Michoacan’s magnificent and largely deserted coastline is a surfer’s dream and offers some spectacular and powerful surf breaks that are particularly apt for the more experienced surfer. These are La Ticla, south of Tecoman, near Michoacan’s border with the state of Colima, and Barra de Nexpa, north of Lazaro Cardenas, near Michoacan’s border with the state of Guerrero.
La Ticla Surfing Point, Michoacan
Overview of La Ticla Point, Michoacan
La Ticla is best known as a long left point break, beginning at the Rio Ostula and peeling for up to 200 meters. In front of the beach on the south side of the river occasional hollow rights appear. In August when I was there it was mid afternoon and real blown out but my Texas friend Lily sent me these surf shots from a trip taken in December and January.
Wave at Ticla, Michoacan
The beach at La Ticla has a few of small palapa restaurants with hammocks and area for camping. Lily tells me there is a nice restaurant near the cabanas and that other cabanas with real beds are available. New cabanas have been built on the south end of the beach. With cement floor, electricity, shower and bathroom access.
The town of La Ticla itself is small. There’s a small grocery store with this surfer painted on the front wall. Look close and you see that his head is the electric meter.
How to get there: La Ticla is located in northern Michoacan about an hour south of Tecoman, Colima or two hours drive from Manzanillo, Colima. Flights are available to Manzanillo, the nearest airport, where car rentals are available. The best way to get to La Ticla is by car, drive south from Manzanillo to Tecoman and follow highway 200 about 80 km. toward Lázaro Cardenas and Playa Azul until you see the sign. It is about 4 or 5 kilometers from the turn off the highway to the beach. Buses are available at the station in Manzanillo, but may require a change in Tecoman.
Barra de Nexpa, Michoacan
Barra de Nexpa surf camp
Barra de Nexpa has for many years been part of Mexican surf trip itineraries. Once a small, almost non-existent outpost known only to a few seasoned surfers, Barra de Nexpa has since grown into a thriving beach surfing community. It’s still got killer waves!
Until fairly recently, Nexpa offered little more than a few very basic thatch and stick “bungalows”, the most rudimentary communal sanitary facilities and almost nothing in the way of any other amenities. Now, lines of sturdier concrete and brick structures line the sand and stretch back into the palm grove, there are comfortable rental rooms with modern plumbing and more than a modicum of personal privacy, and several small restaurants offering not only the standard fresh fish and seafood but also hearty breakfasts, fruit smoothies, Italian-style pastas, Mexican dishes and a whole variety of tasty food.
But take note: even though it is now one of the better known breaks in Michoacan, a lot of the guys that live and surf here regularly resist having their favorite Mexican break overrun by every grom with a boogie board, so call it a “secret spot”. Or, as the owner of the local Surf and Suds (the suds are from laundry, not beer) puts it “There’s some radical surf rats with computers out there and I don’t want to get dropped on with extreme prejudice for the next 10 years”
This is one hell of a river mouth break with long left tubes that can last a half a football field when the break lines up just right. The beach is steep with a powerful undertow and inside whitewater action called the “liquadora” or blender which is an apt analogy if you get caught up in it.
The point is located near the town of Caleta de Campos on the rugged and spectacular Michoacan coast. Caleta offers a several hotels and rentals, the “Surf and Suds” surf shop and laundry, internet access, several seafood restaurants down along the beach on the bay, and a number of fairly well-stocked small stores for most of the essentials. Two Pemex gas stations are located, one on either side of town, along Federal Highway 200. Caleta is an easy 45 minute drive from the large port town of Lazaro Cardenas where there are larger supermarkets, banks and providers of a greater variety of miscellaneous goods and services.
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- Bicentennary Surf Contest, Rio Nexpa Results (surf-mexico.com)
