The most recent round of King tides off San Diego’s coast dissipated over the weekend.
While the rising water provided a beautiful show, it also served as a reminder in Ocean Beach of the battered, badly damaged pier that has been closed since October 2023.
“My favorite memories (on the pier) are definitely the cold winter and the hot chocolate I got from the cafe,” said Chelsea Banales. She grew up in San Diego and visited OB frequently with her dad when he went fishing on the pier.
As an adult, she brings out-of-town friends to her favorite beach and doesn’t understand why the pier hasn’t reopened.
“I really hope that they don’t just abandon the project because of money and it loses its infrastructure, coming down and then is just completely forgotten about,” Banales said.
A rusted chain with a small commercial lock is the only security holding the Ocean Beach pier gates closed, December 7, 2025. Photo credit M.G. Perez
The structure officially opened on July 2, 1966 as the San Diego Fishing Pier. The 1,971-foot concrete pier is the longest of its kind on the West Coast.
Decades of storms and the churning ocean made the pier unsafe as pilings sank and pieces of the structure fell off. After closing it for good more than 2 years ago, the City of San Diego planned to replace it rather than repair it.
Architect renderings and a design of the new pier were approved after several public input sessions. The new design is much more expensive than the cost would have been to repair it again. Estimates range from $170 million to $190 million.
State and federal grants are expected to cover the cost. The City has only raised $8.4 million used in the initial design process.
“It’s a beautiful old pier. It’s a sad way for it to end, there’s nothing noble about it at all,” Geoff Page told NBC 7, Sunday. Page has lived in Ocean Beach for 45 years. He is a long-time community activist, and a reporter for the OB Rag newspaper. He and another neighbor discovered the pier was recently vandalized. Cables cut and yards of copper wire removed.
You’re not (just) building it for Ocean Beach. You’re (re)building it for the people in this county, and all the tourists that come. The pier is dying.
Geoff Page, community activist and reporter for OB Rag
He reported it to the City and said nothing has been done about it. Page also said he plans to file a police report this coming week.
“You’re not (just) building it for Ocean Beach. You’re (re)building it for the people in this county, and all the tourists that come. The pier is dying,” Page said.
M.G. Perez
M.G. Perez
The pier remains closed. Seen here in the distance from the annual 40 ft crooked star pine Christmas tree at the end of Newport Avenue, Ocean Beach, Calif., December 7, 2025.
NBC 7 reached out to the City of San Diego for comment. A communications representative said there was no one available on the weekend.
According to information on the City’s website, The OB Pier Renewal Project has just begun the permitting and environmental review process.