Latest Update: February 6, 2001

Active Ride Shop Profiled In LA Times
John Wallance has turned a Chino, CA surf shop into one of the most successful retail chains in SoCal. The Ontario-based company today has 170 employees and boasts sales exceeding $16 million a year, not to mention a growing clothing brand that has some of the bigger companies a little worried.

Costa Mesa Kills Skatepark
Why should the hub city of the Action Sports world have a skatepark? Really. In a city council vote only Mayor Libby Cowan and Councilwoman Linda Dixon voted to save the park. The other three thought it was a bad idea. Which reminds me, skateboarders really need to SEIZE THE POWER.

Shark Attack in Sydney
Mark Butler, a 40-year-old surfer was attacked by a shark on February 4, but managed to escape, tie his legs up with his leash, and walk for help. He was then airlifted to a hospital where he is in serious but stable condition. The attack happened on the north coast of New South Wales state.

Dogtown and the Z-Boys Reviewed
Kathleen Gasperini stumped onto the Stacy Peralta film at the Sundance Film Festival and was blown away. Check out her review at Wigmag.com.

K2 Jumps On Canadian Sprite Promotion
The Vashon Island based marketer of snowboard eqipment is kicking down K2 Snowboards, Ride Snowboards, and Planet Earth gear in Sprite's Need Gear instant win contest currently running in Canada. Give it away now.

ISPO Reef Booth Stolen Images
We were cruising around last night boosting webcode when we stumbled across a cam setup at the ISPO Reef booth. So we stole it. Check it out right here.

ASR Stories On the Way
Since we really don't have time to write our own stories we wish the major labels would hurry up and put up some content from the ASR Show. All we can say is DC Party at Cohiba went off. The Renaissance was a den of iniquity, and yes, we saw a couple other things we couldn't believe. But no, none of us paid $5 bucks to see the inside of the Black Flys booth. If you did, or you have any other true ASR horror stories please click here and send them in. As usual the identities of contributors will be protected to the grave.

Reports of Swell's Death Greatly Exaggerated
Last Thursday (Feb. 1, 2000) when Dotcomscoop.com reported that Swell.com would be gone "by the end of the month" many thought they had a scoop. They didn't. Swell is rumored to be on it's way to six new retail stores, a branded soft drink, a live action series on the WB, and the introduction of Swellimon to the wildly successful children's animated classic Pokemon series. Okay, we made a couple of those up.

Peralta Wins Two Awards at Sundance
Stacy Peralta won two awards at the Sundance Film Festival for Dogtown and the Z-boys, which is odd seeing as the film did not feature cancer-ridden transgender love affairs, gay boy scouts, or Broadway singers with small genitals. It's good to see old-fashioned values still alive today in independent film.
-Vans Press release

Quiksilver to Add 30 Retail Stores
The OC giant, Quiksilver Inc. said it plans to open as many as 30 new retail stores this fiscal year. It will only cost them between $18 million to $22 million. Hey, youÍve got to do all kinds of crazy things when youÍre hunting down the great white whale of a billion in annual sales.

Patch Jumps, LA Times is There
Brian Patch made a 58-foot jump recently that will land him in the 2002 Guinness Book of World Records. Patch sailed off a 48-foot-high ramp built in a hanger at the Van Nuys airport. In a related story, snowboarder Shane Smart will attempt the same thing on a snowboard at Mt. High on February 23, 2001. Only he's going to try to jump 110 feet for a spot on the Guinness TV show.

Skate Shoes Roll Out At ASR Longbeach
Nike's latest adventure into the skate footwear market Savier will debut at the ASR Long Beach Show. People who have seen the shoes have had positive reports, although it seems nearly impossible that Nike could actually be doing something right in action sports.

Mossimo Getting Back on Target
A year ago when Mossimo Giannulli announced he had signed an exclusive $28 million deal with Target most in the actions sports industry chuckled smugly to themselves. Now, things are rolling quite nicely for the M man. And, as a girl we know said, "Great, now I can afford to buy five bikinis instead of one." Hey, if Target is good enough for Michael Graves and Philippe Starck it's should be good enough for Mossimo.
- Mossimo for the Masses in the Mercury News

Great White Bought On Ebay
When Sean van Sommeran, executive director of Santa Cruz's Pelagic Shark Research Foundation saw a 14 foot great white shark for sale on Ebay he just knew he had to have it. While the bid price reached $4,200 Sean was able to get the thing for $700. What a deal. The shark is currently being studied at US Davis.

Cortez Bank Hits Resonant Frequency
Discovery Channel picks up Cortez Bank story while all the major dailies make sure they have their writers get right on re-writes of the story that originally appeared on Swell. But I guess thatÍs what newspaper writers do.
-OC Register's story
-San Diego Union Tribune

Wenders Film Features Retarded Skateboarder
Wim Wenders's new film The Million Dollar Hotel is something of a monstrosity, but more importantly it features a semiretarded skateboarder. ArenÍt they all?

Argentine Snowboarder in Coma
An Argentine snowboarder was in a coma Sunday after a spill during the semifinals of the men's cross race at the snowboard World Championships in Italy.

Ventura Man Pulls Shotgun on Kids
A 90-year-old man was arrested after he alledgedly pointed a shotgun at kids who had been harassing him. Yes, one of the kids was on a skateboard. Those darn kids.

Hepatitis A Found in Aliso Creek
Hepatitis A and enterovirus were found last fall by a UCI researcher in Laguna Niguel gutters and storm drains that flow into Aliso Creek. News flash: So Cal is polluted.

Starbucks Axes Homo-erotic Skate Photos
Terry Smith put up 51 black and white photos of half-clad sweaty boys at his local Starbucks as part of his exhibit called Teen Culture, however, customers complained about the photos saying, 'girls only appeared in a couple of them.' So what did the grand ogre of commercialism do? They pulled the exhibit of course.

HB Sewage Could Be Washing Back to Beach
ItÍs so sad when a good idea like "dumping sewage into the ocean four miles off one of the nicest beaches in the world" can turn out to be the reason for Huntington BeachÍs pollution problem. Who would ever have thought that dumping 245 million gallons a day would cause such a problem.

Man Jailed for Fatal Ski Collision
A 21-year-old man was sentenced to 90 days in jail Wednesday for a deadly collision at Vail four years ago that prompted a crackdown on reckless skiing.

Snowboarding = Humiliation
Seattle Times writer (and diehard skiers) Heather McKinnon decided it was time for her to take a snowboarding lesson. ClichÚ hilarity ensues, dude. Funny thing is, the Orange County Register's Jeff Kramer did the same thing. 'Tis the season.

OC Man Going To Virtual X Games
Snowboarder Christian Higgins, 25, is going to the Winter X Games at Mount Snow, Vt., this week to compete in virtual reality as part of ESPN's Winter X Gamers Challenge. God we love anything that keeps the kids indoors on a sunny day.

A Real Jackass
Skate War In Yuba City
Protesters On Snowboard Attack?
Anderson Profiled In Globe and Mail

Previous Bags o' Crapola:
-January 31, 2000
-January 23, 2000
-January 16, 2000
-December 22, 2000

Special thanks: to Jim Romenesko's MediaGossip.com.