WAVES AND RAVES NEWPORT BEACH KEEPS BEACH HERITAGE ALIVE, WITH PLEASURE.

Byline: Story by Eric Noland Travel Editor

NEWPORT BEACH - YOU CAN hemorrhage money at every turn in this marina community in Orange County, but Newport Beach's premier attraction won't cost you a cent.

Just head out to the tip of Balboa Peninsula, hunt down a free parking place on the residential streets and make your way out to West Jetty View Park.

This is the infamous Wedge. A seawall that was constructed to protect boats inadvertently played havoc with the ocean swells that roll onto the beach. The result was some ungodly surf.

Watch the daredevils frolic in it, particularly when distant storms whip the peak to heights of 12 feet - viewing conditions we lucked into on a recent Monday morning.

``The swell refracts off the jetty,'' said a lifeguard, not taking his eyes off the harrowing action offshore, ``and catches another swell coming in. It doubles the size and the force of the wave.''

Bodyboarders jockey for spots at the very tip of the odd, hump-shaped waves (hence the name Wedge) and rocket at angles down the face. At times the feat is akin to tumbling off the top of a two-story building. And when the spectators get thick along the shore, riders seem to play to the crowd, finishing their rides with elaborate spins, jumps and wipeouts.

The Wedge has long been the domain of bodysurfers, who were sliding down waves on their bellies long before body boards were developed. During our visit, however, the bodysurfers were having nothing to do with the big stuff.

Newport has a reputation for being an upscale imitator of its blueblood cousin in Rhode Island, but bargains still abound in this land of pleasure craft, three-star restaurants and year-round tans.

The ferry to and from Balboa Island, for example, is only 50 cents per person. Once there, you can walk along a pathway that encircles the tiny man-made island, slip down the narrow streets and alleys, and be alternately charmed and bemused by Cape Cod knockoff cottages that sell for millions.

The legacy of California's once-ramshackle beach towns is kept alive at the Balboa Pavilion, a Victorian-themed fun zone at the ferry's peninsula landing. While modern theme parks embrace virtual-reality attractions, here you'll still find bumper cars, a carousel and a Ferris wheel. The neon is vintage. The wooden signs could use a coat of paint. The pigeons seem to subsist entirely on French fries and chunks of frozen banana.

At nearby Peninsula Park, we stumbled onto a free Sunday concert - fittingly, a surf band in aloha shirts playing the reverb-heavy instrumentals of Dick Dale.

A short drive away, in a business center adjacent to the impressive Fashion Island mall, a special deal can be found at a swanky spot: the Four Seasons Hotel Newport Beach. To celebrate the recent completion of $15 million in improvements, it is offering for the remainder of this year a package that includes a round of golf at nearby Pelican Hill and a spa treatment at the hotel (or two rounds of golf or two spa treatments).

Since weekend greens fees at Pelican Hill are $250, the Rediscover Package, which starts at $450 nightly, means one person can play 18 holes, the other can get a reflexology massage and the room rate can come in around $100. If you opt for two rounds of golf, the room is essentially free.

The hotel, comfortably removed from the congestion of the waterfront, is delightful, its grounds overgrown with tropical greenery and its in-room appointments elegant: Italian bed linens, fluffy cotton towels, CD players (and a selection of CDs in case you forgot to bring some!). You could easily spend all afternoon by the serene pool, and as evening falls a toasty gas fireplace warms the deck area.

We had an excellent breakfast of crab Benedict in the Four Seasons' renowned restaurant, Pavilion, but for dinner on Sunday night slipped out for the acclaimed French-California fare of Aubergine, a restaurant housed in a cottage on Balboa Peninsula.

Normally, chef Tim Goodell's five-course prix fixe menu is $85, but on Sunday nights the establishment serves up a pleasant four-course supper for $39. We savored a mixed salad that included roasted beets, a main course of New Zealand John Dory fish, a cheese course (with fried green tomato) and a divine dessert of Valrhona chocolate souffle cake.

It was all the more satisfying to walk away from the restaurant, the hotel, Balboa Island - and the Wedge - with the sensation of change jingling in the pocket.

NEWPORT BEACH

Where: From the 405 Freeway south, take the 73 Freeway south to Jamboree Road. It becomes Marine Avenue at Balboa Island. Jamboree is also a feeder road to the Four Seasons and Fashion Island.

Aubergine: 508 29th St., [phone].

Four Seasons: 690 Newport Center Drive; [phone]; www.fourseasons.com.

CAPTION(S):

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Photo:

A lifeguard stays ever-vigilant as body boarders brave big surf at the Wedge in Newport Beach.

Eric Noland/Travel Editor

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NEWPORT BEACH (see text)