[Link via John Paul King]
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January 2009
Urban snowboarding progression means getting into more and more strange-ass places at speed. And sometime, getting pushed just doesn’t cut it. That’s why “legendary park tool builder and Forum Staff Filmer” Kurt Heine developed “an urban tow-in winch capable of speeds up to 40mph,” according to a post on Forum Snowboards.
Eddie Wall dropped in on the bad boy pictured below, and will be using this piece of artillery with the rest of the Forum team on urban street assaults all season long.
Winch way did he go? Winch way did he go?
[Link: Forum Or Against ‘Em]
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Kelly Ferrone and his friend triggered an avalanche just out-of-bounds at Brighton, Utah on Pioneer Ridge Peak.
Kelly Ferrone triggered the avalanche, which swept his friend away. Ferrone said, “I unstrapped and started running at full sprint through powder up to my waist, and when I got to him, I kept yelling ‘Marco,’ and he’d yell ‘Polo’ until we found each other. He was buried up to his waist and wrapped around a tree, and I had to dig him out.”
Neither snowboarder was wearing an avalanche transceiver nor any other backcountry gear. Looks like Ferrone’s headphone survived, though.
[Link: KSL.com]
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Self-proclaimed “action sports pioneer” Paul Taublieb has enlisted the help of Rob Dyrdek to roll out a new “Instant Scoring eXperience” from MSInteractive, and claims that it’s going to revolutionize the action sports industry.
“For the many years I’ve been around such judged events, I’ve always been struck by the disconnect – the athlete is competing and the audience is waiting, waiting, waiting to know what to feel until those scores drop,” explained Taublieb. “No longer. With ISX it’s all happening in the present enhancing the entertainment experience of the core fan and at the same time make street skating and all action sports accessible to the mainstream sports fan.
The idea is that the judges simply twiddle a knob while an event is going down and those knob twiddles are compiled and displayed in real time, like the score meter on that Tony Hawk video game.
“ISX will take the appreciation of what skaters, and all action sports athletes do to a whole new level and you’ll see ISX not only in my new MTV series ‘Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory,’ but also in my Street League,” added Dyrdek.
Reminds us a little too much of the “instant feedback” in the sci-fi book Interface. Shouldn’t the people judging an event take a little time to process what they’re seeing? You know, think a little? Seems like thinking is a good thing when it comes to event scoring. Follow the jump for the whole release.
[click to continue…]
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When Sebastian Gomez, 19, got lost snowboarding in New Mexico. In fact, he was out in a freezing snow storem over night. And just when he was dealing with thoughts of trying to survive another night in the snow, rescue crews spotted him.
. . . he heard a helicopter overhead. . . To draw attention, he waved his iPod. The crew on the chopper, wearing night-vision goggles, saw the light. Gomez was found about a mile from the ski area in four feet of snow.
Apple’s Jesus tech saves another life. Wonder if it will work for Steve Jobs?
[Link: CBS News]
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According to a story in the Vail Trail Marty Odom, the a Sharpshooter photographer (who was not working and used his own camera) who got the photo of the bare-assed skier may get fired.
“I was out on my own with my own camera, so I didn’t think it was a big deal,” Odom said. “I thought it was going to be the photo of the New Year.” . . . However, when he arrived at work on Monday, he was told that he was suspended until further notice. . . . “We all know what that means,” said Odom, who has been working for Sharpshooters since the beginning of the season. “I guess it embarrassed Vail Resorts, and they called (my) shop.”
Not a bad price to pay for getting the shot that was seen around the world (it was even featured in the monologue of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno last night [10:26 into the show]). And no, Marty is not sorry he shot it.
[Link: Vail Trail via Deadspin]
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We received reports yesterday that Reef dropped the axe on 42 employees as the savage retail economy continues to take its toll. Reef is one of 25 brands owned by VF Corp. Some of the company’s other brands include Vans, The North Face, 7 For All Mankind, Eastpack, Jansport, Wrangler, and Eagle Creek.
In a late December 2008 interview with TransWorld Business VF Corp’s President Americas Coalition Dave Gatto said:
We all know there can be a huge up-swing when the market recovers; it’s just a matter of adjusting the business responsibly to survive the lulls and hopefully emerge a stronger, more efficient brand.
Looks like Mr. Gatto just “adjusted” the Reef business to survive this lull. Hopefully, that was enough.
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Joey Santley and Steve Cox have done what many thought could not be done: they have produced a surfboard made of mostly recycled materials. Joey spoke with Surfing Magazine about the entire Resurf.org process.
Well, the first board is 65% recycled foam. All I did was sweep up the foam dust from the shaping machine and bays of Mayhem’s factory and mixed it into our blending process. Of course, there has to be some virgin polyurethane in there to make everything adhere, but this is a huge start. We’re hoping to get the boards up to 70-80% recycled.
According to the story, Joey and Steve will be at ASR with their boards in booth #1036.
[Link: Surfing Magazine]
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Using an empty fountain in suburb of Macroroyan in Afghanistan’s capital city Kabul, Sharna Nolan, 31, is teaching peace with a skateboard. It is called Project Skateistan.
Ms Nolan said of the eager pupils, with as many girls as boys: “Skateboarding has given them a chance to be children and to smile.” . . . The sport has taken root so strongly in Kabul that the couple and their team of volunteers, who call their project Skateistan, plan to start a school with $70,000 raised so far and another $70,000 that has still to be found. . . . Land has been donated by Afghans in three provinces for indoor recreational centres with facilities for traditional Afghan sports as well as skateboarding.
Obviously the organization needs all the help they can get. Click here to learn more about helping to support the cause.
[Link: Skateistan via The Age]
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Malibu surfers are getting upset about the City’s plans to clean up what has been a “chronically polluted” surf break for years, according to a story in the LA Times. They say the plan does not take into account the treatment of sewage in the Civic Center.
Legacy Park “was touted as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create a state-of-the-art environmental solution to the city’s water quality problems,” said Joe Melchione, an attorney who heads the Malibu Surfing Assn.’s environmental committee. “It’s time for the city of Malibu to grow up and clean up their own mess.”
Apparently, this whole issue is a stinking mess.
[Link: LA Times]
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