Cocoa Beach, USA

A proposed $4.5 million man-made surfing reef could mean a wider beach, world-class surfing competitions and more sport fish, coastal engineers assured city officials Tuesday. But this beach town has yet to decide whether they want or need large sand-filled synthetic bags about 800 feet offshore.

"This is to create those steep, powerful waves that everybody's looking for," John Hearin, the engineer who designed the reef, told city commissioners and about 40 residents during a City Hall workshop. "Cocoa Beach really will be the surf capital of the East Coast of the United States."

But some surfers and city officials expressed concern about environmental impacts, cost and traffic. "If you create something of interest to people, it attracts more people," Vice Mayor Kevin Pruett said. Randy Hewitt worries about the crowds a surfing reef could draw. "The way it was presented, sounds like a tourist attraction to me," said Hewitt, 40, of Cocoa Beach.

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