For all his eccentricity, you’ve got to admire the chutzpah of legendary Australian surfboard builder Greg Webber. When he’s not partnering with Slater Designs on a re-envisioned, heavily-rockered board outline reminiscent of the early 1990s, he’s tinkering with wave pool theory, and envisioning other ways to improve the surf experience. With respect to the latter, Webber recently released a video with mock-ups of a floating artificial reef aptly called the Webber Reef and it’s something.
The Webber Reef is effectively a giant floating V-shape that’s held in place by a giant pylon mounted into the sea floor. A peeling right breaks off the left side of the reef and a peeling left breaks off the right. The entire thing is surrounded by a shark net.
In the video above, artist renderings alternate with text explaining the design in greater detail. “As swell angles change, the reef can pivot to retain the ideal alignment with the swell,” the video explains. “Being a floating structure, the reef is always at the ideal tide,” it goes on.
The video also makes a number of claims about how enhancing an existing beach with a Webber Reef could result in increased hotel and retail possibilities for local economies.
But theory and execution are two wildly different things. It’s worth noting that Webber has spoken at length about the merits of the wave pool technology he developed for some time now – going so far to say that once built it will be far superior to even what Kelly Slater Wave Company has built. A company called Tunnel Vision has apparently licensed Webber’s technology and hopes to bring it to the Gold Coast, but of yet there’s little visual evidence to suggest that Webber isn’t just blowing smoke.
So, while the prospects of a floating artificial reef like this seem promising, it may be some time before its true potential (or lack thereof) is realized in the form of a sizable investment from a city or developer and a fully-permitted construction project concludes.
