by The Editors on March 24, 2009
The biggest news in surf media yesterday was that Surfline writer Lewis Samuels was cut from his paying gig at the website. Last night Surfline’s Editorial Director Dave Gilovich and Editor Marcus Sanders responded in a post on Surfline.
Like many blogs, surf-related and otherwise, PostSurf quickly became an Op/Ed platform. And unfortunately, it soon became apparent that the site did not possess the standard of journalism that our readers demand from Surfline and that we believe is so important to uphold. . . .Since his blog first appeared online, there have been at least two cases where Lewis has published false information and misrepresented the facts. Quite simply, this is not something we can be associated with in any way. . . .We recognize that the writing on Lewis’ site is completely his business, and he can post whatever he wants, whether we or anyone else agrees with what he has to say or how he says it. . . . But as time passed and the site continued to feature content that was patently inaccurate — and often inflammatory — we had to ask ourselves: Do we want someone writing for Surfline who has taken these kinds of liberties?
Inaccurate? Apparently, Surfline ad sales people don’t literally drag their tongues on the scrotums of its advertisers. Then again, there was that amazing piece of investigatory journalism on Dave Eggers . . .
[Link: Surfline]
by The Editors on March 24, 2009
Mollusk SF is hosting Yar, an art show featuring work from Thomas Campbell’s new surf film The Present. The opening is Friday March 27, 2009 and includes music from Tommy Guerrero.
Mollusk Surf Shop Gallery, 4500 Irving Street, San Francisco, CA 94122
[Link: Mollusk via Club Mumble]
by The Editors on March 23, 2009
The 4th Annual Vans Pier Classic presented by Jack’s Surfboards starts Wednesday, March 25, 2009 at the Huntington Beach Pier in California. The event is the second stop of the ASP North American Tour and first event of the ASP North America Pro Junior Series with a Men’s WQS 2-Star Vans Pro and a Men’s Grade 2 Ezekiel Pro Junior. Finals are Sunday, but we can all watch the of the best young surfers in the world on the live webcast at Vans.com.
[Link: Vans]
by The Editors on March 23, 2009
Designer all around the place Cody Hudson of Struggle Inc. (he’s done design work for Burton, Stussy, Monster Children etc.) has a new show opening at the Andrew Rafacz Gallery in Chicago next weekend.
It’s titled: thanks man, see you around man, fuck yeah, you guys are wild, thanks man, i dig it, see you
Opening party is March 27, 2009 at 6 PM at 835 W. Washington Blvd, Chicago IL 60607.
[Link: Chicagoist]
by The Editors on March 23, 2009
by The Editors on March 23, 2009
When we read Lewis Samuels’ little post about Billabong CEO Paul Naude getting barreled while the surf industry collapses around us we chuckled to ourselves at how much fun biting the hand stories are to write. It always reminds us of that old 70s T-shirt with the mouse causually, defiantly flipping off the incoming hawk.
According to his blog, Post Surf, Lewis felt the talons on Friday March 20, 2009 when he was fired by Surfline.
So the word came down from the higher-ups at Surfline that my signed contract for 2009 was no longer being honored. They specifically cited two incidents that led to my termination.
1) My Transworld post, in which I mocked one of their competitors for catering to advertisers, but in fairness noted “I get paid to write for Surfline, a website that also licks advertisers’ balls, part of the machine.”
2) The “Corporate Rage” post, in which I mused that in light of recent incidents like the AIG scandal, “perhaps this is the wrong time for any CEO to publicize 100 Tavarua tubes.”
I also want to clear up one point: Many people will falsely surmise that Billabong and/or their CEO put pressure on Surfline, and this led to me being fired. Surfline made it clear to me that this is not the case. In fact, they claimed that no advertisers have contacted them with anything except positive feedback about PostSurf. . . So… As to any lingering questions concerning whether Surfline licks advertisers’ balls or not — I think we’ve pretty much cleared that one up.
Right. Thanks for clearing that up. We never would have surmised anything of the sort because we know that the action sports industry loves great, honest writing and they always have.
Surfline’s EVP Dave Gilovich doesn’t see it in exactly the same terms as Lewis. “I wouldn’t say we “fired” him,” Gilovich said. “He wrote stories for Surfline; from now on we’ll be looking for others to pen those articles for us.”
[Link: Post Surf]
by The Editors on March 23, 2009
For the latest in our series The Tony Hawk of we present Javas McMillion of Fergus, Ontario, Canada. He is the Tony Hawk of Fingerboarding, according to a story in The Record.
Fingerboarding is precisely what it sounds like — skateboarding with your fingers — and Javas is Ontario’s fingerboarding equivalent of Tony Hawk. Call him Tiny Hawk. . . “You can do anything you could do on a real skateboard except it’s, like, miniature,” explains Javas, a Fergus kid who’s “almost 13” and something of a local fingerboarding guru.
Indeed. And it might even be cooler than pizza flipping.
[Link: The Record]
by The Editors on March 23, 2009
Lewis Smith, 45, of Orange City, Florida got so mad at the kids who were skateboarding on some ramps near his house that he burned them down, according to a story on WFTV.com.
The sheriff’s office says the man put the neighborhood near Orange City in danger and forced the county to divert firefighters already battling huge brush fires. The man admit he set the skateboard ramps on fire in the middle of this dirt road on 17th Street (see map), near Orange City, because he was fed up with kids playing on them so close to his home. . . Lewis Smith, 45, was booked into the Volusia County jail, but released Monday morning. He’s charged with criminal mischief, but Volusia County sheriff’s investigators said the minor damage he caused could’ve been far worse.
And we thought the Tampa Pro was the hottest skate event going on in Florida last weekend.
[Link: WFTV.com and Orlando Sentinel]
by The Editors on March 23, 2009
O’Neill just launched a new website that they are extremely proud of. It was created by Achtung! “the award-winning digital agency based in Amsterdam.”
We decided to take a quick, web-addled, ADD tour through the site to see if they have improved anything. Follow the jump for a rundown of our user experience with the site and why we probably won’t be visiting this site again:
[click to continue…]
by The Editors on March 23, 2009
Greg Johnson has been lurking around the back door of snowboard contests for more than 20 years with job titles ranging from judge to competition director of the US Open (his most recent gig). The Mountain News checks in with Johnson to get his views on the snowboard industry in the face of global economic collapse.
He said the snowboarding economy has been very strong the past few years, but has, like everything else, shown recent impacts from the global economic downturn. . . “This year snowboarding (competitions) took kind of a big hit, the Air & Style in Europe and the Vail (Honda) Session events didn’t happen based partly on economics,” Johnson said.
Greg is truly one of the nicest guys in snowboarding and we’re glad to see him getting a little coverage.
[Link: Mountain News]
