I drive past shi loads of used truck tyres on the way to site every day(Pilbara) , good luck getting the mining companies to let you have them
Took me two months to get approval to drive to work(570kms) , about 5hr's driving , instead of flying from site to Perth then ovenight stay, then fly back home the next day. Logic does not work in this environment.There is a camp near me that has just been closed , I'll bet all the near new air-cons end up full of red dirt somewhere and fkkd.
The tyres are a great idea , but they will probably just pile up and waste more space.

Are there any examples of purpose built artificial surf reefs that have been successful?

Gizmo they are talking about offshore artificial reefs for fishing. Obviously 20m deep will not give us much of a usable wave break lol


The Perth one was a dismal failure and I really can't see why. I heard that a wave breaks in roughly it's own depth. ie: 1.5m swell will begin to break in about 1.5 deep water.

So how hard is it to make a pile of tyres mostly joined together, in a piled up line, such that we have a reef 1.5m deep and all the surrounding water is 10m deep. And get the angle right so a predominantly SW direction swell will peel as it impacts the artificial reef? I must be in la-la land cos it sounds easy but the GovCo, aided by a University, fkd it up.

Considering tyres cost money to dispose of, mining co's love publicity, and artificial reefs are good for biodiversity, and the divers and fisho's have had plenty provided to them, maybe we should see what we could get going?

Read a write up in a UK mag many moons ago re artificial reefs for surfing

Despite the claims of the manufacturer (NZ based from memory) it has been less than sucessfull.

The manufacturer blamed the install subbie and took over the install and it still didnt work well - despite the claims of the manufacturer.

One example only I know.

Kanaelili said...

Thanks Kanaelili, It looks good although there doesn't appear to be much chatter about it since mid 2010.

There is a tyre reef off Warnbro beach mate, Fishing reef.
No swell in the bay for surf but use to get a nasty wind wave break of the old groyne near The B!tch in the 'good ol days' Big wave but i was a grom.

Anyone know what im talkin about?



Contact Rocko council and/or if ya can there is a bloke on the council i think who has/had a lot to do with fishing and boating.
Frank Gibson.

chronic said...
this website will show you the future of surfing reefs

www.surfingramps.com.au

Good stuff, just a shame sand shifts with time.

The east coast USA has a heap of fishing reefs (-20m+) built from discarded tyres during the 70's, not sure they still do it, concrete appears the prefered option now, do a google on reef balls. Essentially, the material cost is less an issue than transport, installation, management and study costs.
The concept behind the sand slug project i worked on at Nth Cronulla - was to create a temporary sand-only bombora at -4m to -8m deep. Some fantastic peak formations formed up in the lee of the feature. Yes, the sand dispersed shoreward, especially with a big storm on 1st August, and built up the beach. Key issue in this project - it cost no extra dollars to improve the surf. So i expect we will see more projects like this.
Here is an overview of the Perth Reef
http://www.surfingramps.com.au/CablesArtificialSurfingReef
Here is an overview of the Narrowneck Reef
www.surfingramps.com.au/Narrowneck
Here is an overview of crew up near Bundaberg (small waves, big tides), who got out there at low tide with an excavator and shifted the boulders, another low cost method.
www.surfingramps.com.au/bargarasurf