Student proved right over Boscombe surf reef failings (From Bournemouth Echo)
When news happens text pix and video to 80360. Start your message with BE then leave a space.
Student proved right over Boscombe surf reef failings
7:00pm Friday 21st May 2010 in
UNIVERSITY graduate Luke Sheppard is one of the few people who can say that the Boscombe surf reef has lived up to his expectations.
For the 30-year-old examined proposals for the reef eight years ago – and concluded it was virtually guaranteed to fail.
Luke was on Plymouth University’s surf science and technology degree course back in 2002 when he wrote his dissertation on the reef plans.
He looked at the claims regarding the performance of the reef and concluded the vast majority were either completely unfounded or simply incorrect. He sent his dissertation to Bournemouth council but never received a response.
Web designer Luke, of Talbot Woods, said: “I went into it with an open mind. I surf in Bournemouth and so was really hoping it would work but when you look at the conditions in Bournemouth you can see it was never going to.
“I really hoped I would be proved wrong but obviously that hasn’t been the case. I have to say I think it would have been almost a miracle if it had worked.” His reasons for the likely failure of the reef to double the number of surfable days were based on his view that Bournemouth does not have the right conditions for a reef to work.
Reefs need offshore winds to hold up the face of the wave, he said, while onshore winds simply make the wave crumble at shallower angles. But the predominant wind direction in Bournemouth is southwesterly while offshore winds are rare.
He also said that Bournemouth is subjected to various different swell conditions whereas the reef would need to be aligned to a particular swell direction to function effectively.
And he added that surfing reefs work best with long-period groundswell, or large gaps between waves, whereas the vast majority of waves on Bournemouth beaches are locally generated windswell.
Roger Brown, service director at Bournemouth council, said: “These views are based on the student’s dissertation which was carried out before design and construction of the reef.
“We have followed the advice from the leading experts in marine biology and the professional Doctors at Plymouth University.”
Comments(16)
Capt. Ahab (ret.)
says...
10:10pm Fri 21 May 10
I & me crew do rightly agree with ye but it do appear such 'Captains' of power them being yer PSHs not only be hard of hearing, optically challenged, lacking in a social conscience perhaps even be thinking morals & scruples be a game played with small round balls (or bigger ‘orbs?’) that be ‘De-generating’ a once delightful and much visited ‘mooring’ fer holiday families and locals alike.
Yet now so much bin spent and so little to be gained, what a shame. True justice may not replenish the Brethrens coffers but at least should set about the ‘pirates’ reputations.
Jak Branksome
says...
11:43pm Fri 21 May 10
FOSF
says...
12:03am Sat 22 May 10
reefskeptic
says...
8:54am Sat 22 May 10
rotcoddam
says...
10:57pm Sat 22 May 10
If just about any of them applied for a job in any proffession with that level of relevent stuff on their cv the employer would send them a bill for wasting his time.
How on earth can we expect a council to run the town competently when they have no qualifiactions to do so. Is it not about time we dispensed with the nonsense of councillors and employed proper managers to run towns.
lukeshep
says...
10:23pm Sun 23 May 10
The swell conditions in Bournemouth make the regular effective performance of a surf reef completely impossible. The simple fact is that the VASTLY predominant swell conditions in Bournemouth are:
1) Choppy, short-period, locally-generated "windswell".
2) Onshore southwesterly and sometimes southeasterly winds.
3) Small swell size.
I can't think of a single reef in the world (natural or man-made) that even comes close to providing quality surfing waves under these conditions. The fact is that the council were blinded by ASR's innaccurate suggestions that the reef would double the number of surfable says in Bournemouth.
Was there any SCIENTIFIC study of the inshore swell conditions in Bournemouth over an extended period of time? By this, I do not mean David Weight peering out of his car window and jotting down in a notepad whether he thinks the conditions are surfable (which was the only information regarding swell conditions in Bournemouth that I could find when I wrote the dissertation, despite a lot of searching). I mean studies into significant wave height, period and direction? If the answer to this question is no, which I am certain it is, then you simply did not do enough to ensure that the conditions were suitable for a surfing reef in Bournemouth.
The position of Bournemouth means that it is extremely sheltered from long-range swell, especially with the added protection of Durlston Head. Bournemouth is, quite literally, in one of the worst possible positions on the coastline of the UK in which to place a surfing reef.
@reefskeptic - no thanks!
@jak - marine life colonising the reef to any significant extent is unlikely, given the lack of structural complexity of the reef. Marine life like nooks and crannies to hide in - these are big sandbags - no caves or anything for the poor little creatures!
Coincidentally, this was also an assertation of ASR - that marine life would colonise the reef, providing a habitat and somewhere for divers and snorkellers to enjoy. While I'm less qualified to make predictions on this, I'd be VERY surprised if it has (or ever will be) colonised by anything other than algae!
lukeshep
says...
10:31pm Sun 23 May 10
Call me skeptical but it's just POSSIBLE that, if this is indeed the case, it might have been a better idea to have the feasibility study performed by a group of people who didn't stand to make millions if the project went ahead.
Just an idea!
reefskeptic
says...
8:29am Mon 24 May 10
So where were the heads of those that are supposed to ensure that does not happen? Its what one expects of immature adolescents -not impartial and mature managers of the publics purse. Then of course there is the professionals and their behaviour that may need some serious scrutiny? Maybe Micheal Moore and Ralf Nader are really needed as the umpires here?
MichaelCeber
says...
7:28pm Mon 24 May 10
My impression from reading many articles was that the media were responsible for a lot of misinformation and hype. It also seemed pretty obvious that it was mainly built for business purposes as so much of the development included regeneration of the area and not just the reef. In other places like Perth, Western Australia where they built a reef (where relatively speaking it gets orders of magnitude more swell than Boscombe) it didn’t include any commercial development. Just the reef. That’s because the purpose was to help produce better shaped waves and had nothing to much to do with business.
Not sure why everyone believed the hype so much. I guess it’s tricky if one doesn’t surf or know anything about the ocean. All the people pointing fingers at people are the stupid ones for believing it would work.
If it turns out the reef has improved business in the area then it’s a success anyway.
I just came back from a weekend in Cornwall - the surf was awesome there. Gotta love that Atlantic swell. If anyone needs a reminder as to why a reef will never work in Dorset you just need to look at a map of the world again! France is in the way. Unlike Cornwall which has thousands of miles of Atlantic Ocean to generate swell. Look around the world where people surf. Always involves thousands of miles of open ocean and very deep water leading up to finally shallow sand banks or reefs. This happens over thousands of miles over many hours where wind can blow for days on end . After the swell is there then so many other factors beyond our calculable ability are required to get a surfing wave. This is generally left to nature to randomly pick the surf breaks. A man made reef will obviously always be pot luck with the odds massively stacked against it.
If you want any chance of a man made reef being surfable then it must be built it where there is already swell otherwise your odds which were already massively against you are suddenly reduced to 0. So stop complaining and blaming those involved in building the reef – it was never going to work anyway. Business is business. Drive 3 hours west and have some great surfing!
reefskeptic
says...
8:23am Tue 25 May 10
"If the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) can be persuaded that the reef will replace wooden groynes as a form of coastal protection then a grant from the Government could be achieved. Latest information suggests that the Reef would offer better protection than groynes, as it would reduce the waves erosive power long before it reached the beach.
Original estimates of the reef costing around £500,000 have been halved by @$#@, who now believes that the reef could be built for the same cost or less than the traditional Wooden groynes, so long a feature of Bournemouths seafront. If the plans for the reef are adopted, new reefs could be built every year instead of groynes. this would eventually make the beach a lot bigger, and transform Bournemouth into the Watersports Mecca of Europe !
%^$#& returned to Bournemouth in June to present the findings of his study, including the Benefit-cost analysis. This showed a staggering 37-1 ratio for the Reef at Southbourne, and 21-1 at Boscombe.
Here is a brief summary of %^$#&^ recommendations:
Southbourne: Southbourne with be just one right hander of about 110m long. It will provide the coastal protection which is needed for this area at a capital cost similar to groynes and cheaper over 50 years, and it is hoped that funds will be obtained from MAFF for coastal protection, and from the lottery sports fund. This should be a challenging wave, probably a 6 - 7grade. (Pipeline would be 7-8, and Raglan a 5). Initial ideas suggest that the reef be based on Bingin, a reef break on Bali . ($%#$%^ team have surveyed the bottom contours of all the renowned reef breaks around the pacific). It hoped that by breaking up the line of swell and creating refraction, one or two decent banks should form on each side, thus creating two or three breaks where there are currently none. (This effect has occurred at Narrowneck- they still have to get the top layer on there, but it shows very good form on large swells).
Boscombe: The Boscombe pier reef would be double sided reef with a left hander of about 90 metres and a right hander of about a 100 metres. The reef would be designed to protect a slightly shortened pier which is in a poor state and which would otherwise have to be demolished, or else rebuilt at great cost in the near future. The Boscombe reef would be a bit less severe than Southbourne, probably a grade 5. This is partly to give variety, but also to appeal to the intermediate or merely competent surfers. It is hoped to have night-lights on the pier so that people can surf after work in the winter. '
dont blame the media they just reported what was said by experts and accepted by the willing.
lukeshep
says...
2:30pm Tue 25 May 10
@reefskeptic - yeah, originally there were plans for 2 reefs (this was at the case when I wrote the dissertation). One was actually at the pier and consisted of a left and a right, the other was at Southbourne, at groyne 45 if I remember correctly.
Basing the design on Bingin in Bali was something that the surf mags got hold of and ran, mainly because ASR had done quite a lot of mapping of the ocean floor at Bingin. I'm not sure if it was ever the intention to model the Southbourne reef on that. I've surfed Bingin MANY times as well and the waves come out of very deep water, straight onto the reef, so it would be a little strange to try and produce similar waves in Bournemouth Bay, which is shallow. Bingin is also a really short left-hander (but i guess they could just reverse the contours of the reef to make it a right-hander) with a pretty hideous closeout section at the end, onto dry reef - I doubt their intention would ever have been to replicate that, given the high probability of damage to the sandbags (and people's necks!).
As for not blaming the media, I'm not so sure that they're entirely without blame here - they took some very vague ideas and reported them as facts. Surf magazines were the first to pick up on it, making some pretty weird claims and then newspapers seemed to pretty much reprint word-for-word what the mags were spouting.
In terms of the development of Boscombe seafront, I think the whole project has been largely a massive success. I'm just not sure if a non-functioning surf reef was necessary to facilitate the rest of the regeneration. If it was, then the reef is already a massive success. If it wasn't, then it's a massive waste of money. I'm betting on the latter to be honest.
lukeshep
says...
2:37pm Tue 25 May 10
I interviewed a few council members when I did the dissertation and they had fallen, hook, line and sinker for ASR's claims in their "feasibility study" that the reef would more than double the number of surfable days in the year.
If you're spending £3 million of taxpayers' money, I think they have a right to complain if the proper scientific studies were not put in place to ensure that these claims were accurate.
As for reefs, you don't have to travel 3 hours - Kimmeridge Ledges, Broad Bench, Cloudbreak, No Man's Land, Chapman's Pool - they are all class waves on their day. Some of them world class occasionally and they work a LOT more often than people think.
time nor Tide
says...
8:37am Wed 2 Jun 10
.
http://www.bayofplen
tytimes.co.nz/local/
news/our-view-dont-g
o-in-water-thinking-
its-safe/3915101/
MichaelCeber
says...
1:23pm Thu 10 Jun 10
Anyway, it was good that you did the study on this - definitely not critical of that. I just found it odd that I saw no negative press about it. I had people from the media try contact me a few years ago asking why I was so pessimistic as everyone else was so keen at the time along with all the positive press. Did the press ever manage to contact you at the time (2002-to reef completion..) for your view?
The bit about me saying stop blaming the people who said it would work was more like - you should have done your own research! I feel some knew but they probably didn't care due to all the local regeneration. But I take your point.
Anyway, from your view have you seen it working at all? I haven't been down to Bournemouth for awhile. I imagine it would be way to crowded anyway if it did work, and if it did work there must be those other local places which would be way better anyway.
lukeshep
says...
6:12pm Fri 11 Jun 10
As for anyone contacting me, no they didn't. Neither the press nor the council got in touch with me. I have to say, I was a little surprised that the council never did, since I'd interviewed quite a few members during my research.
I was REALLY hoping for a miracle and that I was going to be proved completely wrong but unfortunately it seems that mother nature agreed with me. It would've been a lot of fun to have a decent wave at Boscombe and, yeah, it would've been busy but, if it had been a huge success, there would've been a lot of leverage in terms of convincing the council to put some more in.
Bournemouth is busy at the best of times, so I really try to avoid it unless it really is the only option.
Went down to Chapman's Pool yesterday and it was VERY close to working (only needed another half-foot or so to clear the rocks on the point), despite absolutely no swell in Bournemouth Bay to speak of. Those spots along there are always worth a check and are usually empty due to the walk involved in getting there. Plus they pick up LOADS more swell.
More Surf Reef stories
- Researchers look into value of £3m Boscombe surf reef
- Boscombe surf reef: Marine firms claim ASR owes them £60,000
- Sub-contractor wins county court judgement against ASR
- Boat strike at surf reef is no longer ‘clear cut’
- £150,000 in reserve cash being spent on surf reef
- ASR to come back in 2012 to improve surf reef
- Handling of surf reef not been our 'finest hour'
- Future of Boscombe surf reef hangs in balance
- Weather delays surf reef repairs
- Work begins on Boscombe Surf Reef
WAVE OF DISAPPOINTMENT: The Boscombe surf reef has not wowed many users
Most popular
Local Information
Enter your postcode, town or place name
rainbowkisses says...
7:04pm Fri 21 May 10
“We have followed the advice from the leading experts in marine biology and the professional Doctors at Plymouth University.”......
.......... See this muppet is still blaming everybody else but himself. Stand up and be counted you coward. You screwed up, at least admit it and say sorry to the people of Bournemouth who's money you wasted