Newsletter - FEB 2010

Fellow Flatrockers, Secretary - Alan It’s been a happy new year so far, except forthe surf that is. 2010 is here and progressing at a rapid rate. Pity that the surf isn’t keeping pace. The AGM minutes from Sunday have been circulated and all those of you who are electronically connected will have received them by now. Key Committee positions were held up by returning Pres Wazza with Treasurer Marg. Col Woodbry has bravely stepped into the V.P. position. Secretary Chris Bull kindly decided to get a life and yours truly foolishly believed Chris when he said ‘it’s easy!’, thereby getting myself elected Secretary and finding myself writing this before I even knew it! I can’t wait for the rest of the surprises in store!! To all the rest of you who stayed away from the Feb Comp, so you wouldn't have to get drafted into to anything, you're safe and can come back now for the rest of the year. The competition year kicked off on the first Sunday of February with an atypically large swell that was almost attemptable (Rob probably went out), but given that it was pouring rain and more or less miserable, it just didn’t seem like fun. The comp was moved back a week by popular demand. Enter the 2nd Sunday in February and it was back to normal. Way back. All the way back to dribbling tiny choppy onshore rubbish. Another dose of no fun and cancellation. Instead the AGM was held. If you haven’t already received a copy of the AGM Minutes that I distributed by email then please let me know and I will update your details. A couple of things came out of the 16 Feb Committee meeting. Social occasions are all the go and the star item is a 20th anniversary party for the Club sometime later this year. We’re open for good suggestions and help and, of course, we need to track down those past members who got lost along the way. Talk to any of us if you have some ideas. Another question was about how many dinner night social events to have. Opinions were mixed and I will be putting out a quick email survey sometime soon to get an idea of who would like to turn up and how often. These are not going to be trick questions, we just want to cater to your needs. Our first social event will probably be on Friday 12 March at the Ballina Bowlos. The idea is to have a presentation on how to surf and score heats. It will include gurus on the 2010 rule book and how-to-judge DVDs courtesy of the All Girls. Following that will be a club dinner night. The idea is that partners hang at the bar from 6:30 to about 7:30pm then we all have dinner. Guess whose turn it is to drive? Look for a further announcement when the function is confirmed but put it in your calendar now before you get distracted. I got a call with a correction to the AGM minutes already. Foundation member Brian Delaney told me that he has decided to step back from the competitions this year. However, he remains a member and was so when I got it wrong in the minutes. He said we can expect he and Robyn to show up at social events and at the occasional morning comps too. That’s good news. Nineteen years of monthly comps is, how many waves, Brian? Dunno and I’m not going to try to count them. Good on you BD. Surf more than two 20 minute heats on your day off and love it.

PRESIDENT -Warren Wyatt 6686-8747 VICE PRESIDENT - Col Woodbry SECRETARY/MEDIA - Alan Rich secretary@ballinamalibuclub.org TREASURER - Marg Bryant 6687-7081 CLUB CAPTAIN - Bruce Wilson VICE CLUB CAPTAIN - Eric Walker SOCIAL COMMITTEE - Mel Mott, Jan Webster & Kerry Wilcox CATERING -Steve Watts PUBLIC OFFICER - Mick Wilson NEXT COMPETITION ROUND SUNDAY - 7th March 2010 OUR GENEROUS SPONSORS Major Sponsor Web Hosting & Newsletter Printing Web Site Maintenance Competition Rash Shirts Monthly Gift Voucher

There have been a couple of broken boards over summer, mine being one of them. Rob House also did in his number one stick on what he said was a big wave recently (my wave was waist high). This would normally involve some business for shapers and I saw Rob out this morning (as I write) on his new FreeFlight 8’6” shortboard style shape. Interesting.

Gazza Burden has undergone serious back surgery in January and won’t be able to shape for a while yet though, in case you’re thinking of breaking one of your boards. He’s probably not going to get to free surf for a number of months yet either. The report is that everything has gone very well and that’s great news. We all look forward to seeing Gary make the fullest and speediest of recoveries. I wish all the news could always be that good.

This year will undoubtedly mark some changes to the newsletter. Filling Chris Bull’s size 19 shoes is a hard act to follow. I’m talking about his newsletter shoes, of course. He doesn’t have feet that big, I don’t think. But Chris did such a great job as Secretary that it’s an unfortunate mug who has to follow his act. We’ll try but if it doesn’t look like Chris’ usually brilliance please be patient and we’ll keep at it. Chris has offered to keep putting the newsletters into the web page which is enormous, so for now it’s still looking good. And on that note, if you have any sort of surf news, etc, give me a call or a note so we can share it with the rest of the Club.

Next comp: Sunday 7 March. See you there I hope.

Yours truly, Alan Rich (Secretary for four days so far)

The PRESIDENT's REPORT from Wazza

Welcome to another year of surf, sun & fun. Well there may be a question mark over the surf. How bad has it been. Great to see such a good roll up for the AGM but more importantly great to see people keen to come onto the committee in this our 20th Anniversary Year.

I doubt anyone knows how many people have come and gone since the club was formed in 1990 but present on Sunday were four of our foundation members - Eric Walker, Phil Calnan, Peter Wilcox and yours truly. May be during this our 20th year we can entice some of those former members back into the club. Thank you to all outgoing committee members. You all made my job easy. Special thanks to Chris Bull for his efforts in setting up and maintaining our website. On behalf of the club members Chris we all wish you and Helen success in your new business venture.

Congratulations to our new committee members , I look forward to working with you all during the year.

We are always looking for new members so bring along anyone you know that is a potential member. They will certainly be made welcome.

Next competition day is Sunday 7th March. Hope some waves roll your way in the meantime.

President. WAZZA

The SOCIAL REPORT

This year the ladies volunteered to establish a committee to organise the social side of the club. The committee includes Mel Mott, Jan Webster & Kerry Wilcox. The ladies thought a 20th anniversary celebration would be high on their list of social events. We can't wait to see what they come up with. Keep you eyes on this space. (Ed)

COMPETITON UPDATE

The competition year kicked off on the first Sunday of February with an atypically large swell that was almost attemptable (Rob probably went out), but given that it was pouring rain and more or less miserable, it just didn’t seem like fun. The comp was moved back a week by popular demand.

Enter the 2nd Sunday in February and it was back to normal. Way back. All the way back to dribbling tiny choppy onshore rubbish. Another dose of no fun and cancellation.

Next comp: Sunday 7 March. See you there I hope.

Judging Criteria for Competition Rounds

The judging criteria is now available online. A decision was made at the AGM last week to have the option available to limit the number of waves a surfer can catch per heat to 5 waves. This rule will only be implemented if required depending upon the conditions at each comp round.

We invite suggestions from members regarding practical methods of improving our ability to apply the 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.

Next Club Round

Our first club round for 2010 is on Sunday 7th March.

Mi Thai Winner

Kerry won the Mi Thai $25 voucher this month.

TRAVEL REPORT

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

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.