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Spot: Baja Malibu, MX

Summary

Baja Zuma might have been a better name for this place, or maybe Baja Huntington, because Baja Malibu is a beachbreak and not a cobblestoned right point. But, what’s in a name? A lot of surfers know this stretch of beach by another name, “Spitters” which is A rose by any other named would not smell so sweet? Well Baja Malibu does smell sometimes, and it’s not so sweet and that is part of the Yin/Yang of this place, which is one of the best beachbreaks on the west coast, a place capable of throwing down 8 to 12 foot spitting, offshore fantasy Rick Griffin barrels.

The Good
Barrels. Big bouncing ballocksy beachbreak barrels. When the conditions are right and the offshore winds are blowing and there is six to eight feet of swell coming from the north or the west or the south, Baja Malibu can be one of the best beachbreaks on the West Coast. Because the pollution is sketchy, and getting across the border comes with a lot of voodoo, crowds can be minimal when Baja Malibu is a minefield of pitching A Frames.

But don’t take our word for it. Click here for a You Tube of some young guys scoring perfect six-foot barrels going both ways at Spitters.

Click here to see a crew of guys including Jeff OX Katgola, Trigger Gumm, Mike Mouer and Rich Niggeman towing a big, gnarly nasty day in December of 2007.

The Bad
Pollution. Lots of it. The Tijuana River runs for 110 miles through Mexico then sneaks across the border for the last five miles. The coastal wetlands are supposed to filter out a lot of that sewage but five miles of wetlands can’t undo the damage that 110 miles of Mexico does, so the Tijuana River is capable of spewing 30 million gallons of untreated sewage a day into the Pacific Ocean. The poo spume spreads north and south and adds to the raw sewage going straight into the ocean from most of western Tijuana. In essence, Baja Malibu is trouble, with a capital T and that rhymes with with P and that stands for Poo, or Pollution.

T and P also rhyme with C, as in hepatitis C, and that is something you don’t want to mess with. Ben McCue is the Coastal Conservation Program Manager for WildCoast, whose mission is to “protect and preserve coastal ecosystems and wildlife in the Californias and Latin America by building grassroots support, conducting media campaigns and establishing protected areas.”

According to McCue, surfing Baja Malibu is a “crap chute:”  “Most of the pollution at BM's comes from Tijuana's Punta Banderas sewage treatment plant which discharges 30 million gallons/day onto the sand at San Antonio, about 1km north,” McCue said. “This discharge is about 75% partially treated sewage mixed with 25% raw sewage and chlorine. Last summer one resident picked up 60 condoms from the beach in a little less than an hour.  Punta Banderas is actually a right point but the TJ locals call it ‘Ni Lo Huelas,’ which means ‘Don't even smell it.’”

There are also numerous illegal discharges from all the new developments springing up around BM's. We made a video with some local residents showing one such discharge. Tijuana is currently building four new sewage treatment plants to be online in late 2008 which are planned to treat the excess flow at Punta Banderas. However, there are no plans to stop discharging the semi-treated sewage onto the sand so it is doubtful BM's water quality will improve significantly.”

The smell test at BM's is mandatory: if it smells like detergent and chlorine the sewage plume is affecting water quality. For all those tough guys who say they're immune to getting sick from the water they'd be smart
to remember that Tijuana is one of the fastest growing cities in the developing world and is ground zero for diseases not seen north of the border.”

But never fear, you might never make it to Baja Malibu what with all the crime and kidnappings.

The border area has been the seen of frequent outbursts of the old ultra violent.

Here is a story about Duke, Walt and Roger getting carjacked by phony Mexican cops when crossing the border at 4:30 in the morning. Click here.

Click here for a December, 2007 story about the recent rash of carjackings and highway robberies.

Click here for a Fox News story about Pat Weber’s scary incident at Cuatros Casas, and other incidents.
Click here for a story about a three-hour gun battle between Mexican cops and members of the Arellano Felix drug cartel.

Click here for a Washington Post story about “Drug Trade Tyranny on The Border: Mexican Cartels Maintain Grasp with Weapons, Cash and Savagery.”

The Strange
Well, it’s Mexico, so it’s all pretty strange. The world changes immediately after you cross the border and Mexico is funky or horrid, depending on how you see things. But just as environmental controls and gun laws and music and language and a million other things all become foreign and different as soon as you cross the border, the same holds true for Baja Malibu. There is something wilder about the ocean down here, something strange. It’s strange how it is so cold in the middle of summer, when Mexico is supposed to be the hot place. The waves have a strange amount of power and it’s strange to get this place on a perfect day and have no one around, which can still happen, because there are less and less people willing to deal with the strangeness of Mexico.

There are more than a few long-time Baja Malibu locals who won’t go anywhere near the spot anymore. The pollution is that bad. And Rosarito Beach is a good place to play out your Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs fantasies because if the media is telling the truth, the place is awash in drugs, and drug money and drug dealers openly doing business, everywhere. But you’ll have to see that for yourself.