This morning we sent out a mildly insulting tweet to let our followers know that the Quiksilver Pro New York had indeed kicked off with round one action. We mentioned that the waves were what “one would expect in New York.”
We were kind of expecting some of our East Coast followers to be pissed. But no. As only New Yorkers can do they fell all over themselves explaining how todays waves were really good and that it’s normally much, much worse. @philoSURFical went as far as calling us “wave spoiled cupcakes.” Okay, NYC surfers. You win. You have the worst waves in the world.
Luckily for all of us, this week has been blessed by Hurricane Katia (which is backing off a little, but still a Category 3) meaning the waves will likely be truly world class great for the finals later in the week.
Regardless of all the miss-information swirling the Internet last night (you know who you are) the Quiksilver Pro New York is still going to happen. Some of the ancillary events have been cancelled, but the surf show will go on beginning Monday, September 5, 2011.
For the official word from the ASP follow the jump.
It’s nice to occasionally report good news from the action stock market and yesterday (August 15, 2011), after FBR Capital Markets & Co.’s Eric Tracy said that Quik was making strides with it’s balance sheet, the stock rocketed up three percent, according to a story on Bloomberg.
“Balance sheet improvements are a testament to a management team focused on enhancing its financial flexibility for longer-term growth, and as of the second quarter, forward orders from retail partners in the Americas and Europe, inclusive of price increases, are up year-over-year across brands,” Tracy wrote.
It’s down a little today, but maybe that can be seen as an opportunity. . .
Bill Strobeck has a new skate video out which features Quiksilver skaters Danny Garcia, Jake Johnson, David Clark, Austyn Gillette, and Alex Olson. It’s called Sweatpants. Check it out.
It was difficult to know if Quiksilver’s new NFL collab is completely sincere or not. At first we sensed some sort of irony, but then we saw the gridiron overlaid on Pipeline and realized that we are just confused. Jocks, of course, won’t know the difference.
It’s not all gloom and doom in the action fashion category. Quiksilver may have lost $83 million in the quarter ending April 30, 2011, but they did better than expected and experienced increased revenue for the first time in three years, according to the Wall Street Journal.
For the quarter ended April 30, Quiksilver posted a loss of $83.3 million, or 51 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier profit of $9.42 million, or 6 cents a share. Excluding a $74.1 million impairment charge and valuation allowances against tax assets, earnings from continuing operations in the latest period were 9 cents a share. Revenue rose 2.1% to $478.1 million.
For the three months ended January 31, 2011, Quik reported a loss of $16.3 million compared to a loss of $5.4 million during the same quarter the prior year. Sales fell 1.45% from $432.7 million to $426.5 million. Sales in Asia/Pacific were essentially the same from one quarter to the other and rose $6.8 million in the Americas. But European sales fell 7.1% from $177.8 million to $165.2 million.
I’m very pleased to report solid first quarter results that were in all aspects better than we expected when the quarter began. Revenues of $426 million in the first quarter exceeded our plan, and were up in constant currency when compared to the first quarter of 2010. This marks the first time in the last nine quarters that we’ve grown revenues and constant currency and demonstrates that previous revenue declines are abating.
Guess the best way to feel good about losing $16.3 million is to plan on losing much more. For Mr. Harbaugh’s analysis on these numbers (including thoughts on Quik’s aggressive DC growth strategy) click the link.
In their Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast final match up Kelly Slater and Taj Burrow surfed a total of 23 waves. Seven of those waves scored a 3.0 or above. Five of those that did were Kelly’s, and two were Taj’s. Kelly’s high score was a 5.93 and Taj’s was a 7.17. That’s the kind of heat it was. To look at all the scores more closely click here.
After the battles that went down in the Round 5 heats of the Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast, the final between Kelly Slater and defending Champ Taj Burrow was a bit of a fizzler. It wasn’t the fault of either surfer, but more the junky, ripped up Snapper surf.
Slater jumped in first with optimism on a smaller wave, threw a little frontside air, and then stalled into a perfect, though tiny snapper barrel. It was a classic example of how Kelly seems to bend waves to his will. He didn’t have the same power over the judges, however, and they gave him a 5.0 in what could turn out to be one of the best 5 point waves in ASP finals history.
With 14 minutes to go the heat basically blew up in both surfer’s faces. Slater and Burrow fell on wave after wave. It almost became comical. Kelly railed out on a drop. Then Taj would get caught up in the white water or fall off on a simple bottom turn.
The Quiksilver Pro and Roxy Pro Gold Coast events are on for the day (March 8, 2011). Men’s Round 4 is over and the Roxy Pro quarter finals are in the water.
After the women finish their event, the men’s Round 5 will take to the water at Snapper.
QUIKSILVER PRO GOLD COAST ROUND 4 RESULTS:
Heat 1: Dusty Payne (HAW) 14.07, Adrian Buchan (AUS) 11.83, Tiago Pires (PRT) 11.80
Heat 2: Matt Wilkinson (AUS) 13.53, Michel Bourez (PYF)11.14, Kelly Slater (USA) 11.06
Heat 3: Brett Simpson (USA) 16.60, Adriano de Souza (BRA) 15.63, Jordy Smith (ZAF) 13.87
Heat 4: Alejo Muniz (BRA) 15.23, Joel Parkinson (AUS) 12.76, Taj Burrow (AUS) 11.56
ROXY PRO GOLD COAST QUARTERFINAL MATCH-UPS:
QF 1: Silvana Lima (BRA) vs. Tyler Wright (AUS)
QF 2: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) vs. Laura Enever (AUS)
QF 3: Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) vs. Coco Ho (HAW)
QF 4: Chelsea Hedges (AUS) vs. Carissa Moore (HAW)
