A sugestion from a few competitors was to run grommits & over 45's to achieve state and aussie champs as these catagories were not included in the just run events. Call the open division contest what ever you like.
That way we'd have credability and not a slap in the face to Surfing Australia for running the open division.

It seems to me that many of you are constantly whining about how little is being done for sup at a competition level - and then as soon as someone organises or suggests something all you do is start looking for hidden agendas from the organisers or finding faults in what they are planning or running. FFS - embrace and support whatever is offered and be a part of the solution - dont sit on your ass continuing to be a part of the problen - because if you continue bickering and finger pointing, no one will put themselves out to plan and organise events and that would be a shame - but you will have nobody to blame but yourselves.

billboard said...

It seems to me that many of you are constantly whining about how little is being done for sup at a competition level - and then as soon as someone organises or suggests something all you do is start looking for hidden agendas from the organisers or finding faults in what they are planning or running. FFS - embrace and support whatever is offered and be a part of the solution - dont sit on your ass continuing to be a part of the problen - because if you continue bickering and finger pointing, no one will put themselves out to plan and organise events and that would be a shame - but you will have nobody to blame but yourselves.

Competitions are great, the more the better. I don't think we are disputing that. Anyone wants to organise an event gets our full support, and more power to them. That includes Surfing Australia as well as this ASI group.

The only thing that anyone is pointing fingers at here (and with some degree of light hearted banter) is the apparent power play going on over who gets to call an event a state or national title and ultimately, who is the peak body for the sport.

PTWoody said...

billboard said...

It seems to me that many of you are constantly whining about how little is being done for sup at a competition level - and then as soon as someone organises or suggests something all you do is start looking for hidden agendas from the organisers or finding faults in what they are planning or running. FFS - embrace and support whatever is offered and be a part of the solution - dont sit on your ass continuing to be a part of the problen - because if you continue bickering and finger pointing, no one will put themselves out to plan and organise events and that would be a shame - but you will have nobody to blame but yourselves.

Competitions are great, the more the better. I don't think we are disputing that. Anyone wants to organise an event gets our full support, and more power to them. That includes Surfing Australia as well as this ASI group.

The only thing that anyone is pointing fingers at here (and with some degree of light hearted banter) is the apparent power play going on over who gets to call an event a state or national title and ultimately, who is the peak body for the sport.

I have 2 angles on this.

I have close friends at Surfing Australia, they are in my opinion as a Govt funded operation acting only in the interests of developing Australia as a surfing Nation. They do this without agenda or any real bias. They support their sponsors so that sponsors remain as such but I have dealt with these guys and one of my good mates ran the Port contest. They do an amazing job and the long list of Australian world champs proves their development of the boardrider club system and events is a resounding success.

In SUP however to get this sport off the ground fully and as big as we think it is it is still on the ground floor it could do with some attention to present it as its own sport in whatever discipline that may be.

SUPA and ASI do provide a platform for this but what they have not done and what Surfing Aust, Surfing QLD etc do extremely well is to declare their charter, stakeholders or basically tell us their market who they are and what they plan to do. Sure, it's their if you look really hard for it but forgive me for saying it, why should we have to??

Having 2 Aussie champs is a shambles in a sport this small especially as Bill has said above where most events are not booked out and they are still looking for wildcards to fill spots that people don't really want.

CMC said...

This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anyone could have.

Love that CMC.
That would be a nice one to memorise to use next time everybody, somebody, anybody & nobody can't get off their ars- to do anything.

Th0m0 said...

I take on board the points that have been made about sitting back and being critical but... this new organisation needs to be a bit more transparent if they want to get more support. Their web site tells you nothing about who the people running the organisation are. They need to list all office bearers and committee members with a cv of sorts about them and what they have done in the past. It's a bit hard to support a faceless organisation that seamingly came out of nowhere to declare itself the governing body for the sport in Australia.

Perhaps a bit like this eh Thomo.

http://www.surfingaustralia.com/staff.php

tha dogman said...

yewwww

more beer!!!!!!!

good stuff

Ha ha, that was my first thought....well not just the beer bit, but more comps, fun times......yee hah!!!

I'm just not convinced that either party has the best interest of the sport in mind at this stage of the sports development. Both offer coach training and events but neither have offered SUP specific performance training (except for young Kristi getting funding from VIC Surfing). Surfing Australia and QLD I believe do a great job for the development of surfing (especially shortboarding) and if this wasn't the case I wouldn't be a member or a coach. I just don't think because you put SUP behind the word Australia gives you the right to say you are the governing body nor do I believe because you've been around the longest means you can claim the title either. It still comes down to who is willing to develop the sport through high performance training (surf and racing) for the worldwide stage, the promotion to the public through awareness compaigns and running more than just a few comps a year. Our local clubs are better governing bodies for the sport so far as they offer more assistance, training and events for the SUP community.

Ha ha, wasn't trying to, just seeing if anyone knew a bit more about them. Seems like no one does!

What will happen is the two Australian champs from different organizations will have a surf off to stake claim of the undisputed champ

SUP Australia Inc.
Not for Profit Australian Registered Body No: 146 205 727

Dont know if this really means not - for profit.In any case i wouldnt care if the organization was for profit or not as long as they are fully committed to sup and manage and promote great events.Couldnt care if they where aligned with industry either , if it ment more events at reasonable cost i wouldnt care if a portion of my money went into profit for a organization that has real interest in taking the sport to a level it has the potential for.

teatrea said...

SUP Australia Inc.
Not for Profit Australian Registered Body No: 146 205 727

Dont know if this really means not - for profit.In any case i wouldnt care if the organization was for profit or not as long as they are fully committed to sup and manage and promote great events.Couldnt care if they where aligned with industry either , if it ment more events at reasonable cost i wouldnt care if a portion of my money went into profit for a organization that has real interest in taking the sport to a level it has the potential for.

Absolutely correct they are registered with ASIC as a not for profit, however the domain is registered to a person with a very close commercial ties to a single SUP brand.

Now thats not to say that there is anything wrong going on or that they are filtering funds to profit, but as a potential governance body I would prefer decisions not be made by someone who has a commercial interest in the sport heading in a certain direction. Especially when at this stage we see no information about a board of membership, meetings or policy and agenda, so can only really assume it is a single person pushing an unknown agenda.

Love em or hate hate em , on the Qld surfing side of things they have set up and broke down without any help and run a professional events . The Qld Sup titles was a poor entry event but still our best surfers got through. It was held at the Sunny Coast with a poor showing from the local crew. Do you really think it would run better by the local clubs with a fragmented committee.

I think we are lucky to run under the insurance and professionalism of surfing Australia and until we are capable of doing a better job I think we need to cool our heels and not bite the hand that is feeding us giving our sport national recognition.

IMVHO.

husq2100 said...

poor numbers seems to be a big point.....why the poor numbers at the QLD state titles? was it the organisers fault?

Not at all.... everyone knew about it , just a poor showing from both the Sunny & Gold Coast that's why I don't have too much faith in a break away organisation. The Infrastructure just isn't there to support it.

As long as the people involved in running things are passionate about riding SUPs, I think you will get a pretty good event and in the best interests of SUP sport development.
It looks like SUPA is filling a void that wasn't addressed in the State and Aussie titles (age categories and distance events) that has to be a positive first step.
It would be good to be more transparent.