Our first competition of 2012 is on this Saturday, March 24 at Maroubra Beach. Predictions are for clear skies, waves in the 2-3 feet range and offshore winds for much of the day, so basically, pretty darn awesome conditions for us to kick off the 2012 season! All members, 100 clubbers, friends and family are welcome to join us throughout the day on the sand (and after the day at the Sands Hotel as well).
As usual we will have the BBQ, coffee and drinks going for brekky and lunch, the tunes pumping and no doubt the competitors will be putting on a good show for us out in the water. Thanks heaps to Andrew Karo from Southeastern Carpentry for sponsoring this weekend’s competition!
Keep in mind also that the first official $200 cash draw of the Southend 100 Club will take place between 2-3pm, so one lucky 100 Club member will be $200 better off (there are only 10 spots left this year so get in quick if you want a slice of the 100 club action) Details are on the web site and the remaining numbers can be purchased on the site at http://southendboardriders.com.au/purchase/
The competition – things to note…
Sign on: All competitors are required to sign on for the day so that we know you are available to surf. The competition entry fees are included in your membership, so it is really just a matter of dragging yourself out of bed and finding the tents somewhere on the beach (or occasionally on the grass near middle) and signing on.
- All Cadet and Junior boys, Open Men’s and Masters are required to sign on between 7am and 7:45am
- All Micro boys and girls, Cadet Girls and Open Women competitors need to sign on before 11:30am
You need to actually physically be there to sign on as too often SMS sign-on’s and ‘yeah I’ll be there soon’ phone calls have resulted in no shows and heats paddling out into the water a surfer or two short or ending up in a ‘walk through heat’ which stuffs everybody around for the day.
In terms of the way the competition runs throughout the day, there are going to be a few things this season that will be done quite differently to previous seasons, so this will be worth noting for both new and old members alike.
Different Formats: This year we will be using a variety of different competition formats to calculate each competitor’s points. In previous years we used a ‘knockout’ format where if you ended up in the bottom half of the heat, then you were done for the day (only the top 50% of surfers in a heat go onto the next round). For some comps this year (including the first comp for some divisions) we will be trialling a ‘round robin’ format where every surfer in the division will surf twice throughout the day with the top 4 scoring surfers in each division making it into a final. All will be explained in more detail on the day.
As the first comp of the season is traditionally one of the longest and busiest, it is likely that we will trial the round robin system for those divisions that are starting at 8am (i.e. Cadet boys, Junior boys, Open Men’s and Masters), so the Micros, Cadet Girls and Open Women’s divisions which start later in the day will stick with the knockout format this Saturday.
Different Judging System: It started with a web site in 2004, moved onto a stereo and PA system in 2008 then before we knew it the club had a Twitter and Facebook account. Now in 2012 we will be introducing our latest technocratic solution. We will be using an electronic judging system which allows us real-time updates of competitor’s scores and placings in a heat. The tallying of results is done automagically and the heat draws are populated based on seedings (after comp 1) – so in the end we are hoping for a fairer and more streamlined solution and a better way to keep the spectators and competitors informed of a surfers progress. There will no doubt be a few digital teething problems but the committee have been meeting regularly to trial the new system and we’re pretty stoked to be able to launch this for 2012. p.s. If anyone has any experience cleaning sand and beer off iPads, please let us know.
Club and competition rules and tips will be announced throughout the day to make sure everyone knows what the deal is. In the meantime you can also check out the current rules PDF file on the web site at http://southendboardriders.com.au/the-club/rulebook/ – note that the new formats have not yet been added.
On a final note: There is always a big number of new memberships registering during the morning at Comp 1, so we will all be super busy signing up new members, starting up the heat draws, the judging system, the BBQ and everything else. Please lend a hand if you can and bear with us in the first few hours of the comp while we try to get settled for the day. Often this first comp will pretty much go from sunrise to sunset – so please mentally prepare yourself for the long haul!
Unfortunately the company making up the 2012 Southend Singlets has advised us that they are now not going to be ready for this weekend (maybe likely the week after) so we will advise on the best time and place to pick them up when we get a final confirmation. On the positive side, there should at least be a few of the girls t-shirts available on the day (which we will hand out after lunch)
Thanks, and look forward to seeing you on Saturday!