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Ben Marcus is back on the road this time it's Travels with Ike. Click here for the latest update.

 
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Latest Update: August 20, 2001

It's Sharky Out There
Swell.com rounds ups the weekend of the shark. Seems like Florida sharks are hungry. Two contest surfers were nibbled on in just one morning.

Travels With Ike Updates
Ben "the world's greatest surf writer" Marcus is continuing on his mission to Russia. He's now made the trip to Ancourage and it busy sending out load of e-mail, mostly to people he doesn't know.
-August 15
-August 16
-August 17

X Games Kick Off In Philly
With a crowd of close to 2000 the 2001 X Games kicked off with street skating on the steps of City Hall. I guess it's okay to skate there when the ESPN cameras are there.

Pharmacy Demo Riot?
Police overacted to a skate demo at the Pharmacy Skateboard shop in Hesperia, CA last week when 700 people showed up to cheer on the team. Police said it was out of control when skaters started throwing eggs. Co-owner Donny Damron even got arrested for a past warrant for reckless driving. Ouch.

Water Dirtier Than You Thought
Thanks to better water monitoring systems a recent report stated that the water we've all been surfing in lately is much more polluted than was originally thought. There were 5700 beach closure warnings last year.

Philly Crew Not Too Stoked
Sure, businesses are excited about the money the X Games will bring to Philadelphia, but local skaters are pissed because even though skateboarding is outlawed in public spaces X Games athletes are going to get to skate right in front of City Hall.

DC Bling Blings Wall Street Journal
The story poses as a bit on the cross over between hip hop and action sports, but really it's a bit about DC icing up their sponsored peeps. Shine on you crazy diamonds.

Primedia's About.com Payouts
When the company bought About.com it promised About.com's Chief Internet Officer Scott Kurnita a $25 million payout against stock. Well, now that Primedia's stock is trading at $5.70 the company may have to kick down $17 million in cash to make good. Uh oh.

Watermen's Balls Are Held for Charity
Each year the biggest names in the action sports industry (SIMA) gather to mutually massage each other and raise money for a good cause. This year they raised $250,000. And it was fun, apparently.

Philly Police Welcome X Games
The X Games are coming to Philly and don't think that means night sessions at Love Park. Nope, Philadelphia's finest "intend to have a sustained presence around . . . Love Park, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the Korean Veterans Memorial to prevent skating there during the X Games."
-Philly retailers plan to cash in on X Games

Oakley Counterfeiters at Flee Market
Chun Sun Wong and Xiao Cai Wu were arrested and charged with possession of counterfeit Oakley glasses at a market in Paw Paw, Michigan. They were caught by "private investigators hired by the Oakley corporation." Go git em, Oakley.

Internet Causing Print Ad Slump?
An advertising slump has hit the print world and few are giving much credit to the Internet. Alan Meckler believes more credit should be given. "Both consumers and professionals are getting more and more of their information from the Internet." But then, we already knew that.

IKE RETURNS: The Cat Came Back
After a weekend out on the run, Ike is back in the van and Ben Marcus is extremely happy about it. So are all the readers of Travels With Ike.

The Search for Ike: Day 2
Ike "the stupid cat" took off while Ben Marcus was in Watson Lake and he has not been heard from yet. Ben has some theories, but until Ike shows up it's just sit and wait. Ben doesn't want to travel to Alaska without him.

Woman Hit by Snowboarder
Australian tourist Helena Mumford had her tendons in both legs sliced at New Zealand's Treble Cone Skifield when she was hit by a "korean" snowboarder. (Looks like racism is alive and well in New Zealand.) Mrs. Mumford plans to press charges against the snowboarder.

It's Not All Surfing At US Open
On no there's much more than boring old surfing at this year's Open. According to IMG's James Leitz in the LA Times "These days, people want different options," he said. "Not just a surfing competition, but something that has broader appeal." How about pro football on the beach? Or golf. I hear those sports are huge with the mainstream fans.

Travels With Ike: Is It Any Wonder?
Ben Marcus worries that the trip to surf the secret far away place may not be coming together. No one has filled out the applications and the launch date is coming up. Click here for the rest:
-August 1a
-August 2
-August 4

TransWorld Surf vs. Sunny Garcia
Fall is coming and that looks like it's shaping up to be the battle of the video surf games. Ubi Soft's Sunny Garcia Championship Surfing has had some problems, but it looks like it will launch in November on the Playstation 2 platform right around the time Infogrammes releases TransWorld Surf, the game.

Skateparks are Not Agriculture
A year ago Caz Helmstetter built a skatepark in several barns on a farm in Corbett, Oregon with hopes of making it one of the destination facilities in the country. Now the dream is fading because Multnomah County said Helmstetter can't operate a skatepark in an area zoned for agriculture.

Six Names Added To Surf Walk of Fame
Rabbit Kekai, Wayne "Rabbit" Bartholomew, David Nuuhiwa Jr., Simon Anderson, Janice Aragon and Max Bowman were added to Huntinton Beach, CA's Surfing Walk of Fame at 10 AM on August 2, 2001. It's about time.

Tom Curren Is The King Of HB
The three-time world champion helped make a name for himself throwing down backside snaps under the HB Pier in the glory days of the Op Pro. Now, he's back again for the US Open of Surfing and continues to throw amazing moves on small waves. But can he survive the week?

IMG Goes After Disney
The firm's U.S. Open of Surfing at Huntington Beach this week is part of a bid to compete for Disney's X Games crowd. So far they haven't made much of a splash. It appears that action sports are a little harder to manage than Arnold Palmer, Tiger Woods and John Madden. One difficult task is getting anyone over 20 to stop calling it the Op Pro.
-LA Times US Open Coverage
-OC Register Coverage

Indonesian Landslide Traps Surfers
Hundreds of residents remain missing on the island of Nias following the massive landslide triggered by torrential rains in the early hours of yesterday morning. The villages affected are about 10km from the Lagundri Bay area, part of the international surfing circuit, where about 50 surfers from Australia, the United States, France and Brazil are believed to be staying.

Skateboarder Killed By Police Car
Modesto Police officer Steve Anderson was on his way to a disturbance call Tuesday night when he hit and killed a 14-year-old boy who was riding a skateboard across the street. The official report was that the officer had a green light and was driving the speed limit. Right. They also claimed the boy, "Darted in front of the patrol car." Don't they always?

Ben Marcus and Travels With Ike
The world's best surf writer is currently in Smithers, BC hanging out, talking to strangers and looking for his cat. He wanted to include a pleasant IM session with Steve Hawk in his latest, however it got cut because it included some top secret information. For the rest of the story check out the latest from Travels With Ike.
-August 1
-July 31
-July 30

Longboarding Worlds Hits Jeffreys Bay
The 48 man field for the Oxbow World Championships is made up of the previous six world champions, the top eight off Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) longboard ratings, four wildcards and 30 qualifiers from two events staged in Portugal and Brazil during July. This year four South African will compete.

Little League Getting Even Smaller
Salon.com sports writer Allen Barra responds to a recent Wall Street Journal "trend piece" which discussed Little League's decline. Duh. He tries to find reasons for the drop but ends up saying, "white boys, are dropping out to fiddle with computer games or skateboards or some other form of self-indulgent entertainment that demands concentration but no discipline." If you'd like to help straighten Mr. Barra out on skateboarding discipline please send him an e-mail.

A Real Board Meeting
As our industry gets more and more efficient and business like the meetings we all attend each week are getting more and more removed from reality. Friend of the Sack and obscure website locator extraordinaire Jack Orin sent us this clip that lays it down straight up. You'll laugh till you puke.

Oregon City Attempts to Outlaw Skateboarding
The city of Roseburg, Oregon built a skatepark and now they believe that gives them the right to outlaw skateboards from the city's sidewalks and parking lots. Violators could face fines up to $100 and be banned from using their skateboards, skates or bikes for a month.

Tony Hawks, Not Hawk
Skater and author Tony Hawk has a near namesake who also makes money from sports and writing. The difference is England's Tony Hawks does really stupid thinks like carrying a refrigerator on his back through Ireland. His latest book is about his attempts and travels to beat 11 members of the Moldovan national soccer team in tennis. Pointless, yet interesting.

Skater Gets Married On TV
Dave Smith is a calm, tattoo-wearing skateboarder who promotes and sells snowboards and his fiancé Kerri Sellers a slick-dressing, sign language interpreter are getting married on TV. They'll be appearing the The Learning Channel show, "A Wedding Story." When they do "A Wedding Night Story" then we'll watch.

John Milius Profiled In LA Times
To us he's most famous for his classic film Big Wednesday, however, the rest of the world probably knows him as the co-screenwriter of Apocalypse Now who created one of the best representations of the triumph of the will to surf yet to hit mainstream screens.

Net Costs Big Biz $63 Billion a Year
Planning your next family vacation or checking out the latest voyeur photos while at work is costing corporate America $2000 a second. And you know what? That's exactly what they deserve.

Costco's Brand of Aloha
A Mild Contusion
Ben Gets His Tongue Clipped
Room For Older Pro Surfers?

If you've heard anything interesting lately send some e-mail


Previous Bags o' Crapola:
-July 31, 2001
-July 5, 2001
-June 19, 2001
-May 9, 2001

Special thanks:
to Jim Romenesko's MediaGossip.com




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