Who hasn’t watched perfect hundred metre long walls shutting down along a beach and thought ‘if only there was a reef…’? Artificial surfing reefs have recently bobbed up as a topic on our forums, so we thought we’d see what we could find in the way of interesting links on the topic.
If you’re not afraid of a bit of text, this page about Surfing and Artificial Surf Reefs offers a reasonably up to date rundown on the key issues involved. It mentions Narrowneck (see it on Coastalwatch), Cables, Bagarra and Pratte’s Reef in California.
Pratte’s ended up being a bust for various reasons, not least of which were the geo tech bags tearing. There’s a link to an FAQ (pdf) about the whole sorry business on Surfrider USA’s site.
According to a study entitled Narrowneck Reef: Seven Years of Monitoring (pdf) published last year in the journal Shore & Beach by Griffith University researchers, Narrowneck has been a success. The main issue seems to be that it isn’t as good as some may have hoped!
Cables Beach in WA is often credited with being the first artificial surf reef. It does work, sort of, according to this page from Life on Perth.com.
Over in NZ the Mount Maunganui reef project seems to have stalled (at least the home page hasn’t been updated in but even in its incomplete form, did create waves…
There seem to be any number of pipe dream reef projects in NZ, some of which are connected with an outfit called ASR Limited. In addition to Mt Maunganui, they have been involved with one at Opunake (that one seems to be on hold) and internationally with Weights Reef in Bournemouth UK. (The Weights Reef project seems to be falling behind schedule in a big way)
