Fact vs Opinion - Artificial Reefs - Surfcore: Surf Forecasting and Community

Surfcore»Fact vs Opinion - Artificial Reefs

There's been a lot of debate on the site recently about artificial reefs, especially the one at The Mount in Aotearoa. I personally support ASR www.asrltd.co.nz and their efforts to create new challenging waves, as far as I see it's a win win situation. The reef does work and many surfers can attest to this with some tasty barrels.

SlottedGoing right on the Mount Reef(from the Offshore gallery)

There have been problems with the contractors who were involved in the construction, the weather and materials which has lead to a reduced performance in the reef recently. But with the development of any new technology especially a large scale engineering project of this nature a few hiccups are to be expected.

I contacted ASR and asked whether they had some up to date information and they've provided a detailed document explaining a break down of each stage of the construction. It's freely available for download here.

"For ocean-based artificial

"For ocean-based artificial surfing reefs, the enthused scientists and staff of ASR are not only designing the reefs, but they offer a turnkey, “cradle to grave” organization, which means they also design the construction and deployment methods that put the reefs in the water, and then prefer to do the dirty work themselves."

this is very credible stuff -its about time the control of doing things was out of the hands of people who dont surf -just there for money and only look at what a computer screen tells them -I say the people who know the ocean will get it right every time. Someone who says they are responsible for the lot have a great deal of confidence in what they do to take that responsiblity and that should fill anyone with confidence.

http://surfermag.com/features/onlineexclusives/stfrancisrejuvenate/

"If Dr. Mead’s other projects are anything to go by, the surfers in St. Francis Bay are in for a real treat. “In good conditions the right will be a very good barreling wave,” he says, adding that, “If you look at the Mt. Reef project in New Zealand, once it was completed we’ve seen 50 meter long barrel rides on that wave. And we are looking at probably a 100 meter long wave in St. Francis, so there will be a section in that which will be a high quality wave for competent to expert surfers.” "

you cant get better endoresment than a Doctor and a international surfing magazine for results.

dodgy contractors

the things from ASR seem very convincing, the waves are certainly ok , so Dr meade was right it is providing good waves -other than what the work done by the contractors have prevented -I thought ASR do things from the "cradle to the Grave" ? who does what ? and who ok's anything as being properly done ? and who then is responsible for what? -like the supervising archtect or the building contractors? where is the actual responsibity - I started to feel confident that ASR do it all becuse only they know what to do?Someone help me here ? who is who and who is responsible for what?
whoever ensured what the contactor did was correct either musnt have been there or ok'd what was done ? This is really confusing! Why were people paid if the work was not signed off as properly done?

whats going on with these reefers????

check out the download from ASR, it seems there were some really dodgey contractors involved , I just cant work out who was responsible for what, in IT where I work NO-ONE gets paid until the final product segment gets a sign off from the specialists who oversee the contract - so what went wrong here - ASR says contractors caused all malfunctions and delays , funny that in their report the reef was not ever finished but Surfer magazine says it is and producing 50m barrels -whats goin on here?? I'm getting more questions than answers and being bounced from pillar to post with really conflicting info and signals????