WHAT: The Australian Bodyboarding Association(ABA) is the new Governing Body for Professional Bodyboarding within Australia. We are a Not-For Profit Entity that has been created to drive awareness and participation in the sport of bodyboarding in Australia. Our mission is to build & maintain the best domestic bodyboarding tour in the world. We have also built Vision and Values statements (available on our website) that have been developed through a survey of several key stakeholders in the bodyboard industry and bodyboard administration. They reflect who we are and how we will operate. We will run four pro tour events plus the possibility of getting involved in a few other select specialty events throughout the year.

WHY: The Professional Tour in previous years has not had the sort of profile we believe it should have, given the popularity of bodyboarding in Australia. Our previous organisation (the IBAA) was run almost entirely through volunteer effort, without much commercial support. We looked at how we were going to grow the sport, and how we were going to set up a national body as a more structured, professional entity.

Without going into too much detail, the previous organisation was a NSW Incorporated Association, but it was running a national tour. We have set up this operation as a public company, governed by ASIC regulations. This provides better structure, and is how other sports run their administration.

We looked at BMX, Surfing, and Kiteboarding to name a few, and all of these were set up in a similar fashion. The ideas and goals for this approach were all there, however the overall workload itself was perhaps too much for only a few personnel to execute. We could not have made this happen without the support of Terry McKenna and the IBAA committee – they had a tough job with few resources at their disposal.


There is a huge amount of detail and work involved in the above, but from a bodyboarder’s perspective, what we want to do is simple: build the best tour we can in waves we all enjoy surfing.


WHO: We have built a Board of Directors with passion, drive and experience to promote the sport throughout Australia. I am Chairman, and I have appointed a few key industry players to the board to help its growth. I also have Phil Knox, a qualified Chartered Accountant, to ensure we have sound financial management of the events and the organisation as a whole. Karl Gol, an internationally accredited judge, has joined the Board to provide continuity from IBAA and advice on judging issues.

We have engaged Michael Jennings to develop film and video packages for each event. His team will create the ‘look and feel’ of our brand in the market, and will help promote the sport through both riders and sponsors. Dave Winchester is our rider representative. He has already been helpful in setting up our star ratings system and in ratifying the four locations for the events.

Craig Hadden has agreed to come on board as Head Judge; there is no-one more experienced than Craig in judging bodyboard events in our country. I am also in discussion with Ryan Hardy about a potential coaching director role, but am yet to work through all the details. Ben Oborne is the GM of the ABA, and is responsible for all the day to day operations of the organisation. He has previously worked in the industry, and ran a very successful Qld State bodyboard series last year.

We are all bodyboarders, and are very passionate and driven to see this succeed. However on top of our passion we have the skills and expertise required to make this happen. Personally, my background is in management consulting and organisational development. I used this experience to set our strategy and deliver the vision we have for the sport within Australia. I am also President of Sydney Bodyboard Club, and have been bodyboarding for 28 years.


WHAT’S DIFFERENT: The entire structure of the organisation has changed, becoming more corporate in its outlook. This will allow us to deal more effectively with sponsors, government entities and our counterparts in Surfing Australia. This will help us to build a stronger, more robust organisation. The critical issue for us has been to select venues that allow for high performance bodyboarding in areas that allow us to build a strong audience to showcase the sport.

WHAT WILL IT LOOK LIKE: The ABA 2014 Pro Tour has a much more compact concept than those in the past. In our first year as the new governing body, we wanted to make sure our calendar was structured & confirmed. We also wanted to run events at locations that were best suited to bodyboarders within the best possible swell season windows. We also wanted to work closely with Bodyboarding State Branches & to run each event in conjunction with their local events where possible. Our event schedule is as follows:

Event 1: Duranbah, Queensland April 11th, 12th & 13th
Event 2: Knights Beach, South Australia May 10th & 11th
Event 3: Mandurah Wedge, Western Australia May 31st & June 1st
Event 4: South Coast, New South Wales, July TBA

FRAMEWORK: The ABA 2014 Pro Tour will be funded by a number of Industry & Non-Industry Based Brands. We are proud to announce that we have again partnered up with Rebel. We also have several other industry brands keen to get involved – shown through the NMD Pro at Duranbah, presented by BSC. We will fund the organisation through member fees to ABA ($50), entry fees to events ($100) and sponsorship. I should mention again that we are not-for-profit. Any profit we generate goes back into the sport. We are an organisation run by bodyboarders, for bodyboarders.


NAMES: 3 x Time World Champion Ben Player, Dave Winchester, Jason Finlay, Joe Clarke, Chase O’Leary & Lachlan Cramsie are just a sample of some of the big names likely to clash on this year’s ABA Pro Tour.