Sounds cool. Count me in

Thanks for the invite Ant! I cant wait!!! see ya soon!!!

Damm!! Just got back from a weekend down in dunsborough.

Saturday surf was pumping, I'd actually forgotten the feeling of good powerful waves underneath my feet.. So stoked to have gotten a good day down there, haven't had one in ages.

Anybody else get out somewhere?

Ant

Hey Brent,

Cheers for the reply, and you make a good point. With Waveseeker, I do need to make a living just like everybody else and so that's why its a business and not a charity.

As for going around issues, I think I've been pretty upfront. 'cutting to the chase' was just to shorten the first post and save people having to read the boring explanation about starting the company etc.

With regards to choking out the breaks, it isn't my intention, however I'm not a money-blind fool and I can agree it will happen to some extent.

Having said that, I am not some major corporate company just trying to flog gear and put surfers on breaks and commercialize everything. I am an average joe surfer from Perth, who still believes in sharing the stoke of surfing. So as such, I'm not ignorant to the impacts, so I am doing my utmost to minimize them. For example:

- The 'busy' season for surfing at Rottnest would definately be summer. Every surfer and his son and their dog is out there, which is fine, everyone has a right to enjoy the waves at Rotto.

Understanding this, I have decided to focus the majority of charters to the winter months. Better, cleaner swells , with minimal crowd factor to impose on. Plus there is many breaks to choose from, if one is crowded move onto the next...

- Secondly, I strongly am against having any aggression out in the surf. Everyone is there to enjoy it, relax and get stoked. I can't understand the few immature attitudes leading to drop ins and aggro.

With surfers on my charters, they will be briefed and have explained to them the 'rules of the road'. No bad attitudes will be tolerated and the surfer won't be allowed on another charter if he/she has ruined someone else's day in the water be it another customer or local rotto surfer.


I hope that clears the water, if theres anything else you'd like to talk about please feel free to chuck us an email or give me a buzz on 0438971715.

Thanks,

Anthony

One more point id like to make is you can liken this to chartering a 15 seat bus and rocking up at a break that is reasonbaly hard to get to. Alot of people will be put offside and get quite aggitated id imagine.

will it ok for the wave sailer seeing the last bus is 4.30 and riding the bike is a hell misson and the best sailing gos down late

Hi fellas.

I apologise for the late reply, a couple of 16 hour days has left me with a bit of a sleep debt.

Skippo, Spot1, Rex, I'll definately get a reply up for you, I'm just knackered off my feet at the moment, please bear with me, I'll have a full reply up hopefully answering all questions.

Cheers.

Anthony

Hey fellas.

OK few responses to get through here we go:

Brent:

I'm happy to answer the questions in public because I feel some surfers will have similar opinions and its good to address it. If we can keep it all above the belt I'd be stoked because I don't want to turn Laurie's forum into a pissing contest. But if you are peeved, let me know through PM or email, always have time to chat about things because I'd like to achieve the best end result for as many surfers as possible.

So these are the criteria I've put in place to limit overcrowding:

1.) Larger swell days - more breaks available, little boats numbers are down because they can't make the crossing. Better swells ensure happy surfing for people on our boat too.

2.) Wind criterion is also a factor, like you said if the favourable winds are blowing more breaks open up.

3.) Split groups and surfer limit - I'm looking at reducing the max surfing number to 16 and splitting the groups according to skill and people already on the break. So for example, if stricko's was totally empty, I'm happy to offload most surfers there, and then start splitting the group into 2 lots of 8 and spread out if the breaks start to get crowded.

If you have any other positive suggestions as to how to minimise impacts I'm keen to hear them.

Please understand I'm not some corporate company, I'm just average joe blow surfer from Perth, trying to keep everything based around sharing the stoke of surfing. As such I'm more than happy to discuss issues, leading towards a positive outcome or suggestions to address a problem.

Fly Guy: Appreciate the support mate! Cheers

Rex:

I have the same view in trying to keep things to local grass roots surfing. On the cards is a few non-charter related events. I have an idea to run some board building courses and other related events to really get a sense of local surfing community going, meet local surfers and have some fun over a few beers and bbqs.

Big Gill:

The first launch hasn't gone yet, I'm just sitting here refreshing seabreeze graphs constantly to try and get the favourable conditions. Just a waiting game till the great conditions arrive, if your interested to get out on the launch, hit the website and sign up.

Next week is looking promising with some big big swells rolling in, just hope the wind and rain dies off.

Thanks guys!

Ant

hey mate have u thought about running charters to the outer reefs such as little island and that kind of thing there is rarely any vrew and i can tell you that it works!! some of the waves there are great u just need to know where to find them!!

Yeah Lavs i dont think your the first to think of running a charter over Rotto, but everyone realises its already over crowded as it is, its just gonna piss alot of people off!

Morning fellas. I'll try respond individually to hopefully get to everyones points in order:

Brent:

You were surfing on a weekend day, with pleasant weather. Would you expect any less than a crowded day at Rotto?

For that situation there's at least two options. Firstly base most of the charters on weekdays in winter if weekends turn out so horrible. Secondly Lionfish has the capability to get to a lot of different breaks fast, if it means moving to Garden Island, West end, outer reefs then it can be done until the customers are happy to jump in. At the end of the day, my customers being impressed is my problem no?


Bellz:

Thanks for your input mate, appreciate it. I have thought about running to the outer reefs, but I didn't know what surfers would think about them. I plan to do that with another boat out of Hillarys Marina. Smaller boat, quicker in and out, to maybe afford surfers a quick early before work instead of a whole day out at Rotto.

Capt Bob:

I've surfed some garden island breaks, and there are definately some good breaks that pop up in certain conditions. I like the idea of garden island / carnac etc because they open up new areas of ground to surf. This is ideal because it helps to spread crowds, and also provides surfers with an opportunity to surf waves they may not have access to if they didn't have a boat or Rotto Ferry

Samo

I agree, I'm not the first to think of the idea. There are people in Perth already doing it. I know a few private yachts taking people over for ridiculous money like $400 per person with nothing not even food provided. I agree, some people will be pissed off, I'm not ignorant to the fact. However, can you at least see I am trying to minimize the negative impacts and try get the best outcome for the majority? Thanks for the feedback, even if it is negative, because it allows me to gauge to response from surfers. If you can offer me constructive suggestions, it would be much appreciated.

Theres always two sides to look from mate. There are punters out there sick of surfing the closeouts in Perth having never surfer Rotto, and have no opportunity to surf any decent waves, either they dont have a boat or dont have mates with a boat. If you were this person, and were offered the opportunity to surf great new waves, have a great day out with other like minded surfers, meet new people and share the stoke of surfing, is that such a negative thing and would you say no?


Ian:

Sincere thanks mate I appreciate your kind words and well thought out reply.

You and Bellz raise great points about the outer reefs and garden island. I've decided to add them into the structure of the business and hopefully they'll work in a few ways.

- Offer more alternative spots if others are crowded out
- Offer different spots, to avoid hitting the same spot repeatedly
- Offer more unsurfed and exciting spots

Through congestion, maybe Rottnest won't be viable for the majority of charters and I'll have to look else where.

I think its a great idea, certainly worth chasing up thanks for the support.


Cheers guys.

Ant

Spot:

We could do, but there is limited deck space so it would make it very hard to setup the boards and start to become a bit of an inconveniance on other surfers.

It probably is possible to launch one board at a time off the stern, but would have to limit the numbers maybe.

Food for thought anyways, cheers.

Ant

what about kiter???

set them up on the beach via rubber ducky

yer what spot1 said just bring us to a beach and we can set up there and play