by The Editors on April 20, 2008
The surfing community lost one of its most OG members when Parker “Woody” Brown died Wednesday, April 16, 2008 Hale Makua, Kahului, Hawaii. He was 96.
“Woody Brown was one of the first and greatest icons in the history of surfing,” state Sen. Fred Hemmings said Friday.
“He was the essential surfer, an iconoclast: extremely independent, futuristic and, most especially, healthy — which explains why he lived for 96 very productive, wonderful years,” said Hemmings, the 1968 world surfing champion who inaugurated the world professional surfing circuit in 1975. “… I only hope more of us who call ourselves surfers can live the way Woody lived.
Woody Brown is survived by his wife, Macrene; three sons, Woody Brown Jr., William Parker Brown and Jeffrey Sellon; two daughters, Mary Sue Gannon and Jennifer Snyder; and 10 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren.
He will be missed, but his legacy will live on.
[Link: Honolulu Advertiser]
by The Editors on April 20, 2008
While we may not so sure about “The Triathlon of a New Generation” a.k.a. the Ultimate Boarder 2008, a contest in which athletes compete in snowboarding, surfing, and skateboarding with combined scoring, we are absolutely sure that the right guy won.
Carlsbadistan’s Aaron Astorga edged out pro snowboarder and ESPN commentator Todd Richards and rolled away with a check for $30,000.
“It was an amazing event and everyone had a great time,” said Ultimate Boarder™ champion, Aaron Astorga. “The contest organizers did an unbelievable job of bringing all of the surfers, skaters and snowboarders together and I know a lot of us are already looking forward to next year’s contest.”
Follow the jump for all the details.
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by The Editors on April 19, 2008
According to KTLA.com a teenage skateboarder was shot and killed at Madison Middle school in North Hollywood last night around 7:30 PM.
The shooting was reported around 7:30 p.m. on Hart Street and Ethel Avenue, Sgt. G. Patton of the Los Angeles Police Department said. . . The victim, who was not yet identified, was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. . . .Police had no information on a motive, but video crews on the scene said the shooting involved at least two juveniles.
Video crews on the scene? Anyone know who was rolling video in North Hollywood last night?
[Link: KTLA.com]
by The Editors on April 19, 2008
In an email sent out to Transworld Media employees on the morning of April 18, 2008 Group Publisher Jeff Griffing announced that after six months on the job he would be leaving Transworld Media and moving east (the second time in the last year that he has quit and moved).
My wife and I have decided to leave southern California to raise my son Jake back east. . . .There will be rumors that I left because I’m frustrated with Bonnier, Winter Park, whatever…..none of which are true.
His replacement: former VP of Sales and long-time Transworld adman Liam Ferguson. Mr. Ferguson will have the distinction of being Transworld Media’s seventh Group Publisher in the last five years.
by The Editors on April 17, 2008
Writer Jeff Hemmel has a great story on the Lib Tech Skate Banana on First Tracks Online.
There’s some crazy stuff going on up in Washington State. First comes the notion that a snowboard’s edge should resemble a crinkle-cut French fry, rather than a traditional curve. The dust on crust had barely settled from that outburst when next came the idea that camber was old news, and that rocker — yes, wakeboard-like rocker — was the wave of the future.
While we all know Mike Olson is a design genius, it’s nice to see others appreciating his banana. . . tech.
[Link: First Tracks]
by The Editors on April 17, 2008
For the past seven years Quiksilver has been in court fighting over the name “Roxy” with Kymsta Corp. makers of Roxywear. Quik has now announced thatis has “again prevailed” in Federal court. Bob McKnight is happy:
We are pleased with the decision of the court. As a matter of principle and financial responsibility, we are deeply committed to protecting and defending our trademarks and brands. We were always confident in our rights with regard to our longstanding usage and the fame of the ‘Roxy’ trademark. This victory protects our valuable mark, upholds our investment in the ‘Roxy’ brand, and protects consumers from confusion in the marketplace.”
For all the messy details of this on-going lawsuit, follow the jump.
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by The Editors on April 17, 2008
We are so lucky to live on the West Coast. And stories like this are nice reminders of how bad surfers in Florida have it most of the year:
From the minute you step foot on area beaches, the blast of sand whipping around hits your face well before you notice red flag warnings. “It’s amazing, that’s why we stopped and pulled off the road, it’s like we wanted to see what the beach was doing,” says Cindy Collins.
Yeah, that wave looks pretty amazing.
[Link: WPTV.com]
by The Editors on April 16, 2008
The annual SIA/Leisure Trends Group retail audit overview press release was emailed out today. Sadly, they didn’t do much to breakout snowboarding from the rest of the stuff they track, and we couldn’t care less about how many pairs of twin-tip skis were sold or what the Vice President of Descente has to say about anything. So, here are some of the data points that, jumped out at us like a pride of starved snow leopards.
- The “Internet” is now responsible for 16.47 percent of all snow sports sales
- Snowboard sales in specialty shops have fallen by 1% vs 05-06
- Snowboard sales in chain stores fell by 13% in units and 6% in dollars since the 05.06 season
In other words, nothing much to see here. Read the rest after the jump.
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by The Editors on April 16, 2008
Fuel.TV may have been a little slow to the whole online game, but now it seems like they’re hooking up when everyone (which is great). Now they’ve put some of their content up on Next.TV. Unfortunately, Next is still in beta and we don’t have an invites.
NEXT.TV™, the revolutionary new Internet television service which debuted on Hewlett Packard consumer notebooks, today announced the addition of FUEL TV as a NEXT.TV channel partner bringing programming attuned to the lifestyle and culture of skateboarding, snowboarding, surfing, BMX, freestyle motocross, and wakeboarding.
[Link: Earth Times]
by The Editors on April 14, 2008
The surfing community lost one of its most OG members when Parker “Woody” Brown died Wednesday, April 16, 2008 Hale Makua, Kahului, Hawaii. He was 96.
