Sometimes, while watching the ASP Top 32, it is possible to think that what they do is pretty easy. At Trestles, where the waves were perfect, we found ourselves being less impressed with the epic surfing because we saw it going down all day long.
Today, as the Quiksilver Pro France at Culs Nus Beach finally wrapped up round two, we had the opposite feeling. The sea was chunky and blown and so inconsistent that when someone got a good wave (like Luke Munro’s 9.77 barrel against Andy Irons) it was like seeing the impossible happen live. The only problem was, there was a lot of waiting between good waves.
En route to his emphatic Round 2 win, Munro consistently notched up dramatic barrels, collecting the day’s highest heat total of 16.87 out of a possible 20 including a near perfect 9.87 out of a possible 10 for an incredibly deep forehand barrel. . . “I felt pretty comfortable out there from get go,” Munro said. “It’s sort of like home at Straddy (Stradbroke Island) so my plan was to go out and get a lot of waves. I think (on my 9.77) I got a little greedy. I probably could have hung in there a second longer, but I wanted to make sure I could get out too.” . . . Munro will take on reigning ASP World Champion and defending Quiksilver Pro France champion Mick Fanning (AUS), 29, in Round 3 of competition.
Damien Hobgood, Daniel Ross,Tom Whitaker, Jadson Andre, Michel Bourez, Chris Davidson, Kieren Perrow, and Taylor Knox all stayed in the game for another round.
Click the link for the complete results, round three match-ups and call time for tomorrow. [click to continue…]
The 12th Annual Bowl Contest. . . is hosted by the World Cup of Skateboarding and will be held at the Lake Cunningham Regional Skate Park in San Jose, CA on Sunday, October 3rd, 2010. The Lake Cunningham Regional Skate Park opened early in 2008 and, at 68,000 square feet, is the largest skate park in California. The park also features the world’s longest full pipe, tallest vert wall, and largest cradle. We expect the 2010 turn out to grow from previous years and continue to help promote youth skateboarding among communities. This year, the contest will take on a more festive feel in the celebration of Tim, as we have local artists displaying their work at the contest. The contest After Party will be held at Wahoo’s Fish Taco’s in Santa Clara at Santana Row on Sunday, October 3rd at 7:30PM with a live band performances.
Their graphics have always been loud so it is surprising that Danny Kass and Grenade hadn’t done their own motocross line long ago. Either way, they’re doing it now with Grenade MX Standard Issue.
After successful collaborations with The Metal Mulisha, Hart & Huntington, and Sullen, Grenade is launching a complete line of technical dirt riding gear. The gear debuted at industry tradeshows in August 2010 and includes two styles; the higher-end “Bulletproof” and the more affordable “Macadam Series. Grenade also introduced six new styles of premium MX gloves and is offering a full casual apparel line built specifically for moto accounts.
It seems, like most boardsports brands, Grenade has finally discovered that motocross fans have money, need loads of gear, and exhibit no discernible level of shame when it comes to covering everything they own in corporate logos. For Grenade it sounds like a match made in heaven. [click to continue…]
A skateboarder in Christchurch, New Zealand landed in the hospital after crashing today (September 30, 2010) while towing behind a car, according to a story in the Otago Daily Times.
The male skater suffered a concussion, but his injuries were not thought to be serious, an ambulance spokesman said.
Looks like The Program’s Bryan Knox has been doing good work for the Burton Corporation lately. Today, (September 30, 2010) it was announced the Knox has been promoted to the position of Director of Team Marketing and Media for Burton Snowboards and The Program.
As the former Director of Team for the Program, Bryan has done an amazing job over the past four years not only building up the Program’s team but also helping to strengthen the marketing of the brands. . . Bryan will oversee the current Burton Team Management group and brings a depth of rider experience, perspective and influence that will help to make the best brands in snowboarding even stronger. In this new role, Bryan will continue to work out of the Irvine offices to function as a West Coast face for the team and core media.
Hoby Darling was a lawyer on the up at the “powerhouse law firm” of Latham Watkins when he took over the Volcom account, according to a story in the Wall Street Journal.
Now, six years later, he’s living the core life as VeeCo’s general counsel and helping Volcom to bridge the “divide between the Beach and Wall Street,” with what they call Volcom University.
Beginning this year, up to 20 employees can attend, free-of-charge, classes in finance taught by executives from Goldman Sachs and accounting from professionals at Deloitte & Touche. Senior Volcom executives, some of whom have also gone through M.B.A. programs while working at Volcom, then teach employees how to apply the concepts from those lessons to their specific work at Volcom.
If you’re going up against the establishment it pays to know your enemy, right?
After reading Chris Nieratko’s typically chatty interview with Dylan Rieder in the November issue of Skateboarder Magazine it’s nice to see Rieder in a little more depth with a four-part Epicly Later’d from Patrick O’Dell. This is part three and it’s all about fashion, look, and those shoes (which, for the record, we were wrong about).
Remember Tim Pogue? He worked at Burton in the early 90s and then joined Jamie Salter to launch and subsequently take Ride Snowboards public back in May of 1994. After exiting Ride Tim launched a retail store and denim line in Seattle called Faction.
After Faction went south he sort of drifted off our radar. Apparently, he’s now the Chief Marketing Officer at Jamie Salter and Kenny Finkelstein’sAuthentic Brands Group. They’re the new owners of both the ass-kicking “bad for the sport” MMA clothing brand TapouT and the mellow Bob Marley brand (which recently collabed with Burton on a snowboard).
The only reason we’re mentioning this is that Pogue was interviewed on FightHype.com regarding TapouT and Authentic Brands Group’s plans for the brand and we thought what he had to say was interesting:
We’re recreating a similar structure that Jamie and I built while we ran Ride Snowboards; a tiered branded strategy. At Ride, we had incredible demand for that brand, which is great, but if you sell your brand to every level of distribution, you won’t last long. So we started several other brands and even bought a few more to target certain levels of distribution to keep each brand clean. That’s what we’re doing here. . . TapouT is all about respect, discipline and the will and desire to train to be the best. We’re not afraid to say that we’re going right after Under Armour and Nike.
While we have absolutely no interest in MMA or MMA fashion, we’re glad to see that Tim is still hard at it.
If a California bankruptcy court gives the final okay, the Minnesota based Active Sports Inc., parent company of The House, Proboard Shop, etc. . . will end up paying $8 million for the Sacramento, California based Sierra Snowboard, its web site and inventory according to a story on Transworld Business.
According to court records, the purchase price includes all intellectual property, assets, good will, and none of the company’s liabilities. A payment plan has been outlined for the $8 million outlining financial milestones Sierra’s owners, Michael Anthony Management, Inc., must meet. According to Active, the Northern District Court of San Jose, California approved the sale, subject to certain closing conditions on September 28. . . Final court approval is still required.
Sierra’s self-reported 272,302 registered online community members must have factored heavily into what seems like a high sale price for a bankrupt retailer with only one location, especially considering the reported $12-13 million in “outstanding trade debt” that still has to be dealt with by someone. Then again, it’s only money, right?
DC Shoes announced today that they have officially passed the 1 million mark for facebook likes and they’re extremely excited about it.
“We’re excited to have grown our Facebook community to this size,” said DC’s President, Anton Nistl. “Facebook is one of the best ways to connect with consumers. It’s a simple, fast and exciting interface to which people have responded positively. We understand its importance and influence and will continue to bring the latest original and creative content surrounding our athletes, events and products to our Facebook followers.”
Kind of makes all other forms of media promotion seem kind of insignificant in comparison, huh?
