The SOCIAL REPORT from Brian Delaney

Hello members,
If this is August it must be bbq & trivia quiz time at Marg and Peter Bryant's. Chris has sent out a reminder email to members ahead of the newsletter in order to give a few more days notice. Thanks Chris. Yes, it is this coming Sunday, 16th. I will not be boring and repeat the details again here, check the email. As well as letting Marg know you are coming for catering numbers you could ask her if she needs any extra food to be brought, thanks.

Still on a social note I would like to say how much I enjoyed reading Allan Rich's member profile in the July newsletter, made more interesting by his surf related earlier working life. The editor has also put more questions on the member profile list lately which has enhanced the story for the reader. I also noticed the longest sentence without a pause that I have seen for a long time (first sentence of paragraph titled "What I hate most"). I reread it two or three times and I could not find the need for commas, full stops or semi colons along the way, except maybe for a comma before the last word, but I won't quibble. Well done; long sentences by an old longboarder, keep it up, we need to guard against not descending into phone texting and twitter crap as our main form of expression.

bye for now, Brian D.

COMPETITON UPDATE

Some 15 members competed in the August round in 1 to 1.5 metre glassy waves. The peaks on the front bank had the most consistent waves, however, a few members ventured out to the Point and scored some smaller waves that went through to the beach. The beach peaks were a bit fat but members managed to find a few workable sections.

We were lucky this week as Frank McWilliams slept in and missed the first round giving us all a chance. Mick Calnan was in real form and scored some nice waves with some classic footwork. Congratulations to Mick on his first place this month. It was great to see Bill Webster back in the water after a 4 month lay-off following shoulder surgery. We hope he has a full recovery.

During the second round heats a friendly whale was even spotted cruising through the contest area. We really do live in paradise! See the image gallery for all the pics and live footage...

The judging tent with Alan Rich, Phil Calnan (is that finger up his nose?), Brian Delaney, Bill Webster, Frank McWilliams, and Jan Webster.

COMPETITION RESULTS

Judging Criteria for Competition Rounds

The Committee is planning to document the standard long board judging criteria in an effort to improve the consistency of judging at our monthly competition rounds. We plan to place the criteria on our web site and to invite suggestions from members regarding practical methods of familiarising ourselves with the new judging criteria. Some suggestions to date include:

• online video examples of waves and their scores,
• judging clinics

If you have an other ideas we'd like to hear them.

Evans Head Invitational

This local competition is on 2nd-5th October see the calendar page for details.

Next Club Round

Our next club round is on Sunday 6th September.

PIC OF THE DAY

Each month we feature the best picture taken on the day. (This pic by Alan Rich.)

Mick Calnan dominated this months competition.

Mi Thai Winner

This month's winner of the Mi Thai $25 voucher is Alan Rich.

BBQ ROSTER

The BBQ roster seems to have fallen by the wayside. Thanks to Bill Webster for volunteering this month.

TRAVEL REPORT

Ten Ballina club members recently attended the Lennox Classic and had a fun weekend of surfing and socialising. The competition was held in front of the Lennox pub in waves voted the best in the 12 years history of this very friendly competition.

Alan Rich, Bromlyn Lorroway, Marg Bryant, Eric Walker, Peter Bryant, and Bruce Wilson relaxing in the sunshine watching the hearts on Saturday.

Registration was on Friday night at the pub and the competition kicked off at 7:20am on Saturday morning and it was freezing! I know I was there! I always seem to get the early heats, the same thing happened to me in Noosa. The surf really was pumping with Saturday morning the pick of the conditions, 4 to 5 foot lefts and rights breaking in front of the judging tents. The heats progressed through the day with a light onshore south easterly breeze wafting in just after midday causing the conditions to deteriorate a little.

Saturday night at the Lennox pub kicked off with the prize draw. Terry Kay a lennox local won one of the two Astro malibus up for the main prizes. Everyone in the comp received a prize of some description. After the prizes were exhausted the party started with local band Mal & The Long boarders entertaining all with heaps of great cover songs. The word among the crowd was the band were sounding the best they'd ever sounded! The combination of the great music and free beers (thanks to Mr Tooheys sponsorship) produced the best night out I've had in quite a while. Having lost my second heat on the Saturday I could afford to let lose, I don't remember having such a good time and dancing so much in years.

My mind was a little hazy on Sunday morning so I missed the early hearts, well all of the morning heats actually. I arrived about 1pm on Sunday and the waves were still pumping. The highlights were Eric in the over 50's and the open 9ft final with all the usual big names. Jackson Close took out the open division with some spectacular long boarding.

The comp finished around 3:00pm and the presentation kicked off at the Lennox Hotel at 4:00pm. The majority of our group made it through some heats and five made it to the finals. Congratulations to Eric Walker (1st Over 5os), Gary Burden (1st Over 40s), Frank McWilliams (2nd Over 30s), Kirk Hickey (4th Over 30s), and Marg Bryant (2nd in Mystery draw) on their results.

Winners Gary Burden, Kirk Hickey, Eric Walker, Marg Bryant, and Frank McWilliams.

You might be wondering how Frank came to enter an Over 30's division considering he's 54 years of age. Well with over 100 hundred surfers registered some of the late comers were relegated to surf in the younger divisions. Yours truly surfed in the over 40's and Frank surfed inthe over 30's! He obviously fared better than me as you don't see my ugly mug in the photo above. I did hear Kirk comment that he wished Frank has registered earlier and surfed in the Over 50's!

See more pics in the gallery. For the full results go to http://www.lennoxlongboarders.org

Please email the secretary if you have an interesting travel story.

MEMBER PROFILE

Paul Bioletti

NAME: Paul Bioletti

ADDRESS: 3 Sea Swallow Place East Ballina 2478

PHONE: 66 86 5896

AGE: 57

ORIGINS: Kiama via Coffs Harbour

FAMILY: 2 children, early twenties.

CURRENT JOB: Remedial Masseur.

TIME ON NORTH COAST: In Ballina - 5 years. In Coffs – 25 years

SURFING STYLE: Natural

QUIVER: 9ft 1 inch, Denis Anderson & Sinnott

STARTED SURFING (AGE & LOCATION): 14, in Kiama

FAVOURITE SURF SPOT: Boneyard, Kiama .Boulders and Flat Rock, locally.

FAVOURITE FOOD: Thai

FAVOURITE MOVIE: Any Harrison Ford action movies

FAVOURITE ACTIVITY (BESIDES SURFING): Guitar playing

REASON FOR JOINING THE CLUB: Love of surfing – c/- kind invitation of Mick Wilson and Eric Walker.

NEWSLETTER & NEW WEB SITE

All club newsletters can now be accessed via the web site and viewed online. Members who have provided their email addresses to the secretary will receive an email each month containing a link to the newsletter. The Committee urges all members to take advantage of the web site and register their email address. Members without an email address will still receive a printed copy via surface mail. Members interested in submitting stories for inclusion in our monthly newsletter should Email submissions to secretary@ballinamalibuclub.org

MEMBERS CLASSIFIEDS

Items for sale (eg. used surfboards, surfing-related items etc) may be listed free of charge by members. Members are invited to lodge advertisements by Email to the Secretary. Please include a description, asking price, contact details, and preferably a color photograph of the item(s) for sale.