NEW SLSA DIRECTOR BOARD SEATED

The March 1, 2009, Second Life Surfing Association (SLSA) election produced a newly elected Board combining some familiar faces with some new faces. SurfWatch recently caught up with them to get their goals for their coming terms:

VW Sands was re-elected for another six month term. Sands has been a staple on the Second Life surf scene, inducted into the Second Life Surfing Hall of Fame just after last season and hosting and judging surf comps for the nearly two years he's been in Second Life. He's the owner of Vibrations Surf Alliance and Vibes surf team, and the estate manager of the now dissolved Bishara Estates and the new Mori Pwani/Tuli surf beaches. He states, "My main goal for the upcoming season is to restore some of the spirit that we seem to have lost, encourage sportsmanship and fair play, stress FUN and try and get us back to the simple things we love about Second Life surfing."

Albel Halderman is new to the Board for a six month term, altho not new to the Second Life surf scene. Halderman was a founder of Team Tsunami and involved in the development of the Livestrong set of sims and the old Tsunami beach sim. Regarding his new Board position, Halderman states, "I am new on the Board, but all the directors that have been serving for a long time welcomed the new directors - Robbin and myself - in a very nice way. The current directors are very open minded. I enjoy participating in what is happening in the SLSA and trying to help with making things work and improve. It's a great challenge for me. The SLSA's main goal is to promote surfing. In order to do that in an effective way, we need to make it more open to people which means let more people compete. That's the first and main thing."

Carennah Ku and Mick Lunasea left the Board, unable to complete their six month terms for personal reasons and requiring the SLSA to hold a bi-election to fill the remaining three months of their terms.

Colleen Brennan served a previous term as an SLSA Director, serving as an advisor before being re-elected to fill an incompleted three month term. She has been involved with the start up of GR Board, a prominent surf team in the 2007 season, and later helped found Team Tsunami. She, along with Bobbi Laval (long time surf champion), are the only two competitors who have surfed in every single SLSA competition since it's inception. With an in-depth understanding of the issues facing the SLSA, Colleen wants to deal with the pressing issues of competition registrations, the ongoing challenges of sponsorship, competition judging and allowable board scripts (editors note: look for more in-depth coverage with Colleen later in SurfWatch on these issues). Brennan states, "The absolute most important thing I can hope to accomplish, tho, is getting us through a season and having most people think, 'that was fun - I had a good time surfing with my friends.'"

Robbin Ember is new to the Board, elected to fill an incompleted three month term. She had been involved with the now dissolved Cornish Surf Team and the Montego surf team and is still involved with the development of Montego Beach at Sands Point. Ember states, "I guess that I have no preset goals except to realize the issues that need to be addressed and then listen to the advice and opinion of the members and implement the best and most effective alternatives, and hopefully promote and give back to the community that has given me so much in such a short time."

A familiar face remaining on the Board to complete the final three months of her current six month term, Sally LaSalle has been involved in Second Life surfing since the very first competition which was held at her island of Chi back on March 24, 2007. Sally was inducted into the Second Life Surfer Hall of Fame in December 2007. Her involvement has included design and development of the surf competition judging HUD and judging at virtually every SLSA event since the SLSA was formed. LaSalle states, "I would like to accomplish world peace and solve world hunger and world climate stabilization (grins). But realistically, I would like to see a painless path for the association to grow along so that more people can enjoy and have fun with surfing, but with less stress on the organizers. I think that the newly elected Board is a great mix of personalities and viewpoints, representing all the members, and also a good mix of experience and new blood. So I'm looking forward to a fun season with lots of people in the mix, and most important, some great surfing!!"

Useful links
URL: SLSA

Share: