Just general surfing stuff

[lostman]

Any board riders ever made an insurance claim? Even for a legit injury I could guarantee you will get next to nothing. Massive waste of money and will hurt local boardriders participation in the future as premiums inevitably increase.
We can all blame the incredibly massive increase of over 35's soccer participation over the last 15 years and associated health costs. Public hospitals A&E rooms throughout the country are full of yesterday s hero's on any given Saturday afternoon through with winter.
No matter the sport insurance is a massive cost to participate officially and will yield no real benefit if you ever need to make a claim.

[Beanpole]

Interesting Duck.....my first post was about money laundering in the start up for major surf labels.

[foamy]

Black Duck's 2009 Artificial Reef thread.

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=15989&hilit=artificial+reef

[Cranked]

That was well put Black Duck.

[Slobadan Madicubich]

Groynes are purely sand transport stoppers. Good for boat access to rivermouths, but any surfing advantages are usually more than out-weighed by other effects down current.

located in an under utilised area devoid of surfable waves & already transformed through human intervention (Tugun stretch) there doesn't seem a lot to lose by adding some structure & a gazillion "warning submerged rocks " signs

[steve shearer]

On the type of conditions on the sweepy 5kms sand belt between Kirra and Currumbin, no one has ever got an artificial reef to work in any place like that.

Groynes are purely sand transport stoppers. Good for boat access to rivermouths, but any surfing advantages are usually more than out-weighed by other effects down current.

Not exactly true. Narrowneck wasn't a screaming success, but it wasn't a total failure either. There was probably enough there as a prototype to learn from and re-engineer.

I'll just make the point here that the `gold `coast has some of the successful man made or man modified waves on the planet. Including D-Bah, the whole Tweed Sand Bypass Superbank phenomena, Kirra (at various times) and South Straddie. So engineering, in this case ostensibly either for coastal navigation of bars or coastal protection has delivered some of the best waves in the world as a by product.
Groynes have been successful at creating waves but I think there would be too much of an aesthetic impact to consider it. Interrupting and capturing some of the sand flow is all that is required. Some small hard structure ( a dome?) placed in the inshore zone might be enough disruption to create surf able waves and not ruin the visual amenity for baby boomers walking the beach.
Obviously there are no existing reefs that could be modified.

[Rustt]

Black Duck, I live in an area where waves are under utilised and we often wonder about if there were more surfers around, what would some of those waves we drive past most days be like if some good surfers put some time into them.
One of my favourite waves is a point that very few people surf, I like to call it "not quite rights" it's an acquired taste wave. A group of kids started surfing it in the early 80's , the older guys would just give them a quizzical look when they mentioned surfing the point, took them a while to catch on.
I drive past 2 waves on the way to the other spot that I chase that look classic at times,but if they do I'm in to much of a hurry to get to my regular spot to worry about it, it's not crowded I don't need too. My regular has an inside break that gets surfed a few times a year, it's a pretty heavy wave and we love it when a couple of grommets come and take it on, full entertainment. There another rock shelf the kids surf a stones throw from there, it's a wave we used to mind surf as we considered it to risky, but now it has a core crew that chase it and some of them aren't particularly good surfers but they have adapted.
My point is that surfing is evolving and all of these waves you see that need just a bit of improvement, there's a group of kids looking at it saying it's fine the way it is we'll adjust. Look at all the young kids on the south coast NSW and the waves they have started surfing.
I'd love to have a set of groynes at the beach at the end of my street if it had to happen, but really I'd rather not have something man made, just not right.

[steve shearer]

And here I'd make the point that an investment in artificial or modified waves shouldn't even be on the menu unless surf spots are groaning at the seams. Gold coast is case in point. Maybe Sydney, although there are a lot more surf spots there.

[Davros]

Bondi sure

[Rustt]

From my perspective my opinion doesn't really carry any weight, Ive never surfed Queensland or Sydney, it sounds depressing, but you guys seem to have adapted

[channels]

I surfed Cables, the one in Perth years ago. The problem was it was in a fairly protected stretch of the metro area and didn't see as much swell and considered a failure.

I always thought a series of them in Perth, say 5 or 6, stretching from swanbourne to floreat or south Scarborough would improve a long straight stretch of sandy closouts immensely.

Legion, Cranked - get on board!

[petulance]

So far, artificially constructed surfing reefs don't work. Pointless to talk about them.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/11 ... -rock-bot/

The Aussie guy being interviewed. Great last part of the clip where (for the camera) he tries his best to sound excited over just having surfed waist high English Channel mush

https://youtu.be/Om9ZE3Ew4zw

Maybe it was the swell but that wave looked pretty meh to me. And some of the interviewees in the clip said the wave is meant to be a wave for intermediate to advanced stand up riders.

[godsavetheking]

Pet, the boscombe reef was an absolute joke. The council seemed to genuinely believe that it would create swell and, in turn, a surfing mecca. Presumably nobody thought to tell them that swell there usually arrives with a howling onshore that no amount of overpriced sandbags will positively influence. There are a couple of shots of it looking OK for spongers, but as I understand it those days were very few and far between

[offshore1]

That's too bad because Sunstroke bet bigly in Bitcoins and silver on Boscombe reef.
In twenty years though, jackpot baby.

[Beanpole]

Bondi sure

Well I can easily think of at least three scenarios there that could create great waves.....out at The Boot for example. Wouldn't take much to make Ben Buckler break right through to the middle of the beach....not very likely though. When they built the beach volleyball stadium on the beach for the Olympics it created some great banks.

[steve shearer]

I surfed Boscombe pier a lot (pre-reef) when I was in England.\

pretty fun little set-up for nothing but english channel windswell.

[Davros]

Bondi sure

Well I can easily think of at least three scenarios there that could create great waves.....out at The Boot for example. Wouldn't take much to make Ben Buckler break right through to the middle of the beach....not very likely though. When they built the beach volleyball stadium on the beach for the Olympics it created some great banks.

New wave park?

[Beanpole]

Yep....the Council will probably come up with a plan to build one in the Pavillion. Who can forget the annual ice skating rink, croquette courts......and of course having all their Xmas Decorations up in July but not in December.