Ocean Beach, which has one of the longest piers on the West Coast, is visited by people from all around the world building memories at the 56-year-old landmark.
"Oh, man, it's an icon, fishing, learning how to surf here through the pylons and some secret memories of jumping off at night, you know," Joshua Annand said with a laugh.
Katie Ord and Tracey Parnell, who are visiting from Ohio, stopped by on Monday morning to grab a coffee on the pier but found the gate locked.
More on the OB Pier
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The pier has been closed to the public since January after high surf knocked off railings during a series of winter storms. On Monday, the city offered NBC 7 a closer look at the damage.
"It literally popped off this entire piece of concrete, and this is from the edge of the deck where the railings are being anchored," said Matthew N. Martinez, who is a board-certified port engineer.
The structure also shows signs of aging.
You can see the rust that has occurred — it's just delaminating," Martinez added.
As the city considers a plan for renewal or replacement, officials are asking for input on options.
"That can be to replace the structure or what opportunities exist to re-envision something that honors the community, that understands its history but also plans a structure for the next 50, 60, 75 years," said James Nagelvoort, the city's director of strategic capital projects.
For his part, Annand said he wants to see the pier back open to continue making memories.
"Maybe reinforce it, especially the pylons down below," Annand said. "I'd like to see them take out this entire wood barrier and maybe put up either concrete or some sort of stable foundation, but definitely not tearing it down."
At this time, visitors can still walk a third of a mile out onto the pier, and, if they're lucky, even see some dolphins.
The city said it's waiting for the next storm system to come through before they fix the damaged railings. Then, they'll bring in a consultant next month to evaluate the pier's support structure to make sure it's safe. Once that's done, the pier will reopen. However, there's no timetable as to when that will happen.
