Mark has been responsible for some amazing innovations in snowboard media and events over the past 20 years and now he’s going to put those skills behind some product.
What may be most important is that Mark comes to Rome with a true passion for snowboarding and an excitement for where snowboarding’s headed. With a combination of experience, creativity, and a great work ethic, Mark is a great fit for the SDS family. . . If you’d like to come visit Mark, feel free to swing by the Rome office, where Mark’s taken up temporary residency in the Rome parking lot living out of the “Pow Explorer 2” during his transitional period from living in Idaho to becoming a Vermont resident.
We seriously can’t think of a better fit. Congrats, and good luck. [click to continue…]
Analog surf team manager Geoff Moysa was surfing Newport Beach’s 54th Street yesterday (October 13, 2010) when he saw a kneeboarder face down in the water, according to a Tom Cozad quote in on OrangeCounty.com.
Geoff Moysa (my new hero) saw Kenny floating face down in the surf. He called for help, and the crew of guys in the water which included Pat Towersey went into action. As they brought him in, they yelled to the beach for help, they mobilized his head and neck and got him to the sand as fast as they could. Not an easy task, as Kenny is a big guy.
Cozad, Towersey, and Moysa all played a serious part in saving Kenny Honingford’s life. After he was resusitated on the beach, Honingford was transferred to Hoag Hospital. Amazing work.
For those who didn’t make it to Sessions’ 12th Annual Tim Brauch Memorial Contest in San Jose, California on October 2-3, 2010. Here’s a little taste of the goodness that went down. Don’t miss it next year.
Mother ocean may not have responded to the magnitude of the Slater vs. Smith final in the Rip Curl Pro Portugalwith epic wavestoday (October 14, 2010), but that didn’t keep the world’s current number one and two from hitting it as hard as two surfers could. In total they turned in 25 scoring waves between them.
Kelly Slater kicked the heat off by sneaking into a small backside barrel. He followed that up with another left that included a snap and a mile long backside floater leaving Jordy Smith playing catch up for the rest of the heat. Visibly frustrated, Smith pulled off a superman on a backsider and kept pressing Kelly, but the ramps Jordy needed to fuel his aerial assault never materialized. He finished with 11.43 points to Kelly’s 13.33.
Kelly appeared overjoyed to slip in a win against the world’s best up and comer. “Congrats to Jordy,” Kelly said from the stage. “I’m know he’s not as stoked as he could be with this result. But Jordy is an amazing surfer. He and Dane are the guys who are setting the future of the sport and I’m just learning from them now. So I’m really happy to get this win over him.
On the podium Jordy Smith struggled to open the champagne bottle. When he finally did splash Kelly it was without enthusiasm. To be that close and see his first title slipping away must be heavy. “I had a blast here,” Jordy said. “We’ve had some really fun waves. I’ve just been stoked to be in the finals with Kelly Slater.”
With this Rip Curl win Kelly Slater has taken his 44th event on the ASP World Tour and strolls into Puerto Rico with everything going his way. We’re left to wonder— will he win claim number ten in Puerto Rico or be forced into a showdown at Pipeline in December?
Follow the jump for the full results and the official word from the ASP. [click to continue…]
While the rest of us were simply praying the 33 men trapped in a Chilean Copper mine would survive, Oakley appears to have lucked into a marketing bonanza.
According to a statement from Oakley, a Chilean journalist apparently recommended the company’s eyewear to a Chilean private health insurer. The insurer called Oakley and Oakley responded by donating 35 pairs of Radar With Black Iridium lenses, according to a story on CNBC.com.
Now, thanks to all the images of happy rescued miners rocking Oakley, the company has gotten world-wide branding on an enormous scale. The sponsorship evaluation firm of Front Row Analytics figures the value of Oakley’s “protective eyewear” donation is worth about $41 million.
Eric Smallwood, vice president of project management for the company, told CNBC that the company took into account the live coverage, the recaps and a rough estimate of the audience watching around the world. . . Front Row broke the exposure down by country. Oakley will get the most exposure in China ($11.7 million), $6.4 million in the United States, $898,000 in the United Kingdom and $703,000 in Chile. . . “It’s a goodwill gesture that will turn into mass amounts of exposure for Oakley in a positive manner,” Smallwood said.
Game development company Robomodo, the group responsible for Tony Hawk’s Ride and new Tony Hawk’s Shred game (and controller), has reportedly cut between 30 and 60 employees, according to a story on Kotaku.com.
Sources tell Kotaku that the layoffs were affected in some way by news that Tony Hawk publisher Activision had taken the franchise away from the developer. One source told us that a wrap party planned for Tony Hawk: Shred with the star attending was pushed back to November without notice prior to today’s layoffs.
Those fucking geniuses at the fucking Burton Corporation are fucking all over the fucking Fuck It promo vid with even more fucking products with the fucking word “fuck” on them. They just fucking released a fucking T-shirt that fucking says “Fuck It” right on the fucking front of the fucking shirt. How fucking rad is that?
They also have a fucking hoodie that says “Fuck It” right on the fucking shoulder. But the best fucking part of this whole fucking thing? They’re releasing a fucking limited fucking edition fucking snowboard with a big fucking hand on the fucking base flying a huge fucking “Fuck You” to the whole fucking world. Fuck.
“There,” Chris Brunkhart says, jabbing his index finger into a proof sheet from his new book and sliding it across the table. “Blue sky.” Someone had rather impolitely asked Chris if his new collection of 1990s era snowboard photography How Many Dreams in the Dark included even one blue sky image. Chris seems relieved to be able to point one out so quickly. And technically, he is right. There is a bit of blue sky. But it is a Brunkhart version of a blue sky. The sun nearly set. Sky darkened to almost black as snowboarder Matt Donahue blasts one more method through the lengthening rays of an already winter-shortened day at Washington’s Steven’s Pass.
In snowboard photography, where bright colors, blue skies, and white snow sell covers, ads, and editorial, Chris has always been a bit of a dark star. He loves shooting his Lecia. And he prefers black and white film. In the early 90s, when most pro photographers would only get their cameras out on cloudless, full sun days, Chris had no problem shooting black and white photos during the biggest storms of the season. While some of that had to do with the realities of weather in the Northwest, he also seemed to prefer it. As a senior photographer for both Transworld Snowboarding and Snowboarder magazines Chris traveled the world shooting snowboarding, yet, some of his best images are of snowboard heroes falling away into the shaded throat of some Mt. Baker powder slot with nothing but snow-laden trees, or a cliff line to frame the action. Though his photos ran in all the major magazines, some of his favorites were never published. That’s one of the reasons he is excited about his new book.
How Many Dreams in the Dark, marks Brunkhart’s return to snowboarding. After what Chris describes as a “falling out sort of” over Frequency Magazine in 2001, he disappeared from action sports media and spent several years working as a car mechanic and a finish carpenter—working with his hands and loving it. But with How Many Dreams he says everything has come full circle. The photos may be from the 90s, but for Chris this is a new beginning. Frequency Magazine is a sponsor, along with Volcom and Burton Snowboards, and everything seems to be right back on track.
Sadly, it appeared that three-time ASP Women’s World Champion Stephanie Gilmore didn’t even show up for her final against Hawaii’s Carissa Moore in the Rip Curl Pro Portugal women’s event held Saturday, October 9, 2010. While Gilmore seemed to be waiting for the big scoring waves Moore took wave after wave building a score of 17.44. In order to win Gilmore would have needed her two best waves of the entire contest, but they didn’t come.
“The waves here in Peniche are always so much fun,” Gilmore said. “I’m sorry I couldn’t put on more of a show out there, but Carissa (Moore) showed everyone how much fun it can be out there. I’m very happy with a Runner-Up finish and I’m looking forward to the next event.”
Nice of Gilmore to suggest that Carissa was having fun out there, but from the looks of the rookie Hawaiian’s last two heats she was set on total opponent destruction.
“I don’t have any excuses now without school anymore,” Moore said. “It’s great to have that extra time to dedicate to surfing and training. I’m stoked to be where I’m at right now. I’ve never been to Puerto Rico before. Each event is a new chance and a clean slate. I’ve heard they have some really fun waves and I can’t wait to get there.”
The win moves Moore up from eighth to fifth in the women’s world tour rankings. The men have still not had a chance to contest any waves and are on call for tomorrow.
The marketing mastermind behind the now defunct Mtnops.com website, snowboard, and clothing company, Snowboard Mag, and Tailgate Alaska, Mark Sullivan, has finally made it back to Vermont where he will take on his newest project as Marketing Manager of Rome Snowboards (see photos from his trip east here).
