I was quite impressed with some of the efforts that have been made on the Durban beachfront recently.  In particular, plants have been planted in quite a few areas to try and recreate the dunes.  The dune plants control the sand at the back of the beach and so a beach which has not had any plants on it for many years now has quite a bit of vegetation as this particular picture displays.  

I was also interested to read about the reconstruction of the Durban Bay of Plenty Pier.  It appears closed at the moment while they replaced it with a new wider concrete deck and geo-textile bags are going to be used to restore the design rock levels within the pier so as to change the current.  Research shows that the rip currents will alter the sandbanks and because they have been going through the piers, which are not normal, the sandbanks have changed. Sandbanks in turn relate directly to the waves, so the real purpose of much of this is to restore the normal rip current and thus bring back better and bigger waves to the Durban beachfront.  

In short, it appears that Durban is taking a lot of steps to make sure that the beachfront is modernised in an environmentally friendly way.  The plants that would have grown along the sand dunes many years before the city was more commercially developed, are replanted and that the wave patterns are restored to what they were.  I think it is to be applauded and hopefully it will lead to some of the big surfing events coming back to Durban.  I was quite shocked to see what I have always known to be the Gunston 500, which subsequently became the Mr Price Pro, is now called The Ballito Pro, and presented by Billabong.  I played golf with the former President of Billabong fairly recently, and quite honestly I had no idea as to the actual size of the company which is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange.  In any event, I digress, what surprised me the most was that the event is now held in Ballito and perhaps the wave conditions had something to do with it.