Qualifying for worlds 2011?

[Steeno]

STEENO:
" know the rule is made so that you have to support your local kneeriding clubs etc, and enter the comps to compete.....but for the people who cant do this on a regular bases etc....your an outcast, and dont qualify to come to the world titles."

Sorry don't agree, there are heaps of guys that aren't in clubs that compete, clubs don't have precedence over singular competitors (as I see it anyway)

Maybe I worded this incorrectly, the rule is made to keep the kneeboard circuit supported (not clubs). I can understand this reasoning, otherwise the circuit can fail with no constant competitors, but some gates are still half closed for anyone unable to to follow the circuits due to other commitements. We are a small group of people

[Steeno]

I don't like the idea of dividing the contest locale so some people surf better waves, nor do I agree former champions get a by through the trials unless they were the last comps champion. If you do that, how far back are you going to go? I was a national champion before there was a world championship.

Hi Mike
I think this is the single most critical thing kneeboarding kneeds, to be able to put the best 20 kneeboarders in waves that do kneeboarding proud, Waves of consequnce that would justify the heritage and developement of kneeboarding as a whole.

Who would love to see Gavin, Bill Lerner, Gigs, Simon, Barry, Bert etc attacking 8-10 foot spitting barrels?

Rex Huffman, Greenough, Crawford etc where breaking ground in the early years for charging solid round waves. Thats our heritage.

I see it happen here regularly and its a sight to behold.

Lets do kneeboarding justoice

[Steeno]

the truth is, we need an elite division that can match the heritage of our sport and surf waves that are made for kneeboarding.

I have never seen a kneeboard comp in thirty years be run in what you would call serious kneeboarding surf. That surfing made legends of the guys like Rex, crawford, skinner etc

we should give these legends and our sport something to be proud of.

[albert]

ALBERT:
"I think there is also a slight sense of leniancy in these guidelines put up by the governing bodies. If some of you feel you cant make it to other comps but want to make it to the worlds, you should plead your case with the powers that be in your respective country's governing bodies. Sometimes all it takes is a well written email to open up the right doors."
Spot on (from Aussie competitors point of view) Club members go through their club officials & singular comptitors through the Surfers Rep. (Mark McCloud - sorry Mark I hope that's how you spell it) - these representatives are in place for this very sort of thing.
Cheers Wolruss

Hey Wolruss, unfortunately in the past, the surfers rep position has been held by people who have done little if anything at all. I believe Mark can change this though!

However, I think what Steeno is writing about is a complete overhaul of the current system, am I right?

[jdc]

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womble wrote: back in feb or something
Not that I want to ... but if I did ... you know hypothetically speaking ... or if a friend of a friend wanted to ... or say if Old Crazy in a fit of impulsiveness decided that he wanted to compete at the 2011 worlds ... not that he's going to ... but if he did ... what would he have to do to qualify for the competition.
Apart from joining say Surfing Queensland ...

then jdc aka dorje thought back in march

WOMBLE, I invite you to join my movement to boycott this event as its basically unkneeboarding in nature.

a true kneelo world champ should be able to roll up on the morning of the comp, slap down the entry fee, win through each heat to the final, wipe the known possers in the final off the score sheet, collect the silverware, and not be seen ever again. The silverware turns up (12 years later) 325 km inland at a garage sale being held by scornful women rueing the day she ever picked up the hitch hiker with a wider than normal board...the board turns up at the back of the garage (as new)..."yeah you can have it for $20"


actually I agree with steen...do something different to have a world champ, a bit like red's cup, 20 or so chosen by peers as the best

have the other aspect of the comp open to all comers on first in best dressed regardless of any other comps surfed


i would think that some may surf a "world title" cos it sounds big but as noted, the waves are not really ever what sets the champs apart from the very good or the mere experienced -

im happy to fall into a mere experienced catagory and saying 'im in a world title comp' would just be a wank - it feels good but it would never be productive!

id rather watch the truly gifted go hammer and tong at 8ft+ and push my vertical limits in 4ft+ in semi comp for beer and fun.


In general I try and make sure my SURF $$$ go to kneelo shapers and the local independant surf store owner - hes got four daughters after aLL

[wolruss]

Steeno,Albert, thanks for the input guys, all very good points........I do feel that the next step though, to seeing something like this happening is to follow the system in place - there has to be a system in place, right, a structure otherwise we wouldn't have a kneeboard circuit or indeed a World Titles event - so that the people running the current system can evaluate these points & incorporate these improvements, that's what I mean by following the current avenues eg. club officials/surfers rep (and I definitely agree Mark has the makings of an excellent appointee) let's make use of them and try and make some changes happen (of course-like the tv ad says- it won't happen overnight) instead of spinning the wheels here and taking it no further.
This sort of thinking from the very people who've been involved in the sport is the sort of stuff that'll make kneeboarding the stand out we would all like to see, lets use the channels open to us to make changes happen.
I am full of praise for this site and the ability to air one's thoughts in forum style (an important ingredient in our global brotherhood) but if we're making a racket of the way things are being currently run and not approaching this thing to actually bring about some changes to the people that can make those changes, surely the noise will only become an annoyance to those we need to convince.......what do you guys say........ IMHO.
I love the fact that this discussion is civil and productive lets keep it moving ahead and give club officials & Mark a chance to excel at their job.

Cheers Wolruss

[red]

Some nice ideas about alternative formats.

Problem with the "top 20" format is "who decides?". Without a WQS style ranking system it's tricky to "get" a top 16 or 20 or whatever, especially given the tyranny of distance, and vagaries of contest dates and conditions. A top 20 decided in a series of comps in 2' waves?

Also, every region has its "below the radar" people who could be world champs given an option to compete in real waves. Who's to choose whether they should be excluded from the "top 20" because they are not high profile?

The conundrum exits, though: how to make the world comp inclusive enough to get all kneeboarders present and enjoying themselves, yet ensure that the cream floats to the top in waves of consequence?

Possibly only apply the elegibilty rules to the open division, but let anyone enrol for age divisions?

At least Phillip Island has the potential to provide consistent swell and waves in most conditions so we'll not be limited to a single beach with tiny waves.

[jdkneelo]

I hate to say it but i agree with everything jdc said

[jdc]

hEH jdk

bruce hart and i had some interesting correspondence online over the years with me as dorje then john (see swellnet "honeymoon over" author profile for 1000 + posts)

Mr farrer and I have also debated

had a phone ccoversation with bruce when getting a board off him and we spoke for about half an hour and all i could think was f@#$% me we are pretty similar! it was great chat about surfing life as kneeboarders see it!

So

i tend never to trust my online assessment of people on this site (in general )


Red - the age divisions being open for any punter is a great idea for any comp and have truly dedicated eligability surf for the open

a champion is such because of comps whilst a legend is thus because people have seen them do amazing things everywhere - comps have there place and i suppose a world champ with legend status is near mythical

[crox]

"Possibly only apply the elegibilty rules to the open division, but let anyone enrol for age divisions?"

That is a very good idea Red....& maybe the winners of those divisions get to surf in the open event....more cream!

If the winners are already in the open then perhaps the first surfer who isn't.

[Steeno]

Surfers that dont support the circuit cannot compete in the elite division, the open amatuer event could be for these guys that fly below the radar.

Flying below the radar's are not supporting a circuit so they can only enter the open amatuer division. (still a world title) To make the ellite division you would have to prove yourself via the circuit, or countries national tittles etc. Kneeboard Surfing International would have to nominate a number of people each country has to enter the ellite division.

There could be 24 positions in the ellite, 20 that have qualified, and 4 that received a wildcard, the wildcard placing is from the top 4 places in the amatuer event from the last World Titles. giving an entry for the open amatuer division to make it into the ellite. If one of the wildcards cant make it, the 5th, 6th, 7th, or on from the previous worlds fills the ellite division.

the ellite division should be about the highest level of kneeboarding possible.

[Stanley]

I agree with you Red,

Not at all, do we get the best kboarders at the pro am events. Being that most of the events are in the northeastern states and the premiere event in Vic at Phillip island...

And I know for a fact it would be harder for the AUS guys to qualify for a top 20 position of an elite comp as we have soo much depth where other country's wouldn't have to beat as many competitors to get in a top 20 world tital circuit..

Soo how do we pick the elite as there are so many kboarders around our great country in other states that are under the radar?

Do we have an invitational contest inviting the under the radar hot kboard surfers with the top known guys to a central location in great waves somewhere off the east coast. Maybe Vic, South Aus or WA where we have consistent swells and great locations where we don't have to clear the water or fight the standup crew for our waves.

If the invited surfers cant turn up they forfeit their right to qualify for the elite 20.

We all surf off and the top 10 results of the invitational take up 10 spots of the elite group leaving the rest of the world to battle out for the other 10 spots .

Then i think it would be good for every one to qualify for a worlds but not as age groups but ability levels. to be crowned as amateur wordchampions in respective divisions.

Eg.. we all surf 1 round as an open event and our placing in our first heat 1st to 4th puts us in our respective divisions and once we get the finalists from our respective divisions they can surf off against the top 20 elite for the world pro kboard tital as well as winning the Amateur world tital in there respective division...

Gives every one a chance at there level of surfing competences to compete and win as well as enjoying the spectacle of watching the elite guys do there stuff...

Just some lateral thinking on how to achieve a better system with out criticism of our current system that has served us well in the past..

But how do we implement changes to the system?

And who,s going to put there hand up and get involved on our respective surfing committees and put some elbow grease in to help with the change..

Its always easy to criticize where our weaknesses are and pick out problems, but to think of ideas that can help and submit them to your respective surfing body's is how we will perfect our sport with a proactive approach..

Stan

[Steeno]

All good points stan, no one is criticising the current runners, this is just throwing up ideas of maybe giving the sport something a exciting to watch.

It would be harder for australians to get a position, but australia may have more nominated positions in the elite division to balance this out because we have more surfers, entry is to the elite division is achievable in two ways, commit to the circuit and earn a spot because you deserve it, or finish in the top 4 in the open amatuer to enter the elite division that way.

The under the radars can only make the elite division by taking a top 4 placing in the amatuer open title. thats not stopping people, it's saying if your good enough and want to surf with the elite then you will support the circuit and go to the qualifying rounds, or you take your chances at making the top 4 in the amtauers.

your right, if the elite people forfeit their position and dont show up, the 5th place, 6place and so on from the amatuer division make it into the elite division.

[Steeno]

its actually quite interesting, not much would need to change from the current system, except introducing the new elite division..

[Stanley]

I agree with you steen and some of your point are very valid.

And Im not having a go at you either you are very proactive but there are a few people on this site that aren't .

the reason there is a lot of under the radar surfers is because of the locations people live and also the expense you have to outlay to compete in the curcut eg flights, time off from work business, kids and mortgages and the day to day living expences.

Also dates of events being changed due to uncontrollable circumstances but this dosent help those that have booked times and paid for accommodation for proposed dates of events and mis out on a chance at the title. Do they get given points so they still have a chance to surf in the elite class??

so to make it fair for the under the radar surfers to compete we need to have a program where we have a proamm in each state 1 in qld, Vic ,sa NSW, TAS and WA and then we will see how many people will support the curcut...

And then we will get the best elite surfers this country could be proud of having.

So how do we get a truly Aus pro am circuit that covers all states ?