Falling stocks really aren’t news these days, but we still have fun looking at the charts like this one from Quiksilver’s last year. With it’s $2.79 price today Quik has hit its lowest stock price since 1998.
We hate to admit it, but even to us it’s beginning to look like a bargain.
[Link: Yahoo! Finance]
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Llewellyn Werner, the chairman of the Los Angeles, California based Customized Cooperative Capital LLC, announced in April that he would be spending a half-billion dollars building “a massive U.S.-style amusement park” in downtown Baghdad on the grounds of the old Baghdad Zoo, according to a story in the Globe and Mail.
Phase one of that project is to introduce skateboarding to Iraqi youth according to a story in Denver’s Westword. Werner plans to install “pocket parks” from Freshparks in neighborhoods around Baghdad and equip them with free skateboards thanks to help from Globe.
Werner estimates that he’ll spend a million dollars on the pocket parks and boards, which will be available to Iraqis free of charge. He considers that amount a relatively low-cost “down-payment” that will allow him to solicit support for BZEE, his multimillion-dollar entertainment zone. If he can show skeptical investors and wary locals that something as brazenly Western as a skateboard park can be successful in Iraq, then why not an American-style amusement park? But the rides and attractions themselves are just an incentive for something larger: the real estate around the park that Werner retains the rights to develop under his lease with the city.
The first skatepark has been set up for over a month, however, no one used it thanks to the Muslim holiday Ramadan and “daytime temperatures into the 110s.” But the park is scheduled to have it’s grand opening this week. It will be interesting to see how that goes.
Skateboarding will definitely give Iraqi kids a reason to look forward to tomorrow.
[Link: Westword]
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The Action Sports Environmental Coalition has teamed up with Chipotle to give a free burrito to anyone who rolls up to any California Chipotle location on a “non-motorized” form of transportation on October 11, 2008. It’s all part of their Roll Anything Day celebration.
This is a day dedicated to the use of non-motorized transportation, try it for a day, participate for the rest of your life. That’s right, ride your skateboard or bike, I don’t even care if you walk or rollerblade, just don’t use some petroleum, coal powered electric, toxic diesel or veggie oil natural resource burning contraption. You can even not go anywhere, even better, but if you do try to make sure it roll’s.
And trust us, all you’ll have to do is tell Chipotle that you rolled in on a skateboard and ask for your free burrito. It’s that easy.
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This afternoon at around 12:50 PM Zumiez stock broke through it’s previous 52-week low ($11.85 in July 08) to $11.55 and it appears the bottom has not been reached thanks to reports yesterday of a less than stellar September.
Interestingly, Zumiez’s number two competitor in the malls of America, The Buckle, was up $1.19 today to $49.14.
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America’s core sports mall store Zumiez reported their same store sales were down 9 percent in September according to a story on Forbes.com.
The Everett-based retailer said its same-store sales results were dragged down by poor performance California, Arizona, Florida and Nevada – areas that are among the hardest hit by the nation’s housing market meltdown.
The good news is that net sales were up over last year to $33.6 million. Guess that’s what happens when you keep adding more stores.
[Link: Forbes.com]
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A group of teenagers were hanging out near the Ecole sencondaire Macdonal-Cartier in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada when two kids with a skateboard approached.
One of them had a skateboard, so we asked him to do a trick,” a Macdonald-Cartier student said following the incident. . . . The skateboarder “wiped out and everyone started laughing and one kid called him a (homophobic slur).” . . . The skateboarder then walked up to the student who taunted him and the student “slapped him across the face. Then out of nowhere (the skateboarder) pulled bear spray out of his sleeve and sprayed him in the face,” the witness said.
It’s interesting how the skateboarders are portrayed in this story as the instigators when it’s obvious the bully jocks in the smoking section started it all. Hey, call a skateboarder a fag; get pepper sprayed. It’s the law.
[Link: Northern News]
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Wachovia is no longer hyped on Pacific Sunwear. So they’ve knocked the mall retailer down a notch from Outperform to Market Perform
Until now, our thesis had been predicated on improvements in merchandising, coupled with new operating efficiencies. However, we believe the assortment is losing focus, evidenced by too much color overall and an overinvestment in the weak-trending fleece category.
It’s kind of laughable that Wachovia would have any opinions about the market when they can’t even run their own business. But they’re still giving the stock a valuation range of $5-6. PSUN is now trading at $4.98.
[Link: StreetInsider.com]
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Austin Ayers, 17, has died of injuries he sustained Sunday after grabbing on to the passenger window of a passing car and towing along.
Arvada Police believe the teen was riding his long board in the southbound bike lane on Oak Street, when he grabbed onto the passenger side front door or window of a Jeep Wrangler. Investigators say when the teen let go, another vehicle hit him and he hit the pavement.
[Link: 9 News]
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Corey O’Brian, 23, of Seal Harbor, Maine died after falling from his skateboard Tuesday evening on a road in Acadia National Park.
Mr. O’Brian’s friend Alex Winkin called 911 at about 7 p.m. on Sept. 30 to report that Mr. O’Brian had fallen, had a gash on the back of his head, was unconscious and had been for several minutes. . . . According to reports, he was traveling at approximately 20 mph when he fell backward off his board.
O’Brian did not appear to be wearing a helmet at the time of the injury.
[Link: Mount Desert Islander]
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During filming for their new video the band Weezer have apparently broken five world records including the “most people on one skateboard” record by getting 22 people on one board.
The video for Weezers’s single ‘Troublemaker‘ is set to break 5 world records. Whilst filming the video a Guinness World Records official was present throughout all the various record breaking scenes.
That thank looks quite similar to Tod Swank’s old “world’s largest skateboard.” Hmmm. . .
[Link: Contact Music]
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