Do you ever wonder what the surf spot you regularly surf was like in years passed? Maybe what it was like before surfing got started?

Every now and again I do. The spot I surf has had changes and pretty big ones during the period I started surfing and now. The town of Ventura where I live has participated in the changes, spent probably millions of dollars on those changes. As well nature has made changes to the surf in Ventura town too.

My wife gave me a book “Images of America Ventura County” last week. As I read through the book and looked at the pictures I found one of what was called the wharf. It is a picture of the Ventura pier on the south side looking out from the beach. The story writing with the picture was from 1905… 118 years ago. The Ventura Pier has been around for a long time.

South of the pier now days there are jetties. They weren’t there in 1905. Harbor Blvd that runs along the beach wasn’t there either, nor the freeway or any other development.

There was some surf breaking in the picture. A perfect peeling right with a left hand corner on the opposite side of the right. And a couple swells forming behind the breaking wave.

The Pier is a surf spot, or was a surf spot. The last couple decades the pier has lost it’s status as a spot to surf. Why? Because it doesn’t break like it used to. And certainly not like what you see in the 1905 picture.  But in was a regular spot to surf.

I could see the pier from my shaping bay at Morey-Pope and when there was surf it made it hard for me to work because…. Well there was surf and I could see it. I surfed the spot but didn’t surf it regularly like I did up the point. My son surfed it more regular than I did.

It would get really good on big winter swells. The current would get really strong with the larger surf making it hard to stay in the lineup without being swept down the beach. So some of the hard core locals tired a long rope off the pier that they could hold on to, that would keep them from drifting down shore. That current would make things very difficult to paddle out to the line up too.

What would some of my friends do to remedy the difficult paddle out? Walk out on the pier to a place passed the surf zone and jump of the pier. Hard core… hustle to grab the rope, hold on for a good set wave, let go, paddle into position and pick off a good left back to the pier.

Developments on the beach up the point have helped to shut down the surf break at the pier. It does break some times but sadly nothing like it used to. My son and I used to have a look out spot a block over and a couple blocks down from our house we’d use for a quick surf check of the pier.

Though I don’t see it with decent surf, after all these years when driving by the beach I always look to see if the pier is breaking.

D.R.

Ventura Pier circa 1905