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.

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 - 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.

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.

Targus USB Hub - Piece of Junk and Piece of Junk Customer Service

A little side posting tieng back to my Generation: WTF ramblings.

Today I bought a Targus Micro USB 2.0 hub that's supposedly Mac compatible.


Well, after calling Targus five times on Monday (was disconnected the first four), I spoke with a nice woman who told me that my hub was not Mac compatible. I explained to her that it says Mac compatible on the box, so why should I think otherwise?


I'm calling Targus out, here and now. What's the deal with this hub? The woman I spoke with on the phone said my request would be escalated and I'd receive a response via email... what I really want is my time and gas money back.

Spy Optic Drops The Apollo

Straight from SIA, Spy is showing their newest goggle for next winter, the Apollo.


The Apollo is the first goggle (ever) to introduce what Spy calls a dual radius lens. Basically, other goggles have cylindrical or spherical shapes. Bigger lenses that give you better vision also make you look like you’ve got a fishbowl on your face.

The blended radius idea on the Apollo combines multiple radius angles (radii?) so you get more peripheral vision than ever before in a smaller package goggle.

I'm not the only guy who thinks this is cool, the heads @ Future Snowboarding are down too.

Nike Drops Snowboard Boots - Really.... Again!

I know I've clowned on the idea of Nike doing boots for snowboarding before, but it looks like they're really happening.

I'm @ SIA now and I'll see if I can get any details, but Liv2Ride and South of North have it pretty much covered.

Rome SDS Draggers Only Jacket

Liv2Ride just picked up some info from the Snob.

Rome dropped their first boot collection this year and for next winter it looks like outerwear is on the horizon.

The Draggers Only jacket has a neat little 3-in-1 thing going, kind of like my Columbia Bugaboo jacket from 8th grade. Unlike it, the Draggers Only isn't in neon (wish there were blur croc pics) and has a hood.


Being a former east coaster, I'm biased towards brands that have their roots there. I love riding Bear Mountain and it's 100s of jibs, but I'd love to see these yo-park rats deal with the 0 degree temps and 'crete conditions of the Mid-Atlantic and Vermont. There's a reason Kass moved to Mammoth and it's not for the chicks (ok, maybe that's part of it).
Pics from Liv2Ride via High Snobiety.

Steve Caballero Gets His Ski Art on With Rossi

This isn't uber-breaking news (check out South of North's post earlier this week), but it's cool, so I'll cover it. Steve Caballero is doing ski art with Rossignol. What? Yeah, but in this day and age, skiing isn't all that bad (doing all I can to highlight how sideways shredding saved the industry, but that's another post on another blog). And besides, Rossi is owned by Quik, so they can't help but see how youth culture drive sports, versus old-man ski culture (I kid... some of my best friends are skiers... ok, two friends.. aquaintances really, but good guys none the less).

Dubbed the 'Seven Artistic Sins' the collection takes some of the most well respected and innovative artists (some, not all, so haters stop hating) and lets them use skis as a canvas. While I'd prefer to see these on a board, skis as a medium for display is definitely something interesting to check out.

The ski itself is dubbed the S7 and it's for those that like to ski where no man has skied before (or at least in the last 20 minutes). From their press release:

Sage Cattabriga-Alosa and Rossignol have designed the ultimate backcountry slash ski. Using twin tip construction combined with a new tricked-out reverse camber, reverse sidecut shape and incorporating sidecut underfoot for navigating on the cat tracks, the S7 is the most revolutionary powder twin tip to hit the backcountry! 100% Backcountry.

Lots of other worthwhile artists are involved, including Andy Howell, whose ski is more park/pipe style:

The S1 is specifically designed to be a very versatile park and pipe ski with solid, all-mountain performance. This ROSSICAP twin is for the jibber for wants to hang in the park all day or to surf the whole mountain with friends. 80% All Mountain / 20% Jib

Ok, that's enough ski talk for the evening. If you're heading to SIA, check them out at the Rossi booth or online when they drop early at www.evogear.com. Nice work Rossi, you're onto something.

Shaun White Collection Dropping at a Target Near You

Well, anything beats Hollister I guess.

Shaun White is dropping a collection @ Target. Sounds similar to what Kohl's is did with Hawk. Not a shocker, since Target has sponsored Shaun for a while now.

I'll be interested to see what it's like and how it compares to the Laird Hamilton / Steve & Barry's line.

Lib Tech NAS - Small Snowboards You Can Ski With

I dig these. I don't hate on skiing and I think it's rad Lib is taking a bite out of the ski industry, since brands like Lib, Burton and whoever helped save it back in the day. Plus, magne-traction is awesome, from what I hear. A little hard to get used to, but awesome.



I'm just wondering if the skis were Lib's idea or something that came out of Quiksilver.

Is Forum Copying eesa? Sweaty snowboarders want to know!

Interesting. I was at Bear Mountain and saw a kid wearing this shirt from Special Blend in a gas station as he was buying tire chains (BTW - what is is with Californians and their insitence in buying 2WD SUV's?)


By interesting, I mean lame. My boy HRocker @ Liv2Ride blogged about not to long ago, which is the originator at stylie layering.

Aren't these guys just a little too similar for their own good? eesa's going into year three now, I think Forum should just stick to making boards and let eesa have layering.

Kid Robot Beach Towels

I must have towels on the brain. First, the South Park Towlie towel. Now this.

Pic courtesy of CtotheJL.

Know what would really get me in the mood? Limited Edition wet suits. Come on Quiksilver, know you have it in you!

Lupe Fiasco's New Track 'Pedal, Coast.. Pedal, Cost"

CtotheJL just dropped info on a Lupe Fiasco bike collab.

Not to much info on the Ride Black Lightening blog, except they made four. I'd like to know more about this bike... is it more than just a BMX with some stickers?

Kick down the info Lupe!

Southpark Towlie Towel

Im watching a South Park rerun right now and totally want one of these.


The South Park store has them for $25.

It'd be great to have, especially if the San Diego beach booze ban ever gets torn down.

Brenter Snowbike C4 - Do people really use these?

Not sure how big these are overseas, but I've never seen one on the east or west coast in the US.

While I am a big fan of alternative methods of snowsliding (I have an original release Burton snowskate that we tool around with in parking lots and post apres happy hour), I just don't see me (or most) wanting to get on these death sleds.

If you want to buy one, check them out here.

Ritual - Shaving Gear For Guys

The Bachelor Guy just dropped some info on Ritual.

I actually own some of this gear and I'm impressed. Their Razor Rinse is probably the better product in the bunch, altough the Nature Calls drops get some laughs in our bathroom.