Surfing pipedream to become a reality

Surfers at Mt Maunganui beach could be riding the perfect wave by next September, thanks to the country's first artificial reef.

The project has been nine years in the making, and is the brainchild of Raglan surfers who have turned their love for the sport into an international million-dollar business.

Kerry Black, managing director of Artificial Surf Reefs, said the Mount reef should create pipe waves comparable to those in Hawaii.

The trust set up to construct the reef was just $200,000 short of the $1 million needed to complete the project, he said.

Fundraising would be completed over the summer and Dr Black said construction should begin in April and be completed by September.

The 3m-high sandbag reef will sit in an A-frame stretching 80m by 70m and be positioned about 240m offshore, creating left and right-hand breaks.

Testing using a scale model in a wave pool, set up in a Raglan shed, showed the reef would produce 100m to 140m of fast-peeling pipeline wave.

Dr Black described the wave as a smaller version of Hawaii's pipeline, or similar to the break at Bingin Beach in Indonesia.

"We're not saying it's like the pipeline because the input swell isn't up to it, but on a good day it will be great," he said.

The reef project, which nearly faltered in its early stages because of funding issues and a High Court battle with a timeshare company, is one of three likely to be completed round New Zealand in the next 18 months.

Dr Black said work was being done on a reef for Opunake near Taranaki and one in Wellington.

The reefs were environmentally friendly, not only producing better waves but creating better ecology and sand distribution, he said.

The Raglan company has 30 projects worldwide, including patented full-size wave pools with computerised movable floors, enabling the wave break to be changed.

The group has already completed one artificial reef at Narrowneck on Australia's Gold Coast.

Dr Black said the company had harnessed data taken from 42 of the world's best breaks.

Surfing New Zealand spokesman Ben Kennings said the artificial reefs would be great for the sport, encouraging tourism and new talent.

If the Mount reef worked like the model, "it will be the perfect wave".