Boscombe’s new reef is ready!
So, Boscombe’s new artificial reef is finally finished. Has anyone had a go yet? What do you think?
As a one-time Bournemouth resident, I love the fact that the official blurb describes the wonderful BosVegas as a “cosmopolitan, thriving resort”… Stick to the beach, don’t venture into Boscombe proper, and you may still leave under that illusion! Apparently they’ve created a ’spa village’ so that visiting surfers can avoid the locals…
The official party line is that after your 220m paddle-out, on days with good swell you should be treated to “decent-sized waves peeling down the right of the reef, creating a longer-ride of around 50m for surfers. An occasional swell from the east may also generate a short left-hand breaker with a ride length of around 15m.” But be warned - it can’t create waves out of nothing, so it’s not likely to be pumping every day. Between September and April, when Boscombe gets its best swell, you should notice a difference though.
The reef was built in conjunction with the world-renowned ASR Ltd of New Zealand - who have an excellent environmental track record - and there’s plenty of technical info about the reef’s construction and environmental impact, as well as a description of how the reef will work, published on the Bournemouth website.
Discuss
this is shaping up (pun intended) as the great reef swindle.
1theres a reef buyer born a minute and the global reef builders have admitted their building technique of pumping sand over pipes is a “circus”. welcome to the mastery of promotions -theres one born a minute …P.T. Barnum- promoter extraordinaire.
2Hi Angela and Driftsurfing.eu readers,
My name is Alicia Schwartz and I work with the ASR, ltd team, the company responsible for the newly completed Bournemouth Reef. We understand the confusion and hope this provides clarity.
As Angela mentioned above, while one of the possible outcomes of building a multi-purpose reefs is improved condition for recreational activities, including surfing, diving and fishing, a reef is not a wave machine. The reef does not create waves, but instead acts as a ramp that changes the way the waves break – it harnesses existing wave energy that used to break on the sand, causing erosion, and channels it to break on the offshore reef instead. As a result, the beach is protected, ecology is enhanced, and improved conditions are created for surfers, divers and fishermen.
While some have criticized the Bournemouth reef for not improving surf conditions as of yet, the fault doesn’t lie with the reef, but instead the weather conditions needed to see the reef’s benefits simply hasn’t occurred yet. The Bournemouth reef hasn’t had groundswell events yet to “optimize“ the reefs performance, however, it has already been producing some great waves.
An impartial third party research firm conducted a study and found that the marketing and PR value of the Reef in Boscombe, even before its completion, is estimated to be greater than $10M pounds which is over 3X the total cost of the reef. The thriving restaurants – some of which are named after the reef like “Urban Reef” and “Reef Encounter” – and increased retail activity and hotel accommodations (even during a recessionary period) also are positive indicators of economic stimulus.
If you have any questions please feel free to directly contact us at: [email protected] or [email protected]. We encourage an open dialogue on the benefits and myths of multi-purpose reefs. (Artificial reefs)
Sincerely,
Alicia Schwartz
3Marketing , ASR, ltd
http://blog.asrltd.com