Work starts on south's surf reef

7:29am Friday 29th August 2008

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Europe's first artificial surf reef was being laid on the seabed of the south coast today after delays caused by gale force winds, rain and high waves.

The construction team are hoping the calm spell will last long enough for the complex engineering work to take place which will see the £2.68 million reef fixed into place in Boscombe, Bournemouth.

Paul Clarke, from Bournemouth Surfing Centre, said: "We have been waiting for over 10 years for this day.

''It's a dream come true for the surfing community of Bournemouth.

"The reef will turn an unrideable knee high wave into a head high wave that peels perfectly for around 70 metres in length."

The first section of the reef base, which consists of matting with webbing lattice and sandbags attached, will be transported by barge from Poole to the reef site 225 metres out to sea, east of Boscombe Pier.

Specialist Scuba divers will attach the shore end to 10 ton anchors on the seabed before the rest is unfolded from the barge along the reef site and anchored in place.

The 16 bags will then be pumped full of sand to form part of the bottom layer which will level the sea bed.

The rest of the reef, which covers a football pitch in total, will be installed in stages with the top layer shaping the wave for surfing.

Bournemouth Borough Council has signed a deal with New Zealand-based ASR Ltd to construct the reef by December 31 at the latest.

The reef in Boscombe will be one of four artificial reefs worldwide including Narrowneck, Queensland; Cables, Western Australia and Mt Maunganui, New Zealand.