I’m looking to gauge your interested in the formation of an official Sydney based Windsurfing Social Club. Below is a brief description for the purpose of the club and its benefits. Please let me know what you think using the forum, PM or call me 0412 2622 085. Look forward to hearing from you.
The purpose of the club is to create a social network around a sport we all love. A club that will help to facilitate and support our ongoing enjoyment of windsurfing and spread the passion we love. And more importantly to ensure that we foster longevity of the sport and it’s venues for a long time to come. After all we are a minority and history show that minority groups don’t get a good deal, so we need to affiliate.
To make the club viable as an official not for profit organisation we would need to charge a membership fee in the vicinity of $40 per year. The bulk of this would be to cover public liability insurance.
How would you benefit as a member ??.......well the benefits are huge!!!!!
• Get to know, socialise and enjoy sailing with likeminded individuals
• You will have Public liability insurance cover, in case you run over a jet skier or dent an expensive yacht
• Fun windsurfing events – racing, cruising and social gatherings
• Opportunity to support the community and windsurfing’s longevity
• Community / club portal to facilitate better communication
• Affiliation with other clubs and windsurfing bodies
• Access to coaching – Intro to windsurfing, beginner programs, gear tuning, speed & wave sailing, counselling
• Discounts on windsurfing equipment and other services
But the bottom line is the club will allow you to enjoy your sport more and for a long time to come.
Des, why not run it as the social arm of Stormriders
www.stormriders.com.au
There are social memberships etc, and the club is established, so there is not upfront admin costs.
JB
Jason, I was considering that. I had a long chat with Brett on Sunday, during the windless race, and he gave me the lowdown. I'm happy to do whatever works and means the least amount of administration.
I am happy to join and I'll ask Carol my wife to sign up too as she is learning. Something along this line has been discussed in the Queensland windsurfing forum in a thread about the Wind Wanderers. The Wanderers could be a model for a social windsurfing club setup for NSW.
Count me in. I reckon its agreat idea Des.
My daughter wants to learn windsurfing this summer and we all know kids respond better to learning and having fun with other kids.
Besides that the Wind wanderers seemed to be a great success so lets hope everybody gets behind it.
As and aside, are we on for another sail at Kyeemagh this Thursday??
I think $40 a year is pretty good value esp. if you get PL insurance.
Opens the door for a whole lot of social events.
BYO after a sail evening BBQ's (Summertime)?
Annual Swap Meets?
Planned Weekends away?
Maybe WSS would like to offer a small discount for members?
Any other suggestions?
FormulaNova - you are quite correct, www.storm-riders.com.au is right.
I expect that like most things, StormRiders is focused on racing because thats what the active members want to do. If they changed their minds tomorrow and wanted to do freestyle, then the focus of the club would become freestyle.
I doubt that precludes anyone else from volounteering and organising another discpline. If you wanted social get-togethers, then it would fall to someone with an interest in that aspect of windsurfing to organise them (as waiting4wind has done).
You will find that a lot of the people who attended the first W4W Thurs eve event were existing Stormriders members and the usual suspects wrt organising the race series. The focus of the club may be racing, but they still like to get on the water regardless.
Let the racers do the racing, and have a completely seperate occasion for socialising, they dont have to be the same event.
I also understand that "social membership" does not include insurance. But there is an option to "Join the club", which does include insurance. This is seperate to "Join the club and series" which is racing focussed.
JB
Hey des,,
I think Jaybee has many good points.
I'm sure all of us who windsurf would like to feel like we can enjoy a few beers with the others at the end of the day. To learn as much as we can, and to feel like we belong to the tribe of windsurfing .
If the wind dies, or your race was bad, or you couldn't get planing, or if you dumped it in your Gybe AGAIN!!,,,, then what better way to get over it than to sit around enjoying maybe a BBQ or a few beers talking about how good it was last time, or how good it's gonna be next time.
I feel that as windsurfers, and as a minority, we almost have an obligation to support, nurture, and protect windsurfing. Developing and encouraging more social interaction can only contribute to the growth and general well being of our sport in the future.
I will for sure love to be a part of anything to do with windsurfing in Sydney. There are already the foundations in place for such a good scene here!!!!!
In the last few weeks I have,,,,
,,,,Raced formula in Botany bay.
,,,,,Caught up with some of the local crew i met last year. (you were much faster on my falcon jamie 
)
,,,,,met a whole new bunch of guys while freeriding a N/E at kyeemagh
,,,,,,,Had a great fun day at Thursday fun race. ( thanks for the coopers des )
,,,,,Had beers and BBQ while meeting THE! Ricardo Camponello at wanda. ( thanks sam)
,,,,And helped out with the Australian Slalom titles. (couldn't sail due to injury)
The thing is that, yes some of these events were not blessed with good wind. Indeed some of these events were not blessed with ANY WIND !!! But as i said before, i feel it is our obligation as a member of this tribe,, to support where possible those who go to the trouble of organizing stuff for us. I've adopted this attitude,, If it's windy then we sail. If it's not windy then we drink loads of beer and socialize. It works for me,,,, stops me getting too depressed when it doesn't blow.
If 50 of us turn up to an event when there is no wind forecast,,, then at least it'll be one hell of a PARTY!!!
So,,,,
If it's a new social club? I want to be a member.
If it's to be a part of stormriders i want to be a part of it.
If there is no club,, but just a group of 50+ people who stay in contact and get together on regular occasions to do fun stuff, then count me in.
BUT,,,,, i've already been to every event that has happened over the last month, yet i have not seen more than 30 people anywhere!!!!!!???????????
Great to see you so passionate DES. Look forward to some good wind and some good sessions this season. My shout next time. 
Select to expand quoteJJay said...
Hey des,,
If the wind dies, or your race was bad, or you couldn't get planing, or if you dumped it in your Gybe AGAIN!!,,,,
/quote]
Jason, are you talking about me again!
John, oops I called you Jason in an earlier post, mixed my JJ's.
Thanks for all your ideas and suggestions. As I mentioned I was really looking to gauge the level of interest as a result of a discussion I had with Brett.
I think Stormriders definitely has a racing theme in the club's make up and hence attracts those that are more passionate about that element of the sport (and they enjoy a drink or three as well ). Having spent a lot of time chatting with the Botany crew in 'windless' sessions you definitely see a common theme of interest that comes up in those conversations. I think that if a club can support that interest then it would have legs.
Given the windsurfing community is relatively small we don't need to have a situation where clubs are competing for membership. So I think the idea of having a sub to Stormriders or a specific chapter of the club focusing on non race interests is worth looking into.
Can I suggest one of the first things the $40.00 per member goes toward is the buying of a van and appointing a driver for the days when it's blowing 20 knots Nor East at Kyeemagh and the chances of you getting a park within 1 km from a decent rigging area is NILL and you have no choice but to double park, dump your gear, go find a park miles away, trudge back to rig, only to find you left something in your car and find yourself asking why you bothered anyway and is it really worth sailing at Kyeemagh or would you be better off somewhere else???
Rant over
Oh and by the way Des, I'm in
I'm in for sure. Personally I think an affiliation with an existing organisation is the way to go.
If one of the objectives of the organisation would be to try and encourage the growth of windsurfing then maybe this new club / sub-branch could look at working closely with the Uni NSW windsurfing club (naturally with their approval) in some way. Looking at thier Facebook site they are a pretty active group which regularly arranges weekends away and social gatherings. Lots of people have just recently donated them gear.
Maybe we could look at organising some joint events where we can pass on our own knowledge / tips / bad habbits 
which could hopefully try and assist them in getting to that next pinnacle in the long road of learning to windsurf.
which could hopefully try and assist them in getting to that next pinnacle in the long road of learning to windsurf.
Mate how sweet would that be....It'd be just like being in a bikie gang but with a different mode of transport. We could have grommets hanging around that we could bribe to clean the joint for us. Geez if we had enough people interested I reckon we could make the weekly repayments....
I'll donate $10.00 a week toward it!
Social chapter of the Storm Riders club is a great idea.
That way you dont have to be a member of both if you also want to race.
Windwanderers NSW or Storm-Riders, its all good
see here for QLD Discussion of this sorta thing
www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=42901
When i'm in Syd (not often) i'd love to pop in to sail with such club (whatever name is chosen), sounds fun
If it's like a bikie gang - I want a leather jacket with skulls and sails on the back.
And a bike. That can carry a windsurfer.
Hm.
in like flin, the boss would also be in, she is keen on the beers afterwards for sure.
I think a club would be a fantastic idea, i really enjoyed the first race even thought i was last! anyway i think it would be a great way of learing from the more experienced sailors. I would be more than happy to pay $40 a year, come to think about it id pay $40 a week if im going to learn more
Count me in
There was a house for sale right on the corner of the Grand Parade and Bestic Street. Is it still for sale? A friend and I thought a few weeks ago that it wouldn't be a bad place to buy and knock the house down (though its a beautiful house) and put a tin shed up with a loft for equipment and bar downstairs.
However pehaps its better not to have a club house as a clubhouse will tie any club down to one particular spot. Of course if the club received a fat government sports grant there would be worse things to spend the money on.
