Along the Oaxaca coastline, Puerto is world famous for its wave. Known as the Mexican Pipeline, when Puerto is breaking, the earth can be felt shaking beneath your bare feet as you wander through town. Our project, Coast 2 Coast, innately focuses our attention on ocean conservation. However, in Puerto, we gained a new perspective for human conservation. While humans pollute the seas on a daily basis, the ocean in Puerto challenges even the most experienced waterman or woman with extreme conditions and snatching unsuspecting beachgoers from the shoreline. 

 

Coast 2 Coast teamed up with the lifeguards and their Junior Lifeguard program, a free weekend ocean lifesaving skills project for local youth, interviewing participants and instructors on their relationship with the sea. 

 

The Puerto Escondido Junior Lifeguard course or “Pequeños Salvavidas” is a free program started by the lifeguard director (the son of a fishermen) for local children every weekend to learn ocean lifesaving skills and promote environmental consciousness. Coast 2 Coast interviewed lifeguards and participants. One young boy told us that he liked the lifeguards’ job because it was like being a doctor in an emergency room but at the beach.