We’re kind of bummed that it took us this long to notice, but on March 6, 2012 Bob Kronbauer (the creator of Pacific Skateboarding, Clubmumble.com, VancouverIsAwesome.com et al) decided to “lay the Club Mumble website to rest.” Here’s what he said:
Like any project, if you let something sit for long enough without stoking the fire and tending to it and shaping it (or launching new Honoris Professio projects, etc), it gets old. And it gets obsolete as new technologies come in and make it easier and easier to publish. I’ve been publishing online since 1997 when I started the first online skateboarding magazine (Pacific Skateboarding, remember that?) and if I know one thing for certain about myself it is that I have to dedicate myself completely to something or else I simply can’t be involved in it; I have an all or nothing kind of personality.
Kronbauer tried to get some of the many notable contributors to take of the site and maybe share a slice of the advertising with him, but no one wanted to do it so as he says he’s “closing the book on this chapter of Club Mumble. No longer an active blog, this site will now act as a time capsule for all of the super interesting projects that the members of our Club have shared here over the past few years.”
We’ll miss the site and most of all we’ll missing linking to the always engaging content.
Over the past five years 500 workers have been killed in fires at garment factories in Bangladesh. Last year a fire reportedly swept through a factory that made Hawk Clothing for Kohl’s killing 29 people. ABC News used this as an opportunity to ambush Tony Hawk at a skatepark opening to see if he thought celebrity clothing endorsers should keep closers tabs on the safety of workers in the factories that make the clothes that carry their names.
“It’s tragic,” Hawk told ABC News. “I think that the safety standards need to change and I support whatever change that they can make there. . . I definitely want to follow up and make sure that it’s safe. I mean that’s the bottom line, it has to be safe.”
Nice work, Tony. Kind of a cheap shot from ABC News who obviously knows that every single thing American’s consume in mass quantities is made offshore in factories where people are paid next to nothing. But hey, celebrities sell news, right?
Penny Skateboards is stoked to announce that free surfer Nick Rozsa is the company’s first signed athlete. For more about who Rozsa is, where he came from, and where he’s headed check the video.
This is just another post to make you feel old. NHS CEO/President Bob Denike has now been with the company for 25 years, according to a post on Strange Notes. During a celebration last week Denike shared the story of how he ended up with the company.
“I first met NHS founder Richard Novak at Winchester Skatepark in 1977, he was with the “S” that day, Jay Shuirman. I was 15 years old. They gave me a set of wheels to test ride and when my Mom saw us talking, she pulled me away and told me to never talk to those guys again. They looked pretty wild back then; long hair, dark glasses, beards, smoking, and she was just being a Mom. Well, I did not listen to her. (Good decision number one for me.) I remained in contact with Richard and NHS off and on all the way through college. After graduation, I had a “real job”, working at Frito Lay in L.A. and I absolutely hated it. One weekend in 1986, I decided to go to an ASR tradeshow and I ran into Rich at what was the craziest tradeshow booth at the show. It struck me that a few people working at the NHS booth were either severely hung over and/or drinking beer in the middle of the day. Getting a taste of what I had been missing, a couple weeks later I resigned from Frito Lay (good decision number two), telling them “I need to pursue my dreams”, which at the time consisted of skateboarding, playing music, drinking beer and hanging out with my future wife Kay.
Follow your bliss, kids. For the rest of the Denike story, follow the jump.
Victor Perez has been skateboarding since 1977. He was sponsored by Kryptonics and Santa Cruz in the 198o’s but as with many skaters his interests turned to art. His latest work is the Sk8Lamp, a series of high-end lighting centered around skateboard inspired shapes and reclaimed lighting fixtures.
Sk8lamps is different. It’s about the repurposing of otherwise discarded materials to a new, improved state. The lamps are constructed of used or rejected decks, wheels and trucks that have either fulfilled or cannot fulfill their intended purposes. The electrical pieces are removed from devices no longer deemed aesthetically pleasing and given extended life. It’s more than a recycled skateboard, a recycled lamp, or a recycled idea. It is Upcycling. The Upcycling is art. The Art is unique.
The work pictured at right is titled the Rolling Verical Cheese and it’s for sells for $315. To check out more click the link.
We know he’s gotten in to all kinds of whackness lately, but we still like to think of Jason Ellis as one of the hardest working, brutally funny skateboarders ever. So just think about those old times, before MMA, before the radio show while watching this clip. And if you’re into it, click here and buy his book. It adds some background that explains a little of where Ellis is today.
Much like Chrome Ball’s previous collaborations with Nike and Heel Bruise, this project is once again a nod to skate culture’s yesteryear, as the graphics are a reference to the opening sequence of Powell-Peralta’s 1987 classic film, The Search for Animal Chin.
DC Shoes is sponsoring Rob Dyrdek’s Street League Skateboarding series again. And why shouldn’t they, really. They’re in so deep with Dyrdek there would be no reason to stop now.
“There’s nothing better than Street League Skateboarding and we are really excited to sponsor the series again this year,” said DC President, Anton Nistl. “For DC it’s been a strategic and significant partnership over the years, and Street League really aligns with DC’s ‘vision’ of being the most sought after skate-driven action sports brand in the world.”
See, that’s how deep they are. Follow the jump for the official word (including tour dates). [click to continue…]
In the classic story of celebrity wackness, TMZ is reporting that Ryan Sheckler filed a police report on February 27, 2012 accusing friend Stacy Salazar (a women he was planning on “spending the night with” at the Las Vegas Palms Hotel) of running off with $100,000 of his jewels.
Ryan claims he fell asleep but was awakened by the sound of his door closing. He then noticed Stacy was no longer in his room. A few hours later he noticed his jewelry was missing — a Rolex watch valued at $12,500, a gold/diamond bracelet worth $14,975, a diamond and white gold ring ($63,275) and a diamond necklace of unknown value. . . Ryan called the cops, who took a report.
Salazar told police that she was being set up by one of Sheckler’s “childhood friends,” according to the story. Police arrested her anyway. Oddly, we thought two things: why roll with that much bling? And, isn’t Sheckles on the Nixon team? Oh, and girls looking to rip off more of his stuff should check out a profile of his house in the New York Times.
It’s been two months since the official launch of Youtube’s new “channel strategy.” As it hasn’t changed our viewing habits, nor improved our Youtube experience in any way we were curious to see how the channels were doing. Using the numbers reported on the channels main pages we lined them all up.
Just for fun, we threw Transworld.TV in the mix just to see how a site that didn’t get $1 million dollars of start up capital was faring against the Google funded players. We also factored in the potential total revenue (shared between Youtube and the channel) generated by the channels views based on the oft quoted “quality content” CPM of $20.
Here’s how they stack up:
Subs Views Revenue
Redbull Media House 386,626 259,389,937 $5,187,798
Alli Sports 28,240 10,134,195 $202,683
Transworld TV 10,526 5,470,641 $109,412
Ride Channel 32,329 4,164,433 $83,288
Network A 28,320 1,951,528 $39,030
*Note: this is not a scientific comparison and should be used for
entertainment purposes only for all kinds of reasons including the
fact that some channels have been up much longer than others.
There is money in this game, but it seems that few of the channels (aside from Redbull) have created anything that has “gone viral.” And when you compare these channels to something like the Philip Defranco Show which has 2 million subscribers and 825 million views so far it suggests that sitting someone in front of a camera in a studio with some clever writing is a much more efficient use of funding than sending a production team around the world chasing board riders. But don’t let that stop you, you action content producers you.
We’re kind of bummed that it took us this long to notice, but on March 6, 2012 Bob Kronbauer (the creator of Pacific Skateboarding, Clubmumble.com, VancouverIsAwesome.com et al) decided to “lay the Club Mumble website to rest.” Here’s what he said:
