Welcomes
Welcome to the summer edition of
Surfing Australia’s magazine. There
is a remarkable amount of activity
to report on as we continue to
strive towards creating a healthier
and happier Australia through
experiencing the joy of surfing for life.
The Original Source Australian
Boardriders Battle Series III was a huge
success with both the state qualifying rounds and the National
Final at Cronulla again producing excellent competition,
attendance and media coverage.
We remain extremely confident of Olympic inclusion into
the 2020 Tokyo games and look forward to the official
announcement later this year.
The world class Hurley Surfing Australia High Performance
Centre(HPC) and it’s AIS Aerial Surf Skate Training Facility
continues to provide our athletes and aspiring world champions
with a distinct advantage to hone skills. We are committed to
being at the forefront of competitive innovation and we sincerely
value the support of our partners including Hurley and the AIS.
MySURF.tv continues to deliver outstanding results and Surfing
Australia’s digital team has done a remarkable job of capturing
the essence of our inspiring lifestyle, always delivering amazing
content across all our digital and social platforms.
I want to thank all of our partners, state members, and all of the
dedicated board and staff members at Surfing Australia for their
hard work and commitment to ensuring our long-term success.
Welcome to the Surfing Australia
Magazine for Autumn 2016. It’s been
an eventful year to date with not only
fantastic surf in Australia and around
the world but some amazing events
and Australian athletes achieving
great results.
At the grass roots level our participation
numbers continue to grow and take up for
our Weet-Bix Surfgroms program has seen over 7000 kids enjoy the
program over summer. A big congratulations to North Narrabeen
Boardriders, our 2016 Original Source Australian Boardriders Battle
Champions.
Our Surfing Australia Sport Development Program continues to
strengthen and we are seeing genuine signs of participants who are
flowing through this pathway having started in Weet-Bix Surfgroms
a few years ago and now competing in and having success in our
Wahu and Subway event programs, joining clubs and attending our
Hurley Surfing Australia High Performance Centre.
The Olympic announcement for Japan 2020 and surfing’s potential
inclusion is getting closer and we hope to be officially announced
as an Olympic sport this August in Rio. This will be a game changer
in many ways for our sport and we are genuinely excited by the
opportunity.
Our digital platform mySURF.tv has experienced explosive growth
in recent months off the back of premium content from an amazing
run of giant swell in Hawaii and more recently the cyclone swell on
the East coast of Australia. We have been achieving over 1 million
video views month and our mySURF.tv 10 x ½ shows on channel 9
over summer reached an audience of over 3 million.
Happy Surfing!
Layne Beachley AO
Chair
We hope you enjoy the magazine and happy surfing for the year
ahead.
Regards
Andrew Stark
Chief Executive Officer
2 Issue 13 / Autumn 2016