Pushing the sand around to save Palm Beach

Gold Coast City Council (in Queensland, Australia) have a Surf Management Plan that includes:

• strategies to maximise enjoyment and minimise conflict between beach user groups (e.g. seasonal adjustments to flagged swimming and board riders zones)
• new coastal capital works projects will give consideration to both coastal protection and where possible, enhancement of surf amenity.

 

Details
goldcoast.qld.gov.au/thegoldcoast/surf-management-plan-23579.html

They announced in June 2016 that $4.5 million has been set aside to start the Palm Beach Shoreline Project and build an artificial reef about 400 metres off Palm Beach. It is expected to take four years.

brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/palm-beach-gets-artificial-reef

See also the previous story (July 2015):
brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/gold-coast-beach-erosion-plan

Note that Australian Coastal Walls are selling the ACW Geo-Block beach protection system. More about that on their web page.
australiancoastalwalls.com.au

For a longer term view of Gold Coast coastal management:
goldcoast.qld.gov.au/thegoldcoast/coastal-management-3246.html

 

Collaroy to Narrabeen

Sydney, Australia in the newly formed Northern Beaches Council Area

Following the June 2016 Black NorEaster and/or East Coast Low beach and property suffered significant damage.

Surfrider Foundation Northern Beaches was in the firing line for organising the 2002 Line In The Sand which convinced the then Warringah Council that the community was opposed to the construction of a multimillion dollar seawall over a kilometre long dumping 85,000 tons of rock on the beach at great public expense.

Seawalls profoundly damage beaches and Surfrider remains implacably opposed to hard so-called protective structures on beaches.

See there report to NB Council: makesurf/collaroy_seawall2016.pdf

OR

cloudfront.net/surfrider/pages/../Council_Presentation_Collaroy_Seawall_(1).pdf?1469083587

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Northern Beaches surfrider.org.au/nsw

The Northern Beaches Branch was one of Surfrider Australia’s original branches and is still going strong 20 years on!

Major campaigns over its life include the upgrade of Warriewood Sewage Treatment Plant, protesting the proposed seawall for Collaroy/Narrabeen Beach 2002 with the famous “Line In The Sand” and thwarting the proposed overdevelopment of Long Reef SLSC on 2 separate occasions.

The branch has representation on council committees and work closely with environment centres in Manly and Pittwater.

Always looking for another face and bod to lend a hand so if you live anywhere around the Northern Beaches contact them from details on the page:
surfrider.org.au/nsw

Podcast: Discovery

How to Make an Awesome Surf Wave
bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03670q5
from the BBC. (27 minutes)

Discusses engineering to make more and better surf breaks.
Discusses Boscombe, Bournemouth then to the Basque Country in northern Spain to the Wavegarden, in the foothills of the Cantabrian mountains.
Surfing veterans share their thoughts with marine biologist Helen Scales.

bbc.in/1Phlhit

Troy Bottegal and the bubble bank

Under headlines of world’s first inflatable artificial reef, a concept has been heralded that uses sand anchors to install an inflatable sail-like structure “the size of a large roundabout” offshore.

Troy Bottegal believes that where the ocean meets the submerged sail, the result will be a steady supply of surfer-friendly waves.

He is probably right but the Kickstarter project’s funding goal was not reached on November 24, 2014.
I am scanning this search for someone that has made calculations on the physics of the forces involved:


Click the link for an updated search – from SurfingSites.net
http://bit.ly/Troy_Bottegal

A Closer Look at Artificial Waves

Faking it – an article by Matt Clark addresses the questions:

• So How Do Wave Generators Work?
• Are They Sustainable?
• Bringing Surf Culture Inland?
• Where and When Can I Try It?
• If a surf park came to your hometown, will you rush to try it?

magicseaweed.com/news/faking-it-a-closer-look-at-artificial-waves

The Masterplan of the Wavegraden site at Bristol, UK
© 2015 – Wavegarden

Wave Loch
youtube.com/watch?v=-zmuvP_dxAA
and
vimeo.com/112612722

Final chapter Bournemouth?

The BBC tell us the end (maybe) of this story and they also have a good timeline of the trials and tribulations.
bbc.com/news/uk-england-dorset-26992567

Here are our pages on this topic:
ASR Surf Reef projects
The pier at Boscombe
The full story to April 2013

Blue Dunes proposal

A string of artificial islands off the coast of New Jersey and New York should be an opportunity for surfers to have the islands made in a way that makes the best use of the swell.

This sounds like a bad idea:

‘‘Our idea is to build a chain of islands, like a long, slender banana. The wave action and storm surge will reflect off these islands and go back out to sea rather than hitting the coast.

See the Boston Globe article:
bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2014/..officials-consider-plan-for-artificial-islands

One comment on the site:
by JLErwin3 (03/30/14 11:26 AM)
The thing is, Long Island is, basically, one huge barrier island, with seven-and-a-half million people living on it.