Paul Evans
[As Wavelength celebrates its 40th birthday in 2021, we revisit at some of the more colourful chapters in European surfing history. This time, we revisit a WL trip to
Madeira in late 2003 to investigate the fate of fabled big wave break Jardim do Mar.]
Before the internet and its social media phenom became the rallying cry for outrage local and international, threats to much loved surf and beauty spots were at the mercy of more analog communications; strongly-worded letters, angrily scrawled fax.
Local communities could gather, march, protest, but local their message might well stay. If you wanted to know what the situation was at a distant surf location, you pretty much had to go there and find out.