EVERY SURFER DREAMS of the perfect surf spot that constantly produces identikit carbon copy waves that break with the ideal shape and speed.
This was a dream shared by Bournemouth Borough Council in Dorset, UK who poured £3.2million into an artificial reef scheme that after two years of producing the “wrong shape” waves was finally forced to close this week after it was deemed unsafe for use.
The artificial reef, the first of its kind in Europe has been plagued with controversy since its inception and has been nicknamed by local surfers as ‘The Beached Whale’ after it was left exposed by the recent extreme low tides.
The artificial reef was made by sinking 55 giant sandbags to the seabed, 750ft off the Boscombe coastline. These sandbags were supposed to create the perfect wave on the surface and turn the seaside resort into a surfer’s paradise. Instead the wave that was produced was incredibly flat and has predominantly been used by body boarders alone.
But now the council has closed the reef completely after it found that substantial changes to the reef’s shape could cause dangerous under-currents.
It is unsure what caused these changes, but a local surfer speculated that he had seen gaps of up to 2ft wide between the sandbags. The fear now is that someone could get caught between the bags and be pinned down. The company that made the reed, ASR Ltd, a New Zealand based company, will try and remedy the problem in the next few weeks and Bournemouth Borough Council has withheld part of their fee until the reef works properly.
It goes to show that sometimes you just can’t beat your favourite local spot, no matter how much money you throw at the problem.
Good waves everyone.
Weather Overview
If you are reading this as it goes out on Friday you are probably missing the best of the weekend’s swell. Again we find ourselves under a large high-pressure system and all west facing beaches will see the swell dropping throughout the weekend. Up North however is another story, as the cold northern seas continue to churn out decent swell well into Saturday.
The North – Two low-pressure systems north of Iceland will continue to produce strong swells for start of the weekend – it could be up to 6ft today. The wind will be coming from the southeast but is due to get stronger Saturday afternoon so get out early. Sunday is looking pretty flat.
County Donegal/Sligo – Clean and offshore today with 2m of swell creating some lovely 4ft waves. The swell continues to drop through the weekend and the longer you leave it the worse it’ll get.
County Clare – Tom’s web cam is only showing about 1ft waves at the moment so check again when the tide pushes in. The wind is offshore so it could give some shape to those little ankle biters. A day for the long boarders.
Dingle Peninsula – Like elsewhere the best of the swell will be today. The wind and swell directions are ideal for a nice Brandon Bay dip and this should be true for most of Saturday too.
Cork & The South – Another hard chart to read for the south. But with the light winds there should be some waves running in the area up until Saturday afternoon. But its hard to tell how much juice they will have.
Disclaimer – These weather reports are intended as a general overview of swell running in that area. These are predictions and actual wave size may vary. Do not enter the water alone or without adequate equipment and do not enter surf that is too large for your abilities. We cannot be held responsible for any decisions you make based on this information. For daily weather information follow @dinglesurf on Twitter.com.
