Issue link: http://bluemagazine.uberflip.com/i/25120
... creatln habitat and killer wa Using complex bathymetry studies and state-of-the-art computer wave modeling, both Pacific Rim surf-design teams have developed surfing reefs constructed from giant sandbags. The sandbag reef-made from tough, biologically-inert plastic bags roughly the size of small trucks-are to be placed on the ocean floor in a V-shape to mimic an actual ocean reef. An incoming swell should theoretically be split by the reef, causing it to rise up and peel both ways in a perfect "peak," so prized by surfers. The Australian reef, to be built off Narrowneck beach on the Gold Coast, is being designed by a New Zealand team of surfer coastal scientists from the University of Waikato. The wave will prevent sand erosion in front of the heavily-developed oceanfront, as well as provide what the team says will be a competition-quality wave at a cost of about $4.3 million. In the US, after four years of planning and bureaucratic hassling, coastal engineer and lifetime surfer David Skelly is guardedly optimistic about his reef, a much smaller project scheduled to be built off an oil refinery near Dockweiler Beach in Los Angeles. Pratte's Reef is a $300,000 project aimed at replacing "lost surfing habitat" caused when Chevron Oil built a protective jetty that consequently destroyed a handful of surf breaks in front of the refinery. At the second International Artificial Surfing Reef Symposium held last April in San Diego, Surfrider Foundation co founder Glenn Hening exhorted fellow surfers to embrace artificial reefs as a win/wit:" proposition for surfers and the coastal environment. Hening, an aerospace engineer who once worked on the Galileo space project, spoke of surfing as being at the threshold of a new frontier-the surfing equivalent to the space race. Hening's glowing vision for a human-made surfing paradise, however stirring, is not without its detractors within the surfing community. There is a debate as to the appropriateness of putting yet another coastal structure on Southern California's scarred coastline. Many within the group are opposed to anything that would alter the natural coastal environment. On the green end of the scale is former Surfrider board member, Gordon Labedz MD, who opposes any tinkering with the natural environment, regardless of its potential benefits. Quoting from environmental giant Aldo Leopold, he says: "A thing is good when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is bad when it tends to do otherwise." Labedz, who has been heavily criticized for his staunch deep-ecology stance, raises some interesting points. Primarily, in a surfer-environmental group, where does the surfer end and the environmentalist start? "In my view, [building artificial reefs] is a huge embarrassment to the Surfrider Foundation," says Labedz. "Surfers lOOK like hypocrites vyhen we favor our concrete but oppose the shoreline concrete that benefits boat owners. Moreover, boat owners have far more political influence than do surfers. Politically we are far better off taking the moral high ground and saying no to all concrete on the beach." Surfrider's executive director Pierce Flynn, a diehard surfer who got his PhD in "surfing semiotics," is quick to point out that one of the foundation's three primary purposes is to safeguard and enhance the quality of all surfriding environments. "I believe that surfers could be participatory ecologists," says Flynn. "The future is for humankind to learn to become a creative part of nature. A coral reef is an architectural result of an animal species. Why can't we do that as a species-create something good with our building? Like it or not, we are part of the planetary equation. In our case it would be creating awesome marine habitat and killer waves."-Steve Barilotti '" All internet trades are only $9.99, up to 5000 shares. Your commission is waived if your marketable order is not executed within 60 seconds. Some restrictions apply. $500,000 of account protection ($100,000 maximum for cash) provided by SIPC, with the remaining $2 million for securities only, provided by a commercial carrier. Account protection does not cover risks or losses associated with investing. Please check our web site for more details. Non-marketable Nasdaq orders are represented on the Island ECN. Orders executed through Datek Online Brokerage Services Corp., member NASD/SIPC/Boston Stock Exchange. 01999 Datek Online. The Island ECN member NASD/SIPC