Yes unfortunate to have to cancel Tim. Apart from recruiting Israel Folau I don't know what more you could have done. I'd thought given the chance Lord Howe Island had the best prospects of any place on the east coast of becoming a recognised host of national slalom competitions.

Maybe just not enough of us on the east coast fancy ourselves as slalom racers. It is a long way to travel from WA.

That's a bit sad considering the amount of effort you have obviously put in to make it a going proposition.
Asking here for input as to why few racers were interested is a good idea.

Isn't it the off season at the moment? Racers sold their gear waiting for new kit at a guess??

sad

I might hazard a guess that to book travel and accomodation for something like that is a big committment to make, and risk there being no wind.
There has been good wind down south this autumn, but up here in Qld it has been an abysmal season.
Both the Burrum Windfest and the Currumbin Wave thingy saw very light conditions wiht a few guys heading out for the sake of it, and most people left on the beach.
That kind of thing makes people a bit hesitant about making anotehr big commitment. I know I was thinking about a FNQ trip, or a trip to LHI, but have cold feet over either idea as I don't want to do a ton of travel for nothing.
Add to that, that windsurfing is essentially a non-competitive sport for most of us, and a National Slalom Title suffers disinterest.
Economically, man peopel are being conservative too. The building trade is still very quiet for many and retirees are watching their pennies too.
I haunt this place a bit too, and have not seen any mention of it, nor was ther eanything on the LHI web-site when I was researching a holiday tehre, nor was it mentioned in any of teh correspondence or ads for windsrfing trips to LHI.

the wind thing is always a perceived issue. i think the reality is that the guys who compete understand and have a range of gear to take advantage of things. but what are organisers to do.

even when events are held at windy locations in the windy season mother nature will have the final say. usually the saving grace is the social atmosphere makes up for poor wind events.

at the end of the day events need support regardles of wind. no support means no events.

don't give up LH, the windfest sounds like a goer! it's a shame you have run into a dead end this time round but sometimes it takes more than one attempt to get things off the ground. sometimes it's just a gamble that pays off, and sometimes it goes pear shaped, but there are always those that will appreciate your efforts.

You're very right Gestalt...it is just the joy of having lots of people around who won't be bored by 'another conversation about windsurfing'.

The impetus around this event was based on the thought that this would be just that, racers could bring their families, and whether it was windy or not a great time would be had by a bunch of likeminded people.

In talking to Brett he had emphasised that the social side of the event was the thing that a lot of people had been enjoying.

Slowboat, all those are very valid points. I suppose we thought that as it was in the off-season, people might not mind so much being without their gear for a few days either side of the planned week.

Aus1111, it was definitely announced on seabreeze that LHI would be hosting the Nationals.

Perhaps we also need to investigate how information is disemminated through the National Association..? It was on the AWA site that the Nationals were going to be on Lord Howe. Do you WA guys talk to the NSW/east coast guys?

lordhowe said...

Kenho, the Slalom Title was promoted on our site up until about 5 or 6 weeks ago when we found out from Brett Morris that there was practically zero interest from sailors after the AGM's, both the NSWWA AGM & the AWAAGM. We stopped any sort of promotion from that moment.

It sounds like we should have put the word out a bit stronger, i had thought that if Brett Morris, Sam Parker et al knew that it was happening all you racer types would be talking and it would be firmly on the grapevine so to speak. Herein lies the lesson.....

Never fear about not having wind on Lord Howe, it will always blow. The good thing about the island is that it is only 1 hr 40mins away by plane & you can sail on the day you arrive and the day you leave....conditions permitting. With any 'luck' you will be stranded as so often happens and you'll get another day due to strong winds!

Thanks for your comments.

Sounds like I probably just missed the promo on the LHI site. I think I was looking less than a month ago.
I will probably make the effort to get to LHI at some stage, as it does look like a very nice destination and the laid back vibe is very appealing to me.
A windfest type thing would be more interesting to me, as I don't and have never raced at all and have no interst in going there.
I would not have even known about LHI if it were not for the banner here promoting the cheap trravel packages.
The big problem with advertising, is that everyone is doing it for everything, and I for one am very inured and switched off to it. Cutting through teh background static is very hard to do, and you are competeing with people spendidng mega-bux when you try and do that.
I suspect many windsurfer tyopes are a bit teh same.

very sad to read the news

although we were 90% not coming either, so also guilty - killer for us (although probably not valid) is that a island off NSW in the middle of winter didn't seem like a overly warm place to go in the off-season.

Dragging family around in summer is sell-able - cause at least its warm but to back it up in the middle of winter and drag them to a non-warm destination was a hard sell.

but the photo's of the site looked amazing

there was some stuff out there publicising it but i reckon get even more in your face - post reguarly in the lead up and sell it on what the family can expect etc

hopefully we can get there yet...

i'll look after the trophy for now.....