I grew up just a couple of miles from the U.S.-Mexico border. As a child, my parents would take me and my brother on bike rides down to Border Field State Park. Later as a teenager I would jump the non-existent fence and ride my bike around Playas de Tijuana.
Over the past few years, the Border Patrol made it tough to access the park. Pollution problems made surfing the area around the international border problematic at best. But with a sand replenishment project impacting surf conditions in my hometown of Imperial Beach and a less restrictive atmosphere at Border Field, my son Israel and I joined my childhood surfing buddy Chris Patterson for a recon of the U.S.-Mexico border fence.
A lot of people and especially journalists like to depict the U.S.-Mexico border as a war zone, but you have to hand it to the Border Patrol, State of California Dept. of Parks and Recreation, conservation groups that fought to keep Border Field open and Mexican authorities who cleaned up Playas de Tijuana–the bottom line is that this part of the border is pretty safe, beautiful and peaceful.
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