ASR Announces Completion of Bournemouth Surf Reef

October 21st, 2009

We are excited to confirm the official launch of Bournemouth Reef in Boscombe, England. It is just one of four artificial reefs worldwide: Narrowneck, Queensland; Cables, Western Australia and Mt Maunganui, New Zealand.

ASR Ltd (Amalgamate Solutions and Research) are responsible for the creation and execution of the reef. They were enlisted to help Bournemouth improve it’s surfing conditions in order to increase tourism, but it is hoped the new reef will provide a much more substantial benefit to the beachside community. Mimicking nature, the multi-purpose reef provides the same beach protection benefits of natural reefs – acting as a protective barrier to the coastline to help decrease sand erosion on beaches, as well as creating a new marine habitat.

Nick Behunin, managing partner of ASR, says:

At ASR we’re passionate about multi-purpose reefs as the sustainable future of coastal protection. Our beaches are facing increasing direct and in-direct threats from both humanity and the natural world, with issues like global warming and the rise of the sea level. While the initial investment to build a reef is often more than seawalls and rock jetties, the environmental and economic benefits of multi-purpose reefs far exceed those of the traditional methods – as beaches are protected without creating blight, marine habitat is enhanced and beach communities get socio-economic benefits from increased recreational use.

There are several unique benefits to the creation of multi-purpose reefs as it pertains to coastal protection:

Reefs decrease the rate of erosion on beaches by dissipating wave energy before it has a chance to hit the beach
Reefs create marine habitat and increase ecology
Reefs can be designed to create a recreational amenity like surfing, diving and fishing
Reefs are submerged offshore structures, supporting the natural beauty of the beach and ocean, unlike prominent seawalls or groin structures, which can be unsightly and create blight

Roger Brown, Director of Leisure Services at Bournemouth Borough Council says:

The Boscombe Spa Village project already produced a rise in tourism, even before the completion of the reef, re-establishing Boscombe to its rightful place as a leading destination beach resort. An affluent surfer market is attracted to the area, and as a result, jobs have been created, the seafront transformed, a new water sports facility built and a community revived. The reef is a perfect example of how an innovative free-to-use project can have such a positive ripple effect in an area. While the reef will improve wave quality for surfers, it’s exciting to know that there are underwater benefits too, as sea life, including cuttlefish and spidercrabs, have already been making the artificial surf reef at Boscombe their home.

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4 Comments »

4 Responses to “ASR Announces Completion of Bournemouth Surf Reef”

1 time_nor_tide says:
October 22nd, 2009 at 1:22 pm
The Boscombe Reef, built as a cost of £2.6 million, was expected to attract thousands of surfers.

But its official launch has been delayed while designers try to figure out why it’s not working.

Disappointed surfer Anthony Bulger, 26, said: “Today should have been a perfect day to catch some good waves, but we haven’t seen a single one.”

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2693335/Surfs-up-in-Cornwall.html#ixzz0UfFi3rIV
2 Alicia Schwartz says:
October 23rd, 2009 at 7:03 pm
Hello BournemouthSurfReef.com Readers,

My name is Alicia Schwartz and I work with the ASR Ltd team, the company responsible for the newly completed Bournemouth Reef. We understand the confusion on the delay and hope this provides clarity.

While one of the possible outcomes of building a multi-purpose reef is improved condition for recreational activities, including surfing, diving and fishing, a reef is not a wave machine. The reef does not create waves, but instead acts as a ramp that changes the way the waves break – it harnesses existing wave energy that used to break on the sand, causing erosion, and channels it to break on the offshore reef instead. As a result, the beach is protected, ecology is enhanced, and improved conditions are created for surfers, divers and fishermen.

The weather conditions needed to see the reef’s benefits simply haven’t occurred yet. The Bournemouth reef hasn’t had groundswell events yet to “optimize“ the reefs performance, however, it has already been producing some great waves.

An impartial third party research firm conducted a study and found that the marketing and PR value of the Reef in Boscombe, even before its completion, is estimated to be greater than £10 million pounds which is over 3X the total cost of the reef. The thriving restaurants – some of which are named after the reef like “Urban Reef” and “Reef Encounter” – and increased retail activity and hotel accommodations (even during a recessionary period) also are positive indicators of economic stimulus.

If you have any questions please feel free to directly contact us at: enquiries@asrltd.com or Alicia.Schwartz@KBstrategies.com. We encourage an open dialogue on the benefits of multi-purpose reefs (Artificial reefs).

Sincerely,

Alicia Schwartz
Marketing, ASR, ltd
http://blog.asrltd.com
http://ASRltd.com
3 Luke says:
October 27th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Ahha I love the way there is very little mention of what the council originally put so much emphasis on – the surf! And it is now being described as a multi purpose reef opposed to a surf one. I think this is the council and ASR covering themselves as everyones starting to realise that its not working (waves wise) nearly as well as they’d originally planed, and yes I know, it needs time to sink into the sand etc, but I still think they’re getting a bit nervous.
4 John says:
November 2nd, 2009 at 9:05 pm
Maybe with the storms coming, we will see some real surf

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