Academy Snowboards is going to learn you a thing or two this weekend at Boreal. For only $199 snowboarders of all skill levels can get two days of on-hill training with Academy Pros, walk home with $50 is product, and have the best spring shred session of the season. At least that’s what the JB and the crew at Academy are telling us.
Follow the jump for all the details or click here for more. [click to continue…]
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[Editors’ Note: Organizers waited until 10:12 AM local time before deciding to call OFF the Billabong Pro Rio on May 11, 2011. Next call May 12, 7 Am local time.]
From the looks of the waves today (and the promise of a swell) the Billabong Pro Rio will probably start on May 11, 2011 at 4 AM PST (7 AM EST) on the first day of the waiting period. Kelly Slater is ready for Rio, apparently:
“I have a lot of good memories from competing in Rio,” Slater said. “The last year that I was here was the year Peterson Rosa won, and if he didn’t win I wouldn’t have won the World Title that year. I was here once or twice in the 90’s and I’ve had good times. One year we had good waves and good barrels and I have a lot of good friends here and it’s been a long time since I’ve been back.”
Welcome, welcome to Rio. Welcome, welcome to. . . follow the jump for all the details including Round 1 heat lineups. [click to continue…]
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Zumiez CFO Trevor Lang has reportedly resigned from his position at the core mall retailer effective in June 2011, according to a story on Reuters.
Lang, who has been with the company for four years, also resigned as chief administrative officer and secretary. . . Zumiez . . has started looking for a suitable successor.
The street apparently misses him already as the stock was down 2 percent in after hours trading.
[Link: Reuters]
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Encinitas, California based Super Heat Games, makers of the Superheat Skateboard trading card game which is set to launch on May 24, 2011 has just received $1.6 million in a first round of VC funding from Diamond Ridge Ventures and DFJ Frontier, according to a story in the San Diego Union-Tribune.
The funding comes after Super Heat said in February that it has entered into a distribution agreement with Japanese trading card giant Konami Digital Entertainment, which distributes the popular Yu-Gi-Oh collectible cards. Konami will be the sole distributor of Super Heat cards in North America and South America. . . “The action sports industry is one of the fastest growing youth segments in the U.S. We feel our Super Heat Skateboard Trading Card Game will appeal to a rapidly emerging audience of action sports enthusiasts,” said Robert Reynolds, the company’s chief executive.
The trading cards feature is solid line-up of pros including Bucky Lasek, Erik Elliington, Mark Appleyard, Geoff Rowley, Bob Burnquist, Steve Caballero, Christian Hosoi, and more. If kids are still playing card games, and not fiddling with their iPod touches, then this could be good.
[Link: San Diego Union-Triubne]
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We don’t follow the energy drink world too closely. We find few things uglier than cool, respected athletes peddling caffeinated sugar water. That said, we had to laugh we we saw the recent article in AdWeek touting Red Bull’s new (in America, anyway) magazine Red Bulletin. No one explains what they’re after better than URB Magazine publisher and Red Bulletin associate publisher Raymond Roker.
“The perception is that there is content and there’s advertising,” Roker adds. “We’re challenging that perception that the media industry is still holding on to. The audience grows up and understands their athlete has brand logo stickers all over the board and the helmet, and that’s OK. If the end result is a good piece of content, parsing where it comes from is missing the point.”
Roker has worked in the music media business for years so we understand why he finds it hard to believe there should be a difference between editorial and advertising, but people should understand that anyone with Roker’s perspective on “content” is definitely working solely in the “advertising” space.
For a better look at where Red Bull’s “perception challenging” eventually ends check out David Foster Wallace’s The Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment, Mike Judge’s Idiocracy, or Morgan Spurlock’s POM Wonderful presents:The Greatest Movie Ever Sold. It isn’t pretty, but then we’ve been purposefully missing the point for years.
[Link: Adweek]
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Forzani Group, the parent company of Canada’s big box sporting goods store Sport Chek has reportedly been purchased by Canadian Tire Corp., according to a story on Bloomberg.
When we first saw this story this morning, we couldn’t have cared less about it, but after a few emails it became apparent that action brands who depend on mainstream, big-box sales to keep them rolling actually care about this stuff.
Canadian Tire, which has more than 1,200 retail and gasoline outlets, already sells bicycles and other sporting goods, as well as home items. The acquisition gives Canadian Tire Chief Executive Officer Stephen Wetmore stores under the Sport Chek and National Sports brands.
It’s nice to know that this is the last time we’ll have to mention either of these blown-out mainstream retail establishments. Good riddance.
[Link: Bloomberg]
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Mark Occhilupo joins snowboarder Louie “Tiny Dancer” Vito as the second third boardrider (we forgot Layne Beachley) to appear on a version of Dancing With The Stars. Occy’s first go didn’t go so well. As one judge said:
“You’re not just a goofy-footed surfer, you’re a really goofy footed dancer . . .I’ll be clear––it was the worst routine we’ve had in 11 series. You had no concept of partnering Jade, you were out of time, your steps were wrong. It was just truly awful. . . stick to surfing.”
While it obviously takes serious sack to get out and dance on TV, we’ll just put it this way after round one: Snowboarders: 1, Surfers 0.
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Nyjah Huston slipped past Shane O’Neil and Chaz Ortiz to win the first stop of the 2011 Street League DC Pro Tour in Seattle, Washington on Sunday, May 8, 2011, and take home $165,000 in prize money.
Perhaps the most memorable moment was on Huston’s last attempt, when he landed a backside 270 nose bluntslide on the big section rail for the highest scoring trick of Street League to-date and ending the event as the crowd roared. With that trick, Huston also took home the Monster Energy Best Trick Award worth another $15,000.
For the rest of the results and official details from Street League, follow the jump. Video via Transworld Skateboarding. For all the official video of the event click here. [click to continue…]
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Learning to read has never been so rad, thanks to Lisa Pliscou and illustrator Tom Dunne’s new book Dude: Fun with Dude and Betty published by Harper Collins. Publisher’s Weekly says:
Pliscou mimes the sincere voice and meticulous punctuation of an easy reader (“See Dude surf. Whoa! Look at Dude surf. Surf, Dude, surf”). Her humor arises from unexpected vocabulary (“Stokaboka!”), paired with earnest illustrations of Dude hanging 10, wiping out, and visiting a taco stand for a “bodacious burrito”—things Dick and Jane never dreamed of.
The book is aimed at kids four to eight, but it looks like Dude would be good on any coffee table. Click here to buy it.
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During the Buffalo Bill Downhill skateboarding race, held yesterday May 8, 2011, in Golden, Colorado, former pro snowboarder Chris Pappas caught a helicopter crash on video, according to The Denver Channel.
The helicopter was being used to film the downhill race when it apparently got into trouble.
It was pretty windy,” Pappas said. “He came in close to the trees and then i think he lost control and the tail came out and then he just dropped the last 10 or 20 feet.”
Luckily, none of the four people in the helicopter nor anyone on the ground were injured.
[Link: The Denver Channel]
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