by The Editors on August 12, 2008
Leave it to the old guys at Concrete Disciples to get all the proper coverage of Quiksilver’s All 80s All Day street contest held last Saturday (August 9, 2008) in the parking lot behind the Quiksilver offices in Huntington Beach.
When I got down to Quik, I was blown away by what Eddie had put together. Jump ramps, big kinked quarter pipes, big banks, kickers to inclined railsliders, the 1/4 to 1/4 wallride transfer setup, a rounded 90 degree corner transfer, wallride banger box, and the big bank to parking block wedge complete with transfer jumps at both ends. Lastly, a jump ramp to minivan roof to jump ramp setup. There were an assortment of period-specific decks set up for everyone to ride as well. In other words, the throwback feel was complete and authentic.
Wish we were there. . .
[Link: Concrete Disciples]
by The Editors on August 12, 2008
They’ve done as good a job as anyone to spin the fact that the print business model just isn’t working, but Slap Magazine announced last week in a press release that after “several more print issues” they will stop printing a magazine and go 100 percent digital.
SLAP has decided to step up and be the first in skateboarding to make a clean break with the old, and with that sentiment and excitement we announce SLAP will now channel its efforts and creativity 100% into slapmagazine.com. So long paper!
It won’t surprise anyone to see that they’ve also gotten a little loose with the truth with the following statement:
With the most popular skateboard website in the world and an audience 10 times the size of traditional print outlets, our efforts will be directed at the massive international audience at hand.
Ah, most popular skateboard website in the world? This comparison with Skateboarding.com and skateboard.com on Compete.com would suggest otherwise:
Either way, it will be interesting to see how advertisers respond, because Slap is most definitely on the right track even if they seem to be a bit confused by their traffic metrics.
[Link: Slap Magazine via Vitalmedianet.com]
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by The Editors on August 12, 2008
As if the ass ponies who “race” in the Gumball Rally 3000 need anything else (on top of all the money they blow on hanging out with “players” in their little jaunt across the West Coast and China), when the racers got to Las Vegas on August 11, 2008 they were each given a brand-new Nixon Watch as a “thank you” from race founder Maxmillion Cooper, according to a post on The Vegas Eye.
Guess even the over-paid (and poorly-aging b-list celebrities) need to occasionally know the correct time.
It’s nice that Nixon, Spy and Puma can help them out like that.
[Link: The Vegas Eye]
by The Editors on August 12, 2008
Looks like Grant “Twiggy” Baker and Greg Long may have landed an XXL monster while out Saturday, August 9, 2008 about a kilometre outside Dungeons in South Africa’s Hout Bay.
“The waves were definitely the biggest I’ve ever seen in South Africa and possibly the biggest anywhere,” Baker said. “Greg towed me into one giant wave that was so big I was terrified and started hyper-ventilating. . . . Later, when we saw the photos taken by Craig Kolesky with a large lens from Chapman’s Peak, we realised that those were possibly the biggest waves ever recorded, on a par with the rides we had a Cortes Bank in January which were measured at well over 70 feet.”
Guess we won’t know until Bill Sharp gets out his ruler.
[Link: News24]
by Sir Ben Marcus on August 12, 2008
[Editors’ Note: Last month, surfer Brad Gerlach and the Beastie Boys’ Mike D. joined the crew from Operation Amped at Zuma Beach to help teach some war-wounded veterans to surf. Boardistan surf correspondent Ben Marcus was there to see it all first hand. Here is his story.]
Mike D is living and breathing proof of the duality of man… the Jungian thing. He is, at the same time, one of the quietest and least quiet humans on this earth. As drum major for the Beastie Boys, Mike D is right up there with Jaco Pastorius, David Bowie, Wild Cherry and Average White Band for Funkiest White Man Ever. Mike D is the man behind the beats that have propelled the Beastie Boys into the hit machine that has mined more platinum than South Africa X Russia. Their first album, released in 1986, when platinum times nine and in just over 20 years they have sold over 20 million units. That’s a lot of units.
The Beastie Boys’ Body Movin’ was playing on Indie 103.1 at about 9:00 in the morning on Monday, July 21. In front of Tower 14, the Sicky Dicky tents were going up and there were a lot of surfboards scattered around as Operation Amped was setting up to take about a dozen injured war veterans out for a day in the surf.
Leaning against the seawall, the thin, quiet guy staring out to the ocean with eyes that seemed to know what they were looking for, was none other than Mike Diamond. By his own admission, “The name is D., y’all and I don’t play/And I can rock a block party ’til your hair turns grey/’So what you sayin?’/I explode on site/And like Jimmy Walker I’m Dynomite!”
But in civilian life, Mike Diamond is as quiet and unassuming as Mike D is “a special individual/Pulling out knots/pulling in residuals.”
Please follow the jump for the rest of the story.
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by The Editors on August 12, 2008
Like an aging Barker’s Beauty from the Price is Right, deep laugh lines were beginning to show around the eyes of one of snowboarding’s longest-running websites and its ass was beginning to sag. Yobeat.com just wasn’t keeping up. That’s what happens when you’ve been blogging longer than the word blog has existed (we know all about this.)
Yobeat.com co-creator Brooke Geery has finally updated her side project’s backend to WordPress and given the site a whole new graphic face and we’re all thanking her for this. . . at least those of us who enjoy caustic ramblings.
Follow the jump for the entire press release. Yeah, it’s that professional now.
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by The Editors on August 12, 2008
In a new ad for HP Shaun White cruises into a room in green jogging shorts only to find all his friends wearing Shaun White masks that they’ve printed out on their HP Printers. “This is part of Feed Company’s ongoing back-to-school online campaign for HP,” according to a story on AdGabber.
Yeah, seeing a couch full of Shaun’s is a little unsetting, if you ask us. And no, it doesn’t make us want to buy an HP printer. Then again, maybe it ties into the whole Crash Course with Shaun White.
Click the link to watch Peanuts Thrown at Shaun White.
[Link: AdGabber]
by The Editors on August 12, 2008
Sometimes we forget that Hayes Brothers Snowboards is wholly owned by a private equity firm. Now, we won’t have to remember that any more because their parent company Ault Glazer & Co., Inc. has announced that it will no longer be a PE firm and that the business that’s left over will now be called Global Sports and Entertainment, Inc. This firm will be run by Bill Dully.
The new holding company will have minority ownership in Freedom Grill and Boom Entertainment, and will wholly own The Collectors X, Hayes Brothers Snowboard, as well as Global Authentication, Inc. as its flagship operation.
How’s that for a portfolio of companies: grills that attach to your trailer hitch, sports memorabilia athentication, oh, and snowboarding. Talk about synergy.
[Link: MarketWatch]
by The Editors on August 8, 2008
The statue of George Freeth, the man credited with bringing surfing to California has been stolen from the Redondo Beach Pier according to a story on KTLA.com.
The statue has graced the pier for 31 years, but overnight it vanished. . . . The bust was created by the late sculptor Terry O’Donnell. It’s designed was based on old photographs of Freeth who is credited with bringing surfing to California from his native Hawaii in 1907.
Wonder if anyone has checked ebay?
[Link: KTLA.com]
by The Editors on August 6, 2008
For a while it looked like Future Snowboarding would be done, but now, thanks to the savior of all sagging snowboarding magazines there will be another day.
Storm Mountain Publishing, (SMP) the Boulder, CO based publisher of SNOWBOARD and Freeskier magazines announced last week that it has purchased Future US, Inc’s snowboarding division for an undisclosed amount.
This purchase makes sense for Future’s website alone, but we are still amazed that small publishing companies are able to make the magazine model work while remaining honest about their distribution numbers.
[Link: Transworld Business]
