Joint Statement on Hotham Boardriders Name & Constitutional Matters
9 June 2026
This joint statement has been prepared by David Pavlich & Thor Prohaska, two of the founders of the Hotham Boardriders, to address matters of concern and related issues arising from the use of the Hotham Boardriders name and efforts to draft an incorporation constitution that contained robust democratic safeguards. There are differing views on what has occurred during this process and some parties have been presenting versions that in our assessment are either misleading or incorrect.
Before anything else, we want to make a few things absolutely clear.
At no point have we ever tried to stop anyone running Hotham Boardriders.
We have never stopped anyone volunteering.
We have never stopped anyone running events.
We have never stopped anyone raising sponsorship.
We have never stopped anyone from selling merchandise.
We have never stopped anyone building on what previous generations created.
In fact, over the years we have contributed and secured substantial sponsorships, government grants, governance assistance, and countless hours of volunteer time in support of Hotham Boardriders.
Our concerns are about transparency, accountability, member involvement and ensuring Hotham Boardriders remains a club that belongs to its members and community.
We've stayed quiet for a long time.
Not because we didn't have anything to say, but because we genuinely hoped common sense would prevail and the issues surrounding Hotham Boardriders could be resolved respectfully and internally.
Unfortunately, that hasn't happened.
So before history gets rewritten, we want to put our version of events on the record.
Not for sympathy.
Not for recognition.
Why Hotham Boardriders Was Created
Hotham Boardriders was formed in 1988.
Before that, snowboarders were not allowed to ride the lifts.
Before HB, there was the Snowboardriders of Victoria.
Thor Prohaska was its first President.
David Pavlich was its last President.
HB was formed as part of that movement.
We didn't create it because we wanted to run a club.
We didn't create it for status.
We didn't create it for profit.
Hotham Boardriders wasn't born out of ambition. It was born out of necessity. Snowboarders were told that if we wanted to ride the lifts, we needed to organise ourselves nationally, by state and by mountain.
So we did.
Over the next four decades, hundreds of volunteers and thousands of riders helped build HB into something far bigger than the people who started it.
Presidents came and went.
Committees came and went.
Parents volunteered.
Sponsors stepped up.
Generations of snowboarders gave their time, energy and passion to the club.
HB became part of Australian snowboarding history.
And it belonged to the community that built it.
Four Years Ago
Around four years ago, Garry Wall contacted David Pavlich and asked whether there would be any objection to him "chipping in short term" to run Hotham Boardriders.
There wasn't.
In fact, the idea was supported.
David thought his industry experience and connections could be good for the club.
At that stage we had no desire to run HB ourselves.
We'd done our bit.
The First Concern
Shortly afterwards, an entity obtained an ABN and began operating under the Hotham Boardriders name as a not-for-profit structure.
To our knowledge, we were never provided with documentation clearly showing exactly who established the entity or what process had been followed.
That was the point where David became concerned.
Not because of the ABN itself.
But because for years we had been discussing the need for proper governance and constitutional arrangements.
Our view was simple.
If the club was becoming more formal, then the governance framework should be formalised as well.
A constitution should clearly define how decisions are made.
How members participate.
How committees are held accountable.
And how the organisation operates into the future.
For years we raised those concerns repeatedly.
We offered to help.
Repeatedly.
Not because we wanted positions.
Not because we wanted control.
But because we wanted to see the club properly protected for future generations.
Former Presidents Removed
Around the same period, former presidents and long-term contributors were removed from club communication channels.
We were removed.
Other former presidents were removed.
People who had spent decades helping build and oversee the organisation suddenly found themselves outside the conversation.
For us, that was another warning sign.
Not because we cared about being admins on a Facebook page.
But because organisations benefit from history, experience and oversight.
Removing those voices felt like the opposite direction to the one we should have been heading.
HB Name and Web Domain
There is one issue we should address directly because it is often raised as evidence that we somehow wanted control of Hotham Boardriders.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Mt Hotham Boardriders was originally an incorporated sporting body under the umbrella of the Snowboard Riders of Victoria. When the SRV were wound up in 1990, Mount Hotham Boardriders became a Sub-Committee of the Victorian Ski Association. After 1993, HB left the Victorian Ski Association and became an unincorporated entity. Around that time there were concerns that the HB name might be registered by someone who did not have the best interests of the club at heart. The name was therefore registered in 1994 as a protective measure.
Then around 20 years ago, while David was riding at Mt Buller with Alan “Greeny” Green from Quiksilver, concerns were raised about HB, its future and who controlled it.
Greeny was not just another person offering an opinion. He was the co-founder of Quiksilver, a pioneer of the action sports industry and someone whose advice carried considerable weight.
During that conversation, and in related industry discussions, concerns were raised about Hotham Boardriders and the importance of protecting its name and identity.
The advice was simple: if you care about what you’ve built, don’t assume it will always be protected by others.
Because Hotham Boardriders had limited funds, the practical suggestion was that, at a minimum, the business name should be registered if there were concerns that could not be transparently resolved.
That advice was followed when it was thought necessary.
Not because we wanted ownership.
Not because we wanted control.
Our position has always been the opposite.
HB belongs to its members and its history belongs to the community that created it.
The purpose of protecting the name was never so that we could own Hotham Boardriders.
The purpose was to ensure that nobody else could.
The issue was never whether the club should continue, but on what constitutional basis the Hotham Boardriders name should be made available for incorporation. Our position has always been that the name should serve the club and its members, not any individual, but also that it should not simply be handed over without the broader issues of governance, accountability and member voice being properly addressed.
Constitutional Reform
Last year, the committee invited Thor to work directly on constitutional reform.
A Constitutional Sub-Committee was formed with seven long standing HB members to produce a draft that could then be put to the members to vote on at a Special General Meeting.
Anyone who knows Thor knows he has extensive experience in governance, politics and constitutional drafting.
What was produced was an evolution of the original HB constitution.
A modern constitution designed to increase transparency, accountability and member participation.
In our view, it represented a fair, democratic and future-focused governance model.
The committee initially supported the process and gave Thor the lead role in developing it.
For the first time in years, meaningful progress appeared possible.
The Choice
Thor went back to the original Hotham Boardriders constitution and spent considerable time reviewing, preserving and updating it for a modern club environment.
The work sought to retain the principles and intent of the original HB constitution while incorporating contemporary governance requirements and best practice.
The result was a modernised constitution designed specifically for Hotham Boardriders.
Its benefits included:
Greater member participation.
Greater transparency.
Greater accountability.
Stronger member voting rights.
Better representation of member views.
Reduced concentration of decision-making power.
A stronger framework for resolving disagreements.
Some of the reviewers on the Sub-Committee formed the view that the rules pertaining to the democratic enhancements in the draft were not fit for purpose for the club.
This was a departure from the original direction that the drafting had been following.
Those reviewers preferred adopting the standard Model Rules with limited amendments instead.
The Sub-Committee then voted on which direction to take, and the Model Rules path received majority support at the Sub-Committee level.
The committee ultimately chose that approach and did not continue with the draft constitutional framework.
That was their right at the committee level.
However, it also meant setting aside a constitution that had been built from Hotham Boardriders’ own history and adapted for its future.
The proposed draft constitution was designed specifically for Hotham Boardriders and sought to preserve the club’s original principles while strengthening member participation, transparency, accountability and oversight.
In our view, once the constitutional direction of the club became contested, the CSC vote could no longer be treated as sufficient to settle the matter, and the question should then have been referred to the full membership for determination.
It wasn’t.
The Members Were Never Asked
What disappoints us most is that the members were never given the opportunity to decide.
The future governance structure of the club was never put to a vote of the members.
The people who built HB.
The people who volunteered for HB.
The people who paid memberships.
The people who supported the club year after year.
They never got a vote.
The CSC vote clarified the position within the Sub-Committee, but in our view it was not sufficient to determine a threshold constitutional question for the club as a whole.
For a club originally created so snowboarders could organise and have representation, that remains deeply disappointing.
Accountability and Transparency
We continued raising governance concerns because transparency had always been a big part of our culture.
Historically, Hotham Boardriders operated as an open-book.
If a member wanted to see the books, they could.
There was no secrecy.
There was no drama.
The club belonged to the members, so members had the right to know how their club was operating.
For that reason, it became difficult to understand why questions about finances, governance or accountability were increasingly treated as a problem.
Our view has always been simple:
Transparency protects everyone.
It protects members.
It protects volunteers.
It protects committee members.
And it builds trust.
For the same reason, we supported the idea of an independent audit.
Not because we were accusing anyone of wrongdoing.
Quite the opposite.
If everything was in order, an audit would strengthen confidence and put concerns to rest.
Likewise, concerns regarding insurance and liability were raised because we wanted to ensure the club, its volunteers and its members were properly protected.
Information regarding available insurance cover through Snow Australia was sourced and provided, and assistance was offered while constitutional and governance matters continued to be worked through.
What Happened Next
The constitutional work was not taken further.
Questions regarding governance and accountability remained unresolved.
Then came the announcement, or at least the clear indication, that Hotham Boardriders would not operate in 2026.
Before that announcement for some, and shortly afterwards for others, we and a number of long-term contributors were removed from, blocked from, or otherwise excluded from club communication channels entirely.
The very people who had spent decades helping build the organisation were shut out from discussing its future.
Final Thoughts
The real question has always been simple:
Who does Hotham Boardriders belong to?
A committee?
Or the community that built it?
Thousands of people built HB.
Volunteers.
Parents.
Competitors.
Sponsors.
Committee members.
Friends.
Families.
The greatest irony for us is that Hotham Boardriders was founded so snowboarders could have a voice.
Nearly forty years later, the issue that divided the club was how, or even if, that voice deserved to be heard.
A committee can stop operating.
A Facebook page can be controlled.
A logo can be changed.
But nobody can erase the community that built Hotham Boardriders.
Nobody can erase the friendships.
Nobody can erase the memories.
And nobody can erase nearly forty years of history.
HB never belonged to either of us.
It never belonged to any committee.
It belongs to the people who built it.
The volunteers.
The parents.
The sponsors.
The kids who became adults.
The adults who became parents.
The generations of snowboarders who gave their time, energy and passion to the club.
HB is your story.
Your history.
Your values.
Your culture.
We have no desire to run Hotham Boardriders.
We have no desire to control it.
We would like to see the constitutional work revisited and completed.
We would like to see members given a meaningful voice in that process.
We would like to see the committee continue the tradition of transparency and accountability that has always been part of HB’s culture.
We would also welcome an independent audit, not as an accusation, but as a way to strengthen confidence in the future and put any lingering questions to rest.
In spite of everything that has gone down we are still open to working with anyone who has the best interests of the Hotham Boardriders at heart.
With respect,
Thor Prohaska - thor@vote4democracy.net
Co-Founder – Hotham Boardriders (1988)
Founding President – Snowboardriders of Victoria (1986)
Former President Hotham Boardriders (1993)
David Pavlich - pav@høb.com
Co-Founder - Hotham Boardriders (1988)
Former President - Snowboardriders of Victoria (1990)
Former President - Hotham Boardriders (1994)
HOTHAM BOARDRIDERS
This season.
Next season.
Every season after that.