The family of Fabrizio Stabile, the 29-year-old New Jersey surfer who died after contracting a brain-eating amoeba, is claiming that BSR waterpark officials “tried to cover up evidence of a deadly brain-eating amoeba. . . by “hyper-chlorinating” the surf pool on the eve of a federal health agency investigation,” according to a story in the Waco Tribune-Hearld.
Houston attorney Richard Fass, who represents the parents of Fabrizio Stabile, also charged that the water park’s owner, Stuart Parsons Jr., is stonewalling the discovery process in the wrongful death lawsuit by claiming text messages and emails potentially important to the plaintiffs’ case were lost when Parsons dropped his cellphone in Lake Whitney. . . The lawsuit alleges “BSR’s blue-green dyed waves masked a pathogen soup in which Naegleria fowleri amoeba — ‘the brain-eating amoeba’ — could thrive.”
According to the story “Parsons’ attorney, Brittney Angelich, of Dallas, declined comment after a pretrial hearing in the case Thursday. Parsons did not return a phone message Thursday.”
Stabile’s family is seeking more than $1 million from BSR Surf Resort. Sadly, a 10-year-old Waco girl contracted the same brain-eating amoeba on Labor Day weekend this year and is currently in a medically induced coma fighting for her life. It is thought that she got it while swimming in the nearby Brazos River.
The commercial entity that owns half the action sports clothing industry (Boardriders and their brands Quiksilver, Billabong, ROXY, DC Shoes, RVCA, Element “and others”) announced yesterday that they are “launching a multi-year growth agenda and repositioning. . . key executives.”
A quick read-through of the release resulted in exactly one data point that even remotely interested us and it is this: Kevin Meehan is leaving RVCA. Of course, the way they said it is epic: “Kevin Meehan has decided to take the opportunity provided by this transition to pursue new opportunities.” Congrats, Mr. Meehan.
The rest of the news can best be summed up by this quote from the boss.
“The long-term strategy for Boardriders has always been to build a solid foundation by integrating the Billabong acquisition onto a common back-end platform, to continually improve our operations through more disciplined business practices, and to achieve significant synergies that could then be invested back into the brands,” said Boardriders CEO David Tanner. “After a decade of headwinds and restructuring, Boardriders now has that strong foundation and is ready and able to invest strategically at scale in our brands, our people, and these targeted growth initiatives.”
Right. You know all that bad stuff that’s been happening for the LAST 10 YEARS? That’s all behind them now and everything is looking up, up, up. If that doesn’t make you smile, follow the jump for the rest of the release.
On July 9, 2019 two former C3 Worldwide workers, Cooper and Pius, departed Seattle on a bike packing trip. They’d already quit their jobs, gotten a sponsorship deal from Coal Headwear and hit the road. Thier destination? Baja. On the way they planned to surf, clean-up some beaches and document it all along the way. So far, they’ve made it to Newport Beach, California and things appear to be going well. So well, that it would appear their surge in popularity has brought their website coastalsifters.com to its knees. But that’s okay, you can follow their latest adventures on instagram in the meantime right here @coastalsifters.
After losing money each year for what seems like a decade, the investors behind the Carlsbad, California based Spy Optic have finally secured an exit in Bollé Brands, according to a press release from the company. The terms of the deal have not been announced.
“We are excited to have acquired such an amazing brand. SPY Optic has its own unique and irreverent identity with huge growth potential in North America, its home market, and internationally where SPY Optic will leverage our Bollé Brands international distribution network,” said Peter Smith, CEO of Bollé Brands. “Our dedicated approach, support, and investment will drive exciting new developments in product innovation and design which will form the basis of considerable global growth. This new acquisition establishes Bollé Brands as one of the key players in the premium performance sport and lifestyle eyewear and helmets markets.”
Bollé, formerly owned by Vista Outdoor (which sold the brand in September 2018) is currently owned by A&M Capital Europe, SCSp, a France-based private equity arm of the Greenwich, Connecticut based A&M Capital Partners. (Nice that someone is smart enough to find value in all this, right). For the official word form Bollé please follow the jump.
Yes, the Olympics really do change everything. Just watch. All those guys (and girls) you thought were in for a medal in Tokyo in 2020? Uh, probably not. How’s this: Hawaiian Heimana Reynolds just won the 2019 Park Skateboarding World Championships held in Sao Paulo Brazil September 9-15, 2019. The next American was Tom Schaar in 5th, Tate Carew was 7th, and Shaun White, who was hoping to transition his vert skating to the parks, well, he finished in 13th not even close to making the finals.
Reynolds, was of course happy about his win and his top spot on the USA team rankings:
“I am so proud and honored to win this event and represent my country at the highest level of park skateboarding,” Reynolds said about his win. “I am very grateful for my support team, my family and God who gave me the strength to achieve this accomplishment.”
The rest of the top 8 was made up of one Australian and some Brazilians. On the women’s side Japan swept the podium. Lizzie Armanto got 5th, but she’s skating for Finland. See what’s happening here? The oddest part for those of us who have NOT been following along (and we obviously haven’t) is that the official Olympic organization body for skateboarding is the Switerland-based World Skate, which as many know, is also the official organizing body for rollerskating, inline alpine, inline freestyle, inline hockey, rink hockey, roller derby, roller freestyle, and (no lie) scootering.
Back to the contest at hand, for the official word from USA Skateboarding, please follow the jump.
The family of pro surfer Sunny Garcia has updated the surfer’s gofundme page after nearly four months of silence. Garcia has been in the hospital since April after what many believe was a suicide attempt. Thankfully, the news is good.
A long over due update on Sunny. We are taking one day at a time and celebrating each little triumph. Sunny is a warrior and fighting everyday to get better and stronger. He has said a few words and is now in therapy daily- physical, speech and occupational. The family thanks you for your continued support for Sunny as he continues to heal. It’s going to be a marathon not a sprint but we work every day to make sure he is surrounded with love, laughter and ohana.
If you would like to help the family in this hard time, please click the link and donate to Sunny’s gofundme.
With a result that will likely be repeated in Japan for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games Brazil has won the team title in the 2019 ISA World Surfing Games presented by Vans in Miyazaki, Japan. They did it by landing three medals in the Men’s and Women’s Division.
Brazil’s Italo Ferreira saved his best for last and earned the highest heat total of the event thus far (17.77) with a perfect 10-point ride in the Final.. . . Ferreira’s inspirational finish was a fairy tale ending to a week of adversity. Ferreira nearly missed his first heat of the event after getting his passport stolen only days before leaving for Japan. Ferreira was able to get a passport, fly to Miyazaki, and make it to his first heat of the event with only 8-minutes remaining, where he was still able to take first place.
For the official word from the ISA including the rest of the results, please follow the jump.
Former Salomon/Bonfire and Patagonia marketer Tyler LaMotte is the new chief brand officer at Jackson Hole Resort, according to a story in the Jackson Hole News and Guide.
“It’s great to come back and be able to experience this place and get so close and be able to do all the things that we love to do,” he said. “One of the main draws and attributes was the fact that, you know, there’s only one Jackson Hole.”
For the rest of the story and a pretty detailed dive into where he’s been and how Tyler ended up in Jackson, Wyoming, click the link.
Please excuse us while we clear out a bit of news that’s been piling up around the place. Some is new, some is old, and a bit is so old it’s beginning to stink. But we’re not going to let that stop us from posting it as a reminder of some of the news that went down while we were gone for the summer.
The surf industry, through the SIMA Humanitarian Fund is raising money to help the victims of Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas through Waves For Water.
“The Bahamas represents an important region to the surf industry, and the devastation inflicted by Hurricane Dorian is unprecedented,” said Dylan Slater, President of the SIMA Humanitarian Fund. “I believe it’s our duty to come together as an industry and human beings to support the critical work being done by Waves For Water in supporting all those in dire need of clean drinking water.” . . . SIMA members, industry brands, surf industry employees and vendors are encouraged to join together to donate under this appeal via a donation page set up by the SIMA Humanitarian Fund here. In order to expedite funds to Waves For Water, the deadline to donate is 5 pm PDT, Friday, September 13, 2019.
The commercial entity that owns half the action sports clothing industry (Boardriders and their brands Quiksilver, Billabong, ROXY, DC Shoes, RVCA, Element “and others”) announced yesterday that they are “launching a multi-year growth agenda and repositioning. . . key executives.”
After 
Former Salomon/Bonfire and Patagonia marketer Tyler LaMotte is the new chief brand officer at Jackson Hole Resort, according to a story in the 
The surf industry, through the 
