In 1986, David Walter had no idea what artificial reefs were. When a friend asked him to load 10 junk cars on his boat and sink them in the Gulf of Mexico, he was skeptical.

But now, 27 years later, Walter has sunk countless cars, buses, tractors and even ships, and the flat, sandy bottom off the coast of Alabama is teeming with marine life. He has also developed several custom-made reef models, and private fishermen, state governments and even the Army Corps of Engineers want them.

Walter said even though he accidentally stumbled into reef making, he wouldn’t choose to do anything else. He has fun at work.

 “I can’t understand why people would do a job five days a week that they don’t like in order to spend two days a week doing something they do like,” Walter said. “So why not find something you like to do, do it all the time and figure out how to make money at it?”

And the entertainment industry is interested in artificial reefs, too. Beginning tonight (Feb. 12) at 8 p.m. CST, Walter will star in “Reef Wranglers,” a reality show on the Weather Channel about his profession.  LuLu's in Gulf Shores will be hosting a viewing party to celebrate the series debut, open to the public tonight.

The beginning

When Walter began making trips into the Gulf to create artificial reefs using cars, he worked exclusively with private fishermen. He would follow the fishermen out to a secret spot they had chosen, dump the car and then head back to shore.

They didn’t want him to have a navigation system — he might steal their sweet spot — so he used a compass.

There wasn’t a risk of that happening, though. Walter doesn’t like fishing.

And he’s probably put more than 10,000 cars in the Gulf.

“At one point, I was probably the South’s largest used car dealer,” he said.

But in 1996, using cars for artificial reefs began to be discouraged. Walter’s clients were wanting something bigger, anyway, so he decided to make a custom reef.

“I had to make a decision. I was either going to have to get into the artificial reef business big time, or I was going to have to get out,” he said. “So that’s when I decided to go for it, because I like it.”

He knew he had to make something that would perform just as well or better than the cars.

“I had to develop a reef that was big enough to replace what I was already doing, or I would have lost my customers,” Walter said. “So we built the biggest possible reef we could, and our reefs are much bigger than anyone else’s.”

The reefs

Walter’s reefs are made of Florida limestone, which he imports from Perry, Fla. The limestone is the ideal reef material because it is natural and supports all marine life, he said.

Although he still works with private customers, Walter said the future of his business is working with city and state governments to prevent erosion and promote healthy marine life.  

He’s developed public artificial reefs for Texas, Florida and Alabama, and in September 2012, Walter created a snorkeling reef at Nevarre Beach, Fla. It has been extremely well received, and he expects more coastal communities to request similar reefs.

Walter has also developed wave attenuators that decrease wave energy without stopping the flow of water, and the Army Corps of Engineers is interested in using them to slow down beach erosion.

Developing and improving reefs is in Walter’s nature. Since he was a young boy, he said he couldn’t walk past a piece of machinery without stopping to figure out how it worked. The combination of creativity and mechanics reef making requires is a perfect fit for him, he said.

“I call myself a shade-tree engineer,” Walter said. “Everything is here in my head. I wouldn’t know what a set of drawings look like, but I know how things bend and how things move. I’ve been that way since I was a kid. I just know how something works. It’s ingrained in me.”

Sinking ships

Although Walter doesn’t use cars to make reefs anymore, he is well known for sinking huge ships, which make excellent public reefs.

In June, Walter will sink a 271-foot boat off the coast of Orange Beach while the Weather Channel’s cameras capture the action. The boat will create a diving reef the city governments of Orange Beach and Gulf Shores hope will attract more tourists.

Although sinking ships is one of Walter’s favorite parts of the job, he said it’s a more difficult task than people can imagine.

“Sinking a ship is a very complicated thing,” Walter said. “To get the ship to sink and land on its bottom, you have to make sure that every single tank and every single compartment on that ship gets water in it and gets the air out while its sinking. You have to try to figure out a way to do that, and it’s really challenging.”

Walter said having the film crew along on the expedition will probably make sinking the ship more exciting — normally, he doesn’t use explosives, but the cameras love them.

“There will probably be some explosives during filming, but it’s just for show,” he said. “They have a lot of pyrotechnics on there.”