AUSSIE TITLES LEADUP (REGIONALS)

[scoop]

How many guys ...and girlz for that matter have entered into their local regional titles over the last couple of weeks....I believe the State titles will be on the south coast in late August then the Aussie titles in South Australia later some time
Curly Kneelo (Iron Mike) and myself were the only entrants in the northern beaches kneelo section and I took it out so will hope to meet up with some of you others out there in August
I know Matt Gallagher, John Clingan and Hugh Bevan were in the Cronulla regionals but as yet haven't heard any results....good luck guys


Tony

[red]

Tony,
There is no longer kneeboarding in Vic, except for the master's event.
Obviously Vicsurf is not working for the benefit of all its members. I've had this discussion with them, but did not wish to create problems at a national level with the KSA still finding its feet (I've made my name mud in the past by asking hard questions like, "Why don't you do the job you're paid to do?").

Is there some other way to get to the national executive to try to convince Vicsurf of the error of their ways?

[john -]

how do red?

thru ksusa for starters perhaps we should gather victorian kneeboarders into a unit to press the case - with ksa now on line and becomming better equiped by the look of it, obtaining membership should provide hassle rights?! - from what i can tell there is you, me, kneelo-44 and cripchick - thats without counting or looking up ksusa membership locations - ive met one other punter who told me he attends phillip island so 5 (snakes alive) were on a roll

soon as johnny h's election bribe hits the bank i will have the purchase for sa/ksa membership so i nominate you "fearless leader" of the new victorian push

any seconders

dorje

[kneelo_44]

Hi Guys

I have spoken to them (Vicsurf) in the past as well, and had no joy. They told us to join anyone of the local board clubs who hold comps and the only one that does is PI club. Their appears very little support at the state level other than the masters event. The only reason we joined was so we could go to Bendalong, Coff and PI. Otherwise there is nothing else for us. I must say there are a lot of kneelo's in VIC but we seem to just go our own way and do the free surfing thing. In the last week I meet 8 different kneelo's (Holidays) and none of them are interested. If we could get everyone together we would a huge mob to deal with. Maybe they have tried and just given up. We would going to Coff's but Sophia has Olympic trails and then Nationals in Brisbane.

John

[scoop]

Guys

You are not the only ones....up here we get little or no response from surfing NSW and not alot more from surfing australia....maybe...it seems... alot of funds go in but not much returned to the non mainstream

tony

[john -]

then me thinks that ksa will have to act or other wise be a pale imitation to ksusa - big call as via the internet is my only real intro so perhaps their thinking big and will act accordingly

around these parts ive noted body board comps, long board comps and 2 stand up short board comps all along 13th beach

to be neg towards ksa is not good but for the general punter if some real action does not take place then this website remains as the inteactive force for kneelos in australia - not suggesting in shouldnt be so as a forum - but some real live upclose perspectives would be good - to put my money where my mouth is i should drob in on Michael D at strapper in Torquay - being in Torquay and the only known shaper on the west coast (???) he might have some insight - one would think that the Torquay region should somehow be able to support a kneeboarding contest of a least modest proportion

the next school holidays should provide me with this oppotunity if not before

again no offence to ksa - i want to be a member - and kn-44, where did you run into 8 kneeboarders???? in 6 months i can identify 6 including me in these parts - one was really good! - nice tube work at a critical and knarly lowtide Beacon - not my shtick

dorje

ps: in the light of day ive re read Reds post about ksa "finding its feet" so again i sppose the patient issue for victorians -

[scoop]

Andrew

Im thinking maybe the regionals are an in-house thing....if outsiders find out about it... it might keep the in-crowd from winning
Surfing NSW is hard to get info from ...considering they are the local body to deal with....people are on wages there but getting them to earn it (from our perspective) is almost impossible...you wouldnt believe the problems we come up with getting these comps up and running...
Maybe we should just organise a sausage sizzle at a beach and if you want to have a surf after...go for it.....might be easier....but besides that... it looks like we have 40 or so comming to Coffs this weekend so should be good

cheers

Tony

[scoop]

Dorge

John Clingan and I got KSA back on track after Neil Luke put word out for people to put their hand up ...mid last year in the hope we can maintain an interest in kneeboarding here in Australia....some problems arose after" the worlds" in 02... We are a tad green around the gills still but our combimed keeness to "keep the dream alive" so to speak...and realise there are quite a few of you guys out there wanting to surf comps and socialize...so here we are...
and thank you to all that come to the comps and support us ...along with all the sponsors that without their help we wouldnt ba able to do this

cheers

Tony

[Techno]

After reading your contributions guys - and reading the propaganda that arrived with my Surfing Australia Hard Card (Yes I had to join to surf the Coffs Comp') I find it hard to believe that such a large organisation can't (Or won't) give Kneeboarders the support to get the KSA up and running ?

I posted a question months ago:
(Do Kneeboarders really exist in Queensland Australia?)

I received so many messages from people telling me about the Sunshine Coast Kneelo Club - found out they had 50+ members (Apparently).

So are any of them members of Surfing Australia (QLD) ???
Do they enter comp's ???
There are no comp's in QLD as far as I can tell - only the Sunshine Coast Club meets each month (More of a gathering).
The D-Bar comp' stopped running years ago - so is it all to hard for Surfing Australia/QLD to help out the QLD Kneelo population ???

As far as I can tell - we have no state/regional titles for Kneelo's, and Surfing Australia/QLD can't help with any information about Kneelo's in general !!!

I'm taking the drive to Coffs from Brisbane - will I be the only Queenslander - or will some of our states "Other" kneelo's be joining the rest of us to make the weekend the most amount of fun you can have on two knee's - apart from the "Other" fun you can have on two knee's ???

Scoop - Geetee - Brendan - I look forward to having a beer or three with you guys at Coffs and will be arriving Friday around lunch time ???
Staying at the Hoey Moey until Sunday maybe Monday ???

See ya' at Coff's !!!

Tony "TECHNO" Aubrey

[john -]

HEY SCOOP
THANKS FOR THE INFORMATION

i realised my post may have seemed laking in data and understanding - did not fully appreciate connection or disconnection as it is, between surfing groups and ksa - the problem of aquiring information and airing thoughts in isolation and in forum at the same time - one gets tired of reading and editing and reading stuff later and realising your holding the wrong end of the stick - still at the end of the day information is aquired and poorley worded or thought issues remain on public view - good for using these

being a public school teacher i have a rich understanding of bureacratic and political obstacles and attempting to change attitudes under duress - i am very much looking foward to becomming a ksa member via surfing australia or however.

having moved down the coast and retired the wicket keeping gloves for more surfing, i look foward to being involved in team/comp kneeboarder stuff.

again cheers

dorje

if i was to involved in comps id make a good crowd control person as being knocked out in the first round leaves one with so much time:wink

:

[kneelo_44]

dorje

Their are plenty of Kneelo on the Mornington Pen. You see quite a few at Gunnamatta and Flinders at most of the breaks in reality. On my last few surfs there has been at 2-3 different kneelo's in the water everytime. One rides a Strapper, the other are on Triggers, Balin, Stump or Island boards.

John

[geetee]

Hey Techno,

Looking forward to meeting you on Friday night. Brendan and I are staying just north of Coffs (abt 20 mins) but will be there with bells on. We are more concerned with supporting KSA and having a good time meeting people and doing what we all like best, surfing. I think that the KSA organisation is going to take some time to be a force to reckon with and will have to recruit supporters over a period of time. Unfortunately we are looked upon as a minority group and it will take time for other surf organisations to take us seriously. The main thing is that we stick together and keep supporting kneeboarding across all of Australia. With time the comps could expand to QLD and so forth( maybe even back to DBah). This will only raise the profile of our sport but it wont happen overnight. I think the main thing is to help build on the platform that our fearless leaders have started and go forward slowly but surely.

Looking forward to Coffs
Geetee

[DK]

Interesting reading all about regionals. Im sure it something that ksa will try and sort out when it gets time, considering how busy those couple of guys have been organising comps. for kneelos only such as bendelong ect.
Ill share my frustration. At the start of the year before the Sydney Club drew up its calendar we decided to keep May free and encourage people to enter regionals. I sent surfing NSW an e-mail to this effect and it was totally ignored (and Im 99% sure it arrived as i recieved no return mail from my isp)- considering the amount of times i have chased them up for other club related matters i wasnt surprised.
Given Id rather spend my time organising club stuff than chasing up info on the regionals I didnt pursue it - the other thing about regionals which is unique to Sydney and works against us is that there is three regions in Sydney. This works ok for standups because of their numbers but really isnt beneficial for kneelos- all it does is dilute the numbers across three different contests. Im sure we could do it better ourselves.

[john -]

Hey john- and thats the strange thing about victoria - my old man used to live in Blairgowrie so i surfed Tiber st (Dymocks Beach) very regulaly on the high tide and rye a fair bit too

came away from 2 surfs in a row at rye (surfing a Balin) with compliments from stand ups Mornington pen is just generally a better surf culture than the Surf Coast or Bellarine pen - more waves during summer!!! - as a kneelo i never felt the odd one out and there was always, as you experience, another few around.

Here on the surf/Ballerine side not so inclusive - and i can surf 13th beach on a reasonable day and be pretty sure that out of the 7 caparks/breaks ive been the only kneelo out that day

all this really only stuck home when i logged on to ksuas and realised the relative situations - as im living on the coast now my interest is more focused on the coastal communities and surfing so im looking foward to kneeboarding profile being on the up and having something to do with if possible

hope to catch up

dorje