by The Editors on April 7, 2009
Today Dogtown Z-Boy turned director Stacy Peralta is using the first post on his new Huffington Post blog to talk about how difficult it was for him to get his new film Crips and Bloods Made In America financed.
It seemed so obvious to me, a slam-dunk, a downright compelling true life American story. The story of how the Crips and Bloods — two of the world’s most ‘iconic’ gangs — have been allowed to wage a virtual war within one of the richest cities in the world for 4 decades, a war that has taken over 15,000 lives in that time. . . .Yet I couldn’t find any studio or production company interested in financing my documentary. I went door to door, pitching my project to all of the ‘right’ people in Hollywood. All of them said it was a great idea and needed to be done — but no one would write a check.
Couldn’t he just shoot more Burger King commercials? Click the link for the rest of this amazing story.
[Link: The Huffington Post]
by The Editors on April 7, 2009
With the new all-elimination format on there really are no boring heats at the Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach. The big news in yesterday’s round one was 19-year-old Owen Wright taking Dane Reynolds out at the knees.
“Dane (Reynolds) is an excellent surfer,” Wright said. “I let him have what I thought was average wave and he got a 6.8. He is definitely a solid competitor and I am just stoked to get through the heat. I had been watching a lot of heats and I thought that those guys that get the bigger score early are the one going through. I really focused on getting that first wave and ended up getting it.”
Next on Wright’s competition schedule: Kelly Slater. For the rest of the official release follow the jump.
[Link: Rip Curl Pro]
[click to continue…]
by The Editors on April 6, 2009
by The Editors on April 6, 2009
The old media TV networks seem dead set on doing any deals they can to try to get some kind of traction online. A story on Media Post today announced that Heavy.com (a site that we never have been able to figure out) has entered a deal with Alli: The Alliance of Action Sorts.
While expansion is the name of the game, the wide world of action sports is not exactly new to Heavy according to its co-founder and co-CEO Heavy Simon Assaad, co-founder and co-CEO of Heavy. “Heavy has always been a champion of action sports,” said Assaad. . . One channel will feature exclusive online videos from the Alliance including Dew Tour and other select Alli properties, with the other showcasing public videos from each member of the Alliance, which includes: the Dew Tour; Winter Dew Tour; China Invitational; Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship, King of Wake series and the Gatorade Free Flow Tour. Both channels will launch in June, 2009.
True, at one point Heavy had a Transworld action sports channel on their network, but it reportedly never generated much traction or viewers for either brand. The current Alli deal looks to replicate former Heavy deals: Alli gets is two new online video distribution channels on Heavy and Heavy gets more free content to try to sell ads around.
Online distribution deals have always confounded us. The idea of distribution requires at least protected access to an audience. What most media companies seem to forget is that thanks to Google everyone online has basically equal distribution. Sure there are some sites that get more traffic, but if content is online and people want it they will find it no matter where it is. Conversely, if no one wants to look at it, it doesn’t matter what “Internet traffic pipe” you point at it, it’s not going to get viewed.
That’s why most of these “online distribution deals” end up being worth little more than the press release announcing the deal.
[Link: Media Post]
by The Editors on April 5, 2009
It seems that executives who leave the privately held Australian surf giant Rip Curl can pretty much forget about keeping any of the shares they got as part of their employment. Most recently Rip Curl has bought back 150,000 shares from former board chairman James Strong for $1 a piece, according to a story in the Sydney Morning Herald.
It appears that the company has only paid $1 a share for Mr Strong’s stake, as part of an arrangement to buy them back at the price they were issued seven years ago. . . . But Rip Curl’s C-class stock is set at $62 a share, valuing Mr Strong’s 148,412’s shares at a nominal $9.2 million, according to documents filed with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. . . The final amount paid to the former chairman was part of a “confidential settlement agreement” relating to his departure, the company said in ASIC filings on Friday.
You don’t stay “closely held” by letting voting shares get to far from the nest, apparently.
[Link: Sydney Morning Herald]
by The Editors on April 4, 2009
After a long hold-down at Grajagan Australian industrial design student Grant Humphreys. 26. decided he needed a safer way to surf large waves. In his final year at University of New South Wales he designed a “rescue jacked,” according to a story in the Brisbane Times.
Mr Humphreys’s safety rescue jacket, dubbed the mAIRine, is for a situation where a surfer is held under water for a long period of time. There is a small air canister on the back and a mouthpiece that is designed for self-rescue. In the event of a surfer becoming unconscious, a manual spring-loaded timer triggers an inflation bladder, so they rise to the surface.
The project is a finalist in the James Dyson Award design competition, however, we still have two questions: does it work? And who is using it? Sadly, this story answers neither of those questions.
[Link: Brisebane Times]
by The Editors on April 3, 2009
by The Editors on April 3, 2009
The United States of America Snowboard Association invades Copper Mountain Colorado this weekend with its normal gargantuan size, according to a story in the Summit Daily News.
The numbers speak for themselves: six days, 36 events and 1,544 competitors. So, saying that the 2009 United States of America Snowboard Association Nationals isn’t just any other snowboarding and freeskiing competition would be a bit of an understatement. . . .“This event is a different type of animal — it’s just massive,” USASA executive director Jason Toutolmin said. . . . Beginning with practice sessions on Saturday and official competition on Sunday, the 20th annual national competition kicks off on Copper Mountain, featuring some of the future stars of the sport.
Nice to see that the USASA Organization is alive and thriving. The only thing that trips us out is that they include ski events in the contest. How weird is that?
[Link: Summit Daily News]
by The Editors on April 3, 2009
When Oprah Winfrey launches her own cable network OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network early 2010 it’s going to be with a little help from a show with the surfing Paskowitz family, according to a story in the Chicago Tribune. The show?
“Surfer’s Healing” is touted as a “docu-soap” tracking former competitive surfer Izzy Paskowitz and his family.
The channel will launch the surfers program into 70 million homes, making it their biggest audience yet.
[Link: Chicago Tribune]
by The Editors on April 3, 2009
After a meeting between Adrenalina CEO Ilia Lekach and several independent Pacific Sunwear directors Pac Sun has announced that the proxy contest is over.
Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. said Friday that Adrenalina, which has expressed its interest in acquiring the California teen clothing retailer, has ended its proxy contest by withdrawing its nominations of four candidates for election to the Pacific Sunwear board.
Maybe it’s the hearty retailer climate.
[Link: FOX Business]
