by The Editors on October 10, 2008
WizzardX.tv is a new “site” created by podcast host Wizzard Media under the direction of a guy named Skip Fredricks. Here’s how they describe this new action sports video site in their press release:
WizzardX host, Emily Dickinson, will bring the tightest shots, gnarliest crashes and sweetest moves to life each week as the channel grows to include over 20 of the top podcast shows in the action sports genre. This week, Emily promotes four anchor shows, Dirt, Street, Snow and Water featuring some of the top professionals in their respective sport.
Okay, correct us if we are wrong, but there aren’t even 10 action sports podcasts worth watching and yet, WizzardX is going to include over 20?
Watching Wizzard X is like walking into some shady action sports past. All the footage is old, the events irrelevant, and the shows mostly unwatchable. The site seems to follow the idea that by throwing enough crap out on the web someone will eventually watch it.
Our big question: who do they think they’re going to fool with this? Certainly not the kids.
[Link: Wizzzardx.tv via Marketwatch]
by The Editors on October 10, 2008
Falling stocks really aren’t news these days, but we still have fun looking at the charts like this one from Quiksilver’s last year. With it’s $2.79 price today Quik has hit its lowest stock price since 1998.
We hate to admit it, but even to us it’s beginning to look like a bargain.
[Link: Yahoo! Finance]
by The Editors on October 10, 2008
Llewellyn Werner, the chairman of the Los Angeles, California based Customized Cooperative Capital LLC, announced in April that he would be spending a half-billion dollars building “a massive U.S.-style amusement park” in downtown Baghdad on the grounds of the old Baghdad Zoo, according to a story in the Globe and Mail.
Phase one of that project is to introduce skateboarding to Iraqi youth according to a story in Denver’s Westword. Werner plans to install “pocket parks” from Freshparks in neighborhoods around Baghdad and equip them with free skateboards thanks to help from Globe.
Werner estimates that he’ll spend a million dollars on the pocket parks and boards, which will be available to Iraqis free of charge. He considers that amount a relatively low-cost “down-payment” that will allow him to solicit support for BZEE, his multimillion-dollar entertainment zone. If he can show skeptical investors and wary locals that something as brazenly Western as a skateboard park can be successful in Iraq, then why not an American-style amusement park? But the rides and attractions themselves are just an incentive for something larger: the real estate around the park that Werner retains the rights to develop under his lease with the city.
The first skatepark has been set up for over a month, however, no one used it thanks to the Muslim holiday Ramadan and “daytime temperatures into the 110s.” But the park is scheduled to have it’s grand opening this week. It will be interesting to see how that goes.
Skateboarding will definitely give Iraqi kids a reason to look forward to tomorrow.
[Link: Westword]
by The Editors on October 10, 2008
That’s one big piece of street art. Guess a big model deserves a big space. It’s nice that Nike has something else to spend money on, isn’t it?
[Link: Hurley.com]
by The Editors on October 10, 2008
Matt Trouts of Eco Trash Bin Rentals and his friends in Agoura Hills, California didn’t think Kelly Slater was getting enough coverage for winning his 9th ASP World Championship so they came up with a plan:
We hung these signs from freeway overpasses here in LA with great pride. This is our proud group of surfers ending the day at a busy interesection in our home town. Just for the record…everyone honked for Kelly! As they should.
Matt, please consider this post as us “honking for Kelly.”
by The Editors on October 9, 2008
The Action Sports Environmental Coalition has teamed up with Chipotle to give a free burrito to anyone who rolls up to any California Chipotle location on a “non-motorized” form of transportation on October 11, 2008. It’s all part of their Roll Anything Day celebration.
This is a day dedicated to the use of non-motorized transportation, try it for a day, participate for the rest of your life. That’s right, ride your skateboard or bike, I don’t even care if you walk or rollerblade, just don’t use some petroleum, coal powered electric, toxic diesel or veggie oil natural resource burning contraption. You can even not go anywhere, even better, but if you do try to make sure it roll’s.
And trust us, all you’ll have to do is tell Chipotle that you rolled in on a skateboard and ask for your free burrito. It’s that easy.
[Link: ASEC via TWBiz]
by The Editors on October 9, 2008
This afternoon at around 12:50 PM Zumiez stock broke through it’s previous 52-week low ($11.85 in July 08) to $11.55 and it appears the bottom has not been reached thanks to reports yesterday of a less than stellar September.
Interestingly, Zumiez’s number two competitor in the malls of America, The Buckle, was up $1.19 today to $49.14.
by The Editors on October 9, 2008
Video gamers willing to shop at Target and spend five dollars more for Ubisoft’s Shaun White Snowboarding video game are going to get some pretty cool in-game extras including the Target Mountain Boarding area, according to a story on Gamespot.com.
Along with the mountain, which brings the total number of scalable slopes to five, those who purchase the Shaun White Snowboarding Target edition will gain access to bonus moves, characters, and scenery. Capping off the bundle, the Target edition will include Target Chalet, “the real-life mountainside home where Shaun and his fellow Target athletes hang out with friends and family at the annual Winter X Games in Aspen, Colorado.”
Not really all that high a price to pay to support Shaun’s number one sponsor.
[Link: Game Spot]
by The Editors on October 9, 2008
This is the sort of thing that makes us chuckle: On October 23, 2008 at 5 PM PST Fuel TV will be broadcasting a one-hour “Highlight Special” of the 2008 Boost Mobile Pro at Trestles that we all watched live online a month ago. Cable TV is so on it.
The show will also give a behind-the-scenes look at the lifestyles of professional surfing and highlights from one of the busiest weeks in the action sports industry including the Surfer Poll Awards where Kelly Slater won his monumental 14th award and Dane Reynolds won the Best Maneuver Award for his aerial artistry in the film “Dude Cruise.”
There’s just nothing like action sports reruns to get the heart thumping. We can hardly wait.
[Link: CNN.com]
by The Editors on October 9, 2008
It looks like teen retailers may have found the bottom of the two-and-a-half year “discretionary recession” according to the 16th semi-annual “Taking Stock with Teens” research survey published by Piper Jaffray.
Our national school survey indicates total spending on fashion is essentially flat with last fall,” said Klinefelter. “While it may be too early to call an inflection point, the results of the survey may point to an improvement in spending on this category within the next six to 12 months. Historically, fashion replenishment cycles have lasted three to five years, followed by transition cycles lasting another two to four years.”
The group that Piper oddly calls “West Coast Brands” made up of PacSun, Volcom, Quiksilver, Zumiez, etc. has moved past Hollister into first place since the April report. But if you take them on their own, Hollister is still kicking everyone’s ass. Behind Hollister is fForever 21, American Eagle and Abercrombie & Fitch.
Click the link for the rest of the “key findings.” None of it changed much from the last report.
[Link: Market Watch]
WizzardX.tv is a new “site” created by podcast host Wizzard Media under the direction of a guy named Skip Fredricks. Here’s how they describe this new action sports video site in their press release:
