by The Editors on March 20, 2009
Surf writer Nick Carroll’s new two-part documentary on surfing in Australia Bombora hits Australia’s ABC1 next Thursday. Before it airs The Australian discussed surfing and what it means to Australia comparing Carroll’s doco to fiction writer Tim Winton’s must-read coming of age surfing novel Breathe.
Bombora, a documentary about the history of surfing in Australia, is no exception. It’s not just the history of a subculture but an ambitious argument that surfing is the ultimate embodiment of Australiana. “It’s impossible to imagine what Australia would be like without surfing,” surfer and author Tim Winton says in the introduction to the first of the two episodes. . . . That’s a big claim, but the documentary, driven by the encyclopedic and analytical mind of veteran surf journalist Nick Carroll, makes a convincing case: the original European settlers revelled in Australia’s warm water, which allowed them to do things they’d never imagined; as the country urbanised, it turned its back on the bush and made the beach its playground; surfers emerged to epitomise the young nation’s culture, especially after youthful rebellion became such a ubiquitous rite of passage, and their larrikin spirit was transformed into a multibillion-dollar fashion industry that “would one day outsell the high fashion houses of Europe”.
Being fans of Nick Carroll and Tim Winton we believe both are adding art to the world through surfing and we’re looking forward to seeing Bombora just as soon as it comes out on DVD (hint, hint, Nick).
[Link: The Australian]
by The Editors on March 19, 2009
According to an 8-K filed on March 13, 2009 by Spy Optic parent company Orange 21 the company has cut employee pay by 10 percent for at least three months.
Pursuant to the Reduction, the annual base salaries of the Company’s salaried employees were reduced by ten percent (10%) and the Company’s hourly employees were put on reduced work schedules that resulted in their compensation being reduced by ten percent (10%).
When you figure that nearly everything but fuel, food, and healthcare seems to be running at about 50% off it’s really not that bad.
[Link: SEC.gov via Outdoor Business Update]
by The Editors on March 19, 2009
by The Editors on March 19, 2009
A group of six snowboards planned to hike Japan’s Mt. Kurodake on the north island of Hokkaido to cap off the 2009 season of snowboarding, but when a storm came and they got lost, their plans changed according to a story told by Chris Holmes to the Times Online. His first quote kind of explains the situation.
“I’m a relatively inexperienced snowboarder so I didn’t want to go on,” Mr Holmes, 34, told The Times from his home in Hokkaido where he is still trying to get feeling back into his icy cold feet. . . Three of the group continued on to the peak and returned safely to base camp later that evening. But the other six who descended earlier were less fortunate. . . The men and women from New Zealand, Australia and Holland became so lost and disorientated trying to navigate their way down the steep mountainside they were forced to dig a snow cave and sleep huddled together on a bed of pine leaves as the temperature dropped below zero.
Another lesson in backcountry snowboarding from the “inexperienced.”
[Link: Times Online]
by The Editors on March 19, 2009
A guy surfing at a beach on the New South Wales far south coast didn’t get munched by a shark today, but his surfboard did.
Andrew Edmunds from the Far South Coast Surf Life Saving branch says the size or species of shark is not known. . . “The male surfer didn’t sustain any injuries in the incident, but his board was damaged by the attack, by the shark,” he said. . . “The type of shark is unknown.”
A little bite of foam seems to keep them from coming back.
[Link: ABC.net.au]
by The Editors on March 19, 2009
A new surfboard created by a renewable products cooperative called Eden Projects in the UK is made with 50 percent renewable materials (including some wood from a fallen Balsa tree), according to a story in the Telegraph.co.uk.
Describing the creation as “revolutionary”, Eden’s retail director, Mark Beeley, said: “At last we are able to offer surfers the chance to own one of the most sustainable surfboards in the world, available right here in the UK.” . . . Mr Beeley said 15 per cent – 20 per cent of the foam core was made from plant-derived material and a resin was developed from linseed oil to coat the board.
[Link: Telegraph.co.uk]
by The Editors on March 19, 2009
Casey Wasserman’s march to own a majority stake action sports media moved forward today as the founders of GrindTV announced that they were being rolled into Wasserman Media Groups’ Sportnet to form a new company owned by Wasserman’s Sportnet in partnership with Softbank Capital.
“By joining forces with Sportnet, we now have access to deep sport-specific communities on sites such as Wetsand.com, Motocross.com and Skateboard.com. We are committed to leveraging these complementary online properties to create the leading action sports media company for fans, marketers, and the industry,” said GrindTV’s CEO Erik Hawkins and COO Greg Morrow. . . . “The combination of GrindTV and Sportnet creates a clear market-leader in the exciting action sports segment,” said SoftBank Capital Managing Director Eric Hippeau. “We have been behind GrindTV from the very beginning, and its always exciting when a portfolio company takes flight.”
And then someday, when all the deals are done someone might actually discover a profitable revenue stream.
Follow the jump for the entire release.
[click to continue…]
by The Editors on March 19, 2009
Thanks to Lewis Samuels and Surfline for perfectly capturing the jockification of surfing in a snide way. It may take for hell and a day to load each page, but for those who want to know what one surf writer thinks about each of the guys on the ASP WCT there’s no better place than The Surfline’s 2009 ASP World Tour Pow3r Rank1ngs Presented by Rip Curl. Here’s what he said about 17th place Kelly Slater:
It’s obvious to everyone that by losing to Julian, Slater has erased two decades of competitive dominance. We can now safely equate Kelly to Cheyne Horan, who finished runner-up four times riding unconventional equipment. Yes, Kelly won the Billabong Pipe Masters riding similarly unconventional equipment, and there were those nine titles… but that was then, this is now. The once infallible Slater, who has never lost a heat in his life, dug his rail twice in chest-high windchop and failed to catch an imaginary second scoring set wave that never came through. So clearly, he’s no longer the best surfer in the world.
Smell that? That’s sarcasm. . . though we can’t say we disagree with the “unconventional equipment” comments.
[Link: Surfline.com]
by The Editors on March 18, 2009
A Del Mar, California surfer out for dawn patrol this morning noticed six bulging burlap sacks along the railroad tracks near the end of 11th street in Del Mar, according to a story in the San Diego Union-Tribune.
As he continued to walk toward the water, he came across two men lugging a seventh sack and he asked what they were doing, Reynolds said. . . .The men said something in Spanish, dropped what they were carrying and ran. The surfer called deputies, who later found an eighth sack closer to the water, Reynolds said. The sacks were filled with 80 plastic-wrapped bundles of marijuana, Reynolds said.
This is the second time this year that a surfer has discovered weed in Del Mar and reported it. Wonder how many loads have gone unreported?
[Link: San Diego Union-Tribune]
by The Editors on March 18, 2009
We kind of laugh when we see that Nike lumps Hurley and Converse under the header “Other Businesses” along with Cole Haan, Nike Golf and Umbro when it releases financial reports. But either way, while profits at the mother ship declined 47 percent it looks like the “other businesses” survived the storm.
For the third quarter, revenue for the Other businesses, which include Cole Haan, Converse Inc., Hurley International LLC, NIKE Golf, and Umbro Ltd, increased 1 percent to $592.2 million compared to $587.4 million last year with the group posting a third quarter pre-tax loss of $344.1 million versus pretax income of $106.1 million for the same period last year.
None of this is really comparable though because they didn’t have the same “other businesses” last year that they have now. How’s that for insights into the business. Apparently, someone in the “other businesses” is doing just fine. We’ll assume for entertainment sake that it’s Hurley. Good job, Bob.
[Link: MarketWatch]
Surf writer Nick Carroll’s new two-part documentary on surfing in Australia Bombora hits Australia’s ABC1 next Thursday. Before it airs The Australian discussed surfing and what it means to Australia comparing Carroll’s doco to fiction writer Tim Winton’s must-read coming of age surfing novel Breathe.
