After reading the Inverloch Windsurfing Club post it reminded me that there have been times that people have approached me about starting a Mandurah/Peel Wsurf Club.

Given I burnt myself out with wsurf admin with the GTC, I have deliberately avoided taking any such committments on, coz one disadvatage is, that its always just a dedicated few that end up doing all the work, and at the same time carry the burden of everything that goes wrong. Just writing that last sentence turns me off the idea.

However, what would be the Pros/Cons of strating up such a club? I'll start:

Some thoughts about pros:

A Generic Club that welcomes all, avoids the tribal rivalry of GTC teams, and becomes a forum for a wider community, so all team members from all GTC teams, would be welcome and united within the club.

REsources and Facilities? A Club House? Gear storage, boat? Racing, Rescues?

Some thoughts about cons:

The burden falls on the usual few who put their hands up.

Admin burdens associated with clubs

Interpersonal conflict and personal politices within clubs.


What do people think? In particular non-mandurah/peel residents would there be an advantage to join the club for you?

Im with Shane.

Aside from the Windforce Wed night slalom (which is awesome) there's no regular windsurf racing (slalom racing in particular) held in or near Perth. The social side of things would also be of benefit too, everyone Ive come across windsurfing has been great, no nastiness to speak of. The sailing clubs I've been associated with over the years have been great too, but not cheap to join.

Thats what would get me in.

It is, as you say a can of worms though, and it always ends up being the dedicated few that run the show

Hardie were your ears burning last night? The development of Windsurfing in WA, this was a big topic last night at the monthly WWA meeting. Your name came up as a person to contact in regard to ideas for growth and support of windsurfing in the Mandurah area.

From a WWA point of view, a Mandurah / Peel club is all positives and we would provide all support we can.

In other states there are numerous clubs and they focus on the aspect of the sport they love most and the state association provides support for permits etc. In WA we don't have many clubs so it is tough for WWA to provide enough events that cover the needs of all. If a strong community of clubs can be grown in WA we will have a strong sport as the workload is spread over many not just a few.

Tidyclub has been awesome for reducing workload through automating membership etc. The Tidyclub guys are really helpful and always improving the tool. One idea they have suggest is setting up the WWA site so any club is linked into the WWA site (https://tidyclub.com/associations/). This means a club would not have to start from scratch which is a win win for everyone.

We at Safety Bay Windsurfing Club would be happy to meet up with proponents of a Mandurah club and WWA to talk about how we might all work together. We are primarily a social windsurfing club so don't organise competitive events. And we have all the issues that Hardie raises about people not having much spare time for organisation. Our windsurfing events tend to be fairly informal as a result.

Euan and June.

why not approach a sailing club ?

Kite racers now have two clubs in mounts bay and fremantle who hold weekly race meetings for us and those weekends we don't have anything formal like last sunday we had a safety boat at our disposal and dropped our own marks and had informal racing .

Thanx to all those that have responded, but the overall response as usual has been very under-whelming. Re: joining the Mandutah Yatch Club, we have made enquiries and the case for joining was presented to us, It was a $500 annual membership fee, and there was zero interest after that, people would rather spend the money on gear and sail where and when they want. The nature of most windsurders (In Madurah Anyway), is the free spirit type. So maybe WWA's last idea re regional groups is a good one? Only issue is who would be prepared to travel to Perth every couple of months for a meeting? With my committments, I would say my giving up 2 hrs road travel, and however many hours at a meeting will just turn me off that one. What about a phone link up when the Mandurah Events Agenda Item would be discussed at a WWA meeting?

Hardie I don't think it would be impossible to find a delegate to attend as liaison though in the interest of keeping things simple the WWA suggestion of electronic media would be worth exploring.
Speak to Barry and myself on the liaison option. I am up here already and Barry travels up on business and also to see grandkids and may be interested as he could stay overnight up here. He is a past WA boardsailing association president incidentally.
He may shoot me for nominating him in his absence but as I recall from the early days and to this day, its often how these positions are filled.. ;)