As you may have noticed, there are a lot of things going on at Pa'ia's Baldwin Beach lately. The County has hired contractors to refurbish the large pavilion and it's looking great. It is due to be finished in October. The beach's public showers and restrooms are currently non-existent due to recent sand erosion. There are port-a-potties, but don't expect to shower off the salt at Baldwin Beach anytime soon. I asked the lifeguards if they knew when the showers would be replaced but they didn't know. Tony, the lifeguard, told me the beach erosion is a result of the summer tradewinds and south swell that pull the sand into the ocean. The winter north swells pushes the sand back onto the beach. He said the little bump the northshore received last week has already started the reverse of the sand erosion process. I understand that this process happens every year but to me it seems the past couple of years erosion is happening more and more at Baldwin. I could be wrong, but I don't recall the erosion being quite so severe in the past 17 summers I have lived on Maui.
When Tony, the lifeguard, and Jared, the lifeguard-in-training, were shoveling sand under their lifeguard tower, I asked them if the reason was to protect the tower from erosion. Tony said no, they were planting sod under the tower in order to have a nice grassy, shady refuge. Something they like to call "life guardening"!
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