Latest Update: March 30, 2001

Crossrocket Dead?
According to an e-mail sent out by Crossrocket editor Rob Campbell, the Swell-owned snowboard site Crossrocket is done. In his words, "The rumors are true. Crossrocket's staff has left the building. Please send all taunts or a mean-spirited 'I told you so' to racamp2000@aol.com". Monsterskate.com has been cut to one employee, and Swell is still kickin'.

Alison Berkley Rests Her Case
Hey, our industry is a boys club. We all know that. But it's amazing that when women write about our sports the macho mag editors go crazy. Sure, women can write about other women, the editors seem to say, but when they write about male athletes they have to be very careful not to sound (in Steve Hawk's words "goo-goo-eyed"). Luckily, Ali has the tools to fight back. Check it out right here.

Modart/BBC Breast Mold SF Opening
Modart, in conjunction with Boarding for Breast Cancer has created a whole new art form: the breast mold. Mona gets all her friends to do molds of their breasts and then gives them to Modart artists to be decorated. The online gallery is up and the opening in San Francisco is Friday the 23rd at RED 5. 1472 Haight Street. 7 p.m. Check out he art online, or go see it in person. DJ Satva Leung will also be spinning. For info call: (415) 552-6494.

Caught In A Kenny Rogers Crossfire
If you're having a bad day and need to laugh your ass off, stop by Swell Art Director Jaimie Muehlhausen's side project site Men Who Look Like Kenny Rogers.com. It's a site of photos of men who. . . you get it. Be sure to check out the Gallery because we were caught in a crossfire in Las Vegas last week and we recorded it on video. Jaimie was cool enough to include in it. You can check the Quicktime video out right now by clicking here.

New Book Added To the Reading List
This month's addition to the Sacklunch Reading List include Allan C. Weisbecker's surf memoir/ surf trip to Central America in search of his old drug smuggling buddy. It's called In Search of Captain Zero. Click here to read the review or click the cover to buy a copy for yerself.

Ben Marcus Rolls North
Ben Marcus has stopped writing about his murder mystery and is back on the road to Washington after delivering a singing great white shark to Doc Renneker. The journey is getting longer by the day.

Frequency Hits Las Vegas
Jeff Galbraith and crew (which includes Jamie Lynn, Chris Brunkhart, Ari Marcopoulos, and Mike Ranquet) delivered a new snowboard magazine to the faithful at the SIA show in Las Vegas yesterday. In the editorial Jeff says, "We believe that snowboarding and our related travel and mountain cultures deserve more than soda-pop, recruiting, and wack articles. We believe that there is life out there." Frequency shows that life. Check out their website for more info (be sure to get the latest version of the FLASH media player first).

Suburban Skate Nightmare in Santee
The "shooter was a skater" stories are starting to slowly flow in and of course they are painting skateparks as a place where delinquents like Mr. Williams hang out. This one is from the LA Times.
--The Bully Problem

Surfer Sentenced to 10 Months
According to the LA Times Silver Strand surfer Allen "Carter" Slade, 32, was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon and felony witness intimidation last month. The funniest part of the sentence is that Slade will not be able to surf Silver Strand for three years. Ba-bye.
--Sending a message.

The Most Dangerous Games?
Seems like action sports always get the blame, but guess what sports are most dangerous for kids? Yep, basketball, cycling, football, and baseball. Skateboarding, snowboarding, and surfing aren't even on the list.

More Skateparks for Vans
How a shoe company become one of the leading forces in suburban mall redevelopment is anyone's guess, but it continues to be working for Vans. He's news on some of their latest park developments. We can't wait till Wahoo's gets in there.

The Shooter Is A Skater
Get ready for the anti-skating fallout. The shooter in the Santee, CA high school bullet spree is already being described on TV as "a skater." What the media will never say is that skateboarding was probably the best part of his life, not the cause of it all.

Black's Surfer Recovering
Justin Smith was at Black's surfing some of the biggest waves Southern California has seen this winter when he hit his board and was knocked out. After being underwater for two minutes he was rescued and taken to the hospital. Get all the details in Evan Slater's story on Swell.com.

Leap Day Swell Rumors
Let's just say right upfront that the following are rumors we've heard from various corners of the industry. Click the link for a full listing of the most recent round of rumors. Damn, if rumors were only dollars . . .

AOL TW's Big Changes
For a run down of all the news that is news at AOL Time Warner (parent company of TransWorld) check out this info-collection from The Industry Standard. It's got all the blood and guts of great drama.

Syrus King Killed In Gun Accident
Syrus King is gone. At 20 years old, he was one of California' most gifted longboard surfers. The story being reported is that the North County San Diego resident picked up a gun that he thought was unloaded, held it to his head, and pulled the trigger. Police are calling it an "accident" and are not investigating, however, the King family still has many unanswered questions. According to Kevin Kinnear, "Not since Bobby Brown died in Australia during a bar fight in the 60s has any longboarder with so much potential died so young." Syrus will be missed.

K2 Issues Earnings Warnings
Los Angeles-based sporting goods company K2 Inc. says will come up 15 cents a share short on $1.21 earnings forecasts posted by First Call/Thompson Financial. Bummer.

Did CCS Buy Strength Magazine?
Rumors on the street are that CCS (owned by the publicly traded Alloy.com) has purchased the Midwest's number one action sports magazine Strength. Is this their play to get into the boy mag business? If you have any info please let us know.

Buy.com Cuts Half of its Staff
The online retailer has decided to cut half it's staff and is retreating from several markets. Did they really need those 125 people?

Luxottica Buys Sunglasses Hut
Luxottica, the owner of Ray-Ban (and Arnette) has purchased the nationŒs largest sunglasses retailer for $462 million. Talk about owning the supply chain. The buy caused Oakley's stock to fall $2.45. Ouch.

Pro Skateboarding Editorial
LA Times Newport Metro Editor Tony Dodero writes an extremely poignant editorial on skateboarding based on his running from the cops when he was a kid. Tony, thanks for being an adult who remembers. We need more of you. Click here to send Tony e-mail.

Hawaii Considers Skateboard Helmet Law
Hawaii's Senate Bill 164 will require children under 16 to wear helmets while riding skateboards and scooters. As we all know, Helmet Laws Suck.

Sewage Spill Closes Doheny
It's great to be a surfer in Southern California, isn't it? Our beaches are some of the filthiest in the world. At Doheny 42,100 gallons of raw sewage spilled into the ocean on Monday. Yum.

Surfersvillage.com Launchs News Site
The UK website that keeps track of worldwide surfing has just launched a news site Globalsurfnews.com that will "provide a comprehensive news service reporting" on the surf world."

Kevin Ancell Profile Sneak Peak
Scott Hulet is writing a profile on Pacifica, CA based artist Kevin Ancell and guess who got a short little preview of the story? Check it out, the whole story will appear in a future issue of The SurferŒs Journal.

Web Content Sites Dead In the Water
The Washington Post looks into the idea of profitable content sites and notices that no one is making any money. That include Salon, Slate, or most other big online brands.

Man Lost Overnight At Mt. Baldy
A 27-year-old Palos Verdes man spent the night in Mt. Baldy's Coldwater Canyon after getting lost while snowboarding at the mountain.

Snowboarder Survives Avalanche
Benny Caron was caught in an avalanche on Mount Albert near Quebec in Canada. He triggered the slide while on the mountain filming a documentary.

Paralyzed Snowboarder Gets Help
Pat Stark was paralyzed in a snowboarding accident a few weeks ago, but is regaining movement in his limbs after taking an experimental drug Sygen.

Seven Rescued from San Diego Surf
Big surf in San Diego county means overtime work for San Diego lifeguards. Last week them pulled seven people from the water.

Skateboards.com In SD Murder Story
When San Diego diet doctor Kent Delong was murdered in the alley behind his weight-loss clinic it has nothing to do with the Sack's normal stories. The doctor, however, was also involved in a Nevada-based company called Internet Development Corporation which according to the LA Times once owned the skateboards.com domain. How weird is that?

Shaun White Profiled in LA Times
Surfermag.com Signs Surfcheck.com
Boardpass.com's Literary Borrowing?
Ben Marcus Hasn't Caught A Thing

Previous Bags o' Crapola:
-February 23, 2000
-February 6, 2000
-January 31, 2000
-January 23, 2000

Special thanks: to Jim Romenesko's MediaGossip.com