Belly Boarding

Check around the 2 min mark for some jibbin

Seems like it oughta be cool to be a skater boy..

But Avril already told us I guess.

Here, and here (look for my friend Renee Renee at 3:47)

Sick ass skating at The Berrics

http://www.theberrics.com/dailyopspost.php?postid=733

Snowboardåkaren Jon Olsson?

Lite humor att se en bild på Jon i bakgrunden (med skidor) medans nyheten om att snowboardåkaren Jon Olsson fick silver på X-Games.

Vore inte så tråkigt att höra hur simhopparen Stefan Holm eller cyklisten Anja Pärson klarade sig i en VM final.

Sen var ju kanske själva nyheten att Jon fick silver pga det var amerikaner som sms röstade in resultatet, inte en kvalificerad domarpanel. Men så är det att bo i Sverige och vara tvungen att betala tv avgift till Sveriges Television.

Tror inte SVT tycker det var speciellt pinsamt, men det är ok tycker jag. För dom har inte speciellt mycket humor eller kompetens hursomhelst. Speciellt inom "actionsporter". Det har ju Niklas Hyland bevisat under många år i sitt statligt finansierade program "Richter" som snodde (läs: inte betalade eller frågade) innehåll från nästan alla filmmakare inom Skate/Snow/Skidor för att få lite cred i sitt program.

Heja Sverige.
Vem vet snart kanske man inte ens kan köpa vin eller sprit på Shell nå mer utan måste köpa den på statligt ägda monopol som bara har öppet mellan 10-19 och inte säljer till myndiga personer mellan 18-19 år... och det efter du betalat en obligatorisk avgift på ca 100kr i mån / hushåll för att se Patrick Ekwall spegla sig i kameralinsen.

Nä, så tokigt kan det väl ändå inte bli?

God

Is there one?

Prolly not.. cause then he would have made me buy Quiksilver stock before I went to get a coffee this afternoon.

I checked the stock at 3pm or something and it was at $1.51, when I came back 30 min later it was at $2.38!!!!!!!!!
That 57%!!!!!!!!

So bummed I don´t have a time machine.

Now it´s down to $2.17... but still, fuck!!


I´m assuming the rumors about Quiksilver selling DC Shoes to V.F Corp is the reason for the crazy activity on Wall Street this morning.
Here are some articles on the possible acquisition:
www.worldwideskateboarding.com/2009/01/18/quiksilver-sells-dc-to-vf-corp

www.ocbj.com/industry_article_pay.asp?aID=89723206.42959203.1736098.1710278.29573402.590&aID2=133537

www.streetinsider.com/Analyst+Comments/Citi+Reiterates+a+Buy+on+VF+Corp+(VFC),+Comments+on+Potential+Acquisition+of+DC+Shoes+From+Quiksilver+(ZQK)/4328212.html

This is what I´m talking about

Just riding around the resort, way fun.

I was going to embed it, but Transword Snow has it coded with autoplay with an annoying Breckenridge commercial attached to it.

http://snowboarding.transworld.net/2009/01/24/mikkel-bang-video-squaw-valley-park-session

Young Legs

41.5 inches (105.5 cm)... not easy.

http://knowskateboarding.com/media/qt_exports/dvs_hands_free_big_air_challenge.html

Nostalgic commentary by Josh Kalis

Go here to see/listen to four parts with Josh commentating on them, sick.

http://www.slapmagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=737&Itemid=27

And while you´re at it, please watch the four video clips with Jay Adams too. They are really good.
http://www.slapmagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=659&Itemid=27

Double what?!

If ESPN would have one decent angle if would have been cool to see how big of a drop he did. Seems like it was like 30 feet to flat.

Here´s a clip of Travis Rice sort of apologizing to the norwegian viewers. Taken from:
http://www.tv2sporten.no/ovrig/article2523553.ece

Barack and Michelle Obama do what?

ESPN/X-Games rob Mikkel and Torstein at the big air event

I just saw this today when I was browsing the web...
It made me so upset I had to start a Facebook group.
www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=46196598874

So I guess it was up to the american public to decide who should win the gold at the 2009 X-Games big air final.
How to you think anyone with a name like Torstein Horgmo could win over someone with a name like Travis Rice under those circumstances?
Or what's up with Mikkel Bang's PERFECT ss bs 1260 getting 8% of the votes against Travis Rice's 92% for the double back bs 180?!

The X-Games people should be ashamed for even considering this form of judging, and they should feel even more ashamed for actually using it .
To quote Todd Richards:
- "Torstien would need to cure aids and herpes to win plus do a 14.000.000 (rotation)"

Seriously.., what makes americans qualified to judge this by texting in their opinion? So wrong.
78% voted for Travis Rice.. come on.. granted Rice´s trick was great, but not as great as Torstein´s.
We all know americans love backflips and backyard wrestling:) Combine that with a name like Jeremy Jones, Eddie Wall, Shaun White and you don´t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that Travis Rice would have won the gold even if he would have done a backflip.
From what I heard (read: rumor) half the texts were in before they had even jumped... real professional there ESPN/X-Games.

It would have been pretty funny if Travis would have fallen in all four runs against Mikkel and Torstein since he would have still won.. haha.
Then ESPN/X-Games would have had some real apologizing to do.

Wonder how this form of judging would fly at the olympic figure skating event?
You have some girl who´s got the looks/name of someone like Sienna Miller or Jenna Jameson (or similar) against a girl with a better performance but with a name like Olgur Karkalinotjef and looks like the unibrown girl from "Dodgeball".
Hmm, I wonder who America would text/vote for...

As I see it X-Games need to make a public statement that this was a horrible idea and that the people in charge for making it happen were fired and they should be fined a couple of thousand dollars each for letting this happen.
Then X-Games should pay Torstein whatever the 1st price purse was + his incentives from DC (which is probably considerable).
That´s the LEAST they can do to try and make this right.
Actually they should compensate Mikkel too. His trick would obviously win over Rice's in any contest with actual judges and he got 8% of the votes!
Mikkel should have been the one battling Torstein for the gold.
How do the X-Games expect anyone to take them seriously when they treat their riders talent like this? Embarrassing.
Isn't there a board of people that decides how to judge the event? Who are they and what were they thinking?

I have a hard time believing that anyone with knowledge and love for snowboarding was part of making this "have-americans-vote-by-texting" a reality.
So next time.. please consider talking to people "in the know" before ruining an event.
I can totally consult, I'll even help with camera angles and editing (yes you can improve, a lot).

I´m glad I wasn´t there. I would have been soooo mad (well I still am, but I´m like 8,000 km away).
And after this post I bet X-Games will ban me from any future events anyway.

Mikkel, Travis and Torstein, I like you all and you are such amazing snowboarders. But you deserve your riding to be judged by people who are just as good at judging like you are at snowboarding.

Peas / Pierre

Mikkel vs Travis:



Torstein vs Travis:


Here are some articles about the event:
http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=540131 (in norwegian)

http://www.tacky.no/snowboard/article/?id=102786 (in norwegian)

http://snowboarding.transworld.net/2009/01/23/x-games-xiii-big-air

http://snowboarding.transworld.net/2009/01/23/x-games-xiii-big-air-video

Here´s a gnarly slam from Travis from the day before:

Matt Hensley interview, part 1

Pat Duffy talks to Matt Hensley.
www.planbskateboards.com/#/blog/catching-matt-hensley-pt-1

Two VERY influential skateboarders, very influential.

Thank you America

For doing the right thing and voted for a democrat.

I´m very pleased to have a democrat as president. And so are about 6.800.000.000 other human beings.
For the 58.343.671 who voted for McCain I don´t know what to say, other than I hope you will see in a few years time that this was the best thing to happen to America and the planet.

With another conservative republican in office America would have dug itself into an even, if possible, deeper abyss.
How do I know this? I don´t, but I would bet everything I have that America will be a better place after 4 or more years with a democrat than with a republican behind the wheel.

Here´s Barack´s 19 min speech:
www.aftonbladet.se/webbtv/nyheter/utrikes/article4225987.ab

I thought these words were pretty good:
"For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. "
Cause if it´s one thing I don´t see a lot in America it´s solidarity.


Look, the Obama´s throw shakas! I´d pay good money for Bush/McCain to get away with that.
Bush can use his fingers too though..
Check out this 20 sec video for some classic Bush




Here are some pictures from yesterday.
I wonder how many men and women out there would have cried (for joy:) if McCain would have taken office.. let alone camp outside all night get a spot to watch the inauguration.

Need furniture?

Why not buy this?

EXPOSITION SKATE STUDY HOUSE CHEZ COLETTE
by boucketta

I would if I had a house.

Oh lord

When things go wrong

Don´t do this:


And I wouldn´t try this either:


On the other hand, a lot of injuries happens at work too:


Or when you audition for "Idol":


Or when you let your kid out of sight at the mall:

Can your PC do this?

www.apple.com/ilife/iphoto/guided-tour/large.html

I don´t think so.

Got 22 min to spare?

Check out my friend David´s short movie.
It´s available on itunes for free. Just search for "instead of abracadabra".

Here´s a review:
http://festival.sundance.org/2009/news/article/short_shot_instead_of_abracadabra_a_lot_of_humor

Battle at the Crailtap

Here´s a warm up game for Koston´s battle against Donavan.
www.crailtap.com/c3/newrandoms/kostons_battle_warmup.mov?id=3830184

Even though I love watching Battle At The Berrics I think the game they got going on at Girl seems fun.
David vs Goliath, Beta vs VHS, Steve Berra vs Danny Mayer.. dang.
I want to see Ty vs Atiba. Or why not a complete new game of skate contest? With only media dudes, or team managers... can´t go wrong.
I want to see Greg Hunt vs Drake Jones or why not Dave Swift vs Reda (with a mouth gag).

Just what I wanted to see when I'm packing..

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/15/usair-plane-crashed-in-hu_n_158263.html

Imagine standing on the wings, the plane sinks.. it´s 42degrees fahrenheit in the water.. that gives you what? A few minutes to live...
Horrible. Hope nobody died.

Third Episode With Pappalardo

His ss heel up the stairs at City Hall in Philly is nice.

Good Times

Shot this in April 07.
Can´t believe we made it all in one day.


Jacob Ellis, who falls on the finish line is a a reference to this (skip to 1:15 incase you´re in a hurry)


The clip was based on such awesome movies like, Hot Dog and Aspen Extreme.
Here´s the trailer for Hot Dog:

And Aspen Extreme:

This (I guess) is what you would say if you were a senator in Oklahoma

Sen Inhofe is an idiot | Movies & TV | SPIKE.com

Nice touch there Senator Inhofe. By the way, the 1800´s called and wanted their ignorance back.

“I’m really proud to say that in the recorded history of our family, we’ve never had a divorce or any kind of homosexual relationship.”

Right up there with "I have a dream" by MLK and
"Ask not what your country can do for you" by JFK.

Here are some more great quotes from republicans:
"I want to make sure everybody who has a job wants a job"
- George Bush, during his first Presidential campaign

"This is a great day for France!"
- Richard Nixon, while attending Charles De Gaulle's funeral

"My fellow Americans, I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes."
- Ronald Reagan, about to go on the air for a radio broadcast, unaware that the microphone was already on

"Mars is essentially in the same orbit. Mars is somewhat the same distance from the sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe."
- Dan Quayle

"I've been in the Bible every day since I've been the president." --George W. Bush

'll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out what happened inside this Oval Office." --George W. Bush

Todd has a todcast

So Todd plans to do more of these this season.

Hopefully I´ll be able to work with him on a few.

http://content.quiksilver.com/www/ImageAssets%5Csite20/Assets/3817/7/todcast1.2.mp4

Jason Lee with a sweet 360 flip

He´ll never lose them.



Don´t know who Jason is? Here´s the 3 min breakdown.

My kind of wedding

Weddings is America are a big deal.
You need to be married before you have a baby and preferably before you buy a home together.
Whereas is Sweden I don´t know ANYONE (of my generation) who got married before they had a baby (actually I do, sorry T & T).
We´re talking like 50 couples with kids and 3-4 of those are married, but after they had a kid.

If I ever get married I would love to serve mexican food as latenight snacks, like after midnight when people are pretty buzzed.
Ideally it would be catered by Taco Bell, cause for anyone who knows me know I dig The Bell. Other franchise mexi joints are kind of better, but Taco Bell has more history with me. But enough about planning my wedding..

Here are a couple who took it a step further:
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/index.php?cl=11498446

In swedish here.

Sure it´s a bit extreme, but so is paying $28,732 for one (average cost of an american wedding) and that doesn´t include rings or the honeymoon, that´s on average another $7,900.
And average american couple makes $55,000 a year, combined, and the bride is, on average, 26 and the groom 28.
Wow. I mean.., why? Why take a loan (cause that´s what a lot of couples do) for 20-50k for a wedding? Why?
Imagine what the spend if they make $200,000 per year!

To almost any swede this is hard to grasp. But on the other end it seems like swedes marry when they want to, not when our parents think we should.

Don´t get me wrong I like weddings (only been to, hmm 2.5) I´m just not into pleasing old conservative people instead of thinking about your own life/choices.

Your typical swedish couple lifestyle is frowned upon by most americans over the age of, say 50.
They think we are such sinners, sleeping together, living together, having babies etc out of wedlock.
I for one don´t see what they (old fashioned american folks) get so upset about.. their kids are more than likely going to divorce their spouse anyway.. (more than 65% of marriages in Souther California end in divorce).

Gosh I want Taco Bell now..

Here are some interesting links if you want to calculate your wedding costs:
http://www.costofwedding.com
http://www.nmplanner.com/uploads/2008_Wedding_Stats.doc

Doesn´t this look awesome?

Jump, or as swedes say; yamp

I used a clip with crappier quality, but the norwegian tv dude was just too funny.

These were not as lucky:

Funny

So I was part of making this movie called Afterbang a while back.
We got the name from a phenomenon where some boarders would over do their landing style, like try and look dope and usually looking like they´re carrying a 40 inch tv. So it was more embarrassing than flattering to be called out on an afterbang.
(I heard Justin Hebbel came up with the word).

I ran into this link on the ski forum Newschoolers.

They (the skiers, or some of them) seem to consider afterbang a good thing... hmm. Here are some quotes:

- "Mickael, Vanular, and Clarke have skied with afterbang, rideaway, flavor on the landings, long before Brogan "
- "Vanular has been doing it for a long time..
Boarders have been doing it for even longer "
- "why do you need to have other people judge your style whether is worthy or the title of afterbang or not? you
have good style, but why dont you claim your own style and not call it afterbang"
- "afterbang is dope and obviously people would rather see someone stomp their landing and ride away clean
than land a little sketchy and struggle to ride away."
- "i dont know why every one is hatin on t w for being steezy after landing. i think it shows way more skill to be able to land blanced and still than be floppin around. so "afterbang" haters shut up its just really good people being good."

From:
http://www.newschoolers.com/web/forums/readthread/thread_id/365227

I just never thought if would be considered a flattering thing, but apparently it is to some:
www.newschoolers.com/web/content/news/news_id/2096

Click on pic for proof.

I can't wait

So only 20 hours left... well maybe a few more until it's available online. I hope FOX show the episodes online the day after, or hopefully itunes will have it...
If not they give me no choice but to illegally download it:(

Anyway.. exited!

I really like this guy.

Although building homes out of shipping containers isn´t a new idea Adam Kalkin is pretty influential within the area.

Here´s a clip to give you an idea on what Adam´s containers are about.


Now all I need is some land. And where to look.




More on his houses here:
www.architectureandhygiene.com/main.html

Somewhere... someone is drunk and dancing to this

Kinda wish it was me.
Just listen to 2.14-2.29! Amazing.



Wow, look at this (live version). I wanna be here:


Or how about when this kicks in at 0.40! Wow, I wouldn´t even need to have 0.2 (2ppm) alcohol level to dance at this place. Are you kidding me?!

Naked skier got $1,300,000

Or so I´ve heard.
Haven´t been able to verify if it´s true..

If he got $1.3 million for hanging upside down for 15 min (why didn´t he pull himself up?) and got that money that means he made pretty much $100.000 a min while hanging upside down. Screw that!
If that was in Sweden he´d get a free skipass for life, maybe $5,000 and one week free at a resort.

With $1.3 mill you could almost retire (not in So Cal though).

It´s never too early to start shooting

This clip is mostly in swedish, but 30 sec in you can hear a girl talk about how her dad is making a gun for her.
Scary.

DC Elves

Made one for the DC boys too.
It´s hard to tell if Iikka actually did this dance, or if it´s fake.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Need a new skateboard?

If you do and you are in the New York area you could swing by the Louis Vuitton store and buy this one. It comes at the bargain price $8,250, but then you get a trunk too.
Read more here:
www.wwd.com/retail-news/louis-vuitton-to-celebrate-arrival-of-stephen-sprouse-collection-1909735?module=today

Naked skier made the news in Sweden

www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article4126597.ab
How fun.

So the naked skier sued the photographer.

Wow. This photo just won´t die.

I read this on www.twsnow.com
“Hello, my name is Marty Odom and I live in Vail, Colorado. I am/was a photographer on the mountain for Sharpshooter imaging. On my day off I pulled up to the lift line to see a naked man hanging from the chair lift. I happen to have my own camera with me and I shot a few pics. It was Jan. 1st and I shot the best photo that I’m going to shoot all year. I then sent it in to the Vail Daily, where it got printed the next day. Today I go into work to find out that I’m “suspended until further notice”, because the man is now suing Vail mountain and my photo makes their lift operations seem bad. The liftie forgot to put the seat down on the chair and somehow the man got stuck in the position that he was in. The chair wasn’t even stopped by the liftie, someone in the lift line had to punch the button. And even though I never mentioned the company I worked for, Vail Resorts pulled my pass and it looks like I’m going to lose my job over a photo. But the photo is worth it."

So a guy who is having his day off sees this naked guy and takes a picture (like anyone would do) and then sends it to some media and get´s sued?! And loses his job?! I think he should sue Vail for suing him as well as suing the naked skier and Vail for indecent exposure.
Can someone please help him with this lawsuit. It´s just too funny.

Granted the naked skier is bummed, but come on.. like you wouldn´t take a picture yourself if you saw a naked person hanging upside down from the chairlift.

Here´s a fun version of the pic that Todd made for www.boardasfuck.com

Skiers.. one funny article

www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/06/vail-chairlift-accident-l_n_155578.html

If I paid $97 (yes you read right), plus $25 for parking and $10 for a hot dog, to ride an old school mentality ski resort and I saw this I´d sue them. Or the skier for indecent exposure. Unless of course everyone at Vail could use the Burton LOVE boards or any other board with very partial nudity on them.
I mean, moms are suing Burton for the LOVE boards.. stupid parents.

And employees at Vail can´t use those Burton boards on the hill.
Here are some quotes from the Vail newspaper:
“It’s pretty much semi-porn in the public eye,” said Farrell, an Eagle-Vail mom. “If people buy a Playboy, they typically go to their bathroom or their bedroom. They don’t sit in the middle of town square to view it.”
But us snowboarders need to see naked skiers danglin from the chair lift? I think that belongs in your own bathroom too.
And here´s a comment from the Vail spokesperson:
"Vail Resorts has prohibited its employees from using the “Love” snowboards while on duty at the resorts, spokeswoman Jen Brown said in an e-mail. That rule pertains to all snowboards with offensive or inappropriate graphics, she said."
I wonder what they say to Jon Olsson when he goes to Vail..?
Considering his skis have a girl on them too.

Goosh. We can´t have another nipplegate. That was just too horrifying! The youth of America is now ruined because Janet and Justin´s act!
The partial nudity is what single handedly will take America even further back to the stone age.
Religion, oil and greed won´t have anything to do with it.

Elf´s are the new black

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Architects use skateboarders when designing the Oslo opera house

Wired has an article that explains this, read it here:
- For years, architects have gone to great lengths to protect their buildings from marauding skaters. But as aesthetic trends move toward folded planes that transition seamlessly from wall to ceiling and back to wall, designers have been looking to their former adversaries for a lesson in flow...

..www.wired.com/culture/design/magazine/16-12/pl_design

Here are some pics I found on flickr.com

Looks very skate friendly:)



The colour pics are from:
www.flickr.com/photos/unexpectedbacon
And the b/w one from:
www.flickr.com/photos/trondjs

World record in "walking the dog"

This older freestyle (ancient skateboard discipline) dude named "Lillis" did 109 "walk the dog" steps in one minute. I think it´s a pretty hard record to beat (unless Mullen tries) since there are about 50 people on the planet who own a freestyle board and who might be able to do link 100 dog walks, let alone in 1 minute.

I don´t know what´s the funniest about this clip.
The fact that he even did it.
His helmet.
The camera guy´s steadycam style.
The camera guy´s aim (why would you film his face if it´s the feet doing the record?)
The fact that Rodney Mullen could beat him before breakfast tomorrow.
Or the fact that I´m sharing this with you.
All are pretty funny to me.

Here´s the clip:
www.expressen.tv/noje/rekord-tv/1.1407692/skateboardrekordet-ska-slas!

Fun Mac vs PC ads

This was a banner ad at www.nytimes.com




I still don´t understand why anyone who wants to browse the web, use an mp3 player, work with Word&Excel, organize and share their photos would buy anything else than a Mac...
Add to that that a Mac doesn´t get viruses and they look a lot better. Oh well, it´s their loss I guess.
PC are cheaper to buy, but I doubt they are cheaper to own.

I´m stoked that 58% of my blog readers use Mac. I´m pretty sure 99% of my snowboard industry friends use Mac too. The only person I´ve seen use a PC since 2001 who works with snowboarding is Chris Gunnarson(although he seems to use a Mac now). And I think it´s because he uses some special cad design software (he designs snowboard parks) and accounting software that only works on PC´s.
Two others that come do mind are David and Anders from WE Clothing/WESC. They rock PC´s, but they are also accountants/economy dudes and working with swedish i-t people.
But those are the only three I´ve seen with PC´s in like 7 years.


More Mac ads:






But then there are some funny ones where PC makes fun of Mac users.

Insane moto stunt

Seriously wrong.

And yet in 2008 the camera crew can´t get a decent angle of the stunt. Why don´t they just hire me to consult?
I´m in the the phonebook under "the guy we need to get good angles", I do olympics too.

Interesting 10 min with Anthony Pappalardo

I noticed the two episodes of Jake Burton went offline at vbs.tv... weird


Other than that.. it´s a new year. Wish I had a plan.