California Big Surf Ocean Winter Storm, Huge Waves in December of 2005

2005 was a record year for hurricanes and tropical storms, some of which made landfall on US coastlines. Total US damage attributed to these storms easily exceeds $100 billion.

On December 21, 2005, an unusually big northern swell caused huge waves to hit California's coast. Famous Venice Beach got some of the biggest waves ever seen here. Pounding waves, as high as 25-feet tall, flooded the beach and caused a small part of the Venice Fishing Pier to fall into the ocean.