The Napier City Reef Breakwater proposed by Napier City Council (NCC) has had a long and protracted history since first mooted in last decade, and the consent application lodged by NCC in 2013 to build a breakwater on the Rangatira Reef faced stiff opposition from the Hawkes Bay Boardriders club, local surfers, the general public, Westshore Surf Life Saving Club, and SPS.

Surfing at Rangatira Reef, photo courtesy of Alan and Marguerite

The NCC consent application had previously proposed both these H and V shape(or variations of) breakwater structures pictured below, which are now recognised to be incompatible with the community’s needs or desires .

The Hawkes Bay Regional Council (HBRC) noted these concerns and made a request for further information (also known as a RMA section 92 request) to NCC and commissioned Tonkin and Taylor to conduct HBRCs’  own report on the application which cast doubt on the breakwater being the most appropriate solution.

The Consent Application now remains on hold at the request of NCC  while they consider their options in going forward, future pre-hearings and/or hearings have yet to be determined.

NCC has asked for the application to remain on hold until the end of November, at which point HBRC will be able to confirm the next step in the process and provide some indication of the likely timing for the remainder of  the consent process.

NCC is considering whether they wish to have other pre-hearing meetings or whether to move directly into a hearing. They are also taking time to consider any feasible alternative options for coastal protection for the Whakarire Ave area.

Some work has already been done on this by the coastal engineering experts to canvas other possible alternatives. A preliminary report on the outcomes of this work can be downloaded here.  As yet the report has only been completed to a ‘draft’ stage.

The draft report does not promote anything on the scale of the previous NCC breakwater options.

The draft report outlines the alternatives centering on the existing inshore breakwater pictured below, and several options including and excluding this structure –

SPS are encouraged that since the HBRC section 92 report NCC are seriously considering other options, and while the draft reports’ options will need some further consideration from SPS, At this stage option 6 looks to have no significant impact on surfing values at the reef.

It should be pointed out that while all authorities and contractors concerned agree that the three Met Oceans studies are comprehensive and robust, SPS respectively disagree with regard to Met Oceans methodology in measuring surfing ride length.

On an entirely different project SPS have been carrying out their own investigations into measuring maximum optimal surfing wave ride for particular surfbreaks, and our methodology includes empirical knowledge of local expert surfers of those surfbreaks, which is lacking in the three Met Oceans reports.

The Met Ocean reports focus only on mediocre to average surfing conditions, and gives the impression that they have measured maximum surfing wave ride lengths.

While NCC have yet to make an announcement on which option they prefer, it does appear that the breakwater on top of the reef concept is a non starter.

Again the team at SPS would like to thank Larry Dallimore for his detailed knowledge of the project, Marguerite, Troy, Hawkes Bay Boardriders club, Westshore Surf Life Saving Club and all those local surfers, and the general public for speaking out against the concept.