Waves rising to heights topping 20-feet (6-meters) in late December pummeled the 855-foot-long (260.6-meter) Capitola Wharf in Santa Cruz County, only months after repairs following storms in January 2023 that collapsed a large section. The Capitola Wharf is a pier by nautical standards since it runs perpendicular to the shore, versus a traditional wharf running parallel.
San Diego’s Ocean Beach pier, a nearly 2,000-foot (609.6-meter) concrete structure built in 1966, has been repeatedly battered since 2019. The pier was still undergoing repairs after beatings from high surf that closed it twice last year when a monster swell in January wiped away a piling.
The city is exploring replacing the structure after spending more than $1.7 million in fixes over the past five years. It has secured $8.4 million in state funds for a new one. Among the three proposed designs is one with interconnected pathways, giving it a different look.
California’s state park service demolished the 93-year-old pier at Seaside State Beach near Aptos in Santa Cruz County after a January 2023 storm surge smashed it in half.
Communities are grappling with whether they can afford to keep their piers, which will need taller and stronger pilings that could make their historic look more industrial, Beck said.
But those are tough conversations for many who consider the piers almost sacred.
“It’s sometimes a little bit of a funny thing here in California, the way that we love our piers,” he said.
For generations, the structures have provided families, fishers, tourists and others a peaceful place to experience the ocean without getting wet.
In Ventura, west of Los Angeles, the Visitors & Convention Bureau waxes poetic about the pier built in 1872 that it calls the city’s centerpiece.
“Walk Ventura’s beaches and, in the distance, it wavers like a child’s matchstick project,” the bureau states on its website. “Sit on the sand at its base (on a calm day) and it whispers a lovely song any…
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