by The Editors on January 5, 2009
In a story titled 5 Cash-Rich Companies Being Given Away Motley Fool writer Morgan Housel says Volcom may be one of the stocks that Warren Buffet refers to as “a one-foot bar I can step over.”
Is retail dead yet? As a whole, perhaps, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some stores that stand out from the pack. Volcom might be one of them. While other apparel veterans like Quiksilver (NYSE: ZQK) and retailers like Macy’s (NYSE: M) are saddled with long-term debt, Volcom has kept its balance sheet spotless. . . . But with a bulletproof balance sheet and a well-known, powerful brand name, the main catalysts that typically shove recession-prone industries into the graveyard are nowhere to be seen with Volcom.
Apparently, being a millionaire is that easy.
[Link: The Motley Fool]
by The Editors on January 5, 2009
The entire energy drink market has blown up right under Gatorade’s oblivious nose and the only time they ever seemed to take notice was when Salman Agah attempted to launch and market Skaterade.
Now it appears that someone has kicked the sports drink company in the nuts because they’re diving in on action sports like bums on a bottle, according to a story in Sports Business Journal.
The brand signed a multiyear deal with [Chaz] Ortiz that sources valued in the low to mid-six figures annually. He will be the cornerstone of Gatorade’s action sports campaign and will be featured alongside its marquee athletes, including Derek Jeter, Dwyane Wade and Peyton Manning. . . . The brand also signed smaller deals with snowboarder Ellery Hollingsworth, a 17-year-old from Darien, Conn., and BMX star Nigel Sylvester, an 18-year-old from Queens, N.Y. The athletes will be featured in Gatorade’s action sports campaigns, which are being planned. Terms of those deals were not available.
That fact that Gatorade never had any bull balls or caffeine in it always made it a favorite around here anyway. And for Chaz, the “mid-six figures” shouldn’t be so bad.
[Link: Sports Business Journal via Skatedaily.net]
by The Editors on January 5, 2009
Quiksilver has already cancelled surfing events in Australia and now the company has cutting Travis Rice’s Natural Selection contest at Jackson Hole according to a press release posted on Transworld Business.
This winter, snowboarding fans will continue to try to grasp the cinematic magnitude of That’s it That’s All. They will see Travis compete in contests, they will read about him in the media and they will see repeated airings of the Natural Selection TV special on Fuel TV.
Apparently, that contest was all about promoting Travis Rice and really, who wants to him win his own contest two years in a row?
[Link: TransWorld Business]
by The Editors on January 5, 2009
Hot celebrity snowboard new: Aussie disco diva Kylie Minogue and male model Andres Velencoso Segura spent last week in Chamonix according to reports on Thaindian.com.
Minogue, 40, and Segura, who is ten years her junior, were seen snowboarding and partying together for a week in Chamonix, with locals saying that the two looked like loved-up teenagers. . . .Andres had never been snowboarding before but Kylie loves it, the Sun quoted a source as saying.
She did exactly what she should have done: she hired an instructor and put Segura in a lesson while she tore it up on her own.
[Link: Thaindian.com]
by The Editors on January 4, 2009
It’s been a long time coming but it looks like ESPN has finally begun to treat action sports as a part of their sporting news mix and not just some kind of fringe “X” thing out on a site by itself. Starting today EXPN is gone and in its place is ESPN Action Sports at http://espn.go.com/action/.
The new, nicely uncluttered subsection of the ESPN.com site is reportedly much more Google friendly and will be bringing “shitloads of traffic, bro.” It was supposed to have its own promo on the homepage of ESPN.com but we couldn’t find any and the new section doesn’t currently have an RSS feed (it should be up by the end of the week according to inside sources). A link to the Action Sports page is, however, listed under the ALL SPORTS menu in the main navigation of the ESPN site (three spots from the bottom of the list behind Rugby and just ahead of “bassmaster.”) Apparently the nav is ranked by importance to the average ESPN.com visitor.
While we don’t exactly consider “rally” an action sport, the new index does give each of the sports their own sub-sub homepage which will technically allow visitors to deep link straight to the content they’re interested in. Still, this “segregated part of the whole sports world” idea does result in a page with a couple snowboard stories right next to a big promo for the Gridiron Playoff Challenge.
Guess some things will never change.
[Link: ESPN.com/action]
by The Editors on January 4, 2009
The winter of 1988-89 was the first full season that Vail allowed snowboarders to ride the mountain. For those old enough to remember the days of not being able to ride anywhere, this means one thing: you’re old. And so is Ray Sforzo. He was there 20 years ago and he’s still there today:
“It seems to be working out pretty well,” said Sforzo, who founded Vail’s snowboard school and directed it for 15 years. “There’s less and less negative interface. Instead of the idiot snowboarder cut me off, now it’s just the idiot cut me off. . . .“Obviously it’s more mainstream,” Sforzo said. “It’s a pretty substantial part of our ski school revenue. A lot of kids are lured to snowboarding.”
Hard to believe it was ever an issue.
[Link: Vail Daily]
by The Editors on January 4, 2009
Olympic gold medalist Hannah Teter is hoping to raise $100,000 for an African village see visited on a family trip last summer, according to a story on Cleveland.com.
Hannah has set the goal of raising $100,000 for Kirindon in 2009, an amount that goes a lot further in Africa than it would in America in part because everything — labor, raw materials — is cheaper. Some of the money comes from selling syrup and some from donations made via her Web site, hannahsgold.com. . . . I just wanted to snowboard for a higher cause,” she said. “The competition can get repetitive and a little bit old, especially when you’ve been doing it for seven years. I kinda wanted a new ambition, to really want to do well all the time and do it for a reason.”
As a reminder Hannah rides with photos of children from the village. Sing along. . . We are the world. . .and next time you see Hannah ask her if you can see the Africans in her pocket.
[Link: Cleveland]
by The Editors on January 4, 2009
Happy New Year, skier. Here’s how he got there according to a story on The Tackled-Box.
This guy got toilet seated on the Blue Sky Basin lift chair. Chair came around with the seat up and dude got toilet seated. Lifty left the housing and the guy fell through catching his pants and Under Armor in the framework which saved him from falling on his head in the river below.
He reportedly hung there for 40 minutes before Vail lift workers could get him down.
[Link: The Tackled-Box and The Danger Zone and The Smoking Gun]
by The Editors on January 3, 2009
David Lee rides the A Train for the The New York Times and explains what it’s like to be a New York City surfer.
Contrary to so many surf destinations, nothing about the subway platform on Broad Channel Island suggests the approach of the beach. There are no bleached blondes talking it up, no garish surf stickers on public property, just the resigned faces of commuters in a place that could be anywhere grim. . . . We boarded the same shuttle with our disparate intentions, and within minutes I could see the sea peeking from behind a high-rise apartment building, the north wind holding up the waves, curling lips on cold dark faces.
Truth is: surfers around the world do whatever it takes to ride waves and if that means the A-Train and surviving the Rockaway locals, then so be it.
[Link: New York Times]
by The Editors on January 2, 2009
To keep snowboarders and skiers from ducking ropes in to dangerous terrain, Whistler-Blackcomb has posted guards to stand watch over popular out-of-bounds spots, according to a story on Canada.com.
The areas where the deadly slides occurred had earlier been marked out-of-bounds and “not recommended” for use as a result of avalanche warnings based on the snow conditions. Those runs are now marked “closed” and guards are turning people away, said Whistler Blackcomb official Doug Forseth. . . . He said the resort is taking a “zero tolerance” attitude toward anyone caught sneaking into the closed areas, and employees will seize season’s passes. . . . “This is very serious. We don’t want to pull them out or call their families, or put our people in danger,” Forseth said.
With three avalanches and two deaths in two days, it’s probably a good idea.
[Link: Canada.com]
In a story titled 5 Cash-Rich Companies Being Given Away Motley Fool writer Morgan Housel says Volcom may be one of the stocks that Warren Buffet refers to as “a one-foot bar I can step over.”
