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Western Australia to get world's first inflatable surf reef
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IANS | 13 Jun, 2019
The world's first inflatable
surf reef, the Airwave, is about to undergo trials in Western Australia
and creator Troy Bottegal said that if successful it could have a huge
impact for surfing communities all over the world.
The Airwave is
a 20-metre round, 2-metre high dome which sits on the bottom of the
ocean about 50 metres from shore, turning unrideable close-out waves
into a surfer's dream.
Bottegal told Xinhua news agency on
Thursday that it was a lack of waves at his local beach which prompted
him to come up with the idea.
"It started me thinking about the
way that waves are made and what was the least amount of area in an
artificial surf reef needed to actually change wave characteristics for
the better," he said.
The Airwave is much smaller than other artificial reefs, using the minimum amount of resistance and impact to reshape the waves.
"Normally
what happens is swell acts in fairly straight lines, if there's no
bottom shape to make it break in a certain spot it basically isn't
surfable," Bottegal said.
"What the Airwave does is make it break
in one spot about 50 metres out, and then once you make it break in one
spot it peels left and right to the beach in a way which is conducive
to surfing."
Filled with a combination of sand, water and air,
the Airwave can be easily installed by two divers operating from a
barge, in roughly two days.
A trial installation will be
conducted in Bunbury, Western Australia and will record data including
the effects of sand movement to monitor success.
Bottegal said he
hopes to one day see Airwaves rolled out at beaches around the world
and for all surfers from beginners to advanced, reaping the rewards.
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