The mad hatters at New Era have announced that they are piling on their “expanding accessories business” to the company’s Orange County, California action sports office, according to CEO Chris Koch.
“It’s imperative that we continue to build a strong bond with our consumers and deliver a cohesive message across current and emerging markets,” Koch said. “We have an aggressive growth plan in motion to cultivate our business beyond our core competencies and in turn better position ourselves as an international lifestyle brand.”
Guess the crew in OC have been doing things proper lately. Follow the jump for the rest. [click to continue…]
After Kelly Slater famously tweeted that he’d rather surf macking Cloudbreak than meager Billabong Pro J-Bay surf and Bobby Martinez failed to show up, the ASP is reportedly working toward significantly increasing the fines for tour surfers who bail on events, according to a Joli story on ESPN/Action.
From the next event, which is the Billabong Pro in Tahiti, sources close to the ASP have indicated increasing the fine to US $25,000 if the surfer has been in touch with ASP officials but is still a no show (e.g. Slater at J-Bay) or possible US $50,000 for a surfer who has not been in touch with officials (e.g. Martinez) and fails to turn up. Prodan could not verify these numbers.
Increased fines do show that the ASP is serious, but will they actually help hold things together? Or just piss more surfers off? Guess we’ll find out soon enough.
Forgive us for going a little overboard on the surf lately. The world’s largest surf event (The Nike US Open of Surfing) is kicking off this weekend in Huntington Beach, California and it seems that every single brand in surf has a video event coming up. Most will be showing at Newport Beach’s Lido Theatre.
One of the films premiering there next week is Transworld Surf’sSurprise Excitement Party staring Conner and Parker Coffin, Michel Bourez, John Florence, Mark Healey and others. The film debuts on Wednesday, August 3, 2011 at 8:30 PM. The showing is free and open to civilians.
Thanks to all manner of political intrigue (coups, changing laws, etc. . . ) one of the best waves in the world hasn’t hosted the world’s best surfers for the past three years. Now, thanks to the Volcom Fiji Pro Cloudbreak (and/or Restaurants) will be back on the ASP World Tour starting in 2012 and running through at least 2014.
“We are all very excited about the opportunity to host our first ever ASP World Title event in Fiji,” Richard Woolcott, Volcom CEO, said. “Having the competition at Cloudbreak, or even Restaurants, is a perfect fit with Volcom’s long history with Tavarua. This is a major step in our surfing program and it’s great to be able to support the tour and its athletes with an event in world class surf.”
No major label CEO has spent more time shacked and charging Tavarua’s waves than Wooly so this partnership is the perfect fit. Plus, it will be great to see these waves back on tour where they belong. For the official word, follow the jump. [click to continue…]
Nine-time Molokai-2-Oahu paddleboard world champ Jamie Mitchell and fellow paddler Jackson English will not only be racing to Oahu on Sunday, July 31, 2011, they’ll also be raising money for Surfaid during the 32 mile paddle.
English is a schoolteacher at the United World College of SE Asia in Singapore but is originally from the Central Coast of NSW, Australia. In the past six years he has raised close to $400,000 for SurfAid. . . “With three healthy children of my own, it breaks my heart when visiting the Mentawai to see young kids so full of life suffering from very easily preventable diseases,” Jackson said. . . “Competing in the M2O to raise vital funds and awareness for SurfAid and their community based programs is the least I can do for the Mentawai people. Please donate to SurfAid and be part of the change required.”
For more information on the race and how to make a donation to Surfaid, click here or follow the jump all the details. [click to continue…]
This video showed up on Youtube earlier this month titled “Skaters Save Two Babies From Locked Car,” however, the truth is the skaters were completely unable to break the windows on a small SUV with their skateboards. Nice try though, right? It took one hulking, shirtless, guy with a metal barricade to do the damage (on the second try). Obviously, no one had a broken spark plug.
After a less that spectacular week at J-Bay and Kelly Slater possibly slipping off into retirement via Cloudbreak that was reportedly “worth quitting your job and leaving your wife for” the ASP has been getting grief for once more fumbling the competitive surfing ball, but writer Nick Carroll doesn’t believe the ASP is the problem, according to a story on Surfling Life, though he thinks they could be handling things a little better:
In the midst of this, the ASP is . . . trying to implement a policy direction that might pay off down the track. But in the meantime, it’s doing a shit job of demonstrating the pluses, while shock jock commentators and angry old white men take potshots at it, and even the true believers are scratching their heads and wondering what the fuck’s going on.
Yep. If you care about competitive surfing, click the link and read the rest.
At San Diego, California’s PetCo Park on Friday, August 19, 2011 Tony Hawk will show the world why he spent so much time skateboarding during his high school years as he throws the first pitch as the Padres take on the Florida Marlins at 7:05 PM.
The first 5,000 fans to purchase their tickets through the special Tony Hawk Foundation offer at www.padres.com/tonyhawk will receive a limited edition Tony Hawk bobblehead. Tickets through the offer start as low as $15.50. A portion of the ticket proceeds will benefit the Tony Hawk Foundation.
Haven’t been to a baseball game in years? Maybe this is the one. . . follow the jump for all the details. [click to continue…]
Slightly slimmer, foul-mouthed, former filmmaker Kevin Smith has collaborated with etnies on a limited edition etnies Smeaker.
With the SModcast “Have a Week” and “Forgeticus!” signature quotes stitched on the heel and the side heel panel of the shoe, matching the SMEAKER logo on the tongue, and a classic black and white photo of Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier on the footbeds, the black etnies Jameson 2.5 SMEAKER provides style and fan loyalty.
If you’re bummed you missed San Diego Comic-Con this year and you know what the SModcast is, then this may be just the shoe for all five of you. Follow the jump for the details. [click to continue…]
The mad hatters at New Era have announced that they are piling on their “expanding accessories business” to the company’s Orange County, California action sports office, according to CEO Chris Koch.
