Zumiez, Inc. shares are down today after a Piper Jaffray downgraded their rating from “outperform” to “market perform.”
Shares of Zumiez (nasdaq: ZUMZ – news – people ) declined $1.40, or 2.9 percent, to $46.49 in premarket trading. A Piper Jaffray (nyse: PJC – news – people ) analyst cut the stock’s rating to “Market Perform” from “Outperform,” saying shares are fairly valued.
This is in spite of the fact that Zumiez reported higher than expected profits and sales in the second quarter. Zumiez stock is up 96 percent in the past 52 weeks. Not bad if you’re in it.
There’s really nothing more to say about this than, “That’s sad.” A 15-year-old skateboarder was killed August 22 when he fell while being towed by a vehicle and was run over.
Police have not released the names of either the 15-year-old victim or the 16-year-old driver. The accident took place in an elementary school parking lot. The skateboarder was taken by helicopter to a hospital in critical condition, police said. He later died.
From the celebrity blog What Would Tyler Durden Do comes these wonderful photos of Jennifer Aniston on vacation with the Arquettes in Hawaii. Here what they had to say:
These pictures, showing Jennifer Aniston on vacation yesterday in Hawaii with Courtney Cox and David Arquette, are boring, but at least no one is electrocuting dogs. I don’t get what she’s even doing. It looks like it has disaster written all over it, like the odds of falling in are the previously uninvented 140 percent. I guess I’m sort of impressed. I couldn’t do this any more than I could run down some rolling barrels on stilts.
She does look pretty comfortable with that paddle in her hands. Dry even. And we know it’s not exactly easy.
Investors Business Daily is big on Zumiez the day before they announce their quarterly earnings:
But when Zumiez reports fiscal 2007 second-quarter results Wednesday, watchers expect it to shine. July’s strong same-store sales followed a 13.7% gain in June’s same-store sales and an 11.2% rise in May. Total July sales were up 42.4% from the prior year. June’s rose 48.8%, and May’s gained 51.6%
Dorian Paskowitz the 86-year-old patriarch of the surfing Paskowitz clan has donated 12 surfboards to a small surfing community in Israel’s Gaza Strip.
He said he was inspired after reading a story about two Gaza surfers who could not enjoy the wild waves off the coastal strip because they had only one board to share between them. . . So I said to my son, ‘Come, we’ll go to Israel and get them some boards,'” Paskowitz told AP Television News. . . . He described his mission as a “mitzvah,” Hebrew for a “good deed.”
While Paskowitz hoped to surf with the Palestinian surfers, security concerns prohibited him for getting in the water.
Burton has planted it’s first major flag in the retain landscape of Southern California as a further reminder that Jake is coming after the action sports industry with all guns blazing.
“Bringing our snow, surf and skate brands under one roof is challenging, but at the same time it feels right,” says Jake Burton, Founder and Chairman of Burton Snowboards. “Our family of brands have different messages, but their roots are all connected through the spirit of boardsports. Our intention is to capture that spirit and invite riders, skaters and surfers to come experience it.”
And we agree. No one will ever handle their brands better than they do. Apple is a prime example. Follow the link for the full release.
Garrett McNamara and Kealii Mamala went to Alaska to surf the waves that are created when huge chunks of glaciers fall off into the ocean. It’s a little like nature’s own wavepool, however, some of the waves they rode were reportedly up to 25 feet tall. Here’s some video.
There is nothing sadder than children dying and when two Southern California pre-teens died in one week while riding their skateboards it’s a stong reminder to wear protective gear:
In Moreno Valley, 12-year-old Sean Mikhail died Aug. 11 when he fell off his skateboard and hit his head on the pavement. He was not wearing a helmet. . . . In Menifee, Marlena Mattfeld, 11, of Long Beach, died Monday, three days after she lost control and slid beneath a moving motor home at Hanover Lane and Holland Road, near her grandmother’s home.
While helmet’s can’t save skateboarders from getting run over by motorhomes they can be helpful when rolling concrete. And, in California. . . it’s the law.
Lately there has been a lot of talk about skateboarding and the Olympics. The most powerful sporting organization in the world is having trouble with “the kids” and they think it might be time to include skateboarding in the official program. Brian Hendrickson of The Columbian newspaper in Clark County, Washington discussed this issue of 2007 X Games Big Air Gold Medalist Bob Burnquist.
“I’d rather it not happen than happen the wrong way,” Burnquist said Thursday after finishing his preliminary run on the vert ramp at the AST Dew Tour in the Rose Garden. “They need us more than we need them. And that’s OK. But we need to figure this out.”
Hendrickson claims the TV ratings for the Olympics have been sliding lately and that “skating’s popularity has erupted.” We know at least one writer who hasn’t check the X Games or AST Dew Tour ratings in a while.
