July 2009 - The Northern Baja coastline was once part of nearly every Southern Californian surfer’s backyard. A place where one could take day-trip “surfaris,” gorge on fresh fish tacos, guiltlessly enjoy a mid-day beer and be back home before sundown.

Many of us grew up taking full advantage of the nearby south-of-the-border coastline, its exploratory flare and proximity to home; not too much commitment and just enough adventure to subdue the biting travel bug. But times have changed along the Tijuana-Ensenada coastal corridor. Surf spots that used to have maximum capacity lineups are now eerily empty. Less than five years ago it was common to see a mixed bag of Ensenada locals and visiting gringos sharing waves at places like San Miguel, just north of Ensenada, on a weekday. These days the locals can have it to themselves; but questionable water quality from septic dumping and overflow is even steering them away from the rifling right hander. Spots like Salsipuedes, K55s, and Calafia, traditional “favorites” for visiting surfers, are now nearly wiped off the surfing map due to inaccessibility. Ironically, the high-rise condo towers that are keeping surfers out of the line-ups stand empty as well.

Although investment along the Northern Baja coastline has slowed dramatically, the coastal condo development has not. New hotels, condos and homes pop up overnight, as do billboard signs advertising placid blue waters and endless fields of wildflowers, hinting that you too could own a piece of paradise. But if you look around the Corbusien beachfront structures and the signs meant to sell their beehive units, you’ll realize that that paradise is not here. Within a quarter mile of the squashed Trump Towers proposal site, just north of Baja Malibu, is the San Antonio de las Buenas creek, a torrent of partially treated sewage coming from Tijuana’s overwhelmed and only sewage treatment facility. Although that project is now beleaguered by a depressed economy, litigation and alternative travel/investment plans by American vacationers, nearby billboards advertise new pretentious visions for what is now a dirt lot enclosed by barbed wire and a noxious scent of chlorine and sewage. Travel further south and you’ll see much of the same; walled off swaths of coastal properties separated by half constructed or empty condo towers and hotels, trash heaps, federale checkpoints and destitute communities. The grandiose visions for the Cancunization of this coastline have become crumbling walls and rusted towers, standing as a sign of a past era…or one that never was.

A lethal combination of cartel related violence, police corruption and a down-economy is killing travel in Northwest Mexico. Surf travel has always been the resilient economy. Wave quality usually takes precedence over safety, aesthetic beauty, comfort and accessibility. Surfers have always been the ones to take the risk and journey to places where vacationers wouldn’t bother to venture. But we are no longer going to what is undoubtedly one of North America’s most wave rich coastlines. Even lifelong Baja vets are giving up on their trailers parked at Northern Baja’s beaches and points. The stigma of Northern Baja travel, coupled with tainted coastal waters and ever-increasing inaccessibility, is turning surfers off on south-of -the border travel. A 1992 Surfer’s Journal article stated that “a few years ago, you could track a northwest swell from Tijuana to Ensenada and see less than a dozen surfers.” Well, in 2009, empty lineups have once again returned to Northern Baja.

Bio:
Zach Plopper is the Wildlands Conservation Program Coordinator for WiLDCOAST, an environmental NGO based in Imperial Beach. He is a native San Diegan and has been surfing there for 18 years. Zach is also a team rider for Matuse wetsuits, Xanadu surfboards, Dragon and Surf Ride. Learn more about Zach’s work at www.wildcoast.net.