Pier Pleasures

The winter storms that once again battered Ventura’s beloved pier were just another notch in the wooden landmark’s storied past.

Less menacing spring tides are back, returning the cherished relic again to a place to cast a line, stroll with a friend, look for faces in its aged grains, gaze back at the city’s golden foothills.

“Here we are on the edge of the world,” someone has scribbled on the 126-year-old pier’s belly.

And what a tranquil place the edge can be.

This place built for commercial fishing has emerged into a civic passion, its steel-braced pilings now better able to stand up to the likes of El Nino.

Battered and rebuilt several times over, the pier never lacks for love.

What better place, say Venturans Dean Hewitt and Jennifer Tunney, to sit and chat about a business venture they plan to start.

Sunsets seem to turn the waters purple, luring tourists from the stifling inland valleys and locals out for an evening walk.

What is it Kayla Greenwood of Oxnard sees as she stares at the ocean from high atop the pier, a place so many 5-year-olds have stood before?

All those savage storms and errant steamships have cut through the decking and swept it out to sea like Popsicle sticks. Termites and dry-rot may still chew away at the pier’s heart.

But such angry natural forces are no match for the pier’s human champions, who seem ready to spare no expense at preserving the treasured peace they find at the edge of these planks.

What a tranquil place the edge can be.