PRESIDENT/CAPTAIN'S REPORT

What a great finish to the year. The surf might have been ordinary but it was still a pleasant morning with our best roll up for the year. We even had a visit from one of our founding fathers Ross Cordery. Good to see Pete Wilcox displaying fine form & taking out the day. Well done Pete.

Judging - Marg , Liz, Eric, and Col.

Our presentation day was a huge success. My thanks to everyone for the fine food & company. To Kerry & Peter Wilcox thanks for the hospitality. Hope we didn't trash the joint. Congratulations to all our trophy winners for the year. Looking forward to our first rehearsal for the 'Flatrock Hulas'. Hopefully we will have some musical Sunday mornings in 2009.

On behalf of the committee I would like to wish all members a very happy Xmas & a prosperous, but more importantly, a healthy 2009.

Our AGM will be held on the beach at our first comp back in '09 so give some thought to jumping on the committee.

Have a good one.

Wazza

SOCIAL CALENDAR

The club's annual end of year presentation and Xmas social evening was held at Kerry & Peter Wilcox's home in Lennox. Around 35 members and partners enjoyed a fun afternoon and evening with a lavish array of fine foods, tasty deserts, and plenty of cold beers. Ken Garrington's home brew Mexican Coopers went down very nicely, as did the club's assortment of free beers.

Bill's Trivia after dinner really tested the brain cells. We hear Eric Walker had 15 correct answers out of 25 demonstrating how no alcohol can be a distinct advantage.

Each of the division winners received an authentic ukuleli - (L to R) Bruce Wilson, Warren Wyatt, Alan Rich, Mel Mott, & Bill Webster

Chris Bull won "Club Person Of The Year" for his work on the club's web site.

See the photos pages for more pics of the 2008 presso and Xmas social.

COMPETITON UPDATE

COMPETITION RESULTS - DECEMBER 2008

2008 Presentation Awards

Our first club round for 2009 is on Sunday 1st February.

SPECIAL TRIBUTE

This tribute to Chris Walker is from Peter & Marg Bryant

We have known Chris and Eric since joining Ballina Mal Club about 10 years ago. Over those years surfing and meeting with them on the beach at Flat Rock, and at many contests, we saw Chris was with Eric wherever he was surfing – a real partnership – filming him and giving advice.

In April this year we all planned a trip to New Zealand and decided we would meet up and spend some time together. We met up in New Plymouth (Opanake actually) and Chris and Eric were there with friends from Hawaii. We had the most wonderful time – surfing, playing uno, eating and eating - in fact the first thing Chris said when we arrived “can you make a lumberjack cake”, Eric had already checked out the oven and we could borrow a cake tin. This cake making turned out to be the most wonderful holiday that turned into much baking, eating and laughter.

Chris & Eric with Moku the dolphin

We stayed an extra day in NP and Chris and Eric went inland and the to east coast and then of course the message from Chris “quick come to Mahia we are playing with a dolphin” Not really believing, we travelled all day and into the night to get to Mahia – sure enough they had had the most unique experience ever playing with “Moku” for 4 hours. That dolphin didn’t return for us to play with – just a “one off” experience for Chris. Although I was “green” with happy envy I now can only remember how beautiful the experience was for her.

After returning home we all fell back into our routine lives until Chris was diagnosed with her cancer - a terrible shock to all. In the past 4 months I feel privileged to have spent time with Chris and see her cope so bravely with her cancer – never complaining or being negative – always with that glimmer of hope that she would be better soon. Just days before she passed away the hours I spent with her at the hospital have remained so precious to me – a beautiful brave lady who I had to say goodbye to just 2 days later – again she the brave one – and her request “ make Eric lots of cakes” which of course I will do.

After the beautiful funeral service held for Chris and the gathering afterwards at our home, I know Eric was so grateful for the wonderful support of all his friends and surfing buddies.

I’m sure we will all continue to support Eric and have wonderful memories of Chris.

Farewell to a beautiful lady.

Peter & Marg

(Ed. On behalf of all the members I offer our deepest sympathy to Eric at this very sad time.)

MEMBER PROFILE

In this section we get to learn a little more about fellow members.

NAME: Kirk Hickey

ADDRESS: Tulipwood Ave, Goonelabah

PHONE: 6624-3039 0434-276-039

AGE:34

ORIGINS: Born in Gymea in southern Sydney. Grew up in Macksville on the mid North Coast. Surfed Scotts Head heaps as a grommet.

FAMILY: Fiancee Lisa

CURRENT JOB: Macca Nut Farm Manager

TIME ON NORTH COAST: 10 years in Ballina

SURFING STYLE: Natural

QUIVER: 9'4" traditional single fin, 9'1" high performance board, 6'2" quad fish.

STARTED SURFING (AGE & LOCATION): 6 yrs of age at Scott's Head on holidays.

FAVOURITE SURF SPOT: Broken Head, Scott's Head

FAVOURITE FOOD: Chinese.

FAVOURITE ACTIVITY (BESIDES SURFING): Drinking beer!

REASON FOR JOINING THE CLUB: Friendship.

TRAVEL REPORT

"Introducing Brian Britton"
Story & photos by Alan Rich

This story goes back aways. Like to 1967. That’s when I was lucky enough to get talked into going to Ireland by Rodney Sumpter for their first national and international surfing contest. Skip the details. Fast forward to 2006. There’s a major reunion being put together to celebrate the birth of surfing in Ireland’s 40th anniversary and, as one of the fortunate first to be involved, I was invited to be part of it all and so off Ev and I went. The “Patrons Pilgrimage” reunion was organised by Brian Britton. It was fantastic, to make a long story short. Brian and his wife Antoinette were the consummate hosts in so many ways.

Abbey Glen Castle piss up. Brian’s cousin owned this castle and this night on Surfari was a very good one!

This pic is taken from our room in the 4 star hotel Brian owns. The view is of the beach and surf at Rossnowlagh.

The crew at Doolin Point, Co Clare. You don’t know these blokes but three of them are past national champions. The rest are just there for the beer.

Recently we were stoked to find Brian visiting his travelling daughter, Naomi, who has parked in Byron Bay for a few months to work while touring Australia. Part of our hospitality payback was to invite him along to the club’s Mi Thai evening to meet a few of the crew.

Brian entertaining the crew

Brian’s father was one of the founding administrators of Irish surfing and is part of Irish surfing lore. Brian is one of 4 surfing brothers from Rossnowlagh, County Donnegal. One of them, Willie, is a past Irish champion. His brother Barry’s daughter, Easkey, has just won her fourth Irish women’s title in a row. His own daughter, Naomi, made a TV program of the Silver Surfari that screened nationally.

Brian’s a pretty well regarded bloke too. He served for 25 years as President of the Irish Surfing Association, including international positions in surfing administration. A family of overachievers I’d say!

Unfortunately for surfing locally, the weather during their visit to the North Coast was liquid for the majority of his visit, excepting the club evening, and the wind was, well, everyone knows how that was. God awful. He did have a great visit with his Naomi though, and that was the whole purpose. He’s back in Ireland now. He wrote to me this week expressing his thanks and of his enjoyment at the Mi Thai night meeting as many of you as he did.

There’s a couple of web links that may be of interest of our “Silver Surfari” from 2006. One of them is Brian’s personal diary of events http://www.irelandsurfari.com/diary.html and the other is a story published in Surfers Path that I did. http://surferspath.com:80/features/the-silver-surfari

Unfortunately the photo captions are not reproduced so you’ll just have to ask me about where they are. Keep your eyes peeled for an ancient shot of a knock-kneed American on a small left surfing in shorts and a borrowed wetsuit top in 1967! It hurts me to even look at it.

To give you an idea of an Irish surf trip I’ve added a few of the pics from our ’06 trip too. It’s a trip I can recommend to anyone.

Alan

Please email the secretary if you have an interesting story.

CLUB T-SHIRTS

A vote taken at the Xmas Party decided to buy collared shirts probably in dark blue with a white BMC logo on the front. Orders have been taken already so if you have not told Wazza your size you better get in soon. Cost is approximately $20.

NEWSLETTER & NEW WEB SITE

The club has a new web site – www.ballinamalibuclub.org. All the club newsletters can now be accessed via the web site and either viewed online or downloaded in a format suitable for printing. 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 new web site and register their email address. Members without an email address will still receive a printed copy via surface mail.

Members will find many benefits with the new web site including:

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.