Call it a beacon of laziness, or a blinding neon sign of boredom, but we’re still at it. Putting up a list of headlines for stories we might have read over the past who knows how many days.
It takes us back to when we were just starting out. Each week we built an HTML page of links with a bit of commentary. Then the commentary took over, and now, it looks like we’re back to just blasting out an occasional list of links for you to chew through all by your lonesome. Just the ebbs and flows of action sporting news dissemination. Enjoy.
Wondering what’s going on? Looking for a clue? Follow the jump for a whopping 28 skate, 15 snowboarding, 30 surf, 13 fashion, and 12 business story links that rose above the noise last week. Yep, it’s all there — even that one about the death of vert skating. [click to continue…]
Yes, the Olympics change everything. Just watch. All those guys (and girls) you thought were in for a medal in Tokyo in 2020? Uh, probably not. For example: Hawaiian Heimana Reynolds just won the 2019 Park Skateboarding World Championships held in Sao Paulo Brazil September 9-15, 2019. The next American was Tom Schaar in 5th. Tate Carew got 7th. And Shaun White, who was hoping to transition his vert skating to the parks, well, he finished in 13th not even close to making the finals.
Reynolds, was of course happy about his win and his top spot on the USA team rankings:
“I am so proud and honored to win this event and represent my country at the highest level of park skateboarding,” Reynolds said about his win. “I am very grateful for my support team, my family and God who gave me the strength to achieve this accomplishment.”
The rest of the top 8 was made up of one Australian and some Brazilians. On the women’s side, Japan swept the podium. Lizzie Armanto got 5th, but she’s skating for Finland. See what’s happening here? The oddest part for those of us who have NOT been following along (and we obviously haven’t) is that the official Olympic organization body for skateboarding is the Switzerland-based World Skate, which is also the official organizing body for rollerskating, inline alpine, inline freestyle, inline hockey, rink hockey, roller derby, roller freestyle, and (no lie) scootering.
Back to the contest at hand, for the official word from USA Skateboarding, please follow the jump.
We’ve been out of the Surf Industry Manufacturers Association loop for more than a minute so please forgive our ignorance, but we were pleased to discover that SIMA is still doing an annual awards show. Yes, in 2019. Their 15th, apparently. And last night (March 20, 2019) they got their membership together for a “sold out” show at The Observatory in Santa Ana, California to pat (Parnell) each other on the backs for surviving another year and to swap awards for all the great work they’re doing.
Brands to grab awards included Vissla, Billabong, FCS, Vans, and a few others. There were 116 nominees from 41 brands. The breakout brand of the year award went to Seea. Who? Seea, you know, the swim brand that “is dedicated to the pioneering women who first braved the waves, and to every woman who has ever searched for a suit that is feminine, comfortable, and fun.” Now you know. Billabong was the night’s big winner with five awards. Quiksilver was nominated in six categories (eight if you count Roxy) and they didn’t win a thing. Volcom didn’t get a mention, and Hurley, well Hurley is no longer a member of SIMA, and you can’t win if don’t pay play.
SIMA even had an award from what’s left of surf media for something called the “Consumer Media Feature of the Year.” It was won by Stab Magazine for The Electric Acid Surfboard Test. The other media in the running were Surfer, Surfline, and something called The Inertia.
For the official word from SIMA including all the winners and nominees, please follow the jump.
It’s always interesting to see what the brands think the kids want to see. Here is Vans’ latest short form snowboarding promo titled Together Forever.
Coming off the heels of Vans’ first full-length film LANDLINE., film director Tanner Pendleton returns this season with a short-length project featuring Vans snow team riders Jake Kuzyk, Arthur Longo, Sam Taxwood, Danimals, Pat Moore, Cole Navin, Hana Beaman, Darrell Mathes, Dillon Ojo and more. Filmed primarily on Kodak 16mm film on location in Japan, France, Russia and Finland, Together Forever follows a group of individuals-turned-family as they travel the world and do what they love most.
Apparently that’s skateboarding, snowboarding, and a little hugging. Enjoy.
You can’t say we’re not posting the latest surf news. Nope. We’re on this like Naegleria fowleri in a wave pool. Kelly Slater vs. Joel Tudor will never look this good. Even if they hold it at Nland.
Billionaire Westbeach co-founder Chip Wilson (his other little start-up was Lululemon Athletica) has joined forces with Chinese sportswear giant Anta Sports Products Ltd and some others to purchase Finland based Amer Sport, owners of Salomon, Atomic, Arc’Teryx, Suunto, Mavic, Percor, and Wilson for $5.2 billion, according to a story on Bloomberg.
The consortium, which includes Chinese buyout firm FountainVest Partners, will offer shareholders of Finland’s Amer Sports Oyj 40 euros a share in cash, or about 4.6 billion euros. The deal is the largest struck by a Chinese acquirer for a European asset since China Investment Corp. agreed to buy Logicor Europe for almost $14 billion in June 2017, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Guess Chip just couldn’t stay away from the snow any longer.
Can you think of anything worse than selling your soul and then not getting paid? That’s the position 2John Florence has put himself in according to a lawsuit he filed against Monster Energy in May of 2018, according to a story in the New York Post.
According to the 26-year-old Florence. . . he and Monster cut a three-year marketing deal beginning in January 2017. . . Under the deal, Florence . . . agreed to promote Monster drinks for $350,000 a year plus $150,000 toward a marketing production that recounted his pursuit of his world surfing title, court records show. . . Nevertheless, Monster “has refused to pay any amount whatsoever under the 2017 agreement,” according to the suit, which has managed to stay under the media radar despite getting filed in California state court in May.
Monster claims that Florence hid “material facts” from the company during those contract negotiations. Florence says his dealings with Monster have been a series of broken promises and last minute changes to his contract. And, yeah, $350,000 in missing money is a pretty big deal. We hope 2John has learned his lesson when it comes to energy drinks–especially a brand with copious lawsuit experience.
Sidetone: if you’re in the Inland Empire today (November 14, 2018) you can stop by the Riverside, California superior courthouse and drop in on a conference hearing between the lawyers.
The 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang officially opened four days ago and already American’s have taken gold in every snowboard competition so far.
Red Gerard and Jamie Anderson took gold in Slopestyle and last night (February 12, 2018) Chloe Kim monster stomped her way to gold in the women’s halfpipe. Not to put a jinx on it, but we’re pretty certain an American will win tonight in the mens’ halfpipe as well, but we’re going to have to wait for the judges to weigh in on that one when the action kicks off this afternoon at 5:30 PM PST.
For a collection of official press releases (to which we added absolutely nothing) please follow the jump.
Vans today announced the return of their 2018 Vans Hi-Standard Series, annual international snowboard event. And you can go.
Kicking off a sprawling world tour in Ontario, the tour will visit Canada, China, South Korea, Finland, and the US, bringing this all-ages snow series around the world to invite riders to showcase creative expression in a fun open-jam format. Featuring a big air session where participants are judged solely on their individual style with no inverts or spins over 720 allowed, regional MVPs will win an all-expenses paid trip to the grand finale show at Sierra-at-Tahoe for a chance to snowboard with the Vans snow team and battle it out for the 2018 Vans Hi-Standard Series MVP series title.
For the official word from Vans including tour dates and resorts, please follow the jump.
Billionaire 
