ACTIVITIES REPORT 2007 Dec. 1, 2007

The Barbados Surfing Association held its annual General Meeting on Thursday, 7th December 2006 and elected the following Executive Committee: President – Mr. Andrew Lewis; Vice-President – Mr. Jason Kistoo; Secretary – Mrs. Margot Tuach and Treasurer – Mrs. Rachel Roett. This Committee was responsible for running the BSA’s affairs in 2007. Mr. Jason Kistoo chaired the fund-raising committee and worked closely with the other BSA Executive Committee members and some parents to raise funds . Mr. Christopher Clarke continued his valuable service as a BSA Associate responsible for transporting Contest equipment to the Contest Sites. Mr. Elvis Carter also continued his support as Head Judge and judged most contests together with Peter Corbin, Margot Tuach, Jason Kistoo, Nick Donawa, Eneko Nicholls and Peter Medford. Mrs Heather Medford also continued her sterling service as Tabulator and Andrew Lewis as Contest Director.

The BSA’s website www.bsasurf.net continued to be administered by Mr. Kenneth Tuach and was the main source of information for BSA members together with the monthly newsletter.

The main goals of the 2007 committee were as stated in the BSA’s Constitution i.e. “to promote the sport of surfing in all its forms in Barbados, to sponsor, hold and organize Surfing Competitions, to send selected members of the Association to Surfing Competitions wherever held, to raise monies by private or public functions or otherwise for the purposes of the Association and to accept contributions from members of the public for the purposes of the Association as aforesaid”. The following activities report will demonstrate that the BSA Executive was successful in meeting these goals. Focus continued to be placed on Junior Surfing with a view to improving the level of surfing and this has reaped great rewards this year as five Juniors ended the year in the top ten of the Open Men’s Division and all top four Ladies were under 18.

The BSA’s Event Schedule for 2007 was as follows:

Contests started at 8:00 a.m. and the following Divisions were contested:

Open
Junior Boys – Under 18 & Under 16
Junior Under 12
Ladies Open and Under 18
Long Board
Body Board
Masters (35 years and over)

Awards were given for the Surfer of the Year Contests, the N.K.M.School Championships, the Lazy Days National Championships and the Sprite Gromfest to the top four finalists of each Division.

Teams for overseas contests (the ISA WJSC and the Pan American Games) were picked on the basis of points accrued in the SOTY events. In addition, team members were required to undergo training and drug tests in keeping with the BSA’s and ISA’s zero tolerance policy and in compliance with the BSA’s Code of Conduct.

History was made on two occasions this year. Firstly, Bruce Mackie was the first Junior in twenty (20) years to take both the Under-18 Boys and the Open Titles at the Second Surfer of the Year Event. Alan Burke was the last Junior to do this back in 1987. In addition, Elvis Carter and Margot Tuach were the first two BSA officials to receive National Sports Council Awards for their outstanding performance and international recognition in the area of judging in 2006.

Junior surfer, Stefan Corbin, repeated Mackie’s feat becoming Barbados’ National Open and Junior Champion at the Lazy Days National Championships held at Soup Bowl Bathsheba on September 15th and 16th. The other National Champions were as follows: Under 16 Junior Boys – Lewis St. John; Ladies – Melanie Pitcher; Under 18 Girls – Ametza Nicholls; Under 12 Juniors – Chelsea Tuach; Masters – Stewart Stoute; Longboard – Alan Burke and Bodyboard – Ian Jarvis.

The top four (4) surfers in each Division after the five (5) SOTY events in 2007 were as follows: Open – 1st – Stewart Stoute, 2nd – Barry Banfield, 3rd – Christopher Clarke, 4th – Bruce Mackie; Under 18 Boys - 1st – Bruce Mackie, 2nd – Stefan Corbin, 3rd – Niall Thomas, 4th – Jonathan Reece; Under 16 Boys - 1st – Bruce Mackie, 2nd – Mathew Kieffer, 3rd – Jordan Heaselgreave, 4th – Matthew Kieffer; Ladies - 1st – Ametza Nicholls, 2nd – Chelsea Tuach, 3rd – Chelsea Roett, 4th – Alyssa Fernandes; Under 18 Girls - 1st – Ametza Nicholls, 2nd – Chelsea Roett, 3rd – Chelsea Tuach, 4th – Alyssa Fernandes; Junior Under 12 - 1st – Gavin Fernandes, 2nd – Chelsea Tuach, 3rd – Daniel Edghill, 4th – Mathew Roach; Masters - 1st – Stewart Stoute, 2nd – Wayne Roett, 3rd – Kenny Tuach, 4th – Nicholas Donawa; Longboard - 1st – Stewart Stoute, 2nd – Barry Banfield, 3rd – Alan Burke 4th – Daniel Edghill; Bodyboard - 1st – Jason Kistoo, 2nd – Joshua Bynoe, 3rd – Haden Ward, 4th – Ian Jarvis.

The N.K.M. School Surfing Championships took place on Saturday, March 31st and Sunday, April 1st at Brandons, Drill Hall Beach. There were forty-eight entries from nine public and private primary and secondary schools from across the island – with competitors as young as five years of age. The Divisions contested were Boys and Girls Under 12, Boys and Girls Under 16, Boys and Girls Under 20 as well as Boys and Girls Open Bodyboarding and a special Beginners Division. Surfers competed in three to five feet waves making conditions ideal for the younger competitors. The top four placed competitors from each school received points for his/her school and beautiful trophies compliments of N.K.M. Surf and Skate. Matthew Kieffer and Chelsea Tuach won the most points overall for their schools with Matthew amassing 2, 860 and Chelsea 2, 590.

The Rock Christain Primary School was fourth with 2450 points, tied for second position were the Ursuline Schools and Queen’s College with 4320 points each while the defending Champions, the St. Winifred’s School emerged victorious once again with a total of 8470 points. Chelsea Roett and Danny Edghill were the two outstanding performers for the champion school which had a total of 10 surfers in the finals.

The Sprite Gromfest was held on October 20th at Longbeach. Full results were as follows: Under 16 Boys: 1st - Matthew Kieffer, 2nd - Jordan Heaselgrave, 3rd Gavin Fernandes; Under 16 Girls: 1st - Ameza Nicholls, 2nd - Chelsea Tuach, 3rd Chelsea Roett, 4th Alyssa Fernandes

Under 12 Boys - 1st - Gavin Fernandes, 2nd - Joshua Burke, 3rd Zander Venezia; Under 12 Girls - 1st - Chelsea Tuach, 2nd - Annemiek Mackie, 3rd Isabella Venezia; Meneheune - 1st - Joshua Burke, 2nd - Che Allen, 3rd Isabella Venezia.

The Barbados Surfing Association sent a full team of twelve (12) Junior surfers to compete at the Quiksilver ISA World Junior Surfing Championships in Costa Caparica, Portugal May 4-13, 2007. In the Under 18 Boys, the Team comprised Stefan Corbin, Jonathan Reece, Zach Foster and Aaron Fernandes; the Under 16 Boys were Mathew Kieffer, Bruce Mackie, Mathew McKenzie & Jordan Heaselgreave ; the Under18 Girls were Ametza Nicholls, Alix Fitzwilliam, Shannon Kieffer, and Chelsea Roett. National Junior Coach was Mr. Peter Corbin while Team Manager was Andrew Lewis. The Juniors fought hard but the conditions were difficult with very cold water and small surf. Barbados' ranking is now 20 out of 28 nations, ahead of Mexico, Guatemala, Germany, Morocco, Canada, Italy, Jamaica and Argentina.

The exposure gained at these overseas contests is invaluable to our Surfers, hence a second team was sent to Iquique Chile to represent Barbados at the VIII Pan American Surfing Championships November 3 - 12, 2007. The team comprised two (2) Open surfers, Christopher Clarke and David Hoad; one (1) Junior, Jordan Heaslegrave; one female surfer - eleven year old Chelsea Tuach who was the youngest competitor of the event and one Bodyboarder - Jason Kistoo. Manager of the Team was Margot Tuach. This small team also fought hard and finished 14th out of 17 countries, ahead of Mexico, Puerto Rico and Canada. Elvis Carter was one of five (5) paid judges selected for the event while Margot Tuach was also invited to be on the judging panel making Barbados the only country with two (2) judges on the panel.

In terms of other activities during 2007, the BSA participated once again in The Variety Club’s annual Row for Charity held on Sunday June 17th, with its Team of eight rowers doing very well! The BSA also participated in the Beach Clean-up organized by the Barbados Olympic Association which took place on November 4th.

The BSA held an end of summer bash at the Woodpecker’s Pub in September and a Bajan Luau party on Saturday, October 13th at Harbour Lights. The popular acoustic band Unknown Fire was hired for both events while the Roadhouse was also hired for the Luau. These events were intended to raise funds for our National Surf Teams traveling overseas but low turn out impacted the success of these efforts.

The Reef Classic/ALAS/ASP International Surfing event was held November 16th to 18th in 3 – 5 foot swells with over 80 entries (one of the largest turn-outs in the history of the Association) in the Open Men’s and the Ladies’ Specialty Divisions. Event Coordinators Peter Corbin and Andrew Lewis put on a very well organized and run event with Puerto Rico’s Josie Graves emerging victorious in the Open Men’s Division defeating Matt Keenan from the USA in the first ever man-on-man final. The Ladies event was won by Emma Jacobs from Martinique, while Luana Papa from St. Thomas was second, and Ametza Nicholls and Chelsea Roett from Barbados were third and fourth respectively. The BSA is grateful to all officials and sponsors for contributing to the huge success of the event this year which saw the largest spectator turn-out ever.

The annual Awards Ceremony is scheduled to be held early in the New Year. The top four ranked surfers in each Division will all receive awards.

Before closing, I would like to say that I have decided to step down as Secretary of the BSA . It has been an honour and a privilege serving you and I wish the incoming Committee every success next year. The new committee elected at last night’s Annual General Meeting is as follows: President – Mr. Andrew Lewis; Vice-President – Mr. Jason Kistoo; Secretary – Mr. Paul Heaselgreave and Treasurer – Mrs. Rachel Roett. The decision was alos taken to elect a National Coach – Nick Donawa, a Head Judge - Elvis Carter and a Technical Director to provide additional support for the committee. Finally, I would also like to thank Kenny Tuach for his sterling service as Webmaster over the past three (3) years. Kenny will also be giving up this responsibilty and Jake Corbin will be stepping in to fill the gap. May God bless you all this Christmas and in the coming year!

BSA Executive Committee:
Andrew Lewis - President (262 6095)
Jason Kistoo - Vice-President (256 3298)
Margot Tuach - Secretary (231 0296)
Rachel Roett - Treasurer (256 0079).

www.bsasurf.net
e-mail: bsa@bsasurf.net

'Committed since 1983'