I think all surfers have romantically imagined to have a better surf break in their backyard. Most of us, and especially in Florida, we are stuck with sandy beach breaks. Most of the time the wave just closes out and is too weak to get a long ride out of it.

As a teenager I sometimes thought of bringing a brick out surfing every time I went surfing. Each time, I would think of dropping that rock in the same place and hopelessly dreaming that this would make my miserable beach break into Pipeline with its newfound bottom. I never did that and of course it’s a Pipe Dream (pun intended). I think we all wish we had a better bottom for our surf breaks.

Last week I attended a Surfrider Foundation meeting and John Hearin gave a presentation on an Artificial Surfing Reef (ASR) study for Cocoa Beach. He is doing this as a thesis for a Florida Tech degree in Ocean Engineering. Listening to his presentation and I just reminisced of when I was younger and thinking of dropping bricks for each surf session. Here is someone that is putting dreams into reality and has dropped the first brick...

He is in preliminary stages of the study and is looking for exposure for this idea. We Are Water is all about making a better surf spot and Cocoa Beach would benefit with an ASR! Thus, We Are Water is providing hyper links to John’s presentation. Help spread the word. If you are a resident of Cocoa Beach talk to your government. Artificial Surfing Reefs would be good for fishing, surfing, beach sand, and tourism. It would take great backing from everyone to make this happen…however, every great idea starts out as a dream and throwing bricks into the water might just make a wave break! -David Reid

Below are links to two Power Point Presentations and a summary in Word format. Share the links and help spread the word in support of an Artificial Surfing Reef. If the city can build skateparks and tennis courts it would just take a little more thinking outside the box to make this happen!

Cocoa Beach ASR Power Point presentation

Cocoa Beach ASR Executive Summary in Word Format

Reef Balls Power Point Presentation

John Hearin can be reached at JohnHearin@Yahoo.com

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