SW: You are currently ranked 8th for last season's SLSA surf rankings, and you've been surfing for almost 2 years. We understand you have announced your intent to run for SLSA Director this term. What would you bring as a director and why are you running?
AH: I think being a Director is mostly about hard work, giving up some of the activities you would be doing if you didn’t serve, a knowledge of how things work and how to organize events. It’s about being loyal to the community. It’s also about being open to new ideas and listening to what other community members suggest. A Director is obligated to come up with ideas on how to resolve problems, too. It’s also about standing up for what you believe is right. And I have passion for our community and working for it. That’s what I would bring as a Director.
I think the candidates are there for a “selfish” reason, too. I believe it’s simply a satisfaction that they experience when something they worked on, works out. It is the same for me. I feel that with all the experience I’ve gotten from the former and current Directors and officers, from organizing and running events, I can be efficient in working for the community. It’s volunteer work, but it’s so worth it. The satisfaction that comes from it compensates for everything.
SW: What areas of improvement do you currently see?
AH: I think the SLSA has improved in the following ways since season 2 2008 and in the recent off season:
1. After I joined the Board last season, we had a major change. The SLSA suddenly faced a huge active membership growth. The Tsunami competition had about 45 surfers in it, but that event still had a limited number of competitors. The action we took to manage competition and growth was, in my opinion, one of the most important steps the SLSA has ever made. The idea of two weekend competitions really came from the surfers. The SLSA basically opened its competitions for an unlimited number of surfers. Since then, all registered surfers surf. No more number limits. I think it worked great. Next competitions were only larger (at some point I think we had about 65 surfers registered for an event). It also gave higher ranked surfers an opportunity to work for the community by participating in Round 1 events as staff.
It had major consequences. Of course, the SLSA needed more trained staff, but also there were people interested in helping, and they did:
- Tauri Tigerpaw trained new marshalls, for example, Mick Lunasea and Asyah Thorne.
- Sally LaSalle, the most experienced judge in the SLSA, become a leader of the SLSA Judges group. Its purpose is to give training and support to judges, and to establish a pool of people interested in judging the SLSA competitions so an Event Coordinator or a Head Judge knows who to ask, who is trained, and who has what level of experience and training.
- Colleen Brennan, the most experienced SLSA fundraiser, become a leader of the SLSA Fundraisers group and, along with WickedV Carver, the Financial Officer, and the members belonging to the Fundraisers group, archived major success that allowed us to increase the pay for the officers' work a bit more: 400 lindens/hour in Mori Pwani Round 2 event. That was a 33% raise compared to the last season.
- SLSA Media group which was created to gather video makes, photographers and eventually our webmaster, Express Zenovka, too, I hope.
2. A question about the categories of boards brought up should be treated as an improvement, too. Is the longboard/shortboard distinction still pertinent? We are still working on that answer .
3. The SLSA gadgets and clothes, for example, the jackets and boardies at the Mori Pwani competitions. They do show a sense of community spirit if you wear them.
4. Changing the tie breaker rule. We’ve had a “no tie for second place” rule, which allowed one of the tied surfers to advance, and another fail to advance from a heat. Right now, starting with the Mori Pwani competition, we've replaced it with a new rule: both surfers tied for second place in a heat, advance. The only exception are semi-final heats, where we have a surf-off wave that allows the tied surfers to go head to head and the winner advances. And God, it’s exciting!! It was at Mori for sure!
5. Creating the SLSA youtube channel (SLSurfingAssiciation) where all video makers can post their surf videos.
SW: What do you see as the top issues and what would be your first priority?
AH: I see other ways of improvement and that’s the Board actually discussing things like:
1. Modify the structure to give more responsibility to its active members who are experts in what they do
2. Change the Code of Conduct so it would be more clear,
3. Change the rules to adjust them to the current system,
4. New ways of promoting our sponsors,
5. Improve the SLSA finances so our volunteers and surfers would feel that their work and hours spent on training are very much appreciated,
6. Details regarding competition organization, too, which eventually will give us, surfers and spectators, more fun,
7. Discussing the boards sizes/weight regulation issue. Should it stay the way it is now or be changed to, for example, weight categories?
8. Promoting surfing and the SLSA via the SLSA information booths,
9. Promoting membership in the newly created groups as a way of an active participation in the community,
and a few others, including a general field of adjusting the SLSA to a growing membership.
SW: Why should you be elected over any other candidates?
AH: After the experience I got from active members, officers, former and current Directors who I’ve had an honor to serve with on the Board or work with at competitions, I feel competent to deal with SLSA issues. A huge experience was the first competition I coordinated – Costa Rica, which I think turned out to be a big success and the first release of the new two rounds format. I coordinated one round of the Chi competition, which also was a success, (assisted with) JJ Lane’s, and Topanga. Also helped with every other event held since Costa Rica. All of that makes me confident about my experience, knowledge about how the SLSA works, how the competitions are run, and the work of judge, marshall, DJ, security officer or event coordinator, which is always very hard. I’ve had the pleasure of participating in solving the most important recent issues in the SLSA, including the two rounds format, which also was a success, or the removal of the infamous “no tie for second place” rule. That brought me a lot of personal satisfaction.
I also feel that my advantage is the ability to come up with solutions for particular cases or problems and actually working on solving them or improving the organization even with things that bring us fun and excitement. Best situation ever? A team working together on an issue. Everybody makes mistakes, but when there is a team working on something, there is always someone to say: “Hey, guys, this is crazy, you’re all wrong”. Such a voice should be respected because sometimes one is right and a thousand aren't. I've had the pleasure to experience situations like that in my term on the SLSA Board.
My advantage is passion for surfing and the surf community. Recent sad event, Blood Klotzel’s death, brought us together, in the Blood’s circle, and it made me realize: we really are a community, and when something goes bad or tragic, we work, cry or stay together. Blood will be missed by many. His death brought us together, too.
I just tried to do my job the best way I could and learn as much as I could. There are surely some disadvantages, too. Do I want to think about them? Not really.
SW: What were you most dissatisfied with as an SLSA member in the past season?
AH: I think most of the things have been done the best way possible. Not everything worked out, though, but I guess that’s the thing when an organization faces major growth. There was a lot of adjusting organization of events to the new reality. I think the SLSA should have put more attention to the things that didn’t work and to the ways to solve them, and much less attention to drama. I guess I personally could have done more, too, even with the SLSA work schedule filled to its limits and lacking time for personal life. I sure was dissatisfied with the whole disciplinary thing, because I didn’t think it was a good thing. Maybe it was necessary, but not nice at all, and surely brought us some kind of trauma.
SW: Give us a brief statement or opinion on some of the major issues the SLSA faced in 2009 Season 1 and possible issues moving into Season 2:
International Surfing Challenge
What an awesome idea to have a multi leagues competition! It breaks all walls, all barriers. I think the idea came from Colleen Brennan, who I remember talking about it a year ago. It almost happened this past off season, too. The only problem was an RL issue of the ABSSL leader, Leogarto Burt. I hope everything is fine with him and it will happen soon. Maybe one day it can include the Japanese league, too.
Pulling of the Thor Bishop Award
That was a very sad situation. The last thing anyone had on their mind was hurting Thor’s soulmate, Sierra Sugar. The Thor Bishop Award was a very important thing to the community. I hope that at least in our minds we will still hand it to the most valuable players each season.
The issue of "realistic" surfing vs. "gaming"
SL surfing is always about gaming in some part. We learn from surfers what is possible to do on the waves. And what is possible is dictated by the virtual environment. Is that a good thing? Maybe not, but it’s a fact. Judges give scores and surfers are taught what is good on the waves, at the same time being taught by surfers what is possible. Personally, I always enjoy watching a ride similar to those that we can see in RL.
There is also another side of “realistic” surfing, because surfing is not only the waves and boards, but also a community of beach bums with positive vibes. Is that missing in SL? Only sometimes. In general, we’re good.
The DQ decision
I posted my opinions about it a couple of times. Like I said before, it’s very unfortunate that it happened. The Event Committee made a decision on DQ’ing two surfers. It brought a lot of negative vibes, but it was also according to the Code of Conduct rules. They can be questioned or changed, a proposal can be brought up by any SLSA member, but right now they’re executed as they state. Personally, I see changing or clarifying them as one of my goals if I’m elected. Right now the SLSA Board sees modifying them as one of the active subjects.
The new organizations, competitions, boards and waves
My answer should be short here. New organizations? Great! Awesome! The more surfing the better. Let’s just play nice. Competitions as well. Let’s not forget, one of the SLSA goals IS to promote surfing. Surf events are fun!
There are a few kinds of boards in SL right now. Some I like better, some not so much. So far we’ve been using SSi 5.1 or 5.2 boards of certain size, too. Maybe a weight category should be considered? Should we allow other kinds of boards from other creators? Well, is that what you want to see in competitions? It’s a huge step, so should be taken very carefully. Personally, I would rather stay with one producer. It seems more fair to judge. As for waves… any surfable are good. I’ve seen the new one from Sebestian Saramago, and I would LOVE to surf on them in a competition. They look awesome.
All candidates are invited to complete this Director candidate questionnaire and provide this information and a photo for publication in SurfWatch prior to the election on September 1, 2009. Contact Tauri Tigerpaw if you need more information.
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1 comment:
I just finished reading this now.... ;-))
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