The last few years have seen impressive winter storms which, while bringing great waves for surfers, also eroded a lot of sand from Barcelona’s (artificial) beaches. In order to replace it, sand was trucked in or pumped up from the sea bed. In 2005, the Spanish government and the Ajuntament decided to look for a long-term solution, resulting in a decision to build a series of sea walls to protect the city’s beaches. Under pressure from the surfing community, spearheaded by the Associació Catalana de Surf (A.C.S.) and its then president Felipe Verger, the Ajuntament agreed to consider surfers’ needs. The A.C.S commissioned a report on the possibility of an artificial reef, which would protect the beaches from the full force of the waves, while still making it possible to surf.
The report met with a warm response—until political expediency defeated environmental friendliness in the run-up to the municipal elections in May 2007. Using legislation for emergency construction work, planning applications were rushed through and an unattractive concrete island was built in the centre of Barceloneta bay, along with two submerged walls at either end of the bay. Where before there had been several punchy peaks for surfing along the length of the beach, there are now only two weak waves. Even these peaks are soon to disappear, once the submerged wall at the southern end of the bay has been extended to create a new beach in front of the hotel currently being built there. The bay will then in effect be rounded, so the force of water will be channelled out round the edges, with no possibility for waves to form. A similar effect can be seen at the Platja Nova Icaria, on the northern side of the Port Olimpic.
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