Narrowneck Gold Coast
Australia's first fully man made surf reef

Artificial Reef Discussion Forum
(seen a wave?)

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UPDATE: 23/7/2001 The reef has again protected the NarrowNeck foreshore from  large swells and heavy onshore waves. Having lived here for 20 years and seen the ravages caused by these types of wave impacts my personal opinion is that the reef is saving the beach from erosion. Hopefully the reef will produce million dollar high quality waves once it has been completed. When it does we will set up a Narrowneck.com cam to show you the action.... UPDATE: 18/2/2002 We have had some large swells over the last month and there appears to be no real loss of sand from the foreshore. Local surfers report no improvement of waves... HAVE YOUR SAY: We have started a new message board  to discuss the issue of whether or not the reef has produced improved waves ... We get frequent e-mails from all over the world asking about the reef's performance re improved waves. Come on all you locals don't be shy have your say....... UPDATE: 11/4/2002 Several local surfers have contacted us to express their d isappointment citing a complete lack of good shaped waves despite our council having spent several millions of dollars. UPDATE: 1/6/2002  Is the Reef breaking up? Local environmental groups have sounded the alarm over the creation of new artifical surf reefs on the Australian Gold Coast. Citing concerns that the existing reef's geotextile sand bags are breaking up they have warned against futher development-deployment. In the past boat anchors and fish hooks have been blamed for the split bags but as there now is no fishing or anchoring over the reef the question becomes: are the geotextile bags failing? Local surfers are still not impressed and say that the reef does NOT provide good waves. UPDATE 2/10/2002 Another ten sandbags weighing approximately 10 tons each will be dropped onto the existing Narrowneck artifical reef over the next few months bringing the total number of bags to just over 400. Details of the cost of the reef so far remain elusive with our best guess being in the vicinity of A$2,000,000 so far. Suprisingly another reef of similar design is being planned for Palm Beach several kilometers south of Narrowneck. Many surfers and concerned locals question why as the reef at Narrowneck has not yet been challenged by a big storm yet.  As the Pacific ocean this year is warmer than usual there could be a biggie, perhaps even an on-shore cyclone...so the question is: Why proceed without good evidence? Footnote: The reef has so far had a "dream run" as there has only been a few days of high seas and it has not been subjected to the very heavy sustained on-shore cyclonic swells we see here every few years . We welcome contributions about the reef or similar structures and would be pleased to develop this site into a non-commercial information resource. Please keep the e-mails coming and don't be shy of using the message board We present this 'living history' site as a community service and to give recognition to one of the Gold Coast's great lateral thinkers.....We have no affiliation with the Gold Coast City Council, nor with those who designed or built the present reef structure.....  Start again