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Surfer murders shock peaceful Mexico community

The tight-knit and peaceful surfing community in the Mexican port of Ensenada is in shock.

Three foreign surfers – two Australian brothers, Callum and Jake Robinson, and their American friend, Jack Carter Rhoad – had been in the town just a few days earlier, enjoying some of the finest surfing spots in North America at the start of what was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime.

Now, their bodies are being repatriated to their families after they were brutally murdered at a camping site.

They were planning to take a well-worn route, setting out from Ensenada, surfing and camping along the Pacific coast, and arriving in Rosarito further north. Unfortunately, they never made it to their accommodation.

Instead, several days later, their bodies were found down a well several kilometres from the camping site, their burnt-out pick-up truck found nearby. Each man had been killed by a gunshot to the head, the authorities said, sending a chill through the local surfing community.

The implications of the violence are still reverberating through the quiet beach-town.

“It’s difficult. In truth, I’ve always felt safe here,” said Jessica, an American from San Diego now living near Ensenada, her wetsuit still dripping from a morning surf.

A well-worn path through a surfer’s paradise
At various times in its 500-year history, Ensenada has teemed with visitors from the United States. During the years of Prohibition in the early 20th Century, the city’s economy received a particular boost from Americans coming south in search of legal liquor.

Today, it’s the third biggest city in the state with both a booming tourist industry and a thriving ex-pat community. Thousands of foreigners – from silver-haired retirees to digital nomads – have settled in the city to enjoy its beachfront properties, warm climate and relaxed atmosphere amid the rising cost of living in the US.

And, of course, it attracts huge numbers of surfers every year.

The region of the Bay of All Saints (Bahia de Todos Santos in Spanish) as a whole is a surfer’s paradise. Spots like San Miguel Beach and Todos Santos Island are renowned among the surfing community with a major competition, the Billabong XXL, having been held in the latter.

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