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Rule Book updates for 2007

Source: www.sabaonline.co.za

posted by Alistair Taylor on 9th November 2006

OK everyone, an update on SABA issues – the new committee has been thrashing out the rules since SA Champs, and we now have a few amendments and additions to the current rule book (which is posted on sabaonline.co.za) for everyone to read. I am going to paste those rules in here, and put the document on the SABA site – it’s critical that all SABA competitors read this, as there are some significant changes, and we don’t want people being disappointed next year and coming up and saying “we didn’t know about that”, which happens all the time already.

If we can afford to in the near future, we’d like to also get a basic rule book printed out to distribute to competitors and SABA members, so everyone can know the rules of the game more thoroughly.

Just some quick explanations on a couple of the things we decided on:

Pro membership and entry fees going up – this is not to line the pockets of the committee members and buy us round the world tickets. Actually, the work we do is voluntary and we aren’t paid for it. We are trying to get more money into SABA so we can afford to make sure we have a full good panel of non-riding judges at every event, and that the judges are taken care of. It’s so we can do things like hire sponsorship procurement companies to go out and look for major corporate sponsors for us, and have the money to professionalise our presentations and so on. We also hope some day to buy a computerized scoring system so that we can have live scoring at SABA events, which is way more exciting for the competitors and spectators, and also makes for far more accurate judging and results.
In short, SABA needs to be run as a business, and a business without any income has its hands tied – and to be fair, SABA membership fees are still exceptionally low compared to many other national tours in other countries (eg $100USD to be a member on the Hawaii National Tour, which is like over R700! - AND $100 entry fees). The new fees here will be used in any necessary to bolster the event, get more media coverage and possibly towards the prize pool.

A provisional SABA calendar of events has been drafted, and we’ll post that soon, but some events are still TBC. We also have an exciting lead with the Durban Beach Africa event in July next year, and that may become something big – we gave them a nice fat sponsorship proposal for a really major event, and they seemed to like it – but it’s early days, so we can’t say anything definite yet.

We have raised prize money and product levels 20% too, so you guys that win should be getting a little boost next year.

Boys U12 and Girls U16 were removed from SABA events because at the moment there are not enough competitors to justify them – but that doesn’t mean we won’t bring them back. Hopefully this is a wake-up call to each province to get a strong club scene going, as that is where our new young competitors are going to come from. Also, by throwing the younger kids in at the deep end, hopefully it will push them to perform better and improve faster – that's how it was in SABA in the early days, and it worked pretty well.

OK any questions and you can email your new SABA committee too.
Alistair Taylor – [email protected]
Sally Mellish – [email protected]
Wayne Beekman – [email protected]
Wayne du Preez – [email protected]
Mike van Huyssteen - [email protected]

Your regional representatives are the same as last year, so you can contact them too if you like.

Herewith the new rule book additions, and the provisional SABA calendar for 2007 is pasted in below that:


AMENDMENTS TO SABA RULE BOOK FOR 2007


1.SA champs and SABA events in 2007 will not include the following divisions:

Boys U12
Girls U16
Development

Other divisions will continue as previously.

2.Each province MUST bring one judge for the panel, and the judge must have judged at least one SABA event prior to SA champs in 2007, and have been assessed by the Head Judge to be qualified to be on the panel. The judge must also have judged at the provincial trials leading up to SA champs. Provinces that fail to bring a judge will be penalised 500 points in the team event.

2.1 In the event that a judge on the panel is scoring too many errors, the Head Judge, at his discretion and based on the number of errors and the judges overall performance, may relieve the judge in question from the panel. This decision is for the HJ alone to ascertain, and in the interests of having a panel of judges of the highest possible standards, the decision may not be altered for the duration of this event. The decision will not carry over to future events.

3.In the event that a rider is found to be competing in a division other than that which he is supposed to be according to SABA age and division guidelines, that rider will be disqualified from the contest, and will be barred from entering the next two SABA events (even if it carries over to the following year).

If the event in which the violation is discovered is the SA Champs, the team which the rider represents will also be penalised 1000 points at that event. If the error is only discovered after the event's conclusion, the 1000 point penalty will be applied to the team at the following year's SA champs.

4.In the case of top South African bodyboarders competing overseas during the year, and not being able to attend their provincial trials, the province they represent may apply on their behalf for the rider to be included in the team as a wildcard. The application will be reviewed by the SABA executive committee, to be approved or denied at their discretion. Once a decision is made, the decision will be final.
The application must be submitted to the SABA committee not less than 2 months prior to the SA champs start date, or it will not be considered.
The wildcard will contribute points towards his team for whatever position he finishes in.

5. Riders may not enter into the trials of two different provinces in the same year, unless he requests to do in writing to the SABA executive committee. The reason for changing provinces must be a vlaid one (eg rider is moving to another province or region). There will also be a 3 month 'cooling off' period from the time that the committee approves the change (not from the time the rider applied in writing). Thus for example, of the riders request was made and approved in June, he/she can not compete for their new province until October 1st (cooling off period of July/August/September). This is to prevent riders from 'province-hopping' in an attempt to make any provincial team they can when they are not successful in their home province team trials.

6.Head Judge at SABA events may not 'commentate' on the rides during the heat, ie may not say whether a maneuver is good or bad, but rather must leave it to each judges' discretion as to the quality of the maneuvers being performed – after the scores have been penned in, the Head Judge may pass comment in the case of scores needing to be moderated or brought into range.


7. In the case of re-written heat sheets because of multiple mistake corrections, the original heat sheet must be attached to the amended version.

8.At all SABA events, it is mandatory for all finalists to attend prizegiving. A finalist may only be excused from the awards if he/she excuses himself to the contest director before the awards ceremony, and may only be excused if the contest director deems the excuse reasonable. If a finalist fails to attend the prizegiving without excusing himself in the proper manner, he/she will not receive any prizes/prizemoney for their result.


9.Finalists must wear the contest t-shirt (if a shirt was issued to competitors), or the contest lycra at the awards ceremony unless excused from doing so by the contest director.


10.Development clinics will be compulsory at each SABA event to ensure consistent growth in the sport at grass roots level. The clinics should be free of charge if possible, unless there are specific administrative costs to be covered. Equipment to be provided for those who do not have their own, and coaching to be provided by volunteers from the contest who are experienced enough to help.

11.SABA membership and entry fees for 2007 are as follows:
Pro membership – R300
Pro entry fees – R200
All other memberships – R100
All other entry fees – R110
If a rider wishes to compete in only one event for the year, they can pay a membership fee of 50% of the full amount. If they then decide to compete in another SABA sanctioned event during the same year, they must pay the balance of the 50% membership due in order to be able to compete.

12.In 2007, riders from divisions other than Pro may compete in the Pro division and still compete in their 'usual' division. For example, a Boy rider may compete in the Pro division if he so chooses, AND compete in the Boy division also, but he may not enter the Juniors or Mens or any other division, except for DK, which is open to all competitors.
If a rider wishes to compete in the Pros as his second division, the Pro membership fee will apply to the rider, ie he or she will pay R300 for the year to be able to compete in both divisions, or R150 if the rider is competing at one event only.
If the rider competes in more than one division, he or she must pay the full entry fee required for that division. No discount is applied for multiple division entries.


Provisional SABA calendar for 2007:

December 8 – 10 – CKZNBA to host a non-SABA rated event in Ballito with R10 000 prizemoney

March 23 – 25 – Cape Classic, Cape Town

April 20 – 26 – Cave Rock Gladiator Pit (TBC)

April 27 – May 1 – Wimpy/Rossi Pro-Am

July – Durban Beach Africa contest

July – Wedge Classic – dates pending confirmation of the DBA contest

July – Mossel Bay Outerpool Challenge - TBC

September 24 – 29 – SA Champs


Thanks
Alistair Taylor
SABA Chairman

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