by The Editors on March 5, 2009
When the administration of Las Cruces, New Mexico’s Mayfield High School decided to ban skateboarding at the high school after a ninth-grade student injured after being hit in the face with a skateboard, the students decided to stage a protest.
Nearly 30 students joined at Mayfield’s “Skateboarding Circle” in front of the school this morning in protest and several had their boards confiscated as a result. . . Two hours later, students and administrators agreed to discuss in April a cooperative way to lift the ban, and protesters — partially satisfied — returned to their classes.
Way to stick it to the man.
[Link: Las Cruces Sun-News]
by The Editors on March 5, 2009
Brad Kremer, the director of Burton’s film department commented to Twincities.com on Tuesday’s citations of their film crew in St. Paul saying the guys did not know they were tresspassing and that they’re “not a bunch of punks.”
“We travel all over the world and film the best snowboarding, whether it be in the cities or the mountains,” he said Wednesday. “We’ve come to Minnesota for quite some years now for a couple of reasons. First, you have good snow; second, there are really good features for urban snowboarding; third, the people are very kind.” . . . Kremer wasn’t present Monday, but he said he thinks the police were doing their job. . . .”Were they trespassing? Yes,” he said of his co-workers. “Did they know? No. I think they probably should have just got a warning, but I’m not upset at the police.”
Kremer even included this video to show just how polite they are to local officers. That is some nice PR work.
[Link: Twincities.com]
by The Editors on March 5, 2009
Minila, Philippines seems to be the hot bed of trade in the faux Vans shoes market. In October 2008 the Philippine National Police seized 3,000 pairs of the counterfeit Vans and then today they grabbed 1,179 more pairs.
Lawyer Elfren Meneses, head of the NBI’s Intellectual Property Rights Division, said the fake shoes were seized from one sales outlets of Ramaceda Shoe Marketing, R.R. Fernando Footwear, Nikki Want, and Amezing Wang Alok Building on Agtarap Street in Pasay and at the Harrison Shoe Plaza along F.B. Harrison corner Agtarap Streets.
Nice to know the Philippine Police department is working so hard to protect the interests of VF Corp. Isn’t it?
[Link: GMAnews.tv]
by The Editors on March 5, 2009
The parents of Gregory Jacobs, 18, an Ohio man who died from injuries he sustained on March 7, 2007 while snowboarding at Peek ‘n Peak Resort, are suing Hamot Medical Center claiming that doctors at the hospital killed their son so they could sell his organs to the Center for Organ Recovery and Education, according to a story on WTOL.com.
The suit, claims medical personnel at the ski resort and at the hospital failed to diagnose his closed head injury quickly, and that the delayed treatment caused him further harm. . . .Mr. and Mrs. Jacobs claim that over several days at Hamot Medical Center, doctors encouraged them to sign a do-not-resuscitate order, even though they didn’t want to and they believed their son was improveing.
Wonder if they think the $5 million they are asking for will make them feel better about his death?
[Link: WTOL.com]
by The Editors on March 5, 2009
Looks like the bad economy wasn’t the only thing causing problems in the financial world of former Billabong CEO Matthew Perrin. The Sydney Morning Herald is now reporting that Perrin had at least $1.7 million AUS in gambling debts last year before everything went down.
The debts of the former high-flying Billabong chief executive include $800,000 to the Centrebet boss, Con Kafataris, $300,000 to Flemington bookie Frank Hudson and $160,000 to one of Victoria’s biggest bookmakers, Alan Eskander.
What do they say? You have to bet big to win big?
[Link: Sydney Morning Herald]
by The Editors on March 5, 2009
by The Editors on March 4, 2009
Their lead investor for the past three years may have declared bankruptcy this week, but Firewire Surfboards would like everyone to know that Matthew Perrin’s financial woe’s have nothing to do with them, according to a press release posted on Surfline.com.
Firewire was saddened to learn that Matthew Perrin, one of the companies lead investors over the past 3 years, had filed for bankruptcy protection in Australia due to real estate and other business dealings unrelated to Firewire. . . . “Matthew’s commitment was one of the foundations on which Firewire was built”, said Firewire CEO Mark Price, “and he along with our other lead investors, combined with our innovative product and Taj’s success, have allowed Firewire to develop into a globally recognized surfboard brand in a relatively short space of time.”
Having one of your lead investors run out of money doesn’t seem like a good thing for the business, does it?
[Link: Surfline.com]
by The Editors on March 4, 2009
Last night, the city of Poway, California voted in favor of a fingerprinting system that will allow skateboarders to use the city’s skatepark.
Park users who break the house rules or indulge in roughhousing, bullying or vandalism will have their thumbprint voided. “So the next time they put their thumb in (the thumb pad), it will not work,” says Poway City Councilman Jim Cunningham. “Then they will contact someone and find out why.”To critics who may see all this as somewhat Orwellian, Cunningham has this comeback “We’re not Big Brother. The thumbprints are not going to Homeland Security. They’re being used specifically for this particular facility, and we want people to enjoy it.”
This is how it all starts. . .
[Link: MSNBC.com]
by The Editors on March 4, 2009
According to a list of Australia’s biggest brands compiled by Interbrand, Billabong is number eight. They are right after ANZ Bank and ahead of St. George. Sadly, out of the top 20 Australian companies we only recognized four. Since we’ve heard of Telstra, that makes Billabong the number two Australian brand in the Boardistan rankings.
[Link: Media Biz Ne]
by The Editors on March 4, 2009
In a time when stories rarely make it into action sports magazines without first being vetted by the companies who paid for the trips it’s interesting to follow Scott Bass’s Surfermag.com story of Owl Chapman’s lawsuit against The Surfer’s Journal.
Apparently, Owl wasn’t happy with the way he was characterized in a Jeff Johnson story featured in the August/September 2006 issue of TSJ titled, “El Hombre Invisible (With Apologies to William S. Burroughs) An Owl Chapman Story.” He was so angry that he filed suit in Oahu Federal court. Here’s what Owl is upset about:
According to the court, “The Article as a whole–while a personal, narrative account fraught with descriptive, figurative language–generally implies that (1) Johnson ordered a surfboard from Plaintiff and (2) Plaintiff failed to deliver the surfboard on time as promised, took Johnson’s money up front and then deliberately avoided him for approximately two months, and failed to craft the surfboard to Johnson’s specifications.” . . . Specifically Chapman’s lawsuit claims that, “A ridiculously extreme portrait (indeed a most sinister caricature) of plaintiff emerges that casts him in a false light —- and which, further, points to a grandiose egotist who is mean-spirited, self-serving, full of braggadocio, impossibly arrogant and in the end, a degenerate, pathetic and drug-addled social outcast.”
Wait, isn’t that how it always is when buying a custom shaped board from a genius shaper?
[Link: Surfermag.com via LionizePR]
