Welcome all to the New Year.
I guess thoughts of some will be towards what State will run this year's Nationals.
Sadly I didn't make it to last year's Nationals but I was told by several there were two bids and WA won it with a strong commitment to Gnaraloo.


Yes!!! I can't think of a more inspiring spot to wavesail especially in early spring which is when it's set down to be run.
Having been heavily involved in several Nationals I know how much work goes into running such an event especially so far way from “sevices” we often take for granted.

Thanks go to those who put their hand up.
No doubt we all will follow this announcement with great interest.

Cheers and I do mean Cheers, Waz

A fickle and over crowded place good luck with the 'locals'

Well i am definitely going, bring on the wind and waves need to practice

is Gnaraloo still going to happen?

I've had a few people ask me about the Gnaraloo Nationals lately and was planning on making an announcement in April but may as well do it now.

As most people are aware I arranged permits and permissions for Gnaraloo back in October and also arranged for a pilot friend to have a helicopter there for the week. There has been great interest and enthusiasm for this event and it has been shaping up as one of the best nationals ever, we had managed to raise close to $70,000 in sponsorship so far.

To run a national title you need permission from either the state or national body so in early November I sent a message to Windsurfing W.A. asking how I get this permission, this request followed on from various verbal communication. I recieved a message one week later that they will discuss it at the next meeting but now some 3-4 months later I still havent received a reply.

Due to the lack of response sponsors and others involved have lost interest and moved on, so basically I dont see the point in pursuing this event any further.

Wow it really was looking like being a great thing until HR's last paragraph.

I'm sure we are all hoping Windsurfing WA can get on to this matter ASAP so HR can find the interest again to progress this event.

Over here in NSW, the RMS waterways license is pretty easy if you have an operational plan and I'm guessing just a council application would be what's required. If you call, they would let you know what you need and all the councils and RMS staff I've dealt with are more than happy to help you get the necessary permits.

The costs can vary from a few hundred bucks to a few thousand but if you have that amount of sponsorship then that won't be a problem.

I'm super keen to be there, gnaraloo is a pretty special spot.

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whyner said..
Over here in NSW, the RMS waterways license is pretty easy if you have an operational plan and I'm guessing just a council application would be what's required. If you call, they would let you know what you need and all the councils and RMS staff I've dealt with are more than happy to help you get the necessary permits.

The costs can vary from a few hundred bucks to a few thousand but if you have that amount of sponsorship then that won't be a problem.

I'm super keen to be there, gnaraloo is a pretty special spot.

We have all the permits/landowners permission, had them since October. Who ever organises the nationals must have permission from Windsurfing WA, then AWA.

They are just refusing to answer messages and as you can see from this thread there is little interest. The problem is sponsors and helicopter owner/pilot (and myself) have had enough waiting 4 months for an answer to one message, everyone's moved on to another project and who knows if it takes 6 months to get to the next stage.

I did get a phone call 3 weeks ago from a WWA member (friend of mine) who said dont bother, there's no intention of ever getting a reply.

Just run the event, why do you need some muppet from an amateur windsurfing asociation to approve it for you. If you've gone to the effort of organising all of the stuff you say you have then there's no reason anyone would protest this being the national titles. I've always viewed the waves sailing titles to be won by whatever state has a person motivated enough to run it.

Didn't this get tabled and voted in at the nationals just past?? Isn't that the approval you were seeking?

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curac said..
Didn't this get tabled and voted in at the nationals just past?? Isn't that the approval you were seeking?

I'm not sure, I wasn't there but I recieved a call from someone who mentioned that Gnaraloo was the best option (only option) and most advanced but I was told I had to go through Windsurfing WA so that's when I sent my message on November 15th. This is the reply received on 21st November:

"Hi Col, I'll discuss this at the next WWA committee meeting to see whether this can be done and will let you know. Cheers, .........."

Now, almost 4 months and still nothing. There's nothing can be done now anyway, too much time has gone by and everyone's moved on. I tell you what, if someone came to me with a Gnaraloo comp all arranged I would have replied within 10seconds!

What's the matter with you dudes.

Just make a date and set it up.

Call it a love-in ...not a comp.

No permission required.

lol.

None of the blame game is conducive to getting a comp sorted.

The Nationals have always been fantastic events. The competition is great, but moreso the hanging out with a great bunch in a unique windsurfing location of Australia, even if it's not always a firing spot.

The surfing, drinking and yarning is what I go for, competition is a bonus.

Full praise to the people that make it happen each year.

The sponsorship input is unreal.

Seems to be a nasty wedge being driven in to the sport, and it's too small a group to let that happen.

I'd trade the $100,000 sponsorship deal and a pristine wave locationed comp for one sail with mates at a gnarly South Coast secret spot and a beer afterwards.

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DunkO said..
I'd trade the $100,000 sponsorship deal...

You have a $100,000 sponsorship deal... who with? It's like the 80s all over again. Do they make you sail with one of those 360cm boards.

As posted in www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Windsurfing/General/Australian-Slalom-Nationals-2016-Cervantes/

At the time of the AWA AGM, and to date AWA has made no decision on the Wave Nationals location due to there being no solid proposals from any state.

As with previous years, the call was made to let the wave sailing community "sort it out like they normally do". The AWA AGM was attended by all state reps and in regard to WWA, all decisions/issued listed in the notice of meeting were discussed at a state level prior to the AGM. During the AWA AGM, the AWA committee was made aware of the Gnarloo proposal by the WWA rep and that WWA had not been provided any information for the event apart from an informal chat at the beach and a single email.

Prior to the to this meeting the WWA committee discussed the proposal and limited information we had been provided. The view was taken that although the location provides perfect conditions there are/were several changes to overcome:
Insurance
- Providing a viable and credible safety management plan is challenging given the conditions and remote location
- If an entity managed the event would it be possible to get a viable affiliation agreement in place?

Event Management
- WWA does not currently have a committee with the capacity to run a national event
- Proposal/discussion provided no details of who/how event would be run. WWA committee would not be able to fill any shortfall.

Best Interests of Sport in WA
- The WA sailing committee has always been split on the ideas of National at Gnarloo if a tangible proposal was made it would need to go out to members for a vote to get gauge interest. As information has not been provided this vote in not possible at present.
- Proposal was from a person who was not a current member of WWA therefore do they have the best interests of the sport in mind? Tough to measure, as they have not been actively involved in the wave events over recent years so the committee was not overly encouraged.


Basically WWA is here and waiting for a viable proposal to be made. All recent events WWA have supported have been organised by a passionate group of members who have a solid plan in place to make event work and be a great event for the sailors.

So many red thumbs... it's obvious my attempt at sarcasm has failed miserably...

Yeah, my empoloyer. . .when it's windy I don't tell, they don't ask. Best sponsorship deal going.

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WindsurfingWA said..
As posted in www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Windsurfing/General/Australian-Slalom-Nationals-2016-Cervantes/

At the time of the AWA AGM, and to date AWA has made no decision on the Wave Nationals location due to there being no solid proposals from any state.

As with previous years, the call was made to let the wave sailing community "sort it out like they normally do". The AWA AGM was attended by all state reps and in regard to WWA, all decisions/issued listed in the notice of meeting were discussed at a state level prior to the AGM. During the AWA AGM, the AWA committee was made aware of the Gnarloo proposal by the WWA rep and that WWA had not been provided any information for the event apart from an informal chat at the beach and a single email.

Prior to the to this meeting the WWA committee discussed the proposal and limited information we had been provided. The view was taken that although the location provides perfect conditions there are/were several changes to overcome:
Insurance
- Providing a viable and credible safety management plan is challenging given the conditions and remote location
- If an entity managed the event would it be possible to get a viable affiliation agreement in place?

Event Management
- WWA does not currently have a committee with the capacity to run a national event
- Proposal/discussion provided no details of who/how event would be run. WWA committee would not be able to fill any shortfall.

Best Interests of Sport in WA
- The WA sailing committee has always been split on the ideas of National at Gnarloo if a tangible proposal was made it would need to go out to members for a vote to get gauge interest. As information has not been provided this vote in not possible at present.
- Proposal was from a person who was not a current member of WWA therefore do they have the best interests of the sport in mind? Tough to measure, as they have not been actively involved in the wave events over recent years so the committee was not overly encouraged.


Basically WWA is here and waiting for a viable proposal to be made. All recent events WWA have supported have been organised by a passionate group of members who have a solid plan in place to make event work and be a great event for the sailors.

I was going to let these comments slide but since you've decided to start lying and digging your own grave here's some truth for you.

Could you please provide your correspondence where you requested a proposal from us? It is now April and we still haven't had a reply or message sent to us 5 months after first contact. This is the message I sent to Rebecca Cutter on November 15th;
"Hi Rebecca, following on from our conversation at Gnaraloo regarding having the 2016 nats there, they had a meeting last night at the nats and want to pursue my option of having it at Gnaraloo. I've got the permission's needed so just need to sort out the insurance and if can be done through WWA. Can you either look into it or give me a contact to follow it up? Regards, Col Leonhardt."

Regarding being a member: There is no way any association on this planet would refuse sponsorship because they werent a member, out of all the windsurf events I've photographed in the last 10 years no one has ever came up to me and asked me to leave because I wasnt a member. I bet Project 3 at Lancelin were never members.

The only thing you wrote that is correct is that there was another agenda! Only a few people knew this but we had been planning a slalom event at Shark Bay in October as part of the 400 year anniversary of the Dutch landing at Shark Bay, W.A. I had been dealing with the Shire of Shark Bay and a Melbourne event management company to run a marathon and slalom event like the ones run in the nineties, Shark Bay was the number 1 event but after doing some thinking with others we decided it would be quite easy to run the nationals back to back as we would already be up there. Dates for Shark Bay were 22/23 October ( www.sharkbay1616.com.au/ ) and Gnaraloo would be beforehand, 17-21st October.
Shark Bay had great coverage planned and would have been good for the sport, we've actually been supplying images to the Dutch Government over the last few months in preparation but for Shark Bay to go ahead we really needed to get Gnaraloo sorted as soon as possible but with no reply's to our messages it was decided to not proceed.

Col,
This whole thing is just sad really ,back when wave sailing WA was amalgamated with windsurfing wa (slalom people)I could see the writing on the wall that the wave-sailing crew would be soon forgotten about .What needs to happen is either set up a wave sailing association again to best represent wavesailors interests or have a stronger presence of wavesailors in the membership of WWA. A comp at Gnaraloo was always a dream of mine and I tip my hat to you for trying to make it a reality.Maybe consider next year ?

Wa doesnt have a wavesailing association????

"Proposal was from a person who was not a current member of WWA therefore do they have the best interests of the sport in mind"

How are these two things related ??

So what's the go?

I think if you've got the permits for gnaraloo and you still want to run it, go straight to the AWA and make sure your going to be covered for insurance for the entrants and then your right to go.