Sometimes, things slip below the radar!

Old Salty will probably wring my neck for this but I thought I should let the seabreeze community know about the recent accolade he received.





Doug retired as IWC president in October, and as a fitting gesture in recognition of his commitment to the promotion of windsurfing, the club nominated him for the Victorian Community Sports Awards.

Thanks to the great submission by DanP, Doug was shortlisted to the Top 3 in the Community Coach or Administrator category, and last Wednesday (4th December) we attended the Awards Ceremony at the MCG.






Whilst we weren't successful in winning the overall category, it was fantastic to see windsurfing up there amongst other more traditional sports such as footy and netball. The interest generated in the days following the ceremony (several newspaper interviews and a few radio spots) can only be good for the sport.

Well Done, Old Salty and in the words of one of our most junior members- Ash Galdin- "good job!"!



Thanks to Jodi from Whitecaps Photography for capturing Old Salty in action!!

Well said Mick. It was a great night, and a well deserved recognition.

You guys at IWC certainly do it well as a team,
but you obviously have had some great leadership and direction.

Onya Salty One

A well deserved award... awesome work Doug!

Good stuff Old salty!

Well done Doug and well deserved.

Big Congrats Doug!

Top stuff Doug!

Old Salty's on now. www.abc.net.au/radio/gippsland/?ref=portal_m10 after this music

Well deserved for all the hard work Dougie. Well Deserved

A fitting award for a truly inspiring person.

Congratulations Doug. You deserve the praise and recognition.

Thanks all for the good wishes over the past two months everyone on Seabreeze, emails, telephone calls and bums on the beach. I feel spoilt with what the Club has done for me since my retirement and deeply honoured. The effort to get the Club to where it is today was not just me. I had the priviledge to have the support of great and passonate people. I will not bang on about it to much but you maybe surprised to see the people I have named that have helped out along the way in my retirement speech at the Club AGM.

Check out inverlochwindsurf.org.au/retiring-presidents-speech-at-oct-2013-agm/

The Community Sports Award night was a real buzz. Tour of the MCG, first time in the Long Room - just the history in this place is amazing. I was stoked to be the only representative of a water sport in a mainly ball sport dominated field. I was stunned to be nominated a finalist out of 200 applications - this was probably due to the application skills of DanP and Drift. For me this was more an award for the hard work that committee had done over the years to get IWC and windsurfing recognised in our local, state, interstate and international sports arena. We did not come away with the main prize( a worthy winner who had set up a football league for people with a disability) however we successfully raised the profile of windsurfing again. Apart from discussions with a number of different sports administrators, from this night flowed a Gippsland newspaper interview and a radio interview with The Coodabeens on 3LO last Saturday night.

I am still around the Club , helping out on committee and with events and Kato, the Club's new president, is doing a great job of moving the Club along. Lots of new and exciting things coming. Stay tuned!!

BTW - the pic of me on the windsurfer is doing my first upside down table top

Well done Doug, good work and well deserved!

And here is the interview!

inverlochwindsurf.org.au/old-salty-hits-the-airwaves/