Boscombe’s £3.2m man-made surfing reef has been branded a ‘laughing stock,’ with the surfers it was built for having long since abandoned it, according to local practitioners.

The reef was built in 2009 in an attempt to double the number of good surfing days Boscombe offered. Surfers say the quality of the waves it generates do not meet their needs. “No one has surfed on the reef for a couple of years. I can’t speak for everyone but it seems they’re giving up on it as a surf venue,” said coach Tom Hatcher. Aside from a group of dedicated body boarders, who are enjoy the shorter, steeper waves the reef creates, it is going largely unused.

“The new wave on the reef was significantly different to the waves that are available on the natural beach around Boscombe Pier,” said Plymouth University’s Mark Davidson who carried out an independent report on it in 2010. “It was consistently shorter than the design criteria which promised rides of around 65m.”

The beleaguered reef, which opened in 2009, was forced to close two years later after being damaged by a boat’s propeller. It reopened in April 2014 after delays while Bournemouth Borough Council waited for insurance money to fund repair work. New Zealand based ASR Ltd, which built the project and other similar ones in Mount Maunganui, New Zealand, and Narrowneck, Australia, was due to repair it, but missed its deadlines and then went into liquidation.

In April this year, the council rebranded the reef as part of a £700,000 Coastal Activity Park which runs one mile along the seafront from Alum Chine to Southbourne.

Because of the amount of time the reef was closed, it attracted a large amount of marine life which has now enabled to council to market it to the diving community. Mark Smith, service director for tourism at the council said it wanted to be the first to give confident swimmers the opportunity to snorkel the reef. Other types of water sports enthusiasts such as kite and wind surfers and body and paddle boarders will be targeted as surface users.

The reef, which had projected costs of £1.4m but actual of £3.2m, creates a surfing break using 55 giant sandbags on the seabed 225m from the shore. The Plymouth University report deemed it ‘sub standard’ and found that it achieved only four of its 11 objectives.

Designed to further regenerate the area, the Coastal Activity Park includes a multi-sports arena, sporting events site and a dinghy park. The reopening of the repaired reef coincided with the launch of the new park, which was partially aided by the government’s Coastal Communities Fund.

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