Merciful ruination

By the end of the day on February 8th , 1968 the town of Ben Tre which lies 45 minutes Southwest of Saigon , Vietnam , was no more than a scattering of burning buildings and broken bodies. The population of 35,000 was alleged to have been infiltrated by thousands of the Viet Cong irregular soldiers who were furiously defending their homeland . The US military decided the only option they had to rout the enemy was the wholesale destruction of the town. They achieved this objective with a vigorous campaign of aerial bombing and artillery attack.

An unknown US army major was quoted as saying...” We had to destroy the town in order to save it. “

........

There’s a small town coastal nestled somewhere in the Southern Hemisphere which hosts a coterie of surfers who have been borne into a similar- though much less onerous- situation. Their little hamlet once contained what was possibly one of the world’s perfect waves. I say possibly , because no surfer ever laid eyes on this wave due to its destruction at the hands of man decades before surfboard riding had ever graced their shores. Sadly, the wave was never ridden before the government of the day decided that engineering a safe harbour for transiting sea traffic was a higher priority than the fluid joy the break may provide for the surfers who would stride the Earth generations later.

A marquee wave destroyed. Surely the worst blow that local surfers could endure ?

I’m here to posit that the destruction of the break is the best thing that could have happened to the town. Conveniently enough , there are many other towns which provide a handy example of how the future of the town might have looked in a parallel universe where the break remained.

The situation plays out thusly : Travelling surfers locate a new wave. Word gets out there is good surf to be found at Town X. Surfers flock to town X en masse. Service industries pop up to facilitate for and profit off the surf boom. Population swells massively. Property prices are pushed beyond reach of those locals who were not lucky / smart / well positioned enough to take advantage of the rapidly changing demographics of their town.

Young people find work in the low paying tourism sector . Competition for jobs from itinerant surfers pushes wages down. Locals are priced out of their neighbourhoods. Lineups become disfunctionally crowded. Many leave to try and rediscover the small town vibe they have lost. The town becomes just another generic surf location with the same thin veneer of diversity masking the fact that the true identity of the place has been diluted into almost nothing. The surfing parasite has overwhelmed the community which has become its host.

Canggu. Byron Bay. Uluwatu. Margaret River......we’ve heard this story many times.

And the little town at the start of our story ?

It’s surfers are faced with lesser quality waves than if the iconic break hadn’t been destroyed, but the waves are theirs to ride. Crowds aren’t much of a problem. The community remains tight knit. The surrounding area remains an uncommercialised wonderland for locals to enjoy. Anyone is free to move to the area but growth proceeds at an organic rate.

Young people reach an age post- school and usually find themselves forced to leave the town for study / work / excitement . This is not a bad thing. They broaden their horizons and find an opportunity to define themselves through new experiences and places. Often they’ll return to their hometowns to start a family and give their children the chance to grow in an untrammelled region and a familiar community. These returning surfers invariably express gratitude that there is still a place where the dominance of tourism greed hasn’t subjugated the lives of those who live there.

So whilst it might be nice to have a world class wave for the locals to enjoy , they’ve instead managed to retain a holistic relationship with their town. The fact that this is inherently valuable is proven by the consistent return of the locals who’ve left town to explore the wider world.

And who knows , sometimes Huey can have a perverse sense of irony. Huey taketh away .....and sometimes Huey sneakily giveth back tenfold.