take most of the waves due to his condition.

“Every time a set came in, you were hoping he wasn’t around, because you knew you had to give it to him,” Kennedy said. “And if you didn’t give it to him, all the rest of the guys would come down on you.”

MICHAEL MILLER may be reached at (714) 966-4617 or at [email protected].