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Just like that, after a few days of heavy
equipment moving rocks, another world-class
surf spot is gone. Sempra-Shell, defying
an injunction that a Mexican judge had
slapped on their LNG plant proposal,
resumed construction on their hotly-contested
facility and buried the surf spot within
days. Wildcoast director Serge Dedina
stumbled upon the wreckage in the first
week of July, and witnessed the dump
trucks as they covered Harry’s
in an earthen grave.
The events surprised the coalition of
surfers and environmental groups that
has been battling the proposal over the
past year, especially considering the
fact that Sempra’s ownership of
the property has been under dispute since
2003. A lawsuit filed by a Mexico City
businessman claims that Sempra-Shell
is not the legal owner of the property,
which he claims is actually 3 kilometers
south of the site. Land disputes of this
nature are not at all uncommon in Mexico,
where title searches do not always yield
reliable results. In response to the
ownership dispute, a federal court issued
an injunction that nullified Sempra’s
permits to develop the site.
Sempra-Shell appears to have ignored the
court ruling and proceeded with the project.
The surfers who had been fighting the
project, most notably Wildcoast’s
Serge Dedina and photographer Jason Murray,
did not have time to react to the resumed
construction until it was too late. Save
the Waves director Will Henry, in response
to the news, said that “this is
an indication that the surfing world
needs to come a long way if we truly
want to stand up to big-industry projects
like this.” He added, “when
you look at the meager funding that our
non-profits get from the surf industry,
you will understand that we simply don’t
have the man-power or the budget to fight
monsters like Sempra-Shell.”
Nevertheless, Wildcoast and Save the Waves
had done their very best against this
industry giant. Wildcoast organized numerous
events over the past year to heighten
public attention about the problem, and
had even flown with a group of surfers
to Sacramento to meet with state politicians
and present their case to Governor Schwarzenegger.
Save the Waves had initiated a large
letter-writing campaign to the governor
and was generating a petition in protest
to the LNG facility. Apparently, the
efforts fell upon deaf ears, and once
again, big industry interests won out
over recreational pursuits.
Harry’s was discovered by San Clemente’s
Long brothers and Surfer Magazine photographer
Jason Murray, who surfed the isolated
big-wave spot in early 2003, but kept
the location secret, fearing an influx
of big-wave riders from nearby San Diego.
The May 2003 issue of Surfer featured
Harry’s on its cover.
When the plans were unveiled for Shell-Sempra’s
600-million-dollar LNG (liquid natural
gas) terminal, the surfers decided to
let their secret out. "If the construction
of the LNG terminal goes ahead, we are
going to lose one of the most dynamic
and beautiful waves in the North Pacific," said
Jason Murray.
Harry’s, rest in peace.
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