I've got a couple of ideas. Any critisism is constructive, so don't take it personally.
I think there are distinct advantages with continuing to decide the Australian kneeboard champion under the Surfing Australia "umbrella".
Like it or not, kneeboard riding will need money if it is going to exist in a competitive sense. Imagine for a moment, if the rule that the KSA has in place for world title qualification (ie a minimum of two KSA contests to be entered before eligability) was extended to include the local regional titles.
Yeah ok it's another little hoop to jump through, but reality is it would be the only world title qualifier that takes place in your backyard. All of a sudden the number of entrants would swell by at least those who are aiming towards a world title. Hell even allocate KSA points toward regional, state and national placings, all of a sudden everyone who gives a rats arse about that is turning up.
I've heard murmurs that Surfing Australia aren't interested in us any more. Now if this is because of our declining participation and subsequent lack of financial contribution (through entry fees etc), we need to start fronting up to these things again.
The benefits of this?
It puts us kneeboarders back in the conciousness of the surfing community as a whole. It creates far greater exposure to an actual audience ( not just our wives , who grew sick of watching us surf two weeks into the courting stage of the relationship 25 years ago) , not to mention surfing industry players who help organise and participate in these events.
With this audience and the attention of the industry, comes sponsorship potential.
From a business perspective we are not visible to many outside of our own sphere. So there is no incentive to throw money in our direction. If you had a choice would you advertise your business in a medium that recieves no attention from the market you intend to target? Of course not.
Another huge plus is to have the opportunity to surf in front of acredited judges from outside the kneeboarding world.
They are not aware of who we all like, who we don't all like, who said what on the internet and who the best bloke is. They are judging what is going on in the heat in front of them. From my experience Surfing Australia judges are perfectly capable of deciding heat winners. Good surfing looks good.
Training and paying judges from our own ranks doesn't seem like the best way to get an impartial judgement on a heat.
Benefit number three, is prestige and respect. When kneeboarders were more involved with the regional/state/nationals and further along the world amatuer contests we were given the forum to gain respect from the rest of the surfing community. They got to see the best kneeboarders in the country do their stuff .
A few times the Australian team campaign was often won on the back of the lone kneelo in the team holding back the opposition with a finals victory. The kneeboard representitives at those contests were able to meet and befriend industry players and former/aspiring professional surfers.
As grown men you might say "big deal" about being involved with these guys, but I'll tell you from experience that getting to meet and travel with guys who will one day be famous surfers or former legends is pretty fucken cool( there is that word again crippler??), when your a grommet. (remember Budgies original comments about hanging with Branson etc back in WA?). More on grommets later.
Government grants are another possibility that may be realised through a closer afiliation with Surfing Australia, through SA which is a government body will enable us to push up and coming talent through their media and contacts in government. Money is allocated to support young athletes in sport by our government. Aside from that not many of you will remember that Rod Smith and myself were offered the opportunity to train at newcastle institute of sport in 1990. I was unable to attend, but i can tell you he left me for dead competitivley after six months of training at the institute. Specialised training another benefit.
Lastly,venue. Having our Australian Champion decided at the Australian Surmasters could give our best guys the chance to win the title at a venue we could never hope to secure under our own steam. I'm sure we'd all like to win something surfing 8 foot Margaret River, Bells, Jakes point or Snapper rocks. All of which have hosted Aussie titles.
And wouldn't that be the greatest incentive of all. Surfing the likes of Snapper with four blokes in the water for twenty minutes
Long story short, if we front up to Surfing Australia regional titles en masse
, they get revenue from us, we gain all the benefits listed above that are not going to be available through retracting our selves from the surfing universe.
I think its a shame that we are backing away from surfing in general, gradually becoming a backyard celebration of mediocrity, where wanting to surf well and win heats is frowned upon over comraderie and teamsmanship. Those things are nice but they are holding our best guys back and surfing isn't a team sport.
A little bit off topic. In regards to grommets, i think we dropped the ball along time ago. As crippler has said and i have said in the past, grommets don't do anything that isn't cool. Grommets are influenced by people in their early 20's. Anyone who manages to ride a kneeboard pretty well from their late teens into their twentys has had some sucsess in influencing a friend or local kid into riding one.
There is a distinct lack of guys in that age group in kneeboarding, so unless grommets start thinking old people are cool we will continue to shrink in numbers . Not much we can do about that one.
and you are greeted with a sea of kids on BBs all moving with the water as one mass ... if you go, someone will get hurt
I think I'm picking up what your puting down here. I'm already a naughtie bad egg , so there is no chance I've got any of the "...........?" you speak of