Mervin Manufacturing co-founder Mike Olson has been weird sciencing the snowboard world for nearly three decades. Some would argue (us included) that Olson (along with partner Peter Saari and Steven Cobb) responsible for more design advancements in snowboard and ski technology than any other living person. Beginning with the carving snowboard, parabolic sidecut, and cap construction, and continuing on with reverse camber, and augmented snowboard edge shapes, Olson has been going against conventional wisdom for his entire career. For the past two years Olson has been working exclusively on a new project involving what he calls “waterboards” or what the rest of us call surfboards.
Jeff Henderson, Mike Olson, Pete Saari and the new Lib Tech waterboards.
We’ve been hearing about these new surfboards for a while but we’d never seen any, most likely because he’s purposefully been keeping them out of the line-ups of Southern California breaks. Then during the Agenda Show in Long Beach we got into a late-night elevator at the Hyatt and ran into a crew from Mervin Manufacturing. They had four of the new surfboards and were taking them up to their room. We were so blown away by the boards and so interested in feeling, squeezing, and holding them that we forgot to even take a picture. We didn’t know it at the time, but in typical Mervin Manufacturing strategy Mike decided to present the surfboards to the world at the Snowsports Industries of America Show in Denver, Colorado last week where very few of the attendees would even know enough about surfing to be impressed.
We couldn’t believe what we were seeing, it’s game-changing. As much as we can say from only holding them, the boards live up to the hype. They are light, well-shaped, and (after seeing four knocked to the floor) unbelievable durable. We had some questions, and luckily Mike Olson was there to answer them in excruciating detail.
Halfway through our interview PR maven Lora Bodmer cut in to make sure Olson wasn’t giving away any trade secrets, but other than that we got 28 minutes of the straight scoop.
For those who assumed that maybe after breaking his pelvis and, let’s face it, being old, that Tony Hawk would would slow down, get off his skateboard and coast off into the sunset on his wallet, here’s a little proof to the contrary.
After five “lei days” the Volcom Pipeline Pro finally got off to a macking start this morning (January 28, 2012) in eight to twelve foot surf, but after three hours of competition (seven heats) the waves had jumped into the 15-20 foot range forcing event organizers to call off the contest for the day because it was getting too dangerous.
Kauai’s Stephen Koehne, the top-scorer of the day, ended up with a gruesome gash to the knee that could well see him out of the water for weeks. Regular Pipeline chargers Mark Healey and Tom Dosland took the wipeout beatings of the day, and lifeguard/Pipe specialist Dave Wassel (above) was the overall standout. . . “I pulled into the barrel and next thing I knew I just got shot in the knee by my board,” said Koehne. . . Resident Doctor Leiland Dao said it was a serious injury that required 20 stitches or more to three layers: muscle, fascia and skin.
Organizers say the contest will likely resume tomorrow. Follow the jump for official word. [click to continue…]
Pro snowboarders and civilian fans of snowboarding gathered last night (January 27, 2012) in Denver’s Fillmore for the 13th Annual Transworld Snowboarding Riders’ Poll Awards hosted by Greg “GT” Tomlinson and Dave Lee to celebrate the best snowboarders of 2011.
In a night filled with gracious acceptance speeches (Jess Kimura made three, Travis Rice did two), the highlight was Jamie Lynn accepting the Legend Award from Bryan Iguchi and Dave Lee.
Night one of the 2012 Snow Industries of America show began at Denver’s Casselman’s for 686 Outerwear’sLights Out! boxing. The night featured The Dingo on the mic, Danny Kass as a referee and some of action sports’ biggest names duking it out in the ring.
Transworld Media Editorial Director Rob Campbell went toe-to-toe with Frends‘ Sean Lake (Lake prevailed). Sketchy D got in on the action. But the night’s biggest brawl came in a classic battle of “my CEO can beat up your CEO” when Electric Visual Co-President Bruce Beach and Vestal CEO Johnny Gehris stepped into the ring in what looked like a Costa Mesa grudge match royal. Neither fighter saved anything for later. The two fought like warriors trading damage until a Beach right cross to the nose forced Gehris to throw in the towel late in the last of three rounds.
Truth: we can’t really get enough of the wooden artwork of Haroshi. And because of that we’re posting this video from the HUF x Haroshi x DLX opening party that happened a whole three weeks ago at HUF LA. That’s all.
With more than 300 hours of film shot during the 2010 tour, No Room For Rock Stars documents the true stories of modern era rock and roll from every possible angle. From the kids in the van playing parking lots to gain notice, to the veteran stage manager whose life was saved by the tour, to the musician who crosses over to mainstream success while on the road, No Room For Rock Stars is Cinema Vèritè story-telling at its finest. A historical retrospective or concert film this is not.
No Room For Rockstars open in select theaters nation wide on March 1, 2012 and will hit the iTunes store on April 2, 2012. Follow the jump for the official word and a slew of photos from the Slamdance premiere. [click to continue…]
For those like us, who missed the whole thing, please follow the jump for the results and a short promotional video on how Eric Willet did it again. [click to continue…]
. . . it was hard to even think about the movie, let alone sit down and edit hours of his footage from the winter. It wasn’t until Blake Paul sent me an email highlighting the fact that one of Aaron’s goals all season was to get everyone down to Chile and film a segment for the movie that I came to realize something that should have been so obvious. We had to head South and finish what he had started. Although we were physically missing the one person who really should have been on that trip I feel like he was actually with us more than ever. We’ll miss you A-ROB!
Manifest is the completion of the project and it’s well worth a watch.
