Oil Piers Surf Guide

Oil Piers Surf Guide

For years, Ventura County surfers flocked to the well-defined sandbar that broke off Arco's Oil Piers, located a half-mile south of Mussel Shoals. Always glassy, always shapely and always easy to sip on the Lucky Lagers without the overwhelming presence of law enforcement, Oil Piers was the summer lover's haven for Ventura's surfing elite -- Beach Blanket Bingo without Frankie or Annette. But in 1998, all the summer fun came to an abrupt end. Mobil's contract with the state of California expired, and company officials were obligated to dismantle the two piers and leave the place as they found it: a shapeless stretch of exposed beach that's no better than any other lumpy stretch of sand. Oil Piers as we known it is dead, but for a crew of surfers who were fortunate enough to catch it when the "A-frame" was barreling in either direction for days on end, "Oilies" will always bring back warm memories. Human createth, human taketh away.