The Chris Cole and Mike V. match was interesting because it was the first match of them all and the two riders are complete opposites. Chris Cole was the obvious favorite for the win by pretty much almost everyone out there, but Mike V. did have a good point when he stated, “Since when does skateboarding have rules?”. I totally feel that holds truth in the skateboarding world. There should be NO rules at all on how you skateboard but when it comes to a game of SKATE, I guess you really have to put limits to what can be done otherwise things would get to complex.

Then there was the Jamie Thomas and Dennis Busenitz match. Jamie held his ground for a good while but Dennis was just on fire that day. You could tell the dude had been prepping for this match against one of skateboarding’s greats. Even though Jamie lost, he did super good and I give the man props for being able to still participate in a match like that when heaven knows how busy he is. The dude runs an entire skateboarding distribution and still finds the time to practice some flatground trickery for a match against “The Flash” of skateboarding. Now that’s tough!

The matches were good and next up is Heath Kirchart vs. Lizard King which will seriously be one of the most unpredictable matches ever assembled. Heaths got some flat skills but Lizard has some tricks up his sleeve that I am sure we will be surprised upon viewing. Its going to only get better and already this 2nd round of Skate battles is turning out to be even more amazing than the first!

If a rose by any other name is still a rose, an ASP World Tour stop in Brazil is still…

The Hang Loose Santa Catarina Pro (the same event usually held each November as a precursor to the Pipeline Masters) already has it’s first two rounds in the books. To avoid a repeat of last year’s debacle, the ASP moved the Hang Loose Pro to June in order to ensure the attendance of the top talent on tour, the surfers that people actually care about seeing surf. After last year’s event saw 13 out of the ASP’s Top 44 surfers fail to show due to a remarkable array of injuries and illnesses, all that was left was another beach-break championship with 20 of the 48 competitors hailing from the host country. The thinking was that with a world title still very much up for grabs, anyone remotely in contention will do their best to avoid the unfortunate happenings that kept so many from making the trip to Florianopolis in ‘08. It worked, everyone showed up and the ‘Loose Pro has itself a full line-up of some of the world’s best surfers. There’s just one problem though- It’s still Brazil.

They call it the “Dream Tour”, yet I’m a bit curious to know whose dreams the ASP is modeling this thing after. After sitting through a few moments of the ‘Loose Pro webcast, it was time to click away and wait for J-Bay. Nothing more to see here.

Wanna start a World Tour??? Here’s your model-

Despite what some might say, there’s room in this world for a competitive surfing tour. Watching the surfers at the top of the game pushing themselves and each other live from the best waves throughout the world isn’t just entertaining, it also puts the ‘what’s possible’ element on display for all to see. There needs to be standards though, uncompromised standards. The answer for what’s ailing the ASP World Tour won’t be found in futuristic wave pools, it won’t be found in Brazil, it will be found in simplicity.

Fewer surfers, better waves, no Brazil.

Jereme Rogers single-handedly quit skateboarding to pursue a rap career. Which we all totally saw coming but had no idea he would just completely say he was over skateboarding. The dude did not even mention that he’d still be skateboarding for fun or anything even remotely close. It truly sounds like he is over it. He even threw a party celebrating his exit from the skateboarding world. Jereme had an incredibly long career ahead of him and was still relatively young. But I guess if your hearts not in something, then the passion is gone and you might as well pursue what you truly want. Best wishes to him in the rap game I am sure he’s already made some good connects with big names in the industry.

On the other side of the retirement table is skateboarding legend Danny Gonzalez. Now many wouldn’t see him as a legend, but to me he is. He was one of the few skateboarders that brought amazing tech and innovation to the industry. Things get boring after a while yet Danny never seized to amaze me. He always had some new shit he was working on and his video parts were always the ones getting frequent mileage on the rewind button. According to Danny and his official press release, his leg injury is the reason he’s quitting professional skateboarding. I am super bummed to hear this and it makes me not want to believe that he can’t skate. Look at Danny Way, the dude is a half man, half artificial body part droid from all the injuries and yet he is still ripping. I know Danny Gonzalez still has a lot of good skateboarding in him. And knowing Danny, I would think he would still try to skateboard anyways. I wish him the best and a speedy recovery.

The main focus of the event was to showcase the participating skate shops which included ZJ’s Boardinghouse, Shelter, Liberty Boardshop, Good Times, Satellite, Transport, and 9 Star to name a few. Each shop was given a designated space to design in a way which best represented the vibe and energy of their store. While some shops displayed live painting, others exhibited a more technical side to art through portraits, photographs and paintings.

Not only was the art phenomenal, but the event was further highlighted by four live performances, multiple DJ’s throughout the night, a plethora of beer and wine, and not to be forgotten, the outdoor taco stand. Vesuvia Sonic, drum-duo Ninja Academy, female recording artist Brevi, and a poetry performance by skate legend Brian Lotti all had their turn under the spotlight and wowed the crowd with their performances.

All in all, the event was a huge success – bringing together great people, good vibes, and creative energy, to produce a beautiful event.

Check out the photo gallery from this event.

Did anything prepare us for him moving to K-Swiss though? First, Koston to Nike and now, Lutzka to K-Swiss. You would have thought he made the bounce to another, already skateboard shoe based company. But he pulled a complete 360 on everyone and actually seems to be spearheading the entire skate shoe program itself over at K-Swiss. Which could possibly mean he is making even more bank than Koston is. WOW!

Greg Lutzka by now probably owns a mansion somewhere in the Hollywood Hills. The dude can market himself like crazy and pulls off insane deals like these. Once again, you can hate all you want but truth be told if you had the offers these dudes were getting you would jump on the bandwagon as well. They even gave him his own office and a pro shoe right off the bat. Props to Lutzka and if anything he will make the shoes look a hell of a lot better, because to begin with the K-Swiss kicks were not that great looking at all. Peep the video for a look into the headquarters and what Lutzka has in store for the future with his new deal.

#1 question. So why surfboards? Why now?

For me it’s doesn’t really matter that it’s 2009. It’s really been about the process. I started to make these boards like 5 years ago, experimenting with removing mass and redistributing volume. The outline or shape wasn’t as important to me as reducing volume. I never did the traditional process of drawing the outline and instead said this is what I want to do. The outline grew from the experimentation. This board is really like 4 boards in one board, offering remixed functionality and remixed experience. I’m just putting these pieces together.

So your website says that the Meyerhoffer offers “shortboard elements to longboard design.” Care to explain?

A lot of people talk about parabolic rails. It’s not exactly correct. That idea comes from skiing and snowboarding. There, you need that negative cut. People are also experimenting with that negative cut for surfboards. I’ve moved up the cut very far on these boards to where you don’t need it. So now we’re talking more about positive cut. So it’s not a parabolic cut surfboard.

In reality, you turn the board when you stand on the back of the board, from a positive outline. The only way you can get that same effect is from removing mass. Think of a shortboard outline. It’s really what you have (that decreased mass compared to a longboard) that’s what makes it turn better. You can have a shortboard with straighter or rounder sides. The more rounder the sides the more it turns. That’s the basic shortboard aspect.

Another factor is swing weight. We wanted to decrease weight in areas where you turn a long board, which is up front and completely remove the weight where you don’t need it (in the middle). What we’ve created is a board that still noserides, just like any longboard. But, the unusable (middle) area isn’t there so when you drop in, you can drop into steeper waves. You turn on the curve, farther back, more like a shortboard.

Lastly, we shaped the bottom, creating a high performance profile way in the back, using a deep double concave with a tri-fin setup. It’s really fast, makes it through sections that you normally don’t make on a longboard. The tail is there to create drive and compensate for the really long nose so it is more drawn out to compensate proportionally. Think like a race car, the bigger wings, redistributing the functionality over the surface.

Thomas, you sorta lost me there, but it sounds really rad, and I started thinking about surfing one of your boards. I’m not really a longboarder, but the concept is very intriguing. But how big are we talking? How steep? The waves?

We have pictures from Bells Beach with 8 to 10 foot waves plus. It’s pretty awesome. The boards are designed for the normal surfer, who realistically, gets into steep, beach break waves. With that in mind, it works so much better than a normal longboard. It gives you more ability to turn the board quickly, to avoid the tragic nosedive in the beachbreak. It’s really fun. The 7’6” you can surf with a bunch of shortboarders… since it’s longer, you can paddle in early… sit at the edge and get a few more waves. And a bit further back, you can grab the big floaters as the wave grips the tail with long rails. I can’t say it enough it’s a really fun board. We’ve had a lot of shortboarders try it. And they have a ton of fun. Basically we have a 7’6” that turns like a 6’8” and 6’6”.

Whoa. Sounds like this is some sorta Holy Grail or at least a step-up for the average surfer. Are we talking Tri-fin? Single-fin?

We launched the tri-fin first. I have some single-fins lying around. But at the end of the day, the tri-fin goes well with beach and point breaks that most surfers experience.

So you’ve been quoted as saying that the Meyerhoffer surfboards are for the Recreational surfer. The Performance surfer. Not a Kelly Slater or Mick Fanning.

For most surfers, the great mass that surf have to deal with everyday conditions. They want to get the most out of the water. The parabolic not the singularity, but it’s like the new type of skis which allow you to go down in size and hit more types of slopes, giving way to new way of freestyle skiing. This allows everyone, except pro surfers, to surf more. More time on the wave equals more experiences and having more fun! Something will grow out of that, a nice time to spend in the water. The board works for the beginner for sure, but it’s really geared to the intermediate to someone who goes all the time. We had a bunch of people demo it (30 or so). They were a mix of people from beginners to old crusty dudes, trying it. We had Jenn Smith try it, and she loved it (current longboard champ). Unlike expectations, it’s a lot easier. People expect some learning curve, but no, you just go. As you get more into the board, step back, it accelerates more, gets faster, shifts into second gear so to speak. Hopefully in the end, people get more surf out of it.

Meyerhoffer surfboards will be distributed by Global Surf Industries. How did you link up with Mark Kelly? And why GSI?

Someone recommended that we meet up. I connected well with him: his values, his way of thinking. GSI is completely valuable to the world of surfing with the right way to think about surfing. Very few people realize that they support a lot of local competitions, Surfrider Foundation, etc. They want people just to go out and enjoy and surf.

For the aspiring designers, tell us a bit about your background. It appears that design is critical to the success of any product now more than ever. The products that you’ve designed certainly showcase the importance of design.

I don’t really think about it that way. There’s so much useless design going on. The same old shit. I believe that there’s NO need to design anything if it doesn’t add anything of value. There are too many things out there that are just a marketing exercise to sell more units. We need fundamental change and design that makes people feel a truly different experience. Experiencing a new thing is SO valuable, reconnecting and learning something new. For me, those projects are what I’m really interested in versus making another piece for the landfill.

Your client list reads like a who’s who of action sports. Tell us about some of those projects.

I worked with Smith and basically wanted to solve the problem of sticking a pair of goggles around a motocross helmet for skiers and snowboarders. I had to think about what was a good way to get the strap around the outside of the helmet. We used the Outrigger to make sure the strap stayed in the right place. There are these things that come around every now and then where you can make a fundamental change. This was the same with the Flow step-in binding. We completely re-engineered and re-designed to something that worked. People can come up with a fairly good idea, but if it’s not executed to 110% it will fail. You also need to work on an emotional level, really experience it. You gotta get people to say “Ah this is fucking good.” Once they really connect to it, they’ll go talk about it to their friends and so on.

We take it for granted that a product has to work. Then it’s how you evolve the product around the emotional aspects. It’s more intuitive and you can’t define it, but it’s about creating a better experience. It’s the same thing in the sporting industry. Some people understand it, apply it and have great companies. Then there are other people that just follow. It’s the lost rabbit so to speak, “Oh this is selling good. We need to do the same.” My goal is to work with people who are leading not following.

So, what’s next? I’m sure there are a lot of skeptics.

It’s amazing to see people who are stoked. Anyone who tries the board just loves it. We get a lot of emails, and the boards are already sold out. One guy in FL is getting rid of all his boards and only going with Meyerhoffers. He took a picture of his 30 boards in his garden. He even let his best friend try the Meyerhoffer at Nationals and came in second. It’s nice to see how open people are to trying the boards. People are getting stoked. And really enjoying the board. At the end of the day, people are after the experience. And we just want to help that.

You talk about Nature as a design element. What’s that all about?

Nature for me… It functions so well. Nature is so much better than what we are trying to do. Animals, trees, leaves, all sort of things around us. To me, it’s been really interesting with the board and the natural sculptural proportions. For example the tail grew out of the board: the transition of shapes, flowing in the water and so forth. The board is very sculptural in the water. It looks more at ease in the water like it just wants to be there. When you surf it, it sits well with the wave.

Current surfing as portrayed by the media is sort of an anomaly, growing out of the aggression. The frustration of surfers is a large part of it. They’re never going to be as good as Slater. It’s the same thing over and over again: hack, cut, hack. You’re not going with the wave. But then you take someone like Slater, his way of hacking is very flowing, intuitive and graceful, such beautiful execution. We’re just trying to make the experience easier and better for the average surfer.

These boards certainly are unique and need to be seen and surfed to be experienced. Meyerhoffer surfboards are doing demos all across the country. Check your local shop or at http://www.surfindustries.com/surfboards/modern_meyerhoffer.php for more information.

Discover how to both engage with and monitor your brand across all social platforms.

“Businesses Are Taking Tentative Steps Toward Online Networking” - New York Times – June 3rd 2009

“Businesses have a 12-month window to figure out online social networking. “I hate to say it, but if they don’t, they’ll get left in the dust…It’s here to stay.”

SOLUTION:
-Increase sales both on and offline
-Decrease marketing and ad spend

HOW (we do it):
-Monitor and Track social media campaigns with comprehensive dashboard of online impact and ROI
-Create compelling platform, messaging and content
-Connect directly with key influencers and target audience

WHAT (this means for your brand):
-Consumers are directly engaged with your brand experience
-Aggregated high level focus group to enhance product development

Doors open at 6:30pm

Panel discussion will begin at 7:00pm

Light snacks and refreshments will be provided.

Click here to register and for more information.

During the last two decades, activities such as skateboarding, BMX and surfing have continued to grow in both popularity and exposure. Recent statistics cite that participants in action sports represent well more than 15 million people, with spending extending into the double-digit billions. The X Games has showcased action sports on a global level since 1995, giving action sports athletes and brands a broader level of media exposure than ever before.

“What we’ve witnessed first hand with the X Games is how broad of an appeal action sports have, beyond the core participant,” said Chris Stiepock, vice president and general manager for the X Games. “The excitement surrounding action sports transcends the active participants and extends to a steadily growing group of fans. Savvy marketers are realizing that if you engage the influencers in this genre first, their efforts can have a strong impact.”

As the original action sports and youth marketing networking organization, group Y is ideally suited to be producing this conference. Founded in 2006 to foster relationships within the action sports community, group Y boasts the most authentic and connected membership base of any networking group in action sports. In the past, group Y has hosted many events throughout the Southern California region, featuring leaders from the top echelon of action sports and youth focused companies, including Quiksilver, Burton, Oakley, FUEL TV, Vans and MySpace.

For brands in action sports, increased media exposure has led to a greater need for strategic marketing initiatives ranging from grassroots programs to integrated social media executions. As part of the conference’s activities, there will be panel discussions and presentations on best practices for merchandising brands, increasing athlete visibility across different channels and maintaining relevance with future participants.

“As an industry, the action sports world tends to be unique in its communal nature. It’s not far from rare for competitors to not only socialize at events, but to also be friends as well,” commented Liz Randall, group Y’s CEO and co-founder. “What group Y events provide are ways to harness this community in a way to afford opportunities for members to connect in a low key environment and discuss issues and trends we’re seeing as a whole.”

The Action Sports Conference is the first group Y event to proactively invite representatives from outside of the endemic action sports community to participate. By inviting mainstream brands to partake in the discussions, group Y hopes to help non-endemic marketers better connect with the action sports community through appropriate partnership proposals and more authentic campaigns.

“The action sports participant tends to be pretty savvy and quick to judge when being targeted by the non-endemics. Unfortunately, the majority of the programs we’re seeing that target this demographic wind up alienating them instead,” commented Mark Sperling, co-founder and President of group Y. “It takes more than putting a snowboard in an ad to target someone who considers themselves a snowboarder. Through this conference, we’re hoping to give some brands a deeper look into one facet of action sports and connect them with some key influencers to help them develop more authentic programs for the future.”

As little nuances in execution can quickly turn a campaign from authentic to awful in the eyes of action sports participants, a limited number of VIP education packages will be made available. These packages will include a behind the scenes tour of the X Games as well as a guided, one-on-one experience where participants are able to ask questions, interact with brand representatives and receive insights surrounding the distinctions of targeting an influential demographic.

group Y’s Action Sports Conference will be held in the Stadium Club of The Home Depot Center, an exclusive location that will overlook many of the events taking place during day one of X Games. Maximum capacity for the event will be 200 attendees with a participatory price of $195 for a basic conference package, with enhanced packages also available.

X Games 15 will be held July 30 - August 2, 2009, and be covered live on ESPN’s family of networks, including ABC, as well as across ESPN’s digital media assets. The event will feature athletes from across the globe competing for medals and prize money in Skateboarding, Moto X, BMX and Rally Car Racing.

Additional support for the Action Sports Conference is being provided by FUEL TV, Propaganda Headquarters and BBPR.

More details and information on the Action Sports Conference can be found online at www.actionsportsconference.com.

ABOUT ESPN’s X GAMES FRANCHISE
ESPN, The Worldwide Leader in Action Sports, first developed its X Games franchise in 1995. Part of ESPN Original Entertainment, X Games, Winter X Games and All Access are just some of the original action sports programming currently shown on ESPN and ESPN2. In addition to the two U.S.-based events, ESPN has held X Games competitions and demonstration events around the world including Dubai, Thailand, Brazil, Mexico, China, Korea, Malaysia and Spain. The global franchise has also expanded its reach to ESPN.com/action sports, the definitive site for action sports fans, and to consumer products such as X Games bikes, protective gear, skateboards and DVDs.

About group Y
group Y is the original collective of professionals focused on Action Sports, Youth Marketing and Entertainment. Based in Southern California with a growing national reach, group Y boasts an active membership of the best and brightest these industries have to offer. Sharing insights from key decision makers at key brands, past speakers have included experts from companies such as Quiksilver, Burton, Oakley, MySpace, and ESPN. Through our events, outreach and on-line presence, group Y takes the work out of strategic networking and strengthens our entire industry in the process. Please visit us at www.groupYnetwork.com.

The truth is at the end of the day, no matter what Koston decided to do he chose what he felt would be the most beneficial for him in this one-life he has here on earth. He’s still an amazing skateboarder no matter where he ended up. If anything, I would say Koston’s a smart man. I mean, to begin with he is one of the older dudes still throwing down. He has put so much effort and memories into the skateboarding industry that he deserves something big like this. And should we even question a pro shoe coming out? I bet there is already one complete and ready to ship as we speak.

Koston said it himself that when it came to shoe design, a lot of his previous kicks were modeled after Nike shoes. I am sure Koston will probably have the better looking Pro Nike shoe of them all.

I swear, on a single day I was kicked out of 8 different skateboarding spots. And I am sure that’s a small number of times compared to what others go through. But seriously, it gets so frustrating when you travel to skateboard new terrain and you cant even session an empty parking lot.

On one given situation, I opened my car door pulled out my skateboard and was beeped at and kicked out by a rent-a-cop on a segway. The dude looked straight out of the movie “Mall Cop” it was ridiculous. I also had to pull the old “look around trick” in which even though I’ve been kicked out, I stay ’til the dude leaves and commence to get in try after try all while watching my back every 3 seconds, which can get even more frustrating and make you loose focus on whatever your trying. Plus, the phrase “why don’t you go skate the skatepark”, popped out of half of everyone’s mouth kicking us out.

Skateparks are great and all but they can get tiring quick and there is nothing like the feeling you get skateboarding raw street spots.