Localism is lame

http://www.asrtalkingheads.com/2008/03/localism-in-cab.html?cid=108958316#comment-108958316

I have fond memories of chasing kids from Smithtown away from the Taco Bell in Commack, because those were our curbs and if you didn't wax them, you couldn't ride them. And before Vernon Valley was Mountain Creek, if I caught you hitting my little side booter that I spent 30 minutes digging, I'd steal your ankle straps when you locked up your board for lunch.

Wait... I didn't do any of that. That'd be stupid.

I understand the notion of respecting people in the water and I realize how it can be annoying and/or dangerous when inexperienced riders get in the water. However, surfers should understand the idea that they don't own the oceans and didn't build the beaches.

I know this is a very unpopular stance and I'm ok with that. Feel free to disagree and be wrong.

Sony's Crackle Site

Interesting online initiative from Sony. I find Hot Hot to be funnier than Gay Town.

From Crackle: Gaytown: Episode 1

From Crackle: Hot Hot Los Angeles: Episode 2

Skateboarding is good for your health

Good news! Skateboarding is actually a healthy activity.

Check out the latest from ESPN Magazine.

Nike Gives a Cease and Desist to Mike 23

Saw this article on Murketing and I'm pretty bummed. Nike just handed a C&D to the owner of Mike 23.

http://www.murketing.com/journal/?p=1102#comment-6519

Interesting stance for a brand that didn't seem to mind piggy-backing off the guys in Minor Threat. If you don't know what I'm talking about, read it here: http://www.boingboing.net/2005/06/29/minor-threat-vs-nike.html

Outside District Bag

I don't find myself easily swayed to buy something based on a product review, but Outside's Steve Rubin got me with this one.

I ordered the Dakine District Bag in black a few months ago. I needed a bag for client meetings that worked for my many different types of clients. It had to be profesional enough for the corporate guys and cool enough for meetings with "cool guys" that didn't know how incredibly cool I am in advance.

Super light weigh, tons of organizer pockets and internal, separate laptop sleeve area. This is the bag for meetings that you show in front of the suits and the shreds.

Keep in mind though, it's a bag for work only. Not for your dop kit or gym clothes. Laptop, accessories, sunglasses, one-two folders, plane tickets, that's it.

My only gripe is that the laptop sleeve is too short for my MacBook Pro. that is a problem easily fixed, by putting the pro in the folder area and folders in the area the pro goes into.

I back this bag 100 percent. Mac products... that's another stoy.

Image courtesy of Outside.

Zoo York Does Rehab

Big LE product drop from Zoo and Def Jam for the new Ghost Face Killah album.

Only 500 of these shirts and decks will be made available as a promotion for GF's new album.

Rome SDS is on fire

The guys @ Sno Con posted this image of an unnamed Rome shred flexing over a fire pit at the World Quarters.

See kids, you don't have to go big or go first to have fun on snow.
Thanks to Sno Con for the image.


Disclosure: I've done business in the past with Rome and most likely will in the future.

Nixon x Jenna Jameson

Looks like Jenna is rolling with the Nixon crew now.



I won't make any disparaging remarks because Tino Ortiz can wreck me just by thinking about wrecking me. I'm not strong.

Thanks to The Bachelor Guy for hooking me up with this video from Shred or Die.

UGP Brings the Doyle II Shoe to Wake

Do you know Underground Products? UGP has been on the cusp for more than a decade now, making things happen in the BMX and more recently, wake scenes. Plus, they're East Coast based, so I love them.

Here's their new wake skate shoe, the Doyle II.

According to the UGP site, it has a neoprene liner with Velcro pulls to keep everything tight as you're kickflipping the local dock at the lake. Will Velcro help? I have no idea... I can't wake skate, but if I could, I'd do it in these.

Pic courtesy of the UGP.

Crocs Cell Phone Case

The joy of working within many industries is you come across gems such as these:


I wonder if your phone-Crocs can suffer the same fate as Crocs on escalators?

Thanks to SlashPhone for the pics.

Robust Flavor Gets Stupid on Supreme

The guys at Robust Flavor are pretty funny (to me anyway).

No doubt you've seen the Supreme x Kermit decks that have been running around the Web.


In true Generation: WTF style (calling BS where they think it resides) the guys @ UNIV/Robust Flavor have their own take on the collab.

Pretty ballsy to call out Supreme, but I don't think the Robust Flavor guys care about what you or I think of them.

I still prefer the Nike 6.0 Simpsons 6. DOH! collab, but that's just me.


Mad thanks to CtotheJL and Robust Flavor for the images.

Robust Flavor - No More Stink

I'm long overdue in posting some of the shirts I copped @ UNIV, but before I break out my camera and shoot them, I always seemed to get jammed up with something.

Speaking of getting jammed up, nothing's worse than stinking up the bathroom with a foul odor. Until recently you had to light matches and hope the courtesy flush did the trick. As the folks @ UNIV tell us on their Robust Flavor blog, Ritual's Nature Calls drops are the answer.

(Ritual's go-to guy, Flo Diaz)

If you want to grab some Nature Calls, head on over to Ritual's site and buy direct.

Crazy Skateboard Things from Toy Fair

The next skateboards are being shown at Toy Fair and I can't wait to see kids shredding skateparks on these babies.

I couldn't find a caption for this one, so I have no idea what it's supposed to do. Maybe you pump it to go forward?

This one is called Orbitwheel.

Did I say say shredding? I meant falling all over the place and making me skate worse than I do, if that were possible.

Thanks to Core 77 for making people think this is a good idea (and the images).

Nike Makes Your Flash Drive Box Fresh

Burton had these out last year (in snowboard form) and now sneaker-heads in offices everywhere can pimp out their USB ports with the Nike version.


This isn't my thing, but I give them credit for the detail, especially the box.

Thanks to Dream Team Clothing for the image.

Chris Miller Interview on Robust Flavor

Robust Flavor just dropped an interview with Chris Miller.

It's a little known fact that the French use the word "Le Miller" to mean "legend who still kills it." True story, just ask someone who is from France and they'll back it.


Head over to the Robust Flavor site to check it out.

Quik Launches Collection for Women With Long-Ass Press Release and You Tube Video

Looks like Roxy is all growns up.

First, I applaud Quiksilver for trying to expand in this direction. At the same time... damn, this is a large press release and the three* minute video of them building out the space isn't exactly exciting either. A little long for the a.d.d. generation, no?


This should be cool if it's followed up on. What I'd love to see is some sort of live camera of the space, like Surfline has for waves or some skateparks do. Show me what you got Quik!

Quick Release Bike Axles May Disappear

This is kind of unnerving. It looks as if some clueless politicians in New Jersey are trying to ban quick release axles, because of some issues with bikes being sold in Wal-Mart.

What'd be great is if bike companies such as Schwinn stopped selling to big-box stores and started supporting the small bike shops again.

http://www.sportsonesource.com/news/spec/spec_article.asp?section=5&Prod=2&id=22324

Quick-release Axle Under Attack in N.J.
SportsOneSource Media Posted: 2/29/2008

Following an initial contribution of $7500 last summer, the board of directors for the National Bicycle Dealers Association Board has voted to spend another $7500 to defend the widely used quick-release axle.

The latest contribution will be matched by the supplier side of the industry, NBDA Executive Director Fred Clements said in the association's Friday newsletter.

The SBDA is fighting against a ban on quick-release axles proposed in the New Jersey legislature. While the law, if passed, would affect only New Jersey, it might set a national trend, making the fight a national issue. The bill exempts axles that also have a “secondary safety device,” but fork tips apparently do not qualify for the exemption and there is currently no other technology that would.

The proposed law was a response to injuries to children riding Wal-Mart bikes with quick-release wheels, Clements said in the NBDA newsletter. But with the exception of some high-end BMX bikes, the kids bikes sold by independent dealers do not have quick-release axles anyway. The New Jersey bill as written would ban quick-releases on all bikes, adult as well as juvenile. Funds contributed by the NBDA and the Bicycle Products Suppliers Association are to be used to hire a lobbyist to make the case against the bill.

Pro Surfer Signature Debit Cards

This is pretty smart marketing by the Space Coast Credit Union.

Am I the only person who didn't know CJ Hobgood and Lisa Anderson had debit cards with their images on them too?

Check out the release on Surfer's Village here.

Non-Lethal Ray Gun From the US Government

Props to the guys over at The Rundown newsletter for clueing me into this.



I'm kind of a fan, if it'll mean less accidental fatalities. Of course, like anything else, in the wrong hands it'd be horrible.

Nike 6.0 Wakeboard Shoes?

Not that I know of, but Nike 6.0 is doing a pretty cool wake boat with Mastercraft. Actually its not just with MasterCraft, its with $irlin and the Texas Ski Ranch too. Four-way collab.... wow.

Whatever, it's a cool boat. Looks very Navy Seals to me. Terrorize lakeside communities near you now.

Pic courtesy of HypeBeast.

Hayes Brothers - Big Changes

I love East Coast brands.

Hayes Brothers is like a micro-brew of snowboards, even more so than Never Summer and Rome SDS, which while small, have been quite successful (while staying independent).

Some of my favorite boards in the line, graphically and construction-wise, are the Bandito and Vigilante. Good shred sticks that look good and can shred the whole mountain. Just what you'd expect from guys riding concrete on the EC.


On a side note, Hayes Bros. has just been acquired too, bt Ault Glazer & Co. This is good news, not bad. They'll have additional resources and hopefully be able to take this gem of a brand a little further.

Press release below:
http://www.sportsonesource.com/news/spec/spec_article.asp?section=8&Prod=2&id=22289

Hayes Brothers Snowboard Acquired
SportsOneSource Media Posted: 2/26/2008

The Hayes Brothers Snowboard Company has been acquired by Ault Glazer & Co., Inc., a holding company that holds minority stakes in a variety of businesses.

Co-founder Stephen Hayes, will remain at the helm as the Vermont company embarks on their second decade in the snowboard industry.

“This is an incredibly exciting time for Hayes Brothers and we expect this to be the year Hayes Brothers takes it to the next level,” Hayes said.

Anthony Bianco, a one time member of the World Cup Snowboarding team and Managing Director of Berlin Cameron, echoed Hayes’ feelings.

“He further commented, "It's fitting that on the eve of their ten year anniversary in an increasingly competitive market, Steve was able to put this deal together," Bianco said. "Based on the media buy and the sharp increase in exposure to a demographic starved for authenticity, this is definitely the year Hayes Brothers punches a hole through all the bogus brands out there and reminds the world that snowboarding is a sport born of first runs of the day.”

“Hayes Snowboard fits our target demographic and we are very bullish about this firm’s potential for growth in a very competitive market,” said Ault Glazer & Co.’s President, Jim Hodgins. “We welcome Hayes into our family of companies.”

Ault Glazer & Co., Inc. is a diversified holding company that maintains stakes in various companies through its minority interests and wholly owned subsidiaries, and is involved in merchant banking, corporate lending, shareholder activism, real estate, healthcare, energy, consumer products & services, insurance and media.

As previously announced on Dec. 13, 2007, Remington-Hall Capital Corp. changed its name to Ault Glazer & Co., Inc., and is currently waiting to be assigned a new symbol from NASDAQ Market Operations to reflect the name change.

Nike SB Zoom Tre A.D.

Nike's SB program is known for the Dunk, but what Nike could probably help the skate world with is making shoes that actually work better for skating. Enter the Nike SB Zoom Tre A.D.




The original versions of this shoe from a few years ago were ugly as sin, but I knew a few tranny guys in NYC that loved skating ramps in them. These look a little better and I'm sure they perform above a lot of what else is out there.

Pics courtesy of SouthoftheNorth.