by The Editors on December 3, 2008
Billabong is letting investors know that for the second straight year their first-half earnings-per-share are going to fall according to a story on Bloomberg.com.
Slowing demand in the U.S. “has accelerated throughout November,” Gold Coast-based Billabong said in a statement today. The company cut its forecast for annual EPS growth between 6 percent and 10 percent in the year ending June, down from an October prediction for a rise of as much as 16 percent. . . . The reduced annual EPS forecast comes less than six weeks after Billabong raised earnings expectations citing a slump in the Australian dollar.
It appears the U.S. economy is causing more problems than a slumping Australian dollar can make up for.
[Link: Bloomberg.com]
by The Editors on December 3, 2008
Bruce Jenkins kicks down details from last weekend’s first winter swell at Maverick’s in the San Francisco Chronicle. With talk of perfect sunny skies, monster waves and Greg Long’s serious hold down, it looks like things are off to a good start.
By Sunday morning, crystal-clear with a stiff offshore wind, Maverick’s was a sight to behold. Giant waves pulsed through the reef without a drop of water out of place. “Maybe the most photogenic day we’ve ever had,” said Washburn, likening the scene to the weeklong swell in December of 1994 (the one that killed big-wave star Mark Foo two days before Christmas). “It was stunning all day, but when the wind dropped and the tide went out in the late afternoon, it was basically as good and perfect as anyone could recall.”
Click here for the full slide show on Surfer Mag.
[Link: San Francisco Chronicle and Surfermag.com]
by The Editors on December 2, 2008
The Daily Pilot, “serving Newport Beach & Costa Mesa, California” has discovered that RVCA is moving into a new space next month (the old Paul Frank space) and they did something we didn’t do last month: they got the low-down straight from founder Pat Tenore.
His determination to stay on the Westside of Costa Mesa — a location that has served as an incubator for several of the biggest surf and skateboard fashion companies in the country — led him to the 70,000-square-foot Paul Frank building less than a mile from his present address. . . . “We want to stay close to where we started and close to the beach,” Tenore said. “And it’s really hard to find a building in this area because a lot of the area is being turned into residential.”
Right on, but what about the bowl?
[Link: Daily Pilot]
by The Editors on November 30, 2008
Romance novelist Jane Porter was recently divorced, 40, and on her own in Hawaii when she met Oahu surf school owner Ty Gurney. That meeting became the start for a novel (Flirting With Forty), a made-for-TV movie (staring Heather Locklear), and a child who is due in May.
“There was this surfer guy walking by — oh, my God!” Porter recalled. “He was tattooed, with a bulldog just above his board shorts. He was very young. He was incredibly good-looking. He was exactly the kind of person I am not attracted to. I was a little afraid of him.” . . . Porter had her novel’s final plot element — the alluring surfer and the dilemma he would present: “Should a woman stay on the road previously traveled? Or be brave enough to follow a road not traveled?”
Apparently, that whole Waikiki beach boy thing still can pay off for everyone involved.
[Link: Seattle Post Intelligencer]
by The Editors on November 30, 2008
Layne Beachley and INXS musician Kirk Pengilly (pictured right with his daughter) are now officially engaged.
The couple have been holed up in Hawaii for the past week enjoying Thanksgiving celebrations while Beachley prepares to compete in the Roxy Pro Tour next week. But on Thursday, Pengilly used the sands of Hawaii’s Sunset Beach to spell out his grand intentions. . . . In broad letters decorated with the island’s native hibiscus flower, he wrote simply, “Marry Me”. A bottle of champagne served as the necessary punctuation.
Pengilly, described by The Daily Telegraph as a “serial bachelor,” has been married once before and has one 20-year-old daughter April Rose.
[Link: The Daily Telegraph photo via Who First]
by The Editors on November 26, 2008
Australia’s former Brother Neilsen retail chain apparently owes Billabong International AUS$674,000 and the company wants to get paid. That’s apparently why Billabong’s subsidiary GSM Operations is taking them to court, according to Goldcoast.com.au.
GSM Operations has filed a statement of claim in the Queensland Supreme Court seeking damages from Paul Neilsen and Ahmed El Safty, along with an associate of Mr El Safty, John Hassan. . . .The debt is alleged to have been accrued by Brothers Neilsen between November last year and May this year.
What else can manufacturers do if a retailer has a going-out-of-business fire sale on product that they haven’t even paid for.
[Link: Goldcoast.com.au]
by The Editors on November 24, 2008
Many in the action sport media business have been asking what Wasserman Media Group was doing spending so much money on their Sportnet property. It appears someone inside the company asked the same question and answered by cutting 41 percent of the staff.
Twenty-eight of the group’s 68 employees were laid off late Friday, including Gabe Huerta, VP-product development, and a number of others from product development and support.
An email to Luke McDonough, the former president of Studio 411 was returned with the following message: As of November 21st 2008, Luke McDonough is no longer an employee at Wasserman Media Group/Sportnet.” And the recently launched Snowboarder.com has cut recently hired editor James Sullivan and is reportedly being run by a “project manager” at the company.
Some would say it was only a matter of time.
[Link: Paid Content]
by The Editors on November 24, 2008
Coaches from the eight teams playing in the EA Sports Maui Invitational college basketball tournament pose with large colorful (and remarkably light) planks that they’re not really sure what to do with. Maybe they have something to do with those necklaces. . . surf’s up, bros.
[Link: Rumor and Rants via Deadspin]
by The Editors on November 24, 2008
Surfers Chris Nel and Neels Engelbrecht thought they were going to get some good waves at Namibia’s Cape Cross, but ended up with more and 100 stitches after they were attacked in the lineup by a crazed seal.
They were about 600 metres offshore when Nel heard Engelbrecht scream and saw that a seal had grabbed him by the head. . . . “I quickly swam towards him and saw the seal attacking him continuously, jabbing forward with its head, jaws snapping at his face and body. . . .I was just praying to God, begging Him to spare Neels’s life,” Nel told The Namibian from his hospital bed in Swakopmund.
According to Engelbrecht, he had hardly time to breathe: the seal just kept on attacking, ripping part of his ear off, biting him on the head, arms and legs. “I just shouted to Chris that I couldn’t go on. I was tired and in pain, and the seal would not stop. I thought this was the end of my life,” he said.
The seal then went on to attack Nels, too, as the men struggled back to the beach.
[Link: Namibian.com.na]
by The Editors on November 22, 2008
According to a story on News.com.au Quiksilver has “shed Australia-wide surfing sponsorships to tighten its belt.”
It has ended its sponsorship of state junior championships in Australia and Quiksilver’s female surfwear firm Roxy also has dumped its World Qualifying Series tournament in Victoria.
The Quiksilver Pro at Snapper is still on, however. Things are bad, but they’re not that bad, yet.
[Link: News.com.au]
