English Rose Hotels

EUROPES FIRST ARTIFICIAL SURF REEF TO BE BUILT IN BOURNEMOUTH

Guests staying at The Norfolk Royale Hotel in Bournemouth will soon be able to enjoy Europe’s first artificial surf reef.

The reef, which is being built in Boscombe later this year, is set to put the holiday resort of Bournemouth firmly on the UK surf map. Bournemouth will join only a handful of other holiday destinations with a Surf Reef, others of which include: Narrowneck, Queensland; Cables, Western Australia and MT.Maunganui, New Zealand.

The idea is that the artificial reef will act as a ramp and this will push waves upwards, doubling their size and therefore improving the quality for surfers. As a result of this the number of good surfing days in Bournemouth should be doubled.

The South Coast already has an established surfing community, but the reef will only enhance visitors to the area. It is hoped that it will have a knock on effect by encouraging people to take up water sports, including kite-surfing, kayaking, SCUBA-diving, sailing windsurfing, wake-boarding, and skim-boarding.

The Marine and Fisheries Agency granted the licence to build the reef in December 2007. If weather conditions permit then Bournemouth Council are on course to start construction in Spring 2008, with the reef hopefully completed in time for the South Coasts October 2008 surf season.

The artificial reef mimics the effects of a natural reef and will be built from large geo-textile bags pumped hard with sand. It is hoped that Bournemouth will be well and truly put on the UK surfing map as specialist construction material for the reef will be ordered to make it as state of the art as possible.

Roger Brown, Head of Leisure Services at Bournemouth Borough Council, said: “The area of Bournemouth and Poole already has an excellent reputation as a leading water sports destination, however the reef will make surfing in the UK far more accessible.”



Guests staying at The Norfolk Royale Hotel in Bournemouth will be able to enjoy the area of Boscombe as it is currently enjoying a £9million make-over. There are also super beach huts being created in the Overstrand complex on Boscombe promenade, which will offer all the mod-cons expected by the 21st century holiday maker. 



A retail outlet, a surfing school and a glass-fronted restaurant offering fantastic panoramic views of Bournemouth and the Solent will accompany the surf reef and super beach huts in this exciting new development. There will also be a catering outlet selling good-quality food-to-go, changing rooms, toilets, hot showers and an RNLI beach lifeguard station, all of which contribute to the major transformation of Boscombe seafront.

Many companies see the regeneration of this area as a sound investment and are already vying for a space in this prime seafront location.

Why not make the most of your stay at The Norfolk Royale Hotel by enjoying Bournemouth and the soon to be regenerated local area of Boscombe.

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