The reef at this stage has not been completed according to specifications. Although all 24 bags have been positioned on the seabed, there is a further 30% of bag filling to go. Encouragingly the Mount Reef in association with More FM provided some challenging waves earlier in the year with barrel sections on the occasions when there was a clean ground swell, despite the reef still being incomplete. Check out the video footage and barrel sequence photos of the first ground swell of 2007 (long overdue!) on our Videos Page The following diagram shows the current state of construction, which is directly affecting the takeoff position, wave length, and wave quality. All these aspects will improve significantly once the reef has been completed.

The following photo was taken on the 10th August 2007. The missing bag can be clearly seen on the right hander, and the bags covered in sand on the left hander.

The left-hand side that was positioned and partially filled in November and December 2005 still requires considerable work to complete it. A few of the smaller seaward facing bags are still covered by sand so can't be filled yet, however the sand has recently moved off of the others giving us access again to fill them up. The right-hand side that was positioned early September 2006 is also incomplete and requires further work. On the last day of filling, a seam on the 3rd largest bag (60m x 5m x 2.75m) split during pumping creating a 9m x 1.5m hole at the beach end. The split was repaired however it turned out to be unsuccessful forcing the bag to be removed. Fortunately construction insurance will cover the costs to manufacture, position and fill the replacement bag, and fill the large bag next to it.. A substantial improvement in consistency and wave quality will be evident once the final bag replacement and filling has been completed. The Port of Tauranga, who have replaced the previous contractors, will now be undertaking the remaining work to complete the Mount Reef as soon as they have a suitable gap in their busy maintenence schedule which also coincides with the right weather and swell conditions at the reef. We are extremely gratefull to the Port of Tauranga for being willing to assist us at this stage of the project and ensure this community project is finally completed. A common misconception about the reef is that it will 'make waves'. You can't make waves if you don't have swell! This has been the case for many months in the Bay of Plenty; hence the reef would often appear not to be working to the casual observer. Another common misconception is that the reef will break on all tides. The relationship between water depth and swell size determines when the reef breaks. For example, high tide with a small swell won't break, high tide with a big swell will. There are infinite combinations of water depth and swell size which determine if and when the reef breaks. Other contributing factors include wind direction (onshore/offshore) and strength. Check out the video  from mid January - a 1.5m swell just before low tide. Also a barrel photo sequence half an hour earlier!