On June 1st elections will be held to select three people to fill seats on the SLSA Board of Directors that will be open. Running for Director are Summer Amaranth (SummerRain Garnet), Annie Panties (jadeeast), and Petra Xaris. Alvaro Pevensey and Revlon Benoir have withdrawn their applications for personal reasons and RL commitments.
You are eligible to vote if
2.1.1.2. An SLSA Member must have competed (and been assigned a score) in at least one of the previous six SLSA sanctioned competitions prior to the election.
2.1.1.3. An SLSA Member shall be an SLSA Hall Of Fame inductee.
2.1.1.4. An SLSA Member must have served as an appointed officer or director at, at least, one of the previous three SLSA sanctioned competitions prior to the election.
Check to see if you are on the Eligible Voter List on the Forums. Voting takes place via a voting machine, most likely located near the clubhouse on Solace Dreams. Voting is easy peasy and quick, unless of course you are having a hard time making a decision. In order to help to make your decision, we wanted to give you a chance to get to know the candidates better.
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Surf Side: Let’s start at the beginning, how did you get involved in surfing in Second Life?
Summer: I just love the beach.. I was searching out beach sims and came across surfing with a rezzer board by chance.. Then I fell in love. LOL!
Annie: It may have been a friend who introduced me to it. I surf in real life so it was something I wanted to try here. I did some surfing here and liked it and joined SLSA in June of 2013.
Petra: Just by chance I looked up beaches in SL search and tp’d to a surf sim, What? Surf & Simboard. They had a surfboard rezzer and after trying it out I fell in love with surfing instantly. Soon after, I met Fuzzy Cheeks aka bullet Admiral who became my best friend. He introduced me to SLSA and gave me a little nudge to try competing.
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Surf Side: What prompted your decision to run for SLSA Director?
Summer: I feel like SLSA is a great organization and I want to continue to make it better and stronger. I want to get more involved with the SLSA, want to help make a difference, to help out by encourage them when they are struggling.
Annie: My friend told me I would be good since I like working with people and I’m loyal and dedicated and usually successful in those things I do believe in.
Petra: When I first ran for director in 2013, it was a friend of mine that suggested I run. I was a little bit shy about running. At the time, two candidates dropped out suddenly and there was an urgent need for someone to run and so I did to help out. Now two terms later, I’m running again. I love the SLSA surfing comps. I have a lot of fun participating in them and I enjoy helping out and giving back to the community.
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Surf Side: What areas of improvement do you currently see for the SLSA as an organization?
Summer: I really would like for the SLSA community to grow closer together. I dont like the separation of some teams, I want a family/community feel. I know people will always have disagreements and not get along but it shouldnt divide us and our passion for surfing.
Annie: It’s very organized and successful, I would like to continue that and make sure communication is foremost and also training and recruiting new members. I would listen to the needs of the surfers as to what they like, dislike and want to see added.
Petra: I think we need to continue to move in a positive direction. Do our best to make the competitions both a fun experience and fair for everyone. We’ve tried to keep our comps moving at a good pace and have improved on that. We need to keep an eye on it though, make sure we stay on track with this.
We are trying to be more open with communication between members and board of directors so that we may address concerns and talk about ideas members may have for improving SLSA. I believe we should continue to move forward with this.
I still think for new directors, coming into the job, we could improve a bit more on having all the information collected in one area to make learning the jobs easier. That will only help to make the organization more efficient. I’ve continued to work on this myself with step by step guides for the different jobs as well as other of the directors contributing and so together we are trying to reach this goal.
I think that as members of SLSA each one of us should try to keep in mind that we really are one community, one family. We should try our best to be supportive and respectful of one another and try to lift each other up so that we may all enjoy the one thing that has brought us together, our love of surfing.
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Surf Side: What do you see as your first priority as an SLSA director?
Summer: Getting new surfers in! Letting everyone that is involved know they belong here old and new surfers!
Annie: (Giggles) To get used to being a director and to listen to the surfers as to what is needed to make SLSA better and more enjoyable for them.
Petra: My first priority will be doing whatever I can to help make it a smooth transition for the new directors coming in. Also, I’ll do as I have been, continue with my job as finance officer, continue with my project on writing of the guides, and try to help out wherever else it’s needed.
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Surf Side: How long have you been competing in SLSA competitions?
Summer: This is my first season competing! Pretty happy with myself and having a blast!
Annie: Since June 2013, so this is my first full year. So far I have been fortunate to make it from 43 ranking to 18 now and also have passed Marshal training. I like all the surfers how friendly they are and the challenges’ of the waves and boards.
Petra: A little over two years, since January of 2012.
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Surf Side: Since we are talking about comps… What do you like the best about them? And what is your least favorite part?
Summer: NERVES!! Wow, I get nervous. My favorite part is people cheering each other on, everyone coming together to support each others.. I love comps!
Annie: My problem is trying to find the beach when called. (Giggles). I like when I feel I did good and the sportsmanship of all the surfers. It’s fun out there. Moving off the wave and going belly up are very frustrating positions to be in.
Petra: What I like best is the fun I have on comp day, surfing with friends and doing something together we all love. My least favorite part is when I make a mistake and slip off a wave too early, argggghh. I did that in the last comp at Cape Maruader. I guess most of us know that feeling, ha, ha.
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Surf Side: Do you think SLSA today has a greater role to play in the SL surfing community?
Summer: I would like to see more activity in the SLSA.. Quite honestly, I didnt even know who our directors were until I went and searched them out. We should have maybe a meeting once every four-six months to get to know these people better or a open forum type board meeting? Where anyone within the SLSA can express concerns or ask questions.
Annie: Yes I do. I think it draws people to the shops and beaches and increases awareness and I want to continue that so not only the events are successful but those groups hosting them and the shop keepers and donors are also helped.
Petra: Well, I do think that being a long standing organization in SL and the fact that we have comps routinely scheduled, that we do play an important role in the SL surfing community. If people do have that desire to compete, they can join up at any time and give it a try. When most become members of SLSA they quickly learn that the comp schedule can be counted on.
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Surf Side: There has been a lot of great innovation lately in board creation. What are your thoughts on having a variety of board script/vendors into the competition season? How should it be determined which boards are used in competitions?
Summer: I like the idea of mixing things up, giving us a challenge each comp. I don’t really have much thought on determining which boards should be used and all. I’m not experienced enough to have an opinion on that, IMO. I just think they should be well tested and been out a bit before putting them in a comp, so we get experience with them.
Annie: I think the surfers and the directors should determine the boards and the various boards and waves add to the competition each month so I think it’s exciting and should be carefully looked at but varied to make it interesting and competitive and fun.
Petra: I think if the boards are of good quality and will offer enough of a challenge for competing on them, it’s a good thing. How should it be determined which boards are used in competitions? I think, first, we need to give careful thought as to whether each new board has merit and will be both challenging and fun to have in comps.
The board of directors, did set up a new surfboard approval process a few months ago that we will be following for newly proposed surfboards. I think it’s great that we decided the community should be involved in the decision making process.
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Surf Side: Time for some fun stuff… What board is your current favourite and why?
Summer: What board is your current favorite and why? SSI used to be until I fell in love with the HP.. Love the speed and the air I can get!
Annie: Oh I guess the longboard I just finished with at Cape since I had my best finish and it’s still embedded in my mine. (Laughs) Being that it’s my first full year I will experience many so the vote is still out on really my favorite.
Petra: My favorite is still SSi and I do like both long and short but long I would have to say is my all time favorite. It just feels really good to me and I like feeling I’m the one in control of the board and not the board in control of me. Even after two years of surfing on it, I still find it challenging.
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Surf Side: When you are in search of the perfect wave, which one do you favor and why?
Summer: Perfect wave… That’s a tough one because every wave to me is a prefect wave!
Annie: I prepare myself first so I’m mentally and physical ready for it then I greet the wave like a stranger wanting to make friends with it and showing how we can work as one.
Petra: I love Maverick if I’m surfing SSi, it’s a fast and fun wave, enough room for some high flying tricks.
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Surf Side: Any places (sims) in particular that draw your surfing soul?
Summer: Oh this is hard.. When I first started surfing years ago that sim was my fav but it’s not around anymore. Since being back I would have to say Island Sea Dreams, Kona and Tsunami are my favs.
Annie: Montego and Cape have been good to me but I do like them all. Its fun finding a new beach, wave and board as I pursue my surfing career.
Petra: I enjoy surfing at SLSA home sim, Solace Dreams. And then there is Bobbi’s fairly new sim Bundy. I love it there even just to lay on those gorgeous beach towels she has. I find it relaxing and peaceful there.
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Surf Side: What else is there that might help us get to know you better?
Summer: I love long walks on the beach and candle lit dinners.. lol JK JK JK 🙂 I dont know, I think I’m a pretty open minded, friendly gal. I love getting to know and meet new people. I try to surround myself with people who have a good sense of humor and are laid back.. I dont like drama and try to avoid it. Other than my love for surfing, I have an addiction to buying bikini’s and shoes.. I love fairies and tie dye too. I’m a little bit of a hippie. 🙂
Annie: I love listening to people but will speak my opinion on matters and hope to come up with a good final decision on matters of importance to all. I like to have fun and I am truly honored being with so many hall of famers, quality surfers and skilled staff members who have made this a great organization and wish to continue to do well to try to fill their large Rashies. I would hope people will like me when they get to know me which doesn’t take long. Laughs.
Petra: In SL my other addiction is ABC horse racing. I’ve been doing that for nearly 2 years now. I started out thinking I’d be a horse jockey but with my lag issues I’ve become a race horse owner/trainer instead. I hire jockeys to race for me. Our own Annie Panties (jadeeast) has recently become a horse jockey and she has raced for me a couple of times. It really is a lot of fun. In the ABC horse community I enjoy helping new horse owners/trainers/jockeys and share the knowledge I’ve gained to hopefully help make their experience more fun. Most of all I enjoy helping others, whenever I have an opportunity to do so.
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Surf Side would like to thank all of the candidates who so graciously took the time to answer our questions.
Surf Side 