Titanic director James Cameron has a new film coming out that could be one of the biggest flops ever. It’s called Avatar and when he talks about his sci-fi hybrid he gets all surfy.
There’s an analogy I like to use: The surfer doesn’t make the wave, the surfer surfs the wave, and he has to know when the wave’s coming — and a good surfer senses the wave from far out and knows that it’s that wave, not this wave. You let other forces, other filmmakers, market forces, generate the wave of energy — in this case, I’m talking about the energy in CG development.
According to Pocketgamer.co.uk a new game Shaun White Snowboarding Origins will be released for the iPhone along side Shaun White Snowboarding: World Stage.
Of course, the key feature will be the controls, with AMA – which is developing and publishing – promising trick moves such as ollies, tail grabs, melon, indy grabs, spins and flips will be smooth and intuitive to the touch. . . The action takes places across four geographical areas – Chile, Japan, Spain and the USA. . . Community features will also be covered with the ability to send ghosts to friends, share challenges, as well as compare your scores via global leaderboards.
The game reportedly drops in December in the iTunes store. This could be the first Shaun White Snowboarding game we ever play.
From the video gamers perspective it seems that Tony Hawk: Ride has been getting some pretty mixed reviews. On GiantBomb.com reviewer Jeff Gerstmann says that “Tony Hawk: RIDE’s shoddy hardware and ill-conceived software merge to form something completely abysmal,” and he goes on:
Attempting to make some sort of peripheral-based skateboarding game is a neat idea, and one that, if the peripheral were robust enough, could result in some sort of faux-skating experience that approximates the real thing in a way that’s accessible to non-skaters without being completely offensive to anyone who’s ever pulled an ollie. But everything about Tony Hawk: RIDE, from the game’s structure to the skateboard hardware itself, is an absolute mess that feels incapable of pleasing anyone, regardless of his or her skill level.
When Billabong announced yesterday (November 23, 2009) that it had “entered into a conditional agreement to acquire” online retailer Swell.com it brought to a close one of the most interesting action sports .com stories of the past decade.
Founded by former Salomon Smith Barney analyst Nicholas Nathanson and entrepreneur Jeff Berg in late 1999 following the first crash of the Internet economy, Swell.com tried nearly everything to find online success and burned through millions of dollars on the way. Management tried snowboarding editorial and e-commerce, skateboarding editorial and e-commerce, they formed a “strategic alliance with Primedia’s Surfing Magazine in early 2001 and yet nothing seemed to work. It was only after they got back to basics and became an online catalog fashion retailer in November of 2001 that the company appeared to stabilize.
Adding one more company to the list of his shrewd acquisitions over the past five years Billabong USA President Paul Naude spun this one nicely in the press release.
“We look forward to growing the Swell business and further developing it as a showcase online platform for the US boardsports industry,” he said. “The internet plays a significant role in the recreational habits of the youth market so it is important for our Group to ensure we provide them with a premium brand experience when shopping online.”
As hard as it is to believe, until this purchase, Billabong had made no real moves on selling direct online in the US. While Quiksilver hired Swell founder Nicholas Nathanson to build out their e-commerce platform, Billabong continued to sell online only through its retail network. More than anything, this purchase will allow Billabong to begin tapping into the higher margins that only selling direct can provide. That alone is a good enough reason for the purchase.
Billabong says Swell.com had an annual turnover of less that $16 million and that it would contribute less than 1 percent of the company revenue, according to a story on Goldcoast.com.au.
What will be most interesting is to see how many of Billabong’s competitors (i.e. Quiksilver, Volcom, RVCA, Rip Curl, O’Neill, Hurley) continue to do business with the online/catalog retailer after the sale is completed.
We’ve been covering Swell.com since the beginning in 1999. Follow the jump for a Sacklunch/Boardistan timeline of most Swell.com events of interest during the past decade (along with the commentary we wrote at the time) and relive all the .com good times. [click to continue…]
How great would it be to watch the entire Hawaiian Triple Crown of Surfing on your iPhone? Great right? Live video streaming, live scores, photos, surf reports, news, all right there on one dashboard. It would be amazing. And the new Vans Triple Crown of Surfing app (available in theiTunes store today for 99 cents) does all of that with one catch: you must be connected to a WIFI network.
The app features an opening screen with the three Triple Crown of Surfing event posters. Clicking one one takes you to a page with a nav bar along the bottom that features links to: News, Live Webcast, Results, Video, Photos, and a Surf Report. All of the menu items work as promised. The news section has abbreviated versions of event press releases, the Live Webcast hooks a slightly jaggy, lower resolution version of the live video on the web, the results are there, the video section includes heat-by-heat breakdowns of all the action, and the photos made us feel like we were almost there live. Being able to view all this content on an iPhone is amazing as long as you’re on a WIFI network.
Follow the jump for the rest of the review and full size screen grabs. . .
We’re not even going to guess where this thing came from, but The Snowtunnel is described as follows:
The Snowtunnel is a patented design that allows snowboarders/skiers the opportunity to ski all year round. Unlike other artificial environments, The Snowtunnel uses real snow and can be run at a fraction of the cost of larger refridgerated park rides. The Snowtunnel concept can be standalone unit or incorporated into a larger facility.
Are we missing something or is this just a corrugated pipe that’s been iced down and spun? We would, however, like to see what it looks like when someone falls. . .
This skateboarding dog on Tony Hawk: Ride smells just a little too “viral”? A couple kids on the couch cranking out a Youtube.com video with four angles, 14 cuts, and posted from an account that was opened today. So it’s an ad and yet, we still posted it because we’re suckas when it comes to Tony Hawk.
Tony Hawk has been out on the road for the past couple days rolling out his newest video game Tony Hawk: Ride and its wireless skate deck controller. One of the places he stopped as at the Wall Street Journal in NYC where he ran into our favorite WSJ writer Conor Dougherty for an interview.
How does Tony think core skateboarders are going to respond to the game (which arrived in stores today)?
I think that if skaters just take an approach that this is a fun way to experience something else, then they’ll enjoy it. If they get on it and expect to do skateboard tricks, that’s not the approach. The movements that set your character into play are very subtle. Like an ollie [the basic skateboard jump] just takes a little kick up. A kickflip [where the board flips over] takes just a little kick up and twist to one side. In that sense, you can do more because it doesn’t take as much effort. But if skaters approach it like they really are skating, it won’t be as fun.
We’ve occasionally followed the story of surfing physicist Garrett Lisi and the unification theory he calls The Theory of Everything. Some say it is genius, others claim that it is purely junk science from a surfer who is good at math. We have no idea. . . but it looks pretty cool. Doesn’t it?
Cisco (the router company) is reportedly rolling out a “multi-million dollar” advertising campaign for its Flip video camera product using only user-generation content. And one of those users is apparently Tony Hawk, according to a story on Mediapost.
The campaign, “Do You Flip,” relied on 10-, 15- and 30-second clips shot by everyday Joes and celebrities, such as Usher, Tony Hawk and Weezer, on Flip Video cameras. Cisco will turn the clips into TV commercials, as well as online social media, viral and rich banner ads. . . Cisco will promote the celebrity’s charity of choice in its Flip for Good program in return for participating in the campaign. The company will create a design on the camera as part of the personalized offering. For every camera sold with the charity design, Cisco will donate $10 to the charity.
Sounds like another great collab by Tony Hawk: he extends his celebrity reach, Flip sells more cameras, and The Tony Hawk Foundation gets more money for skateparks.
Titanic director James Cameron has a new film coming out that could be one of the biggest flops ever. It’s called Avatar and when he talks about his sci-fi hybrid he gets all surfy.
