| Petacalco was a perfect
a-frame barrel located in mainland Mexico.
The wave was especially good because
it was located at the mouth of the Rio
Balsas, which was able to maintain the
sand bars, focusing the waves. The sea
floor drops off very deeply and quickly
due to a deepwater canyon just off the
beach at Petacalco.
Another unique aspect
of the beach that makes the wave
ride able when it was very big is that
the curved beach faces south to southeast.
This means that the prevailing onshore
winds were side or offshore most
days. All of these dynamics made a wave
that was consistently big, hollow and
perfect.
This wave was practically destroyed by
development. Japanese financers funded
the construction of the largest steel mill in a third world country in the
town of Melchor Ocacampo. The large development
of the mill was significant enough to
change the name of the city to Lazaro
Cardenas. This development resulted in
a hydroelectric dam upstream of Petacalco
on the Rio Balsas.
The dam impeded the
necessary sand flow for maintenance
of the sand bars severely. The final
nail in the coffin was the harbor and
its accompanying jetties located to the
north of the break. The jetties allowed
a large south swell in August of 1975
to strip the beach of so much sand that
wave was ruined forever.
It still breaks
occasionally when conditions are
just right. However, the present wave
is rare and does not compare to the perfect
peaks that frequented the beach with
surprising regularity before the dam
and harbor. Most days it is now an a-frame
shore pound without any shape. |
