Destruction of a surfspot -- Petacalco
Jose Borrero
Has any one out there ever heard of Petacalco? If you haven't,
look it up. Peta was one of the best beach breaks that ever was. The
town of Petacalco is in Mainland Mexico just south of the City of Lazaro
Cardenas, on the border between the states of Michoacan and Guerrero.
The border between these two states is the Rio Balsas, the largest and
only navigable river on the Mexican Mainland.
In the late 60's and early 70's, the beach break at Petacalco was
quietly becoming known as one of the best beach breaks in the world.
When Peta worked, I've seen pictures, it was better than Puerto Escondido
ever could be. You see Peta was constantly fed sediment from the river,
it is on a unique stretch of coastline that faces almost south east
(look at a good map, the spit from the river forms a little hook that
bends from facing SW to S to SE), this causes the daily onshores from the
NW to be side or off shore. Also the the Bahia de Petacalco is very
deep, allowing the large southern hemi swells to get in unaffected.
Finally the sediment from the river formed a continuous row of offshore
shoals (shaped kind of like the 'Chevron' shaped things to be built in El
Segundo) which dropped off in to the deep water. These shoals broke up
the long crested swells into a series of A frame top to bottom peaks.
Sometime in the early 70's a dam was built on the Balsas. Within
a few years the shoals at Peta were gone, and so were the waves. Now
Peta is just a huge whomping closeout right on the beach, it still peaks,
but just breaks way too close to shore. In it's heyday, entrepreneurs
built hotels and bars all along the Peta strip. Now they are mostly
empty except for the locals.
On of my best friends, a roommate from University of Florida, was
born in Acapulco, as a baby he played in the shorebreak during the last
years of Peta's existence. I've traveled the mainland coast several times
(this summer will be my fourth trip down) and I've had the opportunity
to meet some of the original Peta crew -- Fortino who still lives in Peta
and works as a commercial diver, Kevin Moss a Native Floridian raised on
the Pacific coast of Mexico (also my roomie's uncle), and Pat Tobin -- a
Laguna Beach ex-pat who still lives and paints on the Mexican Coast.
These guys' lives were all changed when Peta quit working.
If you go down there now, Petacalco is a depressed, shabby little
town on the road from Lazaro to Zijuatanejo. Exhaust from the power
plant has killed most of the mango groves in the area (the Mex government
has paid reparations to many of the local 'huerta' (grove) owners). But
if you drive a little north of town, hang a left just before the bridge,
drive along the power plant access road, jump the fence, hike then paddle
across the lagoon, you can still surf a little of what's left of
Petacalco. On the Northermost stretch of beach, when the swell isn't too
big, there are spots where the sand isn't all gone yet. The waves are
all (I mean every single one) perfect A-frames, the wind is almost always
offshore and it's pretty hollow. But still only a fraction of what it
once was.
Just a story about how easily the waves we have can be lost.
Antony Garrett Lisi
Jose Borrero <jbor...@mekab.usc.edu> wrote:
> Has any one out there ever heard of Petacalco? If you haven't,
>look it up. Peta was one of the best beach breaks that ever was.
> Just a story about how easily the waves we have can be lost.
>
break. Petacalco is still worth a visit. Dave and I got lucky last summer
and surfed the A-frames during an offshore inducing squall. Fantastic, but
from what I gather, only a hint of its former glory. The beach also has some
killer food. Too bad there's not much chance of blowing up the dam, unless
the Sandman feels like taking up a good cause?
Shaka,
Garrett
--
.-===_ A.Garrett Lisi al...@ucsd.edu
.' / \ ^+^ NeXT mail->
.' |\o \ ^+^ agl...@heaviside.ucsd.edu
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`~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~'~~~~\{~
the Sandman
Peter Amschel wrote:
>
> >>
> >Yeah, it's another worst case scenario of what can happen to a world class
> >break. Petacalco is still worth a visit. Dave and I got lucky last summer
> >and surfed the A-frames during an offshore inducing squall. Fantastic, but
> >from what I gather, only a hint of its former glory. The beach also has some
> >killer food. Too bad there's not much chance of blowing up the dam, unless
> >the Sandman feels like taking up a good cause?
> >
> >Shaka,
> >Garrett
>
> sediment so that the sediment could be flushed down into the river instead of
> just sitting there, building up behind the dam and reducing the water-holding
> capacity of the dam. Dredges on wenches could pull the sandy sediment up to
> the wide-mouthed outlet valves. Clinton flushed the Grand Canyon last month,
> which is the first time it has been done in 50 years, but the
> sediments existing in the river were just re-arranged, which is good, but no
> sediment was added since the outlet valve is up too high on the dam, out of
> the sediments.
quite right my sometimes articulate comrad. Did thou turnest over a new leaf?
At the E___ River here in Washington, momentum has gathered in political
arenas to remove two dams on this river. They don't flush the sediment. In
my estimation, a huge ammount of sediment should lodge at the river mouth
if this happens. Soon I'll be getting to the bottom of this as I 'setup' in
Lost Angeles for the summer/fall surf season. Stay tuned
--
Estranged Washington
Surfer tells all!
http://www.whammer.com/
Peter Amschel
>if this happens. Soon I'll be getting to the bottom of this as I 'setup' in
>Lost Angeles for the summer/fall surf season. Stay tuned
>
If you come here I will dominate over you and make you beg
Germany's time has not come and gone; the third time ist der Weg
Former US soldiers such as me, will see that this will come to be
Timothy B. Maddux
In article <4mrdct$k...@nfs1.pe.net>, Peter Amschel <amsc...@pe.net> wrote:
>A dam should be designed to that the outlet valve would be down in the
>sediment so that the sediment could be flushed down into the river instead of
>just sitting there, building up behind the dam and reducing the water-holding
>capacity of the dam.
Sediment transport in rivers generally correlates well with flow rate;
as the water is slowed, the sediment stops moving. Artificial reservoirs
thus accumulate sediment where the river flows into the essentially
stagnant water of the reservoir, which can be miles from the dam in
question. Outlet valves near the dam base at construction would only
erode sediment from the base of the dam itself, potentially undermining
the dam.
If the dam is nearly completely choked with sediment, then the
outlet valves might become buried, before this happens they
could possibly be used frequently to clear out sediment from
the region immediately surrounding the dam.
--
Tim Maddux -- tbma...@engineering.ucsb.edu
Santa Barbara Surfing -- http://www.engineering.ucsb.edu/~tbmaddux/