Latest Update: January 6, 2005

From The Sacklunch Boards
One week to turn over a new leaf. To get a new start. To get off on the right foot. To stop using clichés. Start now on the Sack Boards.

Slater Outside
You've probably already seen Kelly Slater on the cover of Outside Magazine. And, if you didn't bother to buy the mag, here's the story free of charge. No wonder newsstand sales are diving.

Haakonsen's Boycott Still Getting Ink
In 1998 Terje Haakonsen boycotted the Olympics because he felt they were corrupt and reporters are still writing about it. Why? Who knows.

Shapers Still Complaining
Grubby's shut-down is still great copy for people wanting an outside-in view of the surf industry. Mandala Custom Shapes' Manuel Caro is still in business but he's "just losing money."
- Walker Foam Update

Dunkin' Donuts and Snowboarding
US Snowboarding has just announced that Dunkin' Donuts ice coffee is their new official "pick-me-up" drink. Boardercross darling Lindsey Jacobellis will be the spokesperson. Odd that they didn't pick up an official "oily-fatty-sugar snack" sponsorship while they were at it.

Timmy Turner Update
Click the header for the latest update as filmmaker Timmy Turner continues to battle a life-threatening Methicillin resistant staphylococcus infection. Our prayers are with Timmy and his family.

Shark Punching at Tillamook
Oregon surfer Brian Anderson, 36, felt a tug on his leg while surfing Tillamook Head, just south of Seaside. "I saw the nose of it and I just punched it." Then the 10 foot great white let him go.
- In The Line Up Podcast with Brian Anderson

Birk, Sanders & Dante, Dude
Sandow Birk and Marcus Sanders have published a third Dante book, Paradiso. Illustrated by Birk, written by Sanders, and set in NYC. We don't know enough about the Divine Comedy to even comment.

Snowboarding's 900?
The New York Times' Lee Jenkins loves the 1080. In fact, he's written a paen to the trick. Jenkins fails to mention that if this trend continues halfpipe snowboarding will look as boring as aerial skiing.

Acccused Killer Home for Christmas
A Vancouver, B.C. judge released Lee Matasi's accused killer Dennis White on bail and house arrest after he posted bond. Matasi's mother Susan Jessop (and the rest of us) are extremely bummed.

Lost Snowboard Faces Fine, Prison
When John Ryan got lost at Colorado's Keystone Resort he didn't know he'd spend three days in the forest or that his rescuers would charge him for the rescue and for carrying a concealed weapon. Or was he even lost at all?
- Missing snowboarder carrying pistol

You're A Mean One Mr. Clark
Newport Beach, CA's Frog House surf shop has a nice holiday message up on their PHC-side sign: "Grubby Clark: The Grinch Who Stole Christmas Now Playing."

Snowboarder Dies While Surfing
Former pro snowboarder Michael Meyers, 36, died December 23, 2005, while surfing Carlsbad State Beach. Our thoughts are with his family and friends.
- Medical examiner rules death from seizure
- Drowned surfer was no novice
- SD Union Tribune Story

The Nixon Exit Strategy
Chad DiNenna always said, "If we can make all our friends really rich, we'll think about selling." It looks like that time has come as Billabong pays $54.6 million for Nixon Inc. Andy Laats and Chad have done an amazing job with their brand. Congrats.
- Nixon Official Press Release
- Billbong to buy Nixon (Reuters)
- Billabong buys watch business

Burton Opens New Women's Store
It's next door to Showcase Snowboards in Whistler Village, BC and it's for women only. The shop is a partnership between Burton and Intrawest: the same company that has reccently opened five Billabong stores in Colorado and Utah.

Intrawest On A New Jersey Bender
When local bars and restaurants refused to sell their liquor licenses to Intrawest for their new Village at Mountain Creek, the company hired a lobbying firm to push a bill through New Jersey legislature that could give them 12 "special permits" to sell alcohol. They're a stream-roller baby, gonna roll all over you.
- Intrawest completes sale of Mammoth Mountain
- Strike Shuts Down Intrawest's Mont. Tremblant

Sandboarding Championship?
Dubai, home of the largest indoor ski resort and the X Games Dubai is now going to host a competition for "one of the world’s fastest growing extreme sports. . . Tosh Tenge of the US heads the star-studded line up for the event." Star studded, indeed.

Super Saturday Comp Wrap-Up
December 17, 2005 was a big day in action sports with Pipeline finals in Hawaii and the second Olympic halfpipe qualifier in Breckenridge. Here's how it went down.
Andy Irons 3-3-3 at Pipeline
Shaun White Two for Two at Breck
Gretchen Bleiler Wins at Breck

Quik Up To $1.78 Billion
Bob McKnight summed it up well: "We are confident that our acquisition of Rossignol is transforming Quiksilver from a dominant player in the global action sports market into the world's leading outdoor sports lifestyle company." Oh, and net income is up over the $100 million mark.

Slater/Gisele Make Top 10 List
When CBS/Sportsline did its top ten list of athlete-celebrity relationships, Kelly Slater and Gisele Bundchen ranked number 10.

Northshore Newsflash
Yeah, yeah, we know. . . Giselle has arrived, but if you want to get the inside line on the North Shore 2005 season, check out Surfingthemag.com's wrap up of the last few weeks.
- The week of 11/27/05

Top Moments in Action Sports
The Venice Paper talked to its boardsports community to get a list of the biggest stories of 2005. They quoted Tony Alva, ZJ's Todd Roberts, Quik's Erik Joule, Skip Engblom, and others. What a grea idea.

White, Teter Win In Breck #1
Shaun White and Hannah Teter took top honors in the first Olympic halfpipe qualifier in Breckenridge on December 14, 2005. Looks like they're on track for Torino.

Time Inc. They Are A Changin'
Time Inc., the parent corp of TransWorld Media, cut 105 workers December 13, 2005. And the market liked the idea: Time Inc's stock closed up 10 cents.
- The press release

Bra Boys Promoting Peace
While racial rioting continues near Sydney's southern beaches, Jai Abberton says the Bra Boys have "never been involved in any of this racial tension." Regarding the rioting Koby Abberton said, "I was upset being Australian that day."
- Surf rioting in Australia
- Sydney's Surf gang summit
- Bid for Sydney peace deal
- NSW declares war on rioters

Bruce Willis Playstation Bandtogether
Tony Hawk, Sal Masekela, Alexis Waite, Tim O'Conner, Chad Muska, and a host of Hollywood celebs battled each other on Playstations and raised $100,000 for charity on December 10, 2005. Apparently in Hollywood "fund raiser" means "party."

Snowboarders Getting Paid
The Washingtom Post covers snowboarding's The Collection and finds that riders like Ross Powers, Kelly Clark, and Danny Kass are making way too much money to be on the US Snowboad Team, that is until there's even more money to be made a the Olympics.

Pattie Hoffman Remembers
She won the women's world skateboarding championship when she was 15, toured with the Variflex team in 1980 and now Pattie Hoffman looks back on the sports late 70s glory years.

Burton Paul Smith
Burton has now partnered with Paul Smith for a line of high fashion ($900) outerwear. The secret? Raise prices high enough and those with more money than brains will eat it up.
- Audex jackets, one for everyone

In Under the Umbrella
The minds behind Fecalface.com, Delphicollective.com and Crownfarmer.com have pooled their mailorder art sites into one calling it umbrellamarket.com. But we didn't see any rain gear on the site.

Jannard Behind the Video Lens?
Rumors are swirling in the film community regarding a new digital cinema camera called Red and rumor is that Oakley's founder Jim Jannard is behind it. Well, he's tried sillier things.

The Gordon Clark Letter
If you really want to know what's going on with the Clark Foam closing just read Grubby's entire letter. Here it is.
- Ben Marcus in the LA Weekly
- LA Times' Ripple Effect Story
- Wipeout on surf pipeline
- Surfers panic after shutdown
- Closure could end custom boards

Ollie Ollie All Get Sued
It is true, Alan Gelfand, inventor of the ollie, has trademarked the word "Ollie" and now is suing Disney, Sega, and Flowlab for a total of $20 million dollars. Good luck, Ollie.

Clark Closes Grubby Business
According to TWSbiz.com Gordon Clark announced today in a faxed letter to shapers that “effective immediately Clark Foam is ceasing production and sales of surfboard blanks.” Apparently, there is more to the story including potential "time in prison" acccording to Clark.
- Clark Foam Going out of business
- More details from Surfline
- Closer will pinch surfing biz

Skater Gunned Down in Vancouver
Lee Matasi, 23, was celebrating a friend's art opening in Vancouver when he got into an altercation outside The Red Room, with a 28-year-old man who was carrying a gun. Matasi, the older brother of pro womens skater Nugget, died in the shooting.

Hale'iwa's H. Miura Store Closes
They sewed Greg Noll's trademark black and white striped shorts and the trunks Eddie Aikau was wearing when he went. They had Joey Cabell's (and every other big name surfer's) measurements down in their size book, but Jane Oda and Katherine Kawaguchi have sewn their last palaka shorts and the store that has been in business since 1912 is closing. We only wish we could have been fitted just once.

Freeline Skates?
In seeing this product we are reminded of a quote from skateboard/music industry enigma O. "Every band that ever comes out of San Francisco is fucked up, okay? Every single one." The same seems to go for wheeled designs.

Quik Upped To Strong Buy
S&P analyst Marie Driscoll sees 2006 as transitional for Quiksilver and calls out a 12 month target of $17 for 2007. Hmm, wasn't it $18 last March?
- Boix-Vives gets $4.6 million consulting job

VeeCo Selling More Shares
On December 5, 2005 Volcom announced the pricing of an underwritten secondary public offering of 5,000,000 shares of its common stock by certain selling stockholders. Yeah, certain to be even filthier rich.
- Man wearing Volcom hoodie robs cab

White and Red All Over
The New York Times profiles Shaun White in a story called The Flying Tomato McTwists His Way to the Top.

Lost Snowboarder Arrested
A 23-year-old snowboarder was reported missing by friends who then moved his car to a "better-lit area." Sheriff agents searched the mountain until 3 AM only to discover that the snowboarder had hitched a ride to town when he couldn't find his car, and that he had an outstanding DUI warrant. It's stories like this that remind us how true stereotypes can be.

Alterna Action Filmmakers
Carlo Wein and crew, the guys responsible for this years snowboard film Shrediquette, get written up in Vancouver's North Shore News.

Dubai Gotta Glacier
Ski Dubai, the world's largest interactive snow park (fake fir trees included) opened its doors this week. When they want it to snow, they just turn the building upside down and shake it really, really hard.

Malik's Last Wave
He will be missed.

Malik Joyeux Dies at Pipeline
First Descent Into Boredom
Palmer Boardercrosses The Line
Heddings and Rams Convicted

Previous Bags o' Crapola:
- December 2, 2005
- September 20, 2005
- September 14, 2005
- July 7, 2005