The first artificial surf reef in Europe is open for business. After months of delays which led to fears that work on the project would be abandoned and caused costs to double, British surfers finally have a patch of water to be proud of.

Okay, so Boscombe beach, Bournemouth, might not have the cachet of Bali or even Biarritz, but if the builders are to be believed the new reef will harness the power of the swells off the Dorset coast to create some of the best surfing conditions in the world. The only thing they say they cannot guarantee is the weather.

The reef is the size of a football pitch and is made from sandbags tethered to the seabed. It rises to the height of a two-storey building to form a bank which forces the sea into artificial waves that break at a predictable point — roughly 250 yards offshore. Because of the way the bank has been designed the waves form steep peaks that break gradually over a 70-yard run. Nothing else quite like it exists in the world.

“It’s the largest of its type we’ve built,” says Shaw Mead, of Artificial Surfing Reefs (ASR), the New Zealand company behind the project. “We’re still trying to make the waves ‘peel’ better, so surfers can get on the face of the wave. We want to lengthen the ride and also make the waves break with more power so the wave is steeper and the surfer can do more manoeuvres.”

The problems of reshaping the seabed and bending nature to create a mini Hawaii are obvious. Even ASR, which has built the only other artificial surf reefs in the world, in Australia and New Zealand, had not bargained on the British weather when it took on the project more than a year ago.

Things started well enough. To great fanfare in August 2008 the first of the massive mats to which the empty sandbags were attached were lowered into the water by cranes. These were then anchored by divers and gradually pumped full of sand — a task that is harder than it sounds when you consider the bags are up to 230ft long, 6ft high and 20ft wide. The project was scheduled to be finished by October that year.

A month after the first layer had been anchored, however, strong currents and storms forced the workers to abandon the build for the year.

To make matters worse, the winter delay meant some of the sand used to fill the first large bags had been washed away by the time the team arrived back in April, pushing back the completion date still further and increasing the costs.

“When we have these big containers on the seabed that aren’t filled with sand yet, they get rolled out of position,” says Mead. “It takes divers a long time to get winches and pull them back into position, and the currents are very strong when the tide is running.”

By last August, with construction still not complete, patience was running out. The cost of the reef had ballooned from an initial £1.35m to £2.68m. Last week — to great sighs of relief from ASR and Bournemouth council, which has funded the reef — and with the final bag laid, the weather cleared and a wave crested in from the sea.

Will it all be worth it? Long denied reliable surfing by the unpredictability of swell in the UK’s coastal waters, British surfers are, by and large, delighted with the results. Guy Penwarden, a veteran local surfer, says Boscombe is firmly on the surf map. “This reef is going to make us world class if it works the way they want it to. On a scale of one to 10, where 10 is the kind of hideous, nearly impossible wave you get at places like Teahupoo in Hawaii, Boscombe will be graded a five or six. That’s a challenging wave.”

The reef is part of a £10m regeneration plan that has seen the seafront transformed into a parade of cafes, surf shops and even £90,000 designer beach “pods”, or huts.

The council hopes it will attract an extra 10,000 tourists to the town, which is trying hard to shake its reputation as a retirement community. Whether that works, or whether any of Bournemouth’s blue-rinse brigade decide to sample the latest attraction for themselves, only time will tell.

How to build a reef — the six steps to creating the perfect breaks

1. July 2008: Survey boats mark out the football pitch-sized location, 250 yards from shore and 275 yards from Bournemouth pier.

2. August: Barges containing the first row of empty sandbags, all strapped to a large mat, are positioned above the site and a crane lowers one end into the water.

3. September: The largest bags on the first layer are 230ft long, 6ft high and 20ft wide. Laid flat on the seabed, they are anchored and pumped full of sifted sand for about four hours until packed solid.

4. October: Problems with strong currents caused by storms halt work when the base layer is complete. Building team leaves for the year.

5. April 2009: Team returns to Bournemouth to begin laying down second layer of sandbags.

6. November: The reef is officially declared open.

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