A-frame

Aaberg, Denny

Aaberg, Kemp

Abberton, Koby

Abbruzzi, Sid

Abellira, Reno

Abubo, Megan

academia and surfing

Adler, Tom

advertising and surfing

Aeder, Erik

aerial

Aguerre, Fernando

Aichner, Scott

Aikau, Clyde

Aikau, Eddie

Aipa, Ben

air-drop

airbrush

Airshow

Ala Moana

Alabama

alaia board

Alaska

alcohol and surfing

Alexander, Kala

Allen, Chuck

Alms, Paige

aloha shirt

Alter, Hobie

Alvarez, Pepe

Ancell, Kevin

Andaman Islands

Andersen, Lisa

Anderson, Craig

Anderson, Simon

Andino, Kolohe

Angel, Jose

angle

Angola

Angourie

Antarctica

Apocalypse Now

Arabian Sea

Aragon, Janice

Arakawa, Eric

Archbold, Matt

Arena, Eduardo

Ashton, Juan

Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP)

Atlantic Ocean

August, Robert

Aurness, Rolf

Auster, Ken

Australia

Avalon, Frankie

Azores

backdoor

backside

backside attack, Pipeline

backwash

bail out

Bain, Rob

Baja California

Baker, Bernie

Baker, Grant “Twiggy”

Baker, Tim

Bali

Ball, John “Doc”

Ballard, Bill

Ballard, Rochelle

balsa

Baltic Sea

Banks, Jim

Barbados

Barilotti, Steve

Barland, Michel

Barreda, Sergio “Gordo”

Barry, Michael

Bartholomew, Wayne

Baxter, Jackie

Bay of Bengal

Beach Boys, The

Beacham, Debbie

beachboys

beachbreak

Beachcomber Bills Grand Prix

Beachley, Layne

beavertail

Becker, Phil

Bedford-Brown, Stuart

Belgium

Bells Beach

Bendall, Ma and Pa

Bennett, Barry

Benson, Becky

Benson, Blanche

Benson, Linda

Bermuda

Bertlemann, Larry

Artificial surfing reefs were thought about, talked about, written about, and occasionally blueprinted as far back as the early 1960s, but not until the late '90s were such reefs producing ridable waves. Artificial reefs have been proposed as a crowd-reduction measure in heavily surfed areas, and as a way to channel and shape incoming wave energy along beaches that otherwise produce lousy surf. In a remark typical of the sport's early enthusiasm for artificial reefs, 

 magazine noted in 1967 that "thousands of new surfing spots" might be created, that an early review of surfer-designed reef plans by the Army Corps of Engineers was "encouraging," and that U.S. Senator George Murphy of California was said to be reviewing a proposal for a "nationwide artificial reef program." There was precedent of sorts in that man-made fishing reefs had been created as far back as the 1700s. Reef design itself had never been much of a problem, as natural reefs around the world provided engineers with the necessary dimensions. But construction costs generally proved too high, while cities and counties were frightened off by potential surfer- injury liability suits. None of which kept surf magazines from publishing artificial reef plans, diagrams, and layouts, from the crude (dumping old cars into the surf zone) to the prosaic (crane-dropped sandbags) to the futuristic (a submersible and adjustable Y-shaped structure made of polyethylene pipe).

At least three pre-'90s American artificial surfing reef projects were carried out. The Army Corps of Engineers in 1970, with input from California canoe surfer Ron Drummond, dropped mud and sand offshore at Doheny, in south Orange County, which predictably washed away before creating any ridable waves. The following year, a consortium of regional government agencies sponsored a project that placed 55 reinforced industrial-grade nylon sandbags, each weighing 7,000 pounds, just to the north of the Hermosa Beach Pier—to no wave-producing effect whatsoever. In late 1988, the Surfrider Foundation convinced the U.S. Navy to dump 150,000 cubic yards of dredged sand off San Diego's Silver Strand State Beach, which temporarily produced a good peak wave. (A pair of 200-foot-long precast concrete reefs were positioned 350 feet off the mean high-tide line in Sea Isle City, New Jersey, in 1989, but they were designed only to reduce the energy of incoming swells, not create a surfing wave.)

Unplanned man-made surf breaks have been part of the sport since the 1920s, when first-generation California surfers discovered well-shaped waves on sandbars adjacent to the south seawall at Corona del Mar in Newport Beach. All surf breaks created by jetties, breakwaters, seawalls, and piers are in fact man-made waves.

America's most determined effort at building an artificial surfing reef took place in El Segundo, an industrial beachfront town in southwest Los Angeles County. The 2,000-ton, V-shaped, plastic sandbag-constructed "Pratte's Reef" (named after popular surfing environmentalist Tom Pratte) cost $300,000 and was created in 2000. Whether the reef was too small, or positioned too close to shore, or in too deep of water (all after-the-fact explanations), Pratte's Reef in its first season was a spectacular failure, having virtually no effect on the surf. A $200,000 renovation in 2001 did nothing to improve the reef's performance. The last bits of the plastic sandbags were unceremoniously removed in 2008. Australia had meanwhile produced two viable artificial surfing reefs. Cable Station reef was planned, funded, and built by the Western Australia government. Made from 10,000 tons of granite, at a cost of nearly $1 million, Cable Station was operational by mid-1998, and produced fast, shapely waves that sometimes broke for up to 150 yards, though the quality has deteriorated since. A less-ambitious sandbag reef was installed at Narrowneck, Queensland, the following year. It was designed to slow down beach erosion, but the reef on occasion produced a well-utilized surfing wave. In both Perth and Narrowneck, local surfers complained that media interest in the reefs had brought more people into the water than ever before. "There may be a fantastic wave created out of all this," a Narrowneck surfer told

 magazine, "but a lovely beach has been destroyed in the process." The new reefs, the magazine went on to note, "could be causing as many problems as they solve." An International Surfing Reef Symposium has been held occasionally since 1997, most recently in Sydney, Australia in 2010, during which multi-purpose reefs and surfing-specific reef designs are shared.

ASR Ltd, a New Zealand-based coastal management consulting firm, has built several artificial reefs worldwide in the past five years. A reef at Boscombe, England was installed by ASR Ltd in 2009, and produced surprisingly thick, barreling slab-style waves that became an immediate hit among local bodyboarders. The reef also created dangerous, swirling currents, and at low tide the reef's sandbags were exposed prompting town officials to declare the break off limits to the public in 2011. ASR has so far had greater success with a reef built at Kovalam, a town on India's southwest coast. Designed primarily to protect against coastal erosion, Kovalam reef also produces a long and barreling left-breaking wave. In conjunction with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, ASR Ltd also has plans to install a surfing reef in Ventura, California, at the n0w-defunct surf spot known as Oil Piers. Construction could begin in 2012.

artificial reefs

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

Interviews

Features