On Friday night, May 3, 2013 the LA skate art crew gathered at HVW8 to help Mark Gonzales celebrate 15 year with Adidas.
Adidas skateboarding brought together six prominent photographers to tell Mark’s story over the past 15 years through their lenses. These photographers, who have watched Mark and witnessed his skateboarding antics all around the world include Gabe Morford, Joe Brook, Skin Phillips, Brian Gaberman, Benjamin Deberdt, and Sem Rubio. . . Guests made their way through the renowned photography and ‘Gonz’ artwork to the outside celebrations where refreshments flowed, Mark’s old video clips were projected and everyone shared their own unique Gonz stories amongst each other and of course with the man of honor himself.
The U-T San Diego has a great story on what former pro skateboarder Kanten Russell has been up to lately, and it’s all about skateboard parks.
He grew up skating in Point Loma and Ocean Beach and was good enough to turn pro. During his 13-year career, he was best known for “going big” — flying through the air down staircases and across gaps in buildings, taking jumps nobody else would. . . Now, at age 39, he’s made another leap, into designing skateparks for a living. He’s part of the sport’s ongoing transformation from outlaw status to mainstream, more popular worldwide than ever.
Snowboarder Magazine has invaded Bend, Oregon of the 2013 Superpark 17 at Mt. Bachelor. Rather than making the trek to central Oregon and having no one return out texts, we’re simply going to turn in tomorrow and watch the whole thing live and online. If that’s sounds like a good idea to you, then you should probably do the same. Tune in on Tuesday, May 7, 2013 at 1:30 PM PDT and watch it.
The Marines believe that designating a Trestles Historic District would lead to consultations and negotiations with surfers and their government allies that would inevitably complicate and delay needed training. They also see it as a kick in the teeth, given all that the corps has done to take care of the beach over the past 70 years. “We object to subjecting our activities, which have not been so regulated over the years, to regulation of an area that exists as it does today primarily due to our Marine Corps’ presence and mission,” says Stanley Norquist, a top Marine environmentalist at Pendleton.
Maybe the Marines could just make sure the toll road doesn’t go in and everyone would be happy. We’re pretty sure that’s ground they could hold for years. . .
Meanwhile, at the opposite, yet seemingly growing in popularity end of the skateboarding spectrum, the rebirth of the Catalina Classic continued with Riviera Skateboards 2nd Annual Catalina Island Classic over the weekend May 4-5, 2013. For the record, there are very few bad reasons to visit Catalina and this certainly isn’t one of them. Click the link for results whenever they choose to post them.
The world’s best big wave warriors gathered at The Grove in Anaheim, California on Friday night, May 3, 2013 for the Billabong XXL Global Big Wave Awards Ceremony. The 2013 Big Wave Award and Paddle In Awards both went to Santa Cruz, California’s Shawn Dollar.
“Is this really happening? Are we really paddling into waves bigger than what we used to tow?” exclaimed Dollar. “It’s surreal, it’s such an honor. This is what I’m passionate about, I’m as big a fan as anyone – to be the guy that set the record? Phenomenal. Stoked. Over the moon. 61 feet? It’s hard to put numbers on those things, but it was the biggest wave I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Dollar.
For the official word from Billabong (including full results) follow the jump. [click to continue…]
Christian Hosoi took how the GoPro Legends Bowl title of other legends like Sergie Ventura, Jay Adams, Aaron Astorga and Dave Hackett at the 4th Annual Sheckler Foundation Skate For A Cause event held Saturday, May 4, 2013 at the etnies Skatepark in Lake Forest, California.
The skateboard community united today and exceeded expectations by raising $100,000 at the Sheckler Foundation’s 4th Annual SKATE FOR A CAUSE event, presented by etnies, in Lake Forest! Every skateboarder that won gave their winnings back to the Sheckler Foundation too. . . The money raised will go to building a skatepark on the Port Gamble S’klallam Reservation as a part of the “Be the Change” project.
Wanna get like totally freaked out? This is a trip man. This chick, she can like sit on the back of her own head. It’s sick, man. Like she’s all double joined and stuff. And it’s all part of a new video series from Stance socks. Apparently, with the right socks you can take some crazy, crazy trips. Forget surfing, skateboarding, and snowboarding, these socks can help you do circus acts in dark rooms wearing leotards. Speaking of which, we have to go get ours on right now and get torquing.
It’s good to know that the snowboard industry isn’t going to take all the economic gloom and doom laying down. . . in the sun. . . with a drink their tanned, relaxed hands.
No, with the help of the Snow Industries of America they took action and jetted off to Palm Springs this week to get some winter problems solved the old fashioned way: meetings, powerpoint presentations, poolside drinking, tanning, and good old bro-ing down, all under the auspices of The Committee of Snowboard Brands. Committee Chairman Mike West of 686 explains:
“From company founders to CEO’s, it was an honor to have key players from the snowboard community come together to discuss some major issues within the industry,” said Mike West, founder of 686, chairman of the SIA Snowboard Committee and member of the SIA Board of Directors. “Our discussions have led to taking the next steps on increasing participation through retention and allocating our resources towards increasing healthier sales in retail. Our goal is to work ON snowboarding instead of working IN snowboarding.”
For the complete list of industry problem solvers and the additional committees they’re going to form to solve even more snowboarding industry problems, please follow the jump. [click to continue…]
Someone wanted to check out REI’s no questions asked return policy, and fancy that, it appears to work quite well. Why pay for a snowboard when you can simply buy, use, and return with no explanation at all. Retail is still hell and appears to be getting worse by the day.
