Bob Smith, an orthodontist who just couldn’t stand goggles that fogged and went on to revolutionize the action eyewear industry with his double lens Smith goggles, died of complications from heart surgery on April 18, 2012 at his home in La Quinta, California, according to an obituary in the Washington Post. He was 78.
Using dental tools, foam and glue, Dr. Smith began building his first prototypes on his kitchen table. He traded his new goggles for lift tickets to ski mountains in Idaho or sold them to ski patrollers, who provided him with feedback to tweak his designs. . . As demand for his goggles spread, Dr. Smith formed his own company in Ketchum, Idaho. By the late 1970s, the company was selling 200,000 goggles a year. The firm also tinkered with goggles that included electrically heated lenses and small fans to cool the face.
Brands like Spy, Dragon, and Oakley would not exist without Dr. Smith’s game-changing product design and we will forever be grateful for the way Smith goggles allowed us to love riding on snowy days. Thanks, Bob. Our thoughts are with Smith’s family, friends, and everyone who has ever worn a pair of his goggles on a socked in white out day.
Santa Cruz, California became the fourth surfing reserve in the world in February 2011, but on April 28, 2012 the city’s Parks Department held a celebration of the reserve, according to a story in the Mercury News.
The title was bestowed upon the small town of Santa Cruz, whose cultural identity is largely wrapped around surfing, by the nonprofit Save the Waves Coalition. . . “It’s not only about protecting these good waves,” said five-time Mavericks surfer Ryan Seelbach, who is also a board member of Save the Waves. “It’s more about galvanizing the community to respect the area, ensure beach access and say ‘no’ to development.”
The surfing reserve extends seven miles along the Santa Cruz coast from Natural Bridges State beach to Opal Cliffs. Nice.
Lil Wayne is diving in on skateboarding just like one would expect a rap mogul to; through collabs, partnerships, and hanging out with all the right people. He recently worked on a shoot for the May edition of the CCS catalog with Torey Pudwill, Theotis Beasley, Shane O’Neill and Paul Rodriguez.
It ended up being much more than just a photo shoot as Weezy and the crew literally skated deep into the early morning hours at P-Rod’s private park. If there’s one thing for sure it’s that Lil Wayne is definitely down for the ride—the man hardly ever put his board down.
Skate filmmaker and VisualTravelerPatrik Wallner was in North Korea to skateboard, however, on April 15, 2012 he and his crew got caught up in the birthday celebrations for great leader Kim Il-sung’s birthday, according to a story in The Atlantic.
Prohibited from skating, a crew of videomakers traveling in Pyongyang turned their cameras on the April 15 festivities surrounding Kim Il-sung’s birthday. The result is a color-saturated, impressionistic look at the fanfare — pretty much what you would expect a travel diary shot in the style of a skate video to look like. They manage to get one shot of skating in, right at the end of the piece.
Quiksilver today (April 27, 2012) announced that they have found the man to take the CFO job after Joe Scirocco leaves the company. His name is Richard Shields and he was formerly CFO of Oakley.
Robert B. McKnight, Jr., Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer and President of Quiksilver Inc., commented, “We’re really pleased to welcome Rich into the Quiksilver family. His extensive corporate financial experience and proven track record in international operations, retail and manufacturing make him an ideal fit for our growing global business. Rich is an accomplished executive who we expect will make an immediate contribution to our pursuit of substantially improved financial performance, especially through our long-term growth initiatives and globalization efforts.”
Shields, who has previously worked for Day Software, Frame-N-Lens Optical and Taco Bell, will officially start at the company on May 11, 2012. Follow the jump for the official word. [click to continue…]
Power Productions posted a skate edit of Jessie Mullins and friends skating their local skatepark in McKinney Skate Park in Ontario, Canada.
The Video has only been online one night and i had a bunch of people tell me i caught a ufo on film. So Here is the single clip from the video I posted.
Not being expert ufologists we can’t say for certain what it is. But it certainly is moving quickly across the sky.
VF Corp, the parent company of Vans, The North Face, and Reef announced “record first quarter revenues and earnings thanks in part to their acquisition of Timberland and Smartwool, but also because their outdoor group (the only part of the company we really even care about) did really, really, well.
Global revenues of The North Face® brand increased 14% during the quarter, with double-digit growth in both the Americas and internationally. Momentum continued in The North Face® brand’s direct-to-consumer business, where revenues grew more than 20% in the quarter. The Vans® brand achieved another quarter of very healthy growth, with global revenues rising 25% and strong increases in both its Americas and international businesses. The Vans direct-to-consumer business demonstrated solid results, with revenues rising by 18%.
Boom. As usual, Reef did not get so much as a mention in the quarterly numbers, and only showed up in the list of companies VF owns. That must be so motivating for the people at Reef. For the official word follow the jump. If you’re interested in the hard numbers click here. [click to continue…]
This Cooking With Gas episode is worth watching just to see a doctor dive in to Heikki Sorsa’s knee and pull out some tendon with his gloved hand. Ouch. Get well soon, Heikki!. The rest is park edit from Northstar-At-Tahoe starring Eero, Teo Kontinen, Matt Ladley and Mark McMorris. Never seen that before. . . oh, and just for fun count the energy drink logos in the first two minutes then sing along with Trouble Andrew and one of his best songs so far.
Zumiez announces the 2012 12-stop Couch Tour including Seattle, Portland, Sacramento, SLC, Denver, San Antonio, Houston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, West Nyack, Chicago, and the finals June 26 in Minneapolis.
Joining Zumiez Couch Tour for the 6th year in a row is the Zumiez Best Foot Forward Am Contest Series 2012 Presented by Bones Bearings. Best Foot Forward is a jam format contest for up and coming skaters looking for their own share. Each event includes a local open qualifier for the first 20 skaters to pre-register online at www.zumiezbestfootforward.com. The top am skater from each of the Best Foot Forward contest stops will get an all expense paid trip to the Zumiez Couch Tour’s final stop in Bloomington, MN, to compete in the Best Foot Forward Finals on June 26th, 2012.
Power House Productions is an artist-run neighborhood-based nonprofit organization. Their mission is to develop and implement creative neighborhood stabilization strategies to revitalize and inspire the community. Their current project, RideIt Sculpture Park, is a do-it-yourself style skatepark built by skateboarders. The goal of the park is to create a space where neighborhood kids and adults can meet, play, create, build and exercise.
Bob Smith, an orthodontist who just couldn’t stand goggles that fogged and went on to revolutionize the action eyewear industry with his double lens Smith goggles, died of complications from heart surgery on April 18, 2012 at his home in La Quinta, California, according to an obituary in the Washington Post. He was 78.
