Surfers Score Offshore Oil Rig in California During Historic Huge Swell (VIDEO)

Dashel Pierson
·1 min read
19

Waves breaking a mile out to sea off an oil rig in California? Yep.

While most folks looked to the conventional, perhaps more XXL-friendly surf spots during the historic end-of-year swell in California – surf spots like Mavericks and Blacks Beach and beyond – a handful of surfers neglected the herd.

They trekked out to Platform Esther, an offshore oil refinery (and mythic wave) more than a mile from the coast of Seal Beach in Orange County.

The clips above are a rare sighting. It needs to be big – real big – for waves to break this far out to sea and in this deep of water. But it’s not unheard of.

In fact, back at the beginning of this year in January, surfers were catching waves out at Esther, too. Keep scrolling for footage from those sessions.

And the history goes back even further with El Niño-fueled, oil rig surfing off California. The late great Sean Collins – founder of Surfline – told the Los Angeles Times during the celebrated, holy of holies, whispered in hushed tones, benchmark for all other swells, El Niño season of 1998:

“The island oil rig was hammered by 20-foot waves in the El Nino storms of 1982 and ’83 and basically destroyed. They dug out the machinery and rebuilt a platform next to it, but they left a lot of submerged construction.”

Could the historically huge swell at the end of 2023 usurp the role as benchmark for El Niño-charged California surf seasons? Probably not. But it’s not over yet.

Stay tuned.

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