Hi to all of you ZSA surfers,

We are looking forward to an exciting 2006 with many events on the surfing calendar. At the last committee meeting that took place on the 22nd November, it was decided that each member that affiliated to Zululand Surfing needed to benefit more from their affiliation fees that were paid.

• Each paid member will receive a laminated membership card, entitling them to various discounts. At trial 1 the member will sign the membership card, have a photo taken and they would receive the card back at trial 2. If anyone has any added value to offer for the membership card, we would be very interested to hear from you.
• Each paid member will also receive a cool Zululand Surfing Association Tee. I have seen the first set of designs and they look great.

As per the ZSA events calendar you will notice:

• The first set of Zululand Surfing trials, for the Quiksilver SA Championships, will take place on the 21st January 2006.
• The team for the Quiksilver SA Championships will be announced on the 13th March.
• The first set of Zululand Surfing trials for the juniors, will take place in the form of the JPC that will be held at St. Mikes this year. The next set of trial dates for the juniors will be finalized at the next committee meeting scheduled to take place on the 17th January 2006.
• Please note that you junior surfers are also entitled to surf the open trials. It will in fact be an added advantage to you if you did.
• There will also be trials for the Grommet surfers with the dates also being finalized on the 17th January 2006.
• The squad selected for the Puegot SA Masters will take place closer to the time of the event, allowing time to incorporate training.

The fees for next year will remain with an affiliation of R300 for the year and each trial will cost R75. Any late entries on the beach will definitely be penalized with a R100 entry as it is a real pain in the butt to deal with money and more entries on the day.

On the judging side, we are encouraging as many members to involve themselves in this aspect of the sport. There will be judging panels set for the trials with Johno as head judge, assistant Bronwyn and Dean as contest director. The judging criteria has recently been changed according to the ISA and it will be of benefit to all competitors to fully understand the new criteria in order for them to perform to their full potential. The following year will see several technical courses being offered by SSA, and all those of you interested are encouraged to get involved. It is commendable to see that both Johno and Bronwyn are now certified Level 2 ISA accredited judges.

On the coaching side, we are glad to let you all know that Clive is currently completing the SSA accredited Level 1 Coaching Course and Johno is currently completing the SSA accredited Level 3 Coaching Course. They will make themselves available to all members of Zululand Surfing in terms of coaching.

We are also looking forward to holding several Lets Go Surfing Projects in our area to encourage the growth of surfing from a grassroots level.

On the fundraising side of things, well, this aspect certainly still needs to be more extensively concentrated on. Our auction that was planned to take place on the 26th November was very poorly supported. Perhaps it was not a good time of the month or time of the year. We had the most insane memorabilia for auction. We will still be having the auction during the first part of 2006. Anyone who is willing to get involved and assist us, your help will be greatly appreciated.

Zululand Surfing Association will again be hosting several events, The Rip Curl Gromsearch, The Quiksilver King of the Groms and the Hutchison Handcrafted Pro.

You can also visit: www.hh-surfboards.com, look under “ASSOCIATION” on the home page. There you will find affiliation forms for the Zululand Surfing Association, the SSA calendar, and all the other relevant and applicable info for Zululand Surfing.

We look forward to your full support during 2006. It certainly is going to be an exciting one.

Have a great holiday and take it easy on the roads!!

Kind regards
Bernice Hutchison
PRESIDENT ZSA
Contact: 083 409 6286