Voice From the Chair – September Newsletter

Greetings fellow Waveski Surfers, enthusiasts, family and friends,

Silence for the past 2 months since the AGM certainly does not mean that the hamster wheel has not been turning. We have been busy reviewing, reflecting and putting a path together for our waveski fraternity for next the few years. Let us first and foremost introduce you to your new SAWSA committee:

Francois Steyn – Chairman
Johann Momberg – Vice Chairman
Nakita Rossouw – National Secretary
Duran Martin – National Contest Director
Darryl Moodie – National Treasurer

The above committee was elected at the National SAWSA AGM that coincided with the SA Champs hosted in Port Alfred. The committee electees were all proposed upfront and elected by all attending, paid up members by means of a ballot system. The newly elected committee pledged to serve the sport and its members for the new year and thanked the old committee under Dian’s leadership for their dedication and perseverance through a tough few years which saw many challenges, COVID and more.

Subsequently we have also recently asked Ken Clements to assist on the training planning going forward as well as Bruce Viaene to help with media liaison. Our aim this year is to clean up as many loose ends and streamline policies and structures to flow from World Waveski Surfing Association through to SAWSA and in turn to the provincial bodies. We want to encourage membership and grow the family.

SA Champs – Port Alfred – June

Not enough can be said about this event. With limited resources and a little bit of help from the Surf Gods, the event was a huge success. Special thanks to Eastern Province Waveski Association for organising everything in an around the competition. Johann, Eugene, Rob, Bruce, Ronnie, Louis and Sandra, you rock! A special thanks goes out to Trystan Viaene for the media coverage she facilitated and keeping the broader public abreast of our event. What would a competition be without a photographer. Illze B, jou doring, you did not miss a beat and made sure the memories and moves were captured forever. It was our first SA’s since 2019 and we respect that much has happened through a tough stretch of COVID and hardship for many. Thank you to all the participants, family and support during the event.

The surf did not hold back and delivered some exciting surfing and without saying some amazing wipe outs and difficult paddle outs for those fiercely competitive heats. During big and rough sea conditions, some cadet and veteran heats were held at Kelly’s beach in a sheltered surf environment.

Well done to the independent judges and the co-ordination led by Johann Momberg. 

Division Winners:
Cadets – Kai Williams
Senior – Bruce Viaene
Masters – Malan Calitz
Grand masters – Morne de Villiers
Legends – Tony Dubber
Grand Legends – Ronnie Ackerman

The event was made possible with kind sponsorship by. 

Macski Waveski
Viking Waveski
Liquid Rubber
Illze B Photography 
Hype PR

Thank you so much for your continued support!

The SA Open Championship was held in conjunction with the SA Closed. Always a fierce contest, Mike Wessels reigned supreme and displaying masterful tactical surfing along with strength and execution. Francois Steyn was placed second with Bruce Viaene and Malan Calitz in third and fourth. Open ladies was won by Sandra Pienaar.  

Plenty of fun was had in and out of the water and the comradery was loved by all. The festivity of the event was celebrated by the fun filled tag team event which was contested by four teams Western Province A and B, KZN and EP. Western Province A came out trumps by scoring the winning wave over EP in the last minute.

We all eagerly await KZN to host the 2023 SA Champs.

World Waveski Champs in Ventura, California 2022

Five of our national surfers are heading off to Ventura in California in November of this year. Sadly, the number of our competitors at this event are few, much due to the expense of getting to the USA and the difficulty surrounding obtaining visa’s.

We wish our team all the best and will shout for them to bring back the medals and trophies. The team:

Trent Williams (Cadet)
Kai Williams (Cadet)
Bruce Viaene (Senior, Open)
Francois Steyn (Grand Master, Open)
Ken Clements (Grand Legend)

Newly appointed Vice President Johann Momberg talks us through the rest of the year as well as AGM plans.

As 2022 winds down, we still have 2 events to look forward to;

• The 2022 WP Open takes place 24-25 September and looks like it will be extremely competitive

as most of the big names in SA Waveski surfing will be there. Those competing, good luck and go big as it will be your last chance this year to show what you can do! If you are not attending you should definitely add it to your plans for 2023 to avoid some serious FOMO! Check out the action on LiveHeats: https://liveheats.com/events/48755

• World Waveski Titles 2022 takes place in November and for those going we wish you great waves during the contest and bring some titles home where they belong!!
   

The end of every year is also AGM time for most of the provinces and below are the dates to remember;
Eastern Province – November 2022
Border – November 2022
KZN – November 2022
Western Province – March 2023

Please note very important info below regarding voting at your provincial AGM:

• You must be a paid up member of your club/province to be eligible to cast a vote at a AGM
• You must be a paid up member of SAWSA to be eligible to vote at a AGM

It is extremely important to attend your local AGM if you want to have a say in your province, so please make an effort to attend.

Development is of crucial importance to grow our sport and therefore all provinces will run development programs during summer to help interested people make the step into Waveski surfing. If you know of anyone yet to make the splash, forward them this email & urge them to get in contact with us for info on latest clinics.

Looking at 2023 we are once again expecting a bumper packed year with SA champs coming to KZN and no less than 3 Opens again planned for the year seeing the return of Easter Province Champs!

In closing, enjoy the rest of 2022 and happy surfing and keep fit for 2023 as it is going to be another great year for SA Waveski surfing!

Cheers,
Johann

Priority system – Duran Martin
The new 4-man priority system is being implemented at the upcoming World Waveski Surfing Titles. This system brings a host of benefits as it attempts to give all riders in the water an opportunity to catch the best waves to showcase their waveski surfing ability. This new system will be trialed at the upcoming WP Open to expose our SA Team to this style of competing, before heading to California, USA. In order to keep up to date and best prepare our riders to compete at an international level, the SAWSA Executive Committee are planning to hold each National Event (Provincial Opens and SA Champs) to the standards outlined in the WWSA Rulebook, which includes the new priority system.

New constitution – Darryl Moodie
Your new SAWSA Executive Committee has been hard at work developing a new, up-to-date and dynamic SAWSA Constitution that will include:

• A desire to foster and maintain a positive, fun-filled and interactive spirit amongst the South Africa Waveski surfing community – as researched and expressed by the majority of SAWSA members consulted since the start of this constitutional renewal process
• relevant and appropriate structures and clauses that have been gleaned from the Constitutions of a variety of associated watersport associations – including:-
  • the latest World Waveski Surfing Association (WWSA) Constitution – to whom SAWSA is responsible;
  • the Canoeing South Africa (CSA) Constitution – to whom the SAWSA Executive has elected to affiliate with in the pursuit of Protea colours for top riders, ex SASCOC;
  • the Surfing South Africa (SSA) Constitution
  • the original South African Waveski Surfing Association (SAWSA) –  
  • various provincial association constitutions such as the Western Province Waveski Surfing Association (WPWSA)

This document is intended to govern the manner in which SAWSA and the elected SAWSA Executive Committee for a particular year, in particular, will interact with the South African Waveski community in order to develop top, internationally competitive waveskiers, as well as to develop and grow the gees and fun-filled sport of Waveskiing overall.

Training & development – Ken Clements
With summer approaching & World Waveski Champs in November, we are focusing on bringing in newbie Waveski riders at Clinics from 1st October to 30th March 2023. We will run Clinics at Big Bay & or Muizenberg almost every Sat 9am to 11am, hope to invite some of them to WP Trials & then SA Champs in Durban 2023. We have set up sub committees in each region, and suggest Provinces do the same.

Competition diary 2023 – Duran Martin
From a strategic point of view the SAWSA Executive Committee has planned all provincial and national events to take place during school holiday periods – making it easier for families to travel as well as to take advantage of linking these events, but not conflicting with, other provincial events that are generally planned for holiday periods. Hopefully this will serve to increase the exposure of our waveskiing events, but it must be emphasized that the main objective must always be to choose those venues that are likely to offer the optimal wave quality – even if these are in more remote areas. We can always achieve exposure – and sponsorship interest – via our live feeds. in addition, in the planning of these events “venue flexibility” will be key and a “roving venue” structure/et-up shall be adopted as much as possible to facilitate this.

The tentative dates for the provincial and national events for next year, based on the Coastal School calendar, are as follows:-

Easter holiday period : 1-11 April
Border Open
Winter holiday period : 24 June – 17 July
EC Open
KZN Open and SA Champs
Spring holiday period : 30 September – 9 October
WP Open

Sponsorship & funding 2023 – Darryl Moodie
One of the key objectives of the newly elected SAWSA Executive Committee for the 2022/2023 financial year will be to embark on a concerted sponsorship and membership funding drive. This will hopefully be achieved through a variety of inter-related measures – such as a drive to encourage all existing SAWSA members to pay their annual SAWSA fees well in advance of the SAWSA financial year end (being the 28th February 2023), various drives to encourage old members to renew their SAWSA membership again – irrespective of whether they wish to compete or not – and the encouragement and motivation of acquiring new members amongst the canoeing, surfskiing, lifesaving and  surfing communities et al – especially amongst the younger age groups.

World Champs Bid 2024
SAWSA are currently compiling a bid to host the 2024 World Waveski Surfing Titles in East London/Buffalo City at the world class wave: Nahoon Reef.

This is a huge undertaking and the organisation is working with key role players and stakeholders to bring this international event to South Africa.

Those interested in getting involved, can get in touch with Trystan Viaene.

Any general questions/ queries can be directed to Nakita Rossouw, Secretary on the below details; info.sawsa@gmail.com

Klap it, have fun & remember, if in doubt, paddle out!

Kind Regards.

Francois