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The seawall is built, the road is paved,
but no one seems to agree about whether
or not the wave at Ponta Jardim is any
different. Local Jardineiros even differ
on this issue, but former Madeiran champ
Orlando Pereira, who grew up in the village,
claims the wall has had a devastating
effect on the world-famous line-up. "Before
you could surf it on the smaller days
for four, maybe five hours around the
low tide, but now, you can only surf
it for one hour, and then after that
the waves break right on the blocks." Belmiro
Mendes, current Madeiran champ and also
a local Jardineiro, concurs. "It
used to be that whenever the waves were
good, everyone went to surf Jardim. Now
no one surfs there, except on the days
when it is really big and perfect. Instead
we go to <Ponta> Pequena, which
is fine, but it's not as good of a wave
as Jardim."
One thing that everyone agrees on, however,
is that the wave is far more dangerous
to ride. It was a scary place to surf
even before the wall was built, but now
it is downright deadly. The seawall has
buried about 30 feet of the natural shoreline
that once stood as a buffer against the
giant Atlantic swells, and also provided
a wider and safer zone to wind up in
should a surfer get caught inside. Now
the waves crash straight into a pile
of cement blocks that are significantly
closer to the breaking waves. A local
surfer, Ruben, lost his board in late
October on a big day at the point. The
board was blasted into the seawall with
such force that not a single piece of
it was found afterwards. What that could
do to a human body remains to be seen,
but we hope that we don't ever find that
out.
Locals of the village are no longer bitterly
divided about the benefits or detriments
of the seawall. Speak to almost anyone
on the subject and they will tell you
that it is a blight upon the coastline.
Many of the poeple who supported the
seawall originally are now complaining
about its size and lack of aesthetic.
Jardim do Mar, once touted as the most
beautiful village on the island, has
been vandalized by a government that
wanted to line its own pockets with EU
money.
The only bright side to be seen in all
of this is that the seawall was poorly
designed. "It's pretty obvious that
these engineers have no idea how the
ocean works," said Pedro Bicudo,
a scientist from mainland Portugal. Domingos
Rodrigues, a professor of geology at
the University of Madeira, adds that "the
seawall will most likely disintegrate
within a decade." Evidence can already
be seen along the point, where the cement
blocks are beginning to erode, and this
just after only one year of existence.
The sheer force of wave energy breaking
against the seawall is not to be believed.
At high tide, twenty-foot waves break
top-to-bottom onto the blocks. "It's
only a matter of time," says executive
director Will Henry, "and when the
wall falls apart we will argue for its
removal and redesign. If they had done
it right the first time, we wouldn't
even have to do any of this. It's an
extreme waste of taxpayer money."
Henry hopes that the film that Save the
Waves is working on, Lost
Jewel of the Atlantic, will produce
enough public outcry in Europe to correct
the damage that has been done. "The
European Commission has a responsibility
to enforce its environmental guidelines,
which were clearly violated in this instance," he
says. "You simply cannot hand a
government a blank check and expect them
to follow the rules."
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