The commercial entity that owns half the action sports clothing industry (Boardriders and their brands Quiksilver, Billabong, ROXY, DC Shoes, RVCA, Element “and others”) announced yesterday that they are “launching a multi-year growth agenda and repositioning. . . key executives.”
A quick read-through of the release resulted in exactly one data point that even remotely interested us and it is this: Kevin Meehan is leaving RVCA. Of course, the way they said it is epic: “Kevin Meehan has decided to take the opportunity provided by this transition to pursue new opportunities.” Congrats, Mr. Meehan.
The rest of the news can best be summed up by this quote from the boss.
“The long-term strategy for Boardriders has always been to build a solid foundation by integrating the Billabong acquisition onto a common back-end platform, to continually improve our operations through more disciplined business practices, and to achieve significant synergies that could then be invested back into the brands,” said Boardriders CEO David Tanner. “After a decade of headwinds and restructuring, Boardriders now has that strong foundation and is ready and able to invest strategically at scale in our brands, our people, and these targeted growth initiatives.”
Right. You know all that bad stuff that’s been happening for the LAST 10 YEARS? That’s all behind them now, and everything is looking up, up, up. If that doesn’t make you smile, follow the jump for the rest of the release.
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.
Please excuse us while we clear out a bit of news that’s been piling up around the place. Some is new, some is old, and a bit is so old it’s beginning to stink. But we’re not going to let that stop us from posting it as a reminder of some of the news that went down while we were gone for the summer.
Thanks to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association it has been shown that drinking sodas (like the brands that sponsor skateboarding, snowboarding, and surfing events) is bad for your health and increases your changes of dying sooner rather than later, or as they put it there is an “association between soft drink consumption and mortality.”
In this population-based cohort study of 451, 743 individuals from 10 countries in Europe, greater consumption of total, sugar-sweetened, and artificially sweetened soft drinks was associated with a higher risk of all-cause mortality. Consumption of artificially sweetened soft drinks was positively associated with deaths from circulatory diseases, and sugar-sweetened soft drinks were associated with deaths from digestive diseases.
In other words, rather than trying to encourage people to drink more, we should encourage them to drink less. That’s the main reason why we’re not into seeing action sports brands partnering with caffeinated, carbonated, high fructose corn syrup poison peddlers. Drink water. Duh.
The world’s best men’s and women’s park terrain skaters are hitting Salt Lake City on September 6 & 7th, 2019 for a shot at the title of 2019 VPS World Champion. If you’re going to watch something online next weekend, it might as well be this!
Photographer Amir Zaki sees skateparks as the works of art they really are, albeit with no skateboarders.
“They are essentially large and elaborately designed empty vessels, as much as they are concrete models of naturally found elements of the landscape such as mountains, hills, waves, and rocks,” Zaki told Dezeen. . . “Although these refined spaces are born out of conceptions of the various curvilinear shapes found in nature, they are frozen and ‘permanently’ cemented, recalling some of the most extreme examples of Brutalist architecture.”
Check out all the dream lines in Zaki’s California Concrete series of images. Mind skating for hours.
“There is no way you just stumble on to a skater like Walker Ryan,” someone once told us. Well, yes and no. Met him at the St. Helena skatepark way back, appreciated his style and demeanor (plus that scene in Little Children), and now just look at him rollin’ the streets of LA for Thrasher. My, my.
MERGE4 has collaborated with Salman Agah on a new pair of socks that feature a collection of Pizzanista’s iconic logo boosts from all your favorite skate brands.
The Pizzanista! sock features . . . combed cotton, a terry loped foot, self-adjusting welt cuff, reinforced heel and toe, and elastic arch support, this awesome y-heel sock is athletic ribbed for performance (or for tip-toeing to the fridge in the middle of a night for that cold slice you’ve been dreaming about). . . “I’m constantly looking for relevant ways to communicate Pizzanista’s brand and teaming up with MERGE4 was a great way for us to do that,” said Agah, “Now everybody’s feet can also be ‘powered by Pizzanista!’”
The commercial entity that owns half the action sports clothing industry (Boardriders and their brands Quiksilver, Billabong, ROXY, DC Shoes, RVCA, Element “and others”) announced yesterday that they are “launching a multi-year growth agenda and repositioning. . . key executives.”
Thanks to a new study published in the 
