Master surfboard shaper Donald Takayama has died on Monday, October 22, 2012, according to a story on Surfline.com. He was 68.
Hailing from Waikiki but raised in Honolulu, Takayama placed 2nd to Corky Carroll in the 1966 and 1967 U.S. Surfboard Championships and enjoyed other competitive accolades, however, his main contributions to the sport and culture occurred in the board building realm . . . Takayama founded Hawaiian Pro Designs, where he shaped for budding World Tour professional and eventual Pipeline Master Joey Buran. By the mid ’80s, with labels popping up everywhere and boards getting shorter and weirder, Takayama responded by producing longboards almost exclusively, two of the most popular being signature models for David Nuuhiwa and Dale Dobson.
Our thoughts are with Takayama’s family and friends and we’re honored to have one of his longboards in our quiver. Thanks, Donald.
Here’s the short version: Analog is going snow and moving back to Burlington. The snow team will stay, but the skate and surf teams will be “transitioned out of the brand”. Gravis is moving to Tokyo and going Asia only as a lifestyle brand. The team will be “restructured to accommodate” that market. Helmet’s and optics will be combined under the Anon brand (with some Red still being produced). Burton will “exit out of” The Program brands (Special Blend, Forum, and Four Square) by 2014 (good-bye). Burton has operated the brands for eight years yet, “the businesses have failed to be viable.” In the surf world Channel Islands and it’s team remain unaffected.
Here’s what founder Jake Burton Carpenter has to say about it:
“Burton has experienced several years of income growth since the recession and paid out bonuses to employees over the last two years,” said Jake. “That said, the economy has a voice of its own that we all have to listen to, and the message is clear: do what you do best and focus purely on it. In our case, that means to narrow our focus to the sport and lifestyle that got us here – snowboarding. We will continue to support Channel Islands in its endeavor to make the best surfboards in the world and Gravis in its new home in Japan, but when you walk through the front door here in Burlington, Vermont, it will be all snowboarding and snowboarding lifestyle all the time – driven by the Burton, Analog and anon brands.”
Sound like a good plan all around and honestly, we can’t believe it took them so long with Gravis and the Program. Burton went far beyond a reasonable investment in many of their brands and should be commended for trying to make them work in spite of market response.
Follow the jump for the official word an complete breakdown of the changes. [click to continue…]
With less than two minutes left in the Rip Curl Pro Portugal final and Gabriel Medina in the lead, Julian Wilson knew he needed to work some magic. Up popped a wave, Julian pulled into a barrel, busted out, threw a claim, threw down some turns and then had to walk up a quiet beach as the judges tried to sort things out. When they did it was an 8.43 for Wilson and that wave served as was payback for last time Wilson and Medina were in a final:
He beat me in a buzzer beater last year in France. To beat him back again on the buzzer was amazing,” Wilson said. “I don’t even know how to describe the feeling. He was trying to hold on to the lead there in the end. He was too busy worrying about me and that wave came behind it.”
Medina, after thinking maybe he had won the contest, was overcome with emotion on the podium. And, wiping tear away said, “That was a tough heat against Julian (Wilson),” Medina said. “Unfortunately he got the score on that last wave. I had a fun run through this event and the waves were really really good.”
There are who felt that Medina was getting underscored the entire final. Freddy Patacchia was one of them. “7.47 for @gabrielmedinaaa that is just wrong,” he said via Twitter. “That was the best barrel & wave of the heat. Should have been an 8.5 plus in my opinion.”
But no one will dispute the fact that Wilson played it well and earned his first WCT title. Follow the jump for the official word from the ASP including full results and ASP World Title standings after Portugal. [click to continue…]
Yes, it was big. And, true, Shane Dorian and the boys are raring to go for another winter season as evidenced by this ACL Digital edit titled Seared Peahi.
Alana Blanchard has a new show on Youtube called Alana: Surfer Girl in which we guess she will parade around in her bikini and give us a sneak peek at all her surfing assets (not that we’re being critical).
In this weekly series launching 10/29 follow Alana, along with her close surfer friends, Leila Hurst and Camille Brady, as they take you on a journey around Kauai, surfing, diving, swimming, and exploring the fourth largest of the Hawai’ian Islands.
The show launches on Monday, October 29, 2012 on Network A. So watch for it (if you can figure the whole Youtube Channel thing out).
It was a sad day for Kelly Slater fans at the Rip Curl Pro Portugal as he was eliminated from the competition by Raoni Monteiro in nearly unsurfable waves that one heat later caused a two-hour hold.
“It’s really hard out there today,” Slater said. “I surfed for 15 minutes after my heat and still didn’t get any good waves. I don’t know what to say, it’s just luck of the draw sometimes. If you get in the right sort of current, or out of the wrong current, and you find a little corner that’s not really a set, maybe you can do something with it. It’s tough, but Julian (Wilson) just got a 10 so say what you want. In 45 minutes (30 minute heat and 15 minutes after), I didn’t score over 3. I’m just a little upset at myself for even bothering. I shouldn’t even have paddled out to be honest. I should have said it’s so bad we couldn’t surf, but Joel (Parkinson) was getting 6s and 7s and they’re probably looking at the clock saying we have to get this thing done. I didn’t talk to Damien (Hardman) before the heat, and I didn’t really talk to any of the surfers. I just sort of walked out and said I guess we’re surfing…my bad.”
Monteiro, however, got a couple waves so it was possible. For the official word from Kelly and the QF match-ups, follow the jump. [click to continue…]
It basically goes like this: drive, surf, drink Corona Extra beer, ride a motorcycle, pull over drink more Corona Extra. Watch the sunset while drinking Corona Extra. Cliff jump, swim, ride a bus, surf, carry your surfboard past a sunset pushing a bike, have another Corona Extra. Because Corona Extra makes everything better. Did we mention this was brought to you by Corona Extra?
Surfline decided to go straight to Triple Crown of Surfing founder Randy Rarick to get his perspective on what the ASP/ZoSea Media deal means to surfers, contests, and surfing in general. It would be difficult to find a wiser, more generous, experienced person in surfing to discuss this. It was interesting to see how optimistic Rarick was about it. Here’s just one of his answers:
I think the timing is right. I think they have the smarts, the drive, and the wherewithal to probably take it to the next level. We don’t have any details yet; we’re meeting in about three weeks to start hammering through those details, but I think they have some connections in the media world that we haven’t been able to tap into. And whether it be ESPN or Fox or NBC, I think you will see the elevation of surfing in the media, no question. By eliminating the specter of the brands having to try to outdo each other, now the brands can focus their energy on using these as a promotional platform and I think these ZoSea guys will bring more money into the sport simply because that’s what they want to do. They want to monetize it, and good for them. Hopefully they get rich on it. And if they get rich on it, that means the tour will improve because it’ll bring in more money, which means more money for the athletes, more money for media coverage. I’m sure some people will bemoan the loss of the soul or the grassroots-ness of the thing, you know, but commercial competitive surfing has always been like that anyway.
We would never disagree with Mr. Rarick, however, after reading the entire interview we were reminded of three things. One, TV doesn’t have the same cultural impact it once had. Two, in the new world of media efficiencies there is very little room for middlemen, and thirdly, once you give it away, it’s very difficult to get it back. But click the link and read the rest before you think too hard on any of that.
Australia’s Jack Freestone slipped into his second Oakley World Pro Junior Championship in Bali today (October 16, 2012) by .06 of a point against Hawaii’s Ezekiel Lau 13.83 to 13.77.
“It’s amazing to follow in Joel [Parkinson’s] footsteps,” Freestone said. “He’s my favorite surfer and we’re both from Coolangatta, so it feels amazing right now. He’s on the Men’s ASP World Championship Tour, that’s where I want to be. So hopefully this gives me the confidence to know that I can get there.”
Master surfboard shaper Donald Takayama has died on Monday, October 22, 2012, according to a story on Surfline.com. He was 68.
