Building your own reef???

[Bwgan]

lol

I too was the kid that got bo11ocked for bulding a dam in the river! Old Mrs Jones was never happy about the bottom of her garden flooding!

[CheeZee]

lmao .. " Happy Dayz " !!! ... i remember dropping the flood gates at the weir and then waiting ...and waiting ... and then running ..and running

[Bwgan]

lmfao

Bet you got your legs smacked a lot as a child too!

[CheeZee]

Ohhhhh Yehhhhhhhh ... every lil' adventure had a price to pay huh ..but man ... oh so worth it !

" heres to ya B and all others that took a whack in the name of adventure !!

[bluesnowcone]

wer getting an artificial ref, its gun be made of huge sandbags and stuff

[Sar]

When is that supposed to be in by the way? I looked into man made reefs/sandbreaks and stuff when I heard about it and they seem to get a lot of mixed reviews. I think I read somewhere that they spent millions in Oz/Perth on making a reef out of granite blocks which didnt work, so the guy said that £800k on a load of sandbags is pretty unlikely to work.

Definately build your own one though and let us know how it goes!!

[PapaW]

Just a thought that me and a few friends had over the weekend whilst being bored waiting for the tide to drop. Would it be possible to build a 'reef' type structure out of sand bags? Obviously it would have to be marked with a bouy etc to make it safe for boats, but would it in theory work? As there is a beach where I live that is always deserted and boats never go there and it always picks up a bit of swell on a Westerly - Northerly wind????

Its funny you should say this cause we;ve been toying with the idea of getting a crew together to move rocks and dig sand to build a bank at a spot on Anglesey. SO yes it IS possible. But it won't last long.

[GowerCharger]

an artificial reef? but you live in wales, we got more reefs than a sandal salesman! just go find em

Im pretty sure the bags they used in nz where built for the job and held together with some sort of net or something? not convinced just dumping some loose bags on the beach would work.

[Bwgan]

Its funny you should say this cause we;ve been toying with the idea of getting a crew together to move rocks and dig sand to build a bank at a spot on Anglesey. SO yes it IS possible. But it won't last long.

2 crews would be better than one!!!!

[Rodilla]

Of course it will work. You just have to do it right and its a LOT of work. First dont even think of doing it with sand and rocks, they will just get washed away eventually. Also if you do it right it won't be a menace to the ecosystems. People in general are to delicate with this matter. Sunken ships in the middle of nowhere are well known to be a santuary for marine life and their structures are made out of metals!
I strongly believe that it should be done with some kind of heavy bags that dont get carried away by the currents. Maybe with heavy machinery and big pieces of concrete that also have small holes, like swiss cheese. This will allow marine life to start building small corals in there.
Finally you just have to pick the right place and also think of the swells directions you will be receiving. Plan your wave before starting the proyect, visualize where its going.

I've always wanted to do an artificial reef in one deserted beach break near home.

[libby]

Well i'm afraid i'm one of those sensitive people!

I fully agree that artificial reefs can have massive benefit in terms of creating a new substrate for a natural reef to form, however the disruption caused when doing it, potentially could have negative effects. Also there is always the potential that even a small man made structure could negatively affect the swash regime of a beach, which is one of the main factors which influences all the little beasties feeding living in the sand.

I realise that this was a hypothetical question as in ' could it be done', so sorry if i'm going a bit zealot on everybody but i've just spent 6 months researching the many ways human mess up sandy shores. I just dont so why any one would think its necessary, like someone has already said there are so many natural reefs, and lets face it, if it took hundreds of thousands of dollars, a s**t load of divers, some pretty serious engineering and months of work to make a semi decent wave at the Mount then the chances of you and a few mates shoving some sandbags down and hoping for the best is not likely to work.

Sorry for being a kill joy, in theory i reckon it would be a fun thing to try, but just think - you might start a trend with people who are less responsible than you.............

[CheeZee]

Sorry for being a kill joy, in theory i reckon it would be a fun thing to try, but just think - you might start a trend with people who are less responsible than you.............

..true true .. and darhlin , never apologise for showing that all your hard work at uni is obviously paying off

" you wouldnt have written a response like that a year or so ago .. which means its all sinking in dudette ! .. in no time at all we'll have a degree or two floating around on here i reckon

[Bwgan]

My mates and I started building our reef today. After reading what makes a good reef we went to a scrap metal site and picked up a load of crap and headed to the beach. We chose a suitable spot and tied it all together and weighed it down with rock and a big net. Below is a pic of the reef with the tide coming in!

[CheeZee]

LMFAO .... " Yep ! that ought to do it bro lololol

[Milo]

Go to your local builders yard and buy up all the bags of dry mixed concrete and row out to your spot and drop one bag at a time. the water will soak into the bag and it will go hard in a couple if hours, job done

[WATMEWORY]

does anyone live near a completed surf reef?
I'm hearing that they are really good and when the swells right produce excellent waves ?

[PapaW]

surly thats the case with any reef!!!! Under the right conditions... Duh!

[IslandA]

get yourself a barge that wil float a cement truck.
Get a on the barge full of concrete.
pick a spot and dump.
voila permenant concrete reef
underwater road rash?? DONT SCREW UP!!!

[surfin_daddy]

Well i'm afraid i'm one of those sensitive people!

I fully agree that artificial reefs can have massive benefit in terms of creating a new substrate for a natural reef to form, however the disruption caused when doing it, potentially could have negative effects. Also there is always the potential that even a small man made structure could negatively affect the swash regime of a beach, which is one of the main factors which influences all the little beasties feeding living in the sand.

I realise that this was a hypothetical question as in ' could it be done', so sorry if i'm going a bit zealot on everybody but i've just spent 6 months researching the many ways human mess up sandy shores. I just dont so why any one would think its necessary, like someone has already said there are so many natural reefs, and lets face it, if it took hundreds of thousands of dollars, a s**t load of divers, some pretty serious engineering and months of work to make a semi decent wave at the Mount then the chances of you and a few mates shoving some sandbags down and hoping for the best is not likely to work.

Sorry for being a kill joy, in theory i reckon it would be a fun thing to try, but just think - you might start a trend with people who are less responsible than you.............

yeah so am i BUT.............. i was watching Blue Planet the other day and Sir David Attenborough (whatever) said that somewhere if it wasn't for the ships that had sunk there over the years there would be no BEASTIE life at all, come on give the SEA BEASTIES A HOME, next time you go surfin, get a big shell...find a rock pool with hermit crabs and drop the shell next to him.....see what he does...he moves into the new shell, nature will adapt....but hey sand bags on beach = empty bags no harm done (i'm sorry)

[surfin_daddy]

Please dont do anything to mess up marine ecosystems anymore. My whole dissertation is about humand messing up sandy shores and its very depressing.

Fair enough, one little reef wont make much difference but imagine if everyone starts trying it

Doubt it would work anyway, they've had to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on the one at Mt Maunganui and its benefits are somewhat dubious or so im told.

LIBBY PLEASE GOTO "NEW SURF LOCATION" AND GIVE YOUR VIEWS