Surfers Point - Margaret River from Wed 3rd Feb through to Saturday 6th Feb.

Signed approvals from the Augusta and Margaret River Shire have been received. More info including the now official dates of 3rd - 6th Feb will be posted on WWA website soon.

Ok so i dont know how this comp has been run in the past however the basics as far as I understand it are pretty much as follows:
* Australian Windsurfing Association has the ultimate say in where the competition is held and has to give approval as they coordinate all major events across the country and also hold the insurance which each state club utilises for the public liability insurance for these kind of things. If all the relevant things are in place will also be contributing to the cost of judges and will have say in who these are to make sure the event is unbias from that perspective.
* Winsurfing WA has a history of running things by the book when it comes to competitions to avoid any conflict with relevant authorities which means the relevant Shire council approval, Department of Planning and Infrastructure for water based competitions etc...
* Duty of care as the competition organiser means that if anything goes wrong, people get hurt etc... I end up with a law suit against me from someone family if things are not completely organised in the most professional manner. Maybe that is me just being paranoid however it kind of has to be that way i guess.
* If we have signed approval to run a competition at the location and hopefully also gain exclusive use of the water for that period then it makes for a better competition with less hassle from people who would prefer us not to be there.

Hope that gives a little insight as to why I think the signed approval is necessary in my opinion.

We could alway just run a comp without all the bullsh%$ however i dont think anyone who travelled a long way to be there would be to happy if DPI or some other authority came and stopped the event from progressing on the first day.

Terry's has the right approach. As an organiser there is quite a great deal of concern about personal liability for the person preparing the paperwork. Legally speaking there should be an incorporated not for profit management organisation responsible for running the comp. Anyone preparing the paperwork has to been legally recognised as acting on behalf of the organisation.

Acquatic licenses must be sought and there have been cases where major sailing events (in Qld) have nearly been shut down because the paper work was not in place.

There is also risk management strategies and operations plan. All this is necessary to have the insurance support from Australian Windsurfing Assoc.

I'm confident that people assume that there is a certain level of risk when they go windsurfing and don't worry about minor injuries. However, if someone gets a serious injury and find that they can't work for a while or can't sail anymore they would be justified in making some sort of claim on the organisation/organisers

Many volunteered hours go into putting these events for the benefit of the windsurfing community.

are you saying bull**** as a good thing or bad thing

top work mate!!! i know how hard it is running a comp with all this bull ****ttttt!! but it will definatly be worth it! cant wait will definatly be there! lets hope it will deliver a good event!

While we are on the topic of judges and competition format there are a couple of points to note about this years competition up front so there is no confusion as the event comes closer.

This year will be a true state vs state competition with each state windsurfing association being asked to nominate one competitor for the main open wave sailing event. There will be some funds available to ensure each state has the ability to have their best sailor attend the competiton.

Secondly this is not open to competitors that do not have Australian residency. If you are not an Australian Citizen then you have plenty of time to organise a marriage or whatever necessary to comply.
There is also a maximum of 70 competitor in total for this event across all divisions so there may be some qualification process undertaken with allocation of placements well prior to the competition date.

TerryNorth said...


Secondly this is not open to competitors that do not have Australian residency. If you are not an Australian Citizen then you have plenty of time to organise a marriage or whatever necessary to comply.

You're kidding right! The purpose of windsurfing W.A. is to promote windsurfing and at that time of the year there is still some great international sailor's around that would provide priceless publicity. You don't see Leighton Hewitt turning up at the U.S. Open and they say "sorry, you can't eneter you're Australian" or Tiger Wood's turning up at the British Open and they say "sorry chap, you can't enter you're not British!"
This really is one stupid decision.

This is what will happen when you tell Peter Volwater, who has a house at Margaret's and live's there in the summer that he want's to enter.

Al Planet said...

Unless there is a pro division for those guys it just messes up the draw. A person may be the best Aussi but if he/she draws a Volwater or a Siver in the first heat or first seeded heat then its all over.

The aim of the competition is to determine the best Australian or maybe Kiwi.

Am French and agree with that, i wouldn't want to see a non-french winning the 'French Nationals'..i guess there are plenty of other great comps that we can enter if we want to..

birdseyeview said...

only the big name's provide the interest that sponsor's want to see.

So what time do you need me there?

I'm sorry guys but i dont think there is any point comparing the Aus National Wave Titles to International Golf or Tennis however if you did, in Tennis there are still local competitions run in various cities of most countries etc..., there are still state based competitions as well as state vs state national competitions for most countries exclusive to their country.

There is also events like the olympics (unfortunatley wave sailing doesnt yet make the grade) which also have no prize money and are based not just on where you live but whether or not you are a citizen of that country.

So.... the ability for someone to win the Australian National titles is simply down to that, being Australian (and thanks for the correction above, Australian Citizen)

Now i will say that as the contest director i would love to run an international competition at Margaret River and attract a raft of big name international sailors with huge prize money and lots of media coverage and sponsors. This event unfortunately is just not the one for that purpose and it has been made pretty clear to me on what the criteria is and format for the comp so i dont get to do that this year. Also, Margaret River Shire only allow one international event each year and we would have to get our applications in well in advance to take priority over the Margaret River Waves surfing event.

For this comp we have a limit of 70 sailors across all division and depending on the numbers, there also may be some qualification process from the board prior to nominations being accepted by each sailor.

There are a lot of awesome wave sailors in Australia who arent interested in competing professionally and our first preference is to make sure we have spots for them to compete in this year's Australian Wave title.

If it is looking like we have less than 70 australian competitors, then yes, i have absolutely no problem with putting up an international pro division or the like for the comp however there are so many variables at this point, including how many days we get the conditions.

When it comes to New Zealand or other Oceanic competitor's, from what i understand it has been fairly much tradition across the Australian Wave Sailing events to allow these individual to compete however, they cannot win the Australian Wave sailing title as that is just a citizenship thing.

Best thing at this stage is for people to expect this to be Australian competitors only and then if things change due to anything as listed above, well that is just a bonus i guess.

Nothing personal to any non Australians. Put your name down none the less when applications are made available. We will take it from there.