As the Southern Ocean Surf Reef at Middleton Beach celebrates its one-year anniversary, stalwart members of the Albany Boardriders Club looked back on the long journey to build it.
July marked the one-year anniversary of the artificial reef, which is the first of its kind in the southern hemisphere, and was the product of decades of advocacy from local surfers.
Peter Bolt has been a stalwart supporter of the project in an official capacity since the first feasibility studies were undertaken in the early 1990s, but he can recall some amateur attempts to make surfable waves in the same spot from when he was a surf-obsessed teenager.
“We were tired of there not being any shaped waves near town because we were too young to drive, so we were relying on siblings or parents or friends to drive us out to Muttonbird or wherever to surf,” he said.
“We got the idea that we might be able to make our own surf reef, so we got some old car tyres and floated them out.
“We waited with baited breath, hoping that they would settle on the ocean floor and a reef would grow around them.
“But the first big winter swell came along and we were devastated to discover they had been washed straight back up onto the beach.
“Turns out we needed a few tonnes of granite to be a match for the Southern Ocean.”
A local group, then called Southern Ocean Surfers, worked with the City of Albany on the initial feasibility study for the reef in the early 1990s, but the project lost momentum for a number of years.
In 2007, the Albany Boardriders Club was established and took the project on.
In the following years, Greg Stocks, who was a Liberal party candidate for Albany at the time, and former Albany member Peter Watson both took the project on the campaign trail during their respective runs for State parliament.
The City of Albany council voted to award the tender for the project in July of 2024, and the first rocks were dropped into place at the site on March 18, 2025.
After four months of work, the project was completed and officially opened on July 16, 2025.
The final project ended up costing $13m, with contributions from both Federal and State governments, the City of Albany, and Albany Boardriders, with additional in-kind support from Southern Ports.
The reef was designed to produce beginner to intermediate level waves, but Mr Bolt said with a decent swell, the reef was producing more challenging sets.
The Albany Boardriders hosted their annual Junior Wavefest surfing competition at Middleton Beach this year, for the first time in decades, and competition officer David Beeck said having a usable break close to town has been a boon for the club.
“Our competitions are usually out of town and usually only 4WD-accessible, so this year we had so many more entries, and it was great to see families and spectators come down to support their kids because it was much easier to access,” he said.
“There are so many more kids surfing now since the reef went in, and our membership numbers have gone through the roof, as has the standard of surfing at the club.”
The original estimate was that the reef would produce a surfable wave about 41 per cent of the time, but Mr Beeck said it was closer to 65 or 70 per cent.
“It’s exceeded expectations in every way,” he said.
Reflecting on his own days growing up in Albany, Mr Bolt said seeing young surfers take full advantage of the new reef made the years of hard work worth it.
“Probably one of the best things is the buzz around the kids, the young crew from around town who are using it before school, after school, between school and work,” he said.
“We’re in the middle of winter now, when that beach normally has no shape at all, but now there is a crowd out there every day.
“When I drive over the hill and get to the beach and see the crew out on the reef, it’s just fantastic.
“The Albany kids who are learning to surf now will have a completely different surfing experience than we did.”
The Albany Boardriders Club are hosting a celebration this Thursday for the reef’s one-year anniversary, and Mr Bolt said it would be a great opportunity to recognise the efforts of many unsung heroes behind the project.
“I’ve been on this journey a long time but there are a lot of heroes around this project that have brought it to fruition, and Thursday will be an opportunity to reflect on this is 12 months in and celebrate the people in the community who have backed it all the way along,” he said.
“They should all get a chance to celebrate and pat them themselves on the back and go and enjoy it, or at least stand there and watch it because it’s pretty spectacular.”
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