Boscombe Beach Waves - Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK
Posted by: Dragontree
N 50° 43.141 W 001° 50.578
30U E 581676 N 5619217
This popular area is home to the first artificial surf reef in Europe.
Waymark Code: WM4QHQ
Location: Southern England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 09/20/2008
Views: 15
The Boscombe Surf Reef is currently under construction and once completed will become a natural reef home to marine life and of course provide good quality waves. Already, this is noticeable as the waves roll in onto the beach.
The excellent surfing website (
visit link) describes the process involved in creating this reef and the effects produced:
'The reef is made up of huge sausage-like bags of sand which will be placed in around 6m of water around 250m from the coast with the waves peeling off from either side of the triangular shape. The reef can be "custom" built to provide waves of varying shapes and sizes, ranging from small, hollow, Malibu style waves, to steep grinding barrels.'
There are other examples of this type of reef in Australia, New Zealand and the USA.
The best place to view the waves is from Boscombe Pier where you can look down on the action but the beach also provides a good spot.
There are various car parks nearby and on street parking, costs depend on how near you wish to get to the beach before walking, but free parking can be found on the street half an hour away.