Maxed out Seal Beach swell Esther oil platform waves Jan 6 11 and 13. Drone Video Cloudbreak

This is mostly just big picture shots of the swell this month January 2023. Southern California got some historic levels of swell and spots that never work turned on! Drone footage of the coast and swell. I got a little bit of footage of Chris Pantane ‪@Insanepatane‬ @insanepatane and Bo Bridges ‪@Bo_Bridges‬ @bobridges doing tow ins 2 miles out at esther oil platform. All shot on my little dji mini 2.
Music
1st funk no 49 James gang , 2nd pick up the pieces average white band, lastly Blondie One way or another

[@Gonzster1]

great music choices! Cali for Life!!

[@JB-rt4mx]

The Partridge Family ..Rocks Cali !!

[@frothinggrom9170]

Sounds like Galactic

[@brandosantana2246]

For life!!

[@michaelmcconnell7302]

i honestly thought my memory of a wave breaking "miles out, by the oil derrick" was a fever dream from my teenage years and all this footage of guys grabbing waves at the end of teh jetty must be what i was thinking of. thank you for this ❤

[@wavehead11]

Someone shoot down his drone. I want the last 5 minutes of my life back

[@HYPERSONIC-777]

NOW THATS WHATS UP!!! BIG WAVE SETS ALL DAY!!! ALOHA EVERY DAY FROM HAWAII!! AWSOME VIDEO!!! THANK YOU, CALIFORNIA, 😊 😋I CAN'T WAIT TO SURF IN NORTHERN CALIFONIA!! ALWAYS BE HAPPY😊♥

[@richardsteinhaus6616]

The aerial perspectives are amazing and special. Thank you so much! The crossed up swell pattern at minute 6 should be in an oceanographic science book. Lighting, camera angles...perfect!

[@benjaminogdon3808]

Any video that fronts Funk 49 gets a big ol' thumbs up.

[@bigwavebill]

😀

[@michaelkreitman5402]

Great to hear the James gang

[@tjanderson1972]

OMG - fantastic video! In fact, I would go so far to say that it is the best video I have ever seen of showing what swells look like out in the ocean as they approach shore and turn into waves. Absolutely amazing - keep em coming!

[@bigwavebill]

Man, thanks very much! There are so many guys that are amazing doing the drone surfing videos I figured take a different approach, appreciate the comment!

[@Kalikona5446]

You are Depraved of music

[@ScottCaplener]

love that you just hang on shots and let the moments unfold... sweet

[@joeblow1942]

Looks like good foiling waves out at the platform.

[@kc72186]

Lived there in the 70s and 80s, nice aerial perspective. 👍😎

[@billyoh2007]

Cool video…totally different POV than everything else I’ve been watching…Thanks for posting 😊

[@bigwavebill]

Thanks!

[@paulorientetheluffaranch]

Great footage.

[@dennisdain987]

Great drone shots! The storms of January of 83 were like what is going on now. A rogue 30' wave broke over that oil rig. The end of both Seal beach pier and Huntington pier got torn off. I have pictures of the middle of seal Beach pier collapsed. There were waves breaking onto and over Huntington cliffs. PCH was closed at Warner, covered in washed up sand. I surfed double overhead waves at PCH and Warner that year. This was so great to see ariel shots of all the places I used to surf, Seal Beach, Sunset and Surfside. Very cool, thanks.

[@guydouglas6094]

Love the J Walsh song. Amazing swell lines, the drones capture so much. Great video.

[@ohm8458]

................................................................................................................... killer music choice brah. 🤘

[@bradleyjanes2949]

65 yo and I've never seen the jetty being covered like that. I don't know if its the biggest swell butt definitely a once in lifetime event,thank you for this v idea, 🤙

[@Jason-cm6uh]

Great vid! Nice choice of tunes.

[@wolf-yw9wk]

this is great really gives an insight to different swell directions needed for seal.

[@zopi9]

First place I ever surfed was Seal Beach, back in 1975. My dad borrowed boards from a friend who lived there, mine had box rails on it. There was a guy out who was an amputee and was surfing with a prosthesis with a plunger on the bottom of it. Best day, no oil rig! Love your footage!

[@bigwavebill]

Thanks!

[@BigDaddy-hn7oh]

I remember that 75 there wasn't the platform .when I surfed it I was by myself ,it was scary way out there .weird nobody was around .long time ago .and it was consistent . Yeah swells by the platform crazy 2023

[@stevokatzzz]

Different, very nice video

[@MikeMakesAMess]

Pretty sure I was out on the platform that day. It's so awesome watching y'all surf there!

[@toddwaldo5320]

6:00 the wedge dream Great work TY

[@desidesiderio644]

One of the best video of OC 🏄🏿‍♂️ to date… great job 👊🏾

[@bigwavebill]

Appreciate that

[@ScottBallard]

Great footage!

[@bigwavebill]

thanks!

[@TheodoreJudah]

I love the refracted square waves.

[@ThomyeSurfs]

sick footage. drone shots gives you such a different perspective.

[@loub747]

Good stuff. Had I been home I would have been videoing too.

[@tuskedbeast]

Fascinating. Thank you for making and sharing this!

[@douglastaylor8285]

Very Cool nice job....

[@William-Bill-Munny]

Excellent video and edits... this still wasn't as big as when the HB pier was knocked down. My friend and I surfed near the end of Seal's jetty(45 min paddle out) and watched waves breaking through that oil rig. Outside of Hawaii I had the biggest barrel of my life in the southside Seal shorebreak that day lol. People always laughed at me when I said that, but if you were there you knew.

[@bigwavebill]

I remember that storm, Its vague because it was a long time ago,

[@William-Bill-Munny]

@@bigwavebill Yeap the memories are still there - just some details have been lost now haha. Although I still have a clear memory of my 6'2" Town & Country humming like a whistle - then never ever doing it again. Should have kept that board it would have been a great wall hanger now. Thanks again for helping me to dig up some fond memories.

[@cmarts1921]

It was a glorious wave when you could keep the speed going from cloud break all the way through to the the inside shortbreak bowl. Having that speed let you hit that reform steep bowl section as deep as you want, and get spit out under the sand after that thick brown barrel.

[@Thurston.Howell.the.3rd]

That southern sunrise view from Surfside jetty to Huntington, nice shot

[@dontbugme7362]

That was killer

[@bigwavebill]

Money shot for sure, I work in marine construction and we are the company that dredged the new channel for huntington harbor, We had a near shore disposal site. We took an area that was about 20 to 25 feet deep and brought it to -15. In that shot you can see it was breaking with a pretty nice left on the spot. The material was just sand so that one storm may have ended that spot.

[@nicksorrentino9758]

Great video. Love seeing the swell, backs of the waves.

[@Dluv3679]

Bad ass tune, what a pissa !

[@longliveavalon]

Old guys rule! 😁🤙🏻

[@brownmark7064]

excellent!!

[@jarredtremain4644]

The square surface of surf looks like what happens sometimes before tsunamis? Crazy wedges

[@HoStevie]

*Love the drone footage 🤙🏽*

[@NONSTOPSURFF]

So sick!!

[@stevemcconnell5864]

Grew up in seal 🦭 love this I'm 60 now great choice of music 🎵🎶 🧂 life 🌊

[@jackiejoy7276]

Great video awesome love seeing the mountains in the background lot of people don't even know that you can see mountains from the ocean great choice of music to 🙉🙈🙊

[@paulmamuth4701]

Awsome view. Great time to foil. Congrats from Santa Catarina Island, South Brasil

[@cmarts1921]

Beautiful video. That was more the bowl than the hole, at least that's what we used to call it in the 80s and 90s. The hole was a little to the east, about three quarters of the way to the jetty if you walked in from Anderson. Unless the sand is eroded, the hole doesn't really exist anymore as it did. It really was a hole, a big divot in the beach where the sand had pulled back towards the homes , it got to the point that the big rocks under the sand up by the houses got exposed even. Then they spent what seemed like 2 years dumping sand and they made the beach much wider and pretty much filled in the hole to wear it was not much different than the rest of the beach, ther than getting a little bit of sidewave from the jetty still.

[@jamescostello6290]

Hypnotic, following wave after wave rolling in.

[@girlinthecurl93]

Okay this video is top my beach looks amazing thank you love Seal beach .

[@bigwavebill]

Thanks 🙏❤️

[@igaroot]

love the following shot -really get a sense of the swells rate of speed

[@rickyhammer6832]

Awesome

[@cecildawg-w2p]

Thank you. Beautiful shots. Some times a sweet languid quality. Music was very cool.

[@MrApplebumPS]

Lines for days!

[@JosephWilsonProductions]

can you imagine the surf in Long Beach if they removed the break wall? It would be some of the best in Sothern California!!!!!

[@blazed1945]

It would be a washing machine of used syringes

[@mikenelson1387]

Great video and my favorite music BWB, I have never seen a swell in Seal Beach quite like this one.

[@devonharrison7124]

Thank You!

[@renmcper8402]

good job

[@Jason-TheChad-Muska_circa1995]

I mean the music is absolutely too much but This may be some of the best drone footage I've ever seen in my life.

[@amaurimasagao2332]

Great video! Thanks... I'm from Brasil

[@jefesalsero]

Those guys were ripping! Lol

[@MichaelDavis-si9bv]

I had a friend in SD from Seal named Paul Kaplan, we used to surf a lot he was a good bloke. \m/

[@PariahSojourner]

Thr stuff of dreams.... Come true! And here I was, a broke down car and no board. Oh, well, at least there are vids like this! Gracias!

[@myrrhavm]

Imagine the swell if the took down the breakwater that spans the whole length of Long Beach shoreline. Speaking of shoreline. Believe it or not, they use to surf at a beach that use to exist where Shorelines Village now does. That is all landfill.

[@paulsc36]

Wow what a wave...and by the way, when you see those kind of square lines approaching the shore... RUN! Surfing or Home!

[@fungibles5069]

Music was fire, production was water.

[@killbill5486]

Yeah, now we can talk about how we tow surfed that epic swell!!!

[@mm2024-7]

Good perspective. Not as much energy as I thought. But pretty good.

[@pacnik77]

Joe Walsh best bass song wakeup and surf you sons of.....the living God

[@paulsc36]

Talking about the Great Funk 49, you guys now know where the "Footloose" theme's Riff and Harmonies come from...

[@MrSerioLok69]

Man. My home town. Anehaim bay is my entry to go fish 🎣 Never Seen anything like that on my waters. Just Amazing 🌊🤙🏼

[@bigwavebill]

yep,, I grew up HB and definitely only time I have seen it like this. I was working inside on the base tripping out on waves coming over the breakwater.

[@carldesserich8509]

Great video! I also have a Mini 2 drone and live in San Diego County near the beach, but I've heard it's illegal to fly around the beach areas, so I've just stuck to the rural scenery. No one has ever said anything to you? Hell, if not, I'm going to go get some wave footage! 😆

[@bigwavebill]

load b4ufly app or air control app, look at your airspace you want to fly in, and see who controls it, san diego area you have a lot of military no fly zones, but there are plenty of areas you can fly.

[@myrrhavm]

The James Gang.

[@moleisrich1]

Finally music played proudly!

[@TimKyoutube]

They moved the barges to the center of the channel and left a tug on station just in case something happened. That's not normal.

[@bigwavebill]

manson moved their barges inside, connolly didnt which i thought was a weird call.

[@glens51]

Funk 49?

[@LonelyInHawaii]

🤙🤙

[@JJ-qq8tg]

greetings from brasilian srfr🎆

[@rogersocalbeaches5734]

So glad you made this video. I have always wanted to see this beach from this perspective. This and the Wedge and the Point and CDM. I guess Seal beach is the exact opposite as the wedge? They seem to look identical from the beach but that drone shot is perfect. Can you make one of these videos for the Wedge and Point on the next maxed south swell?

[@bigwavebill]

on the to do list,

[@bctesla]

I’ll give it to you , this swell was almost creating but low tide and no waves rideable until inside , so far as El Niño this one still not even close

[@tucko11]

Dude what the hell is goin on in Cali ?! 🏄‍♀️

[@CounterFleche]

Amazing video and perspectives. Most drone footage isn't very good because it's trying to capture surfing and the distance & angle just makes the waves look small. You went for a much higher, macro view and it is a much better use of a drone. I'm still waiting for drone footage of surfing shot from only 3' above the water and looking back as the drone flies along the length of the wave in front of the surfer.

[@jpmtlhead39]

Where are the surfers...??? At least the first song,has a lot of Cowbell

[@matthewwillis4892]

Like Richard said!

[@markharris1473]

Awesome music!! But curious about something. From what I've heard and seen on most youtube channels about cross waves or square wave patterns, doesn't that have a lot of rip currents? I noticed some surfers surfing those kinda waves. And it was kool to see oil platforms that close to the shoreline. All oil riggers should be that close for safety purposes. Especially after watching the movie Deep Horizon. No oil riggers/platforms should be anymore than a couple miles from.the shore.

[@bigwavebill]

That cross wave pattern either means you have a combo swell ie 2 separate swells from different directions, or in this case one large swell that hits off a jetty reflects off of it and hits itself from a different direction. That wouldn't necessarily cause a rip tide

[@juneyshu6197]

Nice! Beajtiful work. Did they take down the ukranian flags on the pier?

[@superorangeish]

A sad reminder of what has happened off the California coast.

[@andrewnichols1240]

Any idea when them breakers were made? Date?

[@bigwavebill]

if you mean the breakwall protecting anaheim bay 1944

[@troywilliams8118]

I watched a KZbin video something about when you see square pattern waves but can't remember what it was? These look pretty square to me!

[@bigwavebill]

the swell was pretty straight west but it hits off the jetty reflects and hits itself making that shape

[@edwardippoliti626]

At first the swell looks mediocre, but then you see those houses,and the whole scope of things change !

[@bigwavebill]

its nothing compared to cortes bank or jaws etc, but for here it was historic, spots working that don't turn on ever,

[@bradpayne3008]

How come no one is showing the river breaking.

[@u4riahsc]

What river?

[@BigDaddy-hn7oh]

I've watched this more than a couple of times I'm thinking there might have been some ways that actually broke way out there but you didn't get to get them on film and those guys on the jet skis probably got a couple of them or they wouldn't be out there anyways which really cool about your video if you notice how it shows the swells coming in like squares and that's what makes those A-frames south of the pier anyways nice aerial views a Seal Beach that Sunrise shot totally awesome brother spent a lot of time there in the seventies the whole place is overrun now SoCal anyways over

[@bigwavebill]

yes some sets broke, it took so long to fly out there only had a couple minutes before I had to head back.

[@BigDaddy-hn7oh]

@@bigwavebill I knew it yeah bro great video again I sent that one to my best friend and my brothers they loved it

[@austinmoehring6110]

7:38 theres like 100 people!

[@markedmunds1966]

Does this beach get good waves? Other than a shorebreak? I’m in Australia and I’m not being critical just wondering

[@surferdude8086]

Seal Beach on the south side of the pier is an epic shore break with wedging peaks that break super close to shore on all W/NW swells. Slater was out on this swell. There's usually at least a few pros charging it when it's on which is pretty much all winter swells here in So. Cal. The north side of the pier sucks. There's a little seawall under the pier that creates a totally different bottom contour between north and south sides thus creating two completely different waves. North side of the pier is weak, mushy and closes out most of the time and only half the size of south side. In this video there's a great view looking at the beach from out side the lineup and you can see the refraction that's taking place with the waves bouncing off the jetty causing the wedging peaks. That's just a quick example of the wave. There's way more to the place. There's also a cloud break wave that's kind of cool but it's mostly mushy but still powerful and then there's the oil rig wave that cracks off of when it's really big. It's definitely an advanced wave when it's working.

[@jamescoleakaericunderwood2503]

Surfer dude spot on bout wedging shorebreak .... Really that's seal beach always been that way... Lots of guys love it and the ones who do flock there when there's a hurricane in Baja California... Next beach pier down southward Huntington (5 miles maybe 6) has variety of breaks from the Cliff and Southside Huntington beach pier gets pumping outside but no barrells like Surfer dude said! Huge barrells mean lips! PS my Dad was over there fighting in BUNA SANANANDA ✌️

[@markedmunds1966]

@@surferdude8086 Hey thanks for the run down. I could see what looked like a peak that would run along the shorebreak with a good bank. I was waiting for it to break out where the oil rig is and figured on the right tide it’s probably epic on occasion. Im heading over to the US later this year and Im looking for a few breaks to visit while there.

[@gianebert1970]

@mark edmunds look at videos of seal from 01-11-23 it was a pretty fun day

[@surferdude8086]

@@markedmunds1966 No worries. 🤙 If you're here in winter and have wheels then there's definitely a couple waves you need to surf that are epic. One is Rincon which is north in Ventura county but totally worth the trip. Look it up if you haven't heard about it and check out the set up on Google Earth. Its a proper point break that you'll be super stoked on. And of course Trestles on the San Diego/Orange County border. Uppers and Churches are the "go to" spots in winter for quality local waves. There's a few more places in Orange County that you can score some good surf if you want to just keep it local but San Diego has some gems that you want to hit as well. Orange county is central to all the epic spots that So Calif has to offer.

[@midi1529]

Stale beach, even with joe walsh it's for hodaddies from west Covina. Oh enjoy your parking tickets whoes lol

[@blahblahblah42496]

Anyone know how deep the water is out at the oil platforms? I would think at least fairly deep so I'm curious how the waves end up breaking that far out

[@bigwavebill]

funny you should ask, my main job is hydrographic surveys and I have surveyed all around southern California, west of the rig is about -43, an area around the rig that is about 400 by 1000 feet comes all the way up to -24, (-18 right at the rig) going inshore from the rig is about -32 , I should have included a little picture in the video of the bathymetry .

[@wavehead11]

Waiting for actual surf footage

[@kirkdunn1379]

Funny thing is it's not even really really that big tbh....just for here it seems that way

[@juneyshu6197]

Big enough, for Seal.

[@ainunzainah-iu5gb]

😢😮😮😢😊😊😊

[@strokenumber3]

Wow, a whole massive 3-4ft of beach break....you poor, poor bstrds.

[@gtrbobmonterey1762]

Slow, a bit like Waikiki, the relatively shallow sand bottom goes out for miles. San Gabriel river dumped sand for thousands of years.

[@bobsmith8124]

Song?

[@bigwavebill]

1st funk no 49 James gang , second pick up the pieces average white band, lastly Blondie One way or another

[@bobsmith8124]

@@bigwavebill 1st aha , my man. Thanks

[@adloutdoors]

MAXED OUT? HAHAHAHAHA!

[@fungalspore]

copyright violation on the song

[@SuperStoner86]

Still going

[@jarredtremain4644]

That whole town will be gone if big tsunami comes or ocean levels rise. I think it's funny how community's are built right on coast at almost sea level. Then they're all shocked when it does happen. A few rocks like was seen in Japan stops only ripples compared to tsunami's. Then is like help us pay for everything to be rebuilt in same area even after lives are lost. Joke.

[@johnsumner6185]

Great video, poor music choice.

[@paulbacon517]

Wing foil paradise

[@wavehead11]

3 minutes in no surfing