Claiming the “double whammy” of too many boards being produced and a soft US market, Firewire Surfboards has closed it’s Burleigh manufacturing facility and is moving all of it’s production to “its low-cost factory in Thailand.
The company, whose investors included former Billabong Surfwear CEO Matthew Perrin and golfer Adam Scott, will open a new retail showroom at Currumbin this weekend. . . But it has closed its Burleigh manufacturing facility – which employed about 50 people and churned out up to 400 surfboards a week.
Director Nev Hyman said the US surfboard market, which accounted for 70 per cent of the group’s sales, was suffering “its worst slump ever” as a result of the international credit crunch and soaring living costs.
After only five events on this year’s ASP WCT Tour it’s looking more and more like Kelly Slater has a lock on number 9, number 9, number 9. Even defending world champ Mick Fanning is beginning to talk like a beaten man, according to Australia’s Goldcoast.com.au.
“I guess it’s not over till it’s over, but it’s like climbing Everest and he’s halfway up the bloody hill,” said Fanning, who would have to win four of the remaining six events to stand a chance of beating ‘superman’ Slater. . . Fanning was disgusted at his performance in the final at Jeffreys Bay, knowing he let a prime opportunity to keep the title race alive slip through his fingers. . . “I surfed like an idiot,” said Fanning. “I just had a shocker. I was feeling great. I just couldn’t stay on my board.”
No worries, Mick. You just fell prey to the Slater mind warp.
Perry Ellis International has just announced signing a licensing agreement with leading European clothing giant TV Mania GMBH and Must International Trading, PTE, Ltd., to resurrect the Gotcha brand in Europe.
George Feldenkreis, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Perry Ellis International, said: “We are very excited about this agreement with TV Mania and Must International Trading. Their knowledge of both the European market and the surf lifestyle make them the ideal partner to re-launch Gotcha in Europe. We look forward to an outstanding partnership.”
Hard to believe anyone is interested is putting more money into this brand (no offense, Michael).
Proving that all his waterman skills are on point, the North Shore’s Mark Healey just pulled in a first place at the Bluewater World Cup of Spearfishing in La Paz, Mexico.
He speared a 55 pound Wahoo along with Yellow Tail, Roosterfish, Milkfish and Skip Jack. Although he had never entered the tournament before and was the only surfer in attendance, all of his daily practice in the deep waters off Hawaii and Fiji paid off as he took home the $3200 winner’s check. . . “I’ve been doing different spearfishing events for the last three years or so, but this was the first year I’ve competed in the Bluewater World Cup,” Healey said. “A friend convinced me to enter and fork out the cash to get there and it was definitely worth it.”
It figures someone who is used to long hold-downs would win it. Congrats, Mark.
Hey look: another movie about stoned surfers. Starring stoned actor Matthew McConaughey and his stoned celebrity friends. Here’s what New York Magazine has to say about it:
Really, though, this looks less like a movie and more like a ploy to have someone else foot the weed bill for a summer (thanks, Anchor Bay!); he and his friends (including Woody Harrelson and Willie Nelson) appear to be doing pretty much all the things you assume they do when cameras aren’t rolling (it’s unclear if any of them knew they were acting in a film). Even so, to a daydreaming employee in an East Coast office governed by an Orwellian mandatory shirt-wearing ordinance, this actually sort of looks like stupid, Netflixable fun.
The South African Weekend Postwould like us all to know that after “a string of celebrity relationships behind him, including busty Baywatch babe Pamela Anderson, it seems Billabong Pro champion Kelly Slater has settled for the girl next door,” with Roxy girl Kalani Miller.
Down-to-earth Miller, 20, who is a Roxy women‘s surfwear ambassador, is definitely a refreshing change from other big name celebs Slater has been involved with like Anderson, supermodel Gisele Bundchen and movie actresses Cameron Diaz and Kirsten Dunst.
She’s always been our idea of what a model surfer should be: strong, tough, smart, and a rockin’ surfer. Now, it looks like the LA Times has discovered that there is more to Erica Hosseini “than meets the eye.”
As a player on the surfing scene, Hosseini has become part of the $7.5-billion surfing apparel industry — dominated by brands such as Quiksilver, Roxy, Hurley and O’Neill — which sells the lifestyle and vibe surrounding surfing just as aggressively as the sport itself. The appeal is based in no small part on women like Hosseini, who represent the fun, breezy and stylish aspects of the wave-riding lifestyle. . . “I love modeling,” Hosseini says. “My sponsors have been able to advertise me in not just a surf-action kind of way but also in a more all-around way,” she says, “and I’ve benefited from that. I’m super grateful.”
Aaron Leiber has had a lot going on lately. He graduated from college, traveled around the world twice, and more recently has been holed up in his room in Seal Beach, California spending 16 hours a day editing his new film The Pursuit.
The film (which will be available on Blu-Ray HD disks in October) features: Brett Simpson, Jordy Smith, Ricky Basnett, Pat Gudaskas, Dusty Payne, Dede SuryanaTravis Mellem, Nathanial Curran, Torrey Meister, and many more in locations from Australia to Nicaragua.
If the trailer is any indication, this film is going to blow minds. It drops September 2 at the Laguna Theater. Click the link for all the details.
Garret Lisi, that frighteningly smart, unemployed surfer/snowboarder physicist who got so much play in January 2008 for maybe having solved the ultimate physics problem with his “Theory of Everything” was profiled in this week’s issue of The New Yorker.
Click the link to read the abstract, or buy the magazine for the whole story. It’s the one with cartoon of Barack Obama on the cover dressed as a Muslim.
Claiming the “double whammy” of too many boards being produced and a soft US market, Firewire Surfboards has closed it’s Burleigh manufacturing facility and is moving all of it’s production to “its low-cost factory in Thailand.
