Jono - check these guys out http://www.asrltd.co.nz/innovation_reef.htm
They build artificial reefs around the world, some for the purposes you outlined.
Some good results and some bad results.

I thought the reef at Narrowneck was built mainly to reduce beach erosion, due to proximity of beach-road-river and major erosion events???

If you could find a location where an artificial reef produced lots of economic benefits and beach protection... and would be multi-use, i.e. surfers aren't the only people on/in/under the water...maybe someone will support it

If I'm elected PM I will instruct council to stop pumpimg sand onto the kirra desert, I would make them pump a ridiculous amount of sand about 2 km off Tugun beach. Keep pumping until the sand is about 5m above sea level so there is a bit of wind protection, throw a few old tyres around it to stabilize the sand a bit and I'll be happy as larry. Perfect for the SUPs, and no kooks are going to paddle 2km to crowd it up.

Interesting thoughts Jono.

I think the first place to start is as Clarky said...stop pumping all that sand into Kirra. Kirra had a lot of sand in the very old days, old photo from the 30's etc show cars parked on a huge beach but it still wasn't as much as it is now, it occurred naturally. Then the Tweed River bar crossing was built and the natural northern flow of sand was destroyed. I lived on the beach front at North Kirra in the mid 80's and can remember when there was no beach at all just north of the North Kirra surf club. Over time groins were built up and down the coast in an attempt to stop the flow of sand and they were a total waste of time.

My opinion, don't mess with nature. It only stuff up the way the beaches should all work and makes a mess of everything.

jono,litigation was a major concern of noosa council during the committee for the reef,i dont know about pumped sand being a man made structure but sand bag reefs are and apparently legal advise to the then council caused doubts,it all sucks the only beneficiary at noosa are the shop owners at the southern corner but as soon as we get another good swell it will go to the river mouth and then to fraser where all good sand particles go on our east coast,kirra is a joke,to have one of the best waves in the world turned into a desert,well some one needs f...ing and burning,the geotextile bag technology for reefs is valid until a fisherman drops an anchor and rips it like what happened at narrowneck,in the beginning there it was like surfing down a flight of stairs but it was only ever a erosion barrier and i believe it worked pretty well for that purpose.

P co said...

You are a greedy bunch. You have a wide choice of points and beaches up and down the southern Queensland stretch and now you want an artificial reef as well, actually a second one. I would have you slops over our typical metro summer conditions.

Slops !! Yeeikes!!

Greedy!! well your not wrong, come over and surf Snapper through to Green Mount in a prefect swell and see how greedy you to will become! when there are two hundred water craft out there all vieing for postion and then when you are all stressed out from being hassled and finally do get a wave you have to negotiate the traffic. you'll be cutting back when you need to do a re-entry and when you do get a reo in it will be straight up someones kyber! and don't even look like your going to fall off cause you'll have ten shoulder hopper dropping in to say hello and goodbye, haha!! not my idea of fun , Oh and then there are all the pros !!
Thank God for the Alley and Burleigh but give it five to ten years . We need to think about the future !!

BRING BACK KIRRA !!!
BILINGA PIPE LEFTS AND RIGHTS , OH YEAH !! dream on

Yep ur right Just Wrong they would be onto it in no time.

Just Wrong said...

if the north kirra sausage groyne was still around it would be covered by by lidders anyway. reckon thats what would happen anyway with a new reef of any description ... lidders every where!

Yeah maybe!! but you hardly feel them when you run over them on ya SUP

I remember the sausage groin collapseing...that was the end of that.

Toadwhispera said...

Gday Jamie hey are you a dad yet ?

Yeah mate, Riley was born on the 4th of Feb. So now that is done I am sitting here looking at crap surf on the cams just wanting to go for a SUP.

just google artificial surfing reef and watch the switchboard "light up" with places and people these "frankensteins" are screwing over.

its a reall bull**** thing that uses the basic motivation we all have to get into everyones wallets -sort of like a "trojen horse"

if the people pushing them did not believe their own "drivel" they could be sent tp jail for "confidence trickster" -even as clever as peter foster - but proving that they know they are lieing is another thing and meanwhile people waste time and effort "loving to listen" to this new place in the ocean that fulfills all our dreams .

these "geeks bearing gifts" need to be told again and again to F.. off and leave our kids and beaches alone.

in fact national surfing reserves have as part of the "hush hush" agenda to ban these f..wits from even thinking about it.

in kiwi every good beach is getting bans on them even going there as well.

so much monetry waste and environment damage they are doing that its a crime against surfers and nature that all surfers there are rebelling big time over the meades mount reef (google mountreef) and blacks opanke reef and the same thing is happening all over again in bournemouth UK (they keep tripping on their own shoelaces there as well .. total screwballs) the town there wants them tar and feathered .. but to be fair are paying them $6m to give them the evidence to heat up the tar.

then there's mount mangabui and meades mount reef - what a cock up -even from the first day meade coudnt read a weather map and the barge got washed into shore -wel it went on from there to be a total finacial and environmental disaster with rips calving aperfectly good beach to pieces -even a unnescessary drowning thta was preventable and the hounds are baying on the designers for that one.

people who think they "know it all" are just plain cockheads , thos ethat think know more than that again are delusional -check out ABC catalyst, artificial surfing reef and listen to one of the designers say that the meades mount reef surfers are all "stoked" about the reef and then get on some of the blogs and ask for your self how stocked they are .

peter foster and artificial surfing designer -reef builders just all have that funny association in achievements it seems -i cant help thinking he is a silent partner in all that (they were in fiji at the same time trying the locals on)

Interesting thread, I thought I'd chime in with my 2c as I have a bit or experience on the political side of constructing an artificial reef. Back in the mid 90s I was the project manager on behalf of the state gov for the worlds first artificial surfing reef at Cables at Cottelsoe WA. I was working in policy in the Minster for Sports office and was the only surfer there so got the gig. Go figure.

Now before some people start baying for my blood, let me explain the context in which this reef at $2m of taxpayers dollars was built. During the 96 state election both sides of politics said if elected they would construct a reef. So it was going to happen regardless. Importantly, for the first time surfers were seen as constituents by political parties... I surf I vote!

The location was chosen as being the most favourable in terms of
surfing
amentities
access
transport nodes
polictical will and expediency.

Does Cables work? IMO yes. It was never meant to be a wave making machine as some kooks thought would happen. What it does is augment any swell that is there from the appropriate swell direction and focus it on the reef. Remember Perth has an average wave climate of about .9m

One of the positives that came out was that we had to monitor the reefs performance, so we set up webcams along the coast in WA. I suggested we make them available to the public live on the internet and they are now very popular.

Do we need more reefs? IMO no, this one on the west coast demonstrated (to me anyway) the issues of coastal management are very complex and driven in part by political will and self interest groups. No surprises there, its like everything else....now wheres my $900 Kev?