The 2017 WA Undersea Club Inc AGM was held at Allegro Pizza l’Hermitage in Claremont on Tuesday the 11th of July. There was a great turn out with over 40 members in attendance to review the WAUCs achievements over the past year and elect a new committee for 2017-18. Not to mention announce the winners of the Mackerel1000 and Yellow Tail Kingfish competitions.
Up for grabs were some amazing prizes supplied by our fantastic sponsors. Just for attending the meeting you were in the running for one of two $200 Spear West vouchers supplied by Adam Bushby. In addition, one of our lucky early bird financial members could win an Andre roller gun valued at $1000 supplied by Wayne from Andre Spearguns Australia.
The night began with some delicious food paid for the WAUC, and a few frothies before the proceedings were underway. The financial report was given by our hardworking Treasurer Lio Herbert, with a strong emphasis on the fact that the WAUC has reinvested a majority of its earnings back into the club and its members in the form of freedive course subsidies, competitions and prizes! Not to mention a mammoth 332 financial WAUC members for 2016 – 2017!
After concluding the financial report a new committee was elected for the 2017-2018 year. This was made very easy by the willingness of our members to step up and take on the challenge of fulfilling the many roles on the committee. Welcome to our new and continuing members of the WAUC – Aleks Ceklic (Vice Chairman) Lio Herbert (Treasurer) Heidi Schlesniak (Secretary). General committee membersMichael Treble, Darren Aitken, Dave Watson, Graham Gould, Rory McLeod, Courtney Kelly, Caleb Moore and Brad Vale.
It was time to announce the door prize winners and the early bird financial member prize draw. The lucky winners of the $200 spearwest vouchers each, were John James and Jeremy Macmanus. The winner of the $1000 Andre roller gun was Jordan Ringrose! Congrats guys! A very greenrooms give away of $1400 worth of gear just for being a financial member!
After the formal proceedings had wrapped up, it was onto the fun part of the evening in announcing the WAUC competition winners. Winners of the Penetrator Yellowtail Kingfish competition each received a set of Penetrator fins supplied by Larry Gray.
The results for the YTK were:
1st Liam Ronzitti 14.84 kgs – Full Carbon Penetrator blades
2nd Matt Greenaway 12.20 kgs – Clear Penetrator blades
3rd – TBA
The Mackerel1000 results:
The place getters all received bluewater kits made up of flashers and/or Rob Allen belt reels spooled with dyneema.
1st Darren Aitken 30.85kg – $1000 cash and a KES bluewater gun
2nd Dan Byrne 23.33kgs – $300 cash & a bluewater kit
3rd Dan Bertling 22.80kgs – $200 cash & a bluewater kit
4th Ash Bertling 22.75kgs – $100 cash & a bluewater kit
5th Michael Bretagne 20.22kgs – $100 cash & a bluewater kit
Most entries also Darren Aitken.
Now for the highlight of the night. As some may already know, our long serving Chairman of the WAUC, Graham Gould was stepping down after 8 years at the top and many more years on the general committee. Graham Gould has helped to make the WAUC the premier spearfishing club in Western Australia and with his guidance at the helm to become the most proactive spearfishing club in Australia, if not, the world. Graham is always the first to greet new club members and has acted with professionalism throughout his time as Chairman. Graham has put huge amounts of time and effort into the WAUC and it was time to reward him for all of his hard work. Graham was presented with life membership to the WAUC along with a gift of Blue label Johnnie Walker as a token of appreciation from the club. We wish Graham all the best with his future endeavors, however he will continue to involvement in the club as a general committee member.
Thank you to Chris and the staff at Allegro Pizza l’Hermitage for hosting the event. Thank you to the committee, both new and old, for your tireless work in keeping the WAUC running so smoothly. Thanks so much, to our many sponsors that supported us over the last 12 months and beyond, without these guys, the club prize pool would not be so lucrative. Also, thanks to sponsor guru Phil Carson for all his sponsorship work this year!
Lastly to all our members, thanks for your support over the last 12 months and here’s to another great year ahead for the WAUC filled with lots of new social weekends away and newly created format competitions.
Heidi Schlesniak
