by The Editors on October 15, 2010
Time flies. It’s almost halloween and in skateboarding that means one thing: the Volcom Damn Am. On October 21-24, 2010 Volcom is presenting the Damn Am on the VeeCo compound in Costa Mesa, California. Registration and practice begins on Thursday at Noon and flows through to the finals and best trick competition on Sunday (click here for complete schedule).
The competition begins with 160 skaters and the cuts begin. One more thing. The Spotlight Productions crew would like to remind everyone:
“Please wear a costume on Sunday because we will all be fully geared up in something crazy.”
Follow the jump for video coverage of last year’s event.
The Volcom world headquarters are located at 1740 Monrovia, Costa Mesa, CA.
[Link: Damn Am]
[click to continue…]
by The Editors on October 15, 2010
Don’t know how we missed this, but it’s Friday and we could all use a smile. Lizard King talks snowboarding with updown magazine. Let’s just say he’s not all that complimentary to Shaun White.
[Link: Updown Magazine]
by The Editors on October 14, 2010
by The Editors on October 13, 2010
Game development company Robomodo, the group responsible for Tony Hawk’s Ride and new Tony Hawk’s Shred game (and controller), has reportedly cut between 30 and 60 employees, according to a story on Kotaku.com.
Sources tell Kotaku that the layoffs were affected in some way by news that Tony Hawk publisher Activision had taken the franchise away from the developer. One source told us that a wrap party planned for Tony Hawk: Shred with the star attending was pushed back to November without notice prior to today’s layoffs.
And the Tony Hawk video game franchise rolls on.
[Link: Kotaku.com]
by The Editors on October 9, 2010
by The Editors on October 8, 2010
Mark Appleyard is now representing Element Skateboards and Transworld Skateboarding’s Kevin Duffel has the complete interview on how it all went down, including why he left Flip.
I was over it [laughs],” Appleyard said. “I feel like I grew out of it and the team changed so much over the years that I was just like, “this shit ain’t for me anymore,” and I just needed to feel more stoked on the company I ride for, so I had to change it up. . . Yeah it was hard to leave, but it’s a business move. Ya know? If someone’s gonna be your friend, it shouldn’t depend on what company you ride for. I just had to make a power move to benefit myself. I’m really stoked on the choice I made. It was difficult but it had to be done.
Chalk up another win for the Billabong Corporation. Click the link for the entire interview.
[Link: Transworld Skateboarding]
by The Editors on October 7, 2010
When Vans opens it’s newest promotional space inside a Brooklyn, New York warehouse it will not be to sell shoes to the general public. No. The 24,000 square foot warehouse will be used by Vans to host parties, music shows, art exhibits and skate demos, according to a Conor Daugherty story in the Wall Street Journal.
The “House of Vans,” as executives at the Orange County, Calif., company have dubbed the park on Franklin Street, a few blocks from Greenpoint Avenue, is part of a broader strategy to beef up Vans’s presence in New York and the East Coast. . . “Brooklyn is one of the best Vans strongholds outside of California,” says Doug Palladini, Vans vice president of marketing. “As big as Vans has become, we’re still really only known in a few key spots outside of California.” . . But while “you can’t just show up,” Mr. Palladini said there will be occasional chances—a special event through a local skate shop, for instance—for outsiders to get inside the park and roll around. He declined to say how much the company is spending on the facility.
NYC party space rental is expensive. Might as well just own it.
[Link: Wall Street Journal]
by The Editors on October 6, 2010
Source Interlink Media, the parent company of ASG (publishers of Surfing, Surfer, Snowboarder, and Skateboarder magazines) announced today that they have purchased Grind Networks including GrindTV.com, Newschoolers.com, Ridemonkey.com, 411vm.com, Wetsand.com, affiliate sales aggregation sites Snowboarder.com, Motocross.com, Skateboard.com, and entertainment site Stupidvideos.com.
“The addition of Grind Networks to our portfolio demonstrates our corporate strategic commitment to finding and investing in the right partners who have the vision to deliver targeted content, across multiple platforms, to our enthusiast consumers,” said Michael L. Sullivan, Chief Executive Officer of Source Interlink Companies, Inc. . . With this move, former Grind Networks CEO Erik Hawkins will oversee all digital sales and marketing efforts for the new group; President/COO Greg Morrow will direct all technical and digital product development aspects of the business. The two founded Grind Networks in 2005 after serving as executives at Yahoo!, CitySearch and Launch Media. Both will report directly to Norb Garrett, Senior Vice President and Group Publisher of SIM’s ASG.
Those who follow along will remember that many of these websites were purchased and/or created by Wasserman Media Group in something called Sportnet. That site was WMG’s last attempt to corner the market on digital action sports. When things turned out poorly there the sites were then rolled into GrindTV with money from Softbank Capital March 19, 2009.
It will be interesting to see what magic ASG’s Norb Garrett can work with these sites as none (aside from Newschoolers in ski and Ridemonkey in MTB) have yet to have gained any authentic traction with either advertisers or readers. And while the domains snowboarder.com, motocross.com, and skateboard.com obviously have potential, this whole deal seems like a rather complicated, expensive way to upgrade a couple URLs.
Follow the jump for the rest of the release.
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by The Editors on October 6, 2010
Baltimore, Maryland’s Johnny Rad’s Pizzeria Tavern borrows its name from the singer in The Bones Brigade Video Show, its logo from Black Flag, and features a menu inspired by some of skateboarding’s finest. One example is the Nomad salad named after Bill Danforth. But the most surprising thing about Johnny Rads, according to Baltimore Sun food writer Rob Kasper, is that the food is good.
The menu was limited — bar fare, salads and pizzas — but the dishes had flair. A bowl of house-made hush puppies ($5) came with a creamy horseradish sauce that was outstanding. We polished off the sauce before the hush puppies, in part because the hush puppy portion size was so generous. . . Another bit of bar fare, the el vortex, a black bean hummus ($6) a vegan dish (Pugh is a vegetarian) that came with ample servings of carrots, and celery.
Johnny’s is owned by Rich Pugh and Steve Ball and as Kasper says in his headline, “Skateboard dudes can cook.”
[Link: Baltimore Sun]
by The Editors on October 5, 2010
A small slice of Toy Machine’s Brain Wash featuring Leo Romero and Devo. Two of our favorite things in 20 seconds.
[Link via Emerica]
Time flies. It’s almost halloween and in skateboarding that means one thing: the Volcom Damn Am. On October 21-24, 2010 Volcom is presenting the Damn Am on the VeeCo compound in Costa Mesa, California. Registration and practice begins on Thursday at Noon and flows through to the finals and best trick competition on Sunday (click here for complete schedule).
