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The Art of Snowboard Marketing

Published at: 10:09 am - Friday September 23 2011

I still haven’t seen the Art of Flight. I’m waiting for the big screen. And, I’ll be honest, there’s some student-like, throwback part of me that wants to see it long after the hype has died down. At the moment (and I’m aware this probably says something slightly sad about me), I’ve been more interested in the frankly awesome scale of the marketing that has gone into the project.

As we know, this is the most expensive snowboarding film ever made and, as Melissa Larssen points out in this review of the film for ESPN.com, that has polarised opinion among the core community. For every rabid grommet frothing at the prospect of all that cash being spunked on screen, there’s an old-timer complaining it’s being overhyped and overproduced in the manner of Sky Sports’s weekly ‘Super Incredible Football Sunday. And it’s live!!!!!’ extravaganzas.

Having not seen it, I’m not really in a position to comment. But whatever your thoughts on the film itself, which has generally been very well received (as these fairly typical reviews in Whitelines and Snowboarder demonstrate), it’s hard to argue that the on-screen expense and creativity on display has been more than matched by the creativity involved in the marketing strategy.

As well as the usual blanket coverage in the core snow media, which has been almost universally positive, and the carefully plotted and released teasers in the build up to the film (the ‘Metal’ trailer was a nice touch) there has been some pretty impressive cross platform (ahem) ‘synergy’ going on as marketing types would say.

There’s the “>Art of Flight limited edition book. The Art of Flight limited edition Travis Rice pro model. The online computer game. The Art of Flight Tour Posters.

Anything else? How about the exclusive Justin Timberlake interview with Travis Rice on Timbo’s own website? Hell, JT even turned up at the New York premiere (see above), thus garnering even more publicity. And that Asymbol Gallery that is promoting both the book and the screen prints? That would be owned by….none other than Travis Rice.

And it’s interesting to draw a parallel between snowboarding’s other standalone superstar right now, Shaun White, and the two differing approaches. Here you have the two most high profile and possibly talented guys in the snowboarding world. But their standing with their core community could not be any more different. On the one hand, Travis Rice manages to make the most expensive snowboarding film ever, with possibly the most sophisticated marketing angle ever (again – Justin Timberlake?), and comes out of it looking more core than ever. Whereas Shaun White makes a comedy chewing gum commercial and gets absolutely caned for it.

Turns out Travis is as forward-thinking off the screen as he is on a board.

Posted in: ACM, PR, snowboarding, Uncategorized by matt 6 Comments , , , , ,

For The Love – A Story of Overcoming Adversity

Published at: 03:09 pm - Tuesday September 20 2011



One of the big stories doing the rounds last week concerned the cancellation of Groundswell Festival, which had been due to take place in the French surfing town of Hossegor last weekend. When the main investor pulled out at the last minute, the festival was cancelled. The festival organisers had expected 15,000 festival goers to pass through their gates but with only 4,000 tickets sold it meant the festival joined over 30 British festivals that also fell by the wayside this summer. That caused a pretty huge stir throughout the industry, and left a lot of punters and artists who’d travelled a long way to the festival pretty frustrated.

These words come straight from the press release issued by event organisers, Allez – Oop: “Without the support of our investor the financial damage to all the suppliers working on Groundswell would have been much greater after the event than if we stopped now.” Read the whole press release here.

And that would have been that, another familiar story of festival disappointment, if it hadn’t been for the efforts of a small bunch of guys from the Hossegor area, and a handful of artists from the Groundswell line-up. This crew got together to put on a show that meant those 4,000-odd suddenly ticketless festival goers didn’t travel all the way for nothing.



Donavon Frankenreiter, Ben Howard, Mat McHugh and Rich Thomas were four of the artists who stayed to entertain the crowd at the newly named ‘For The Love’ festival which took place in the Salles de Bourdaines, a large hall near to a bar called Le Surfing. Woodie Bouma runs Le Surfing and we had a chat with Woodie who co-organised ‘For The Love’ to try and re-coup some of the money local businesses and the artists had lost: “It was really one of those ‘one drop sent the ripples sailing’ kind of things…there was so much positive energy from people to make this happen…it’s amazing!”

Ben Howard, one of the artists, has become an integral part of the surf scene in the last couple of years, thanks largely to his track, Cloud 9, which was the title track in Kelly Slater’s film of the same name. Ben’s manager and close friend Owain Davies helped Woodie put the festival together and he took a minute out to tell us about his hectic week.

“Everything started to fall together after a lot of hard work, and with Woodie and his army it was always going to happen. We had 1400 people come through the doors, and while I was busy organising everything, Ben had the best surf he’s ever had in France.”

As mentioned before, the Groundswell festival hasn’t been the only festival casualty of the summer, with over 30 British festivals also having the plug pulled on them. It’s believed the reason behind the decline in the festival scene is down to an over-saturation of the market, meaning that people just simply have too many to choose from. With smaller festivals not managing to sell their minimum quota of tickets they’re forced into cancelling the show. It’s not only smaller festivals feeling the pinch either. Bigger festivals are opening their doors, but to smaller crowds than in previous years. Read this Guardian story to get a bigger picture of the state of the British festival industry.

After chatting with a few of the locals, it sounds as though for once this familiar bad-taste-in-mouth festival cancellation story had a happy ending, with ‘For The Love’ going down swimmingly with all those die-hard surf music fans who hung around for the weekend. When we first heard about the impromptu gig being put on in place of the festival, we pictured a small venue, possibly even a bar. So, when we got the pictures through from the festival we were blown away by what a good effort the lads down in Hossegor made to go ahead with this festival and for this we truly doff our caps to them.



Groundswell’s mission statement was to put on a festival that would “celebrate the very essence of surf lifestlye”. For whatever reason, they didn’t manage to pull this off. So there’s something a little heartwarming about the fact that a last-minute crew, fired by that very surfing culture the original festival sought to celebrate, did manage to pull something like this off.
Cheers to Tom Greenhill for the images.

Posted in: Uncategorized by Harry No Comments

What The Vans/Timberland Takeover Tells Us About Action Sports

Published at: 02:09 pm - Monday September 19 2011



Every day brings new evidence that action sports are becoming bigger than ever. This week’s news that VF Corp, the company that owns Vans, purchased Timberland is arguably the most mind-blowing indication yet. Bob Dylan was right: the times they are a changin’.

Thirty years ago, this news would have been greeted with disbelief, but today it barely even warranted a mention in the industry press, with OnBoard, Whitelines, Transworld Business and Transworld Snowboarding all leaving the acquisition off their news pages. This may be down to a number of reasons. Maybe they didn’t find it newsworthy. Or maybe they didn’t even receive the press release. But the most likely explanation is that the industry has changed so drastically in the last fifteen years that such previously industry-shaking news has become positively routine.

The signs are everywhere. Today, universities offer not only courses, but whole degrees based around action sports content: in both Surf Science and Extreme Sports Management. It’s another sign of how society is striving to keep up with the growing demand for action sports to be integrated into everyday life.

Run the numbers and it is easy to understand why: more people are participating in action sports than ever before. This BBC story from last year suggests the number of people participating in the top five extreme sports in the USA to be over 40 million, with skateboarding finishing second behind mountain biking. The BBC even goes as far as to suggest that action sports managed to swerve the killer-downturn of the late naughties thanks to the fact that those who invest in it invest in the lifestyle and see it maybe as a necessity instead of a passing trend, therefore increasing customer loyalty. So it’s official: action sports are recession proof as well.

To get an idea of just how huge action sports are becoming just take a look at Nike. The sports giant started their action sports division SB in an attempt to enter the skateboarding market almost a decade ago. With the introduction of Nike 6.0 in 2005 – aimed at the rest of the action sports market – 6.0 and SB combined are now the fastest growing division at Nike and they expect to double their $390 million business by 2015.

With a global leader like Nike showing their determination and interest in the action sports industry it’s clear to see that this industry is now the biggest of business. Volcom’s recent sale to luxury French company PPR (owners of Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent) highlights the way in which big brands now need to align themselves with action sports.

Which brings us back to VFC and Timberland. Fashions come and go, and maybe the big-wigs over at VF Corps know something that we don’t. Maybe next season’s skate shoe will be pay homage to the likes of Kyle James, seen above ripping Brooklyn a new one in a pair of ‘Timbs’ back in ’97. Far fetched? One thing is for certain: these are strange and new times for action sports.

Posted in: Uncategorized by Harry No Comments

The Glass Ceiling: On The Future of Action Sports Events

Published at: 10:09 am - Monday September 05 2011



The Olympic slopestyle brouhaha and the consistent dissing the ASP has been getting in recent weeks, among other things, has got us thinking about the future for competitive freesports here at ACM Towers. Namely, how is that future going to unfold?

Clearly, our sports are massive like never before. But a fundamental problem must be solved if they are ever going to make the leap across the remaining chasm between core and mainstream: how to tweak formats in a way that all camps – athletes, core spectators and mainstream onlookers, who will only ever turn on a couple of times a year – will understand and appreciate?

The cry from the core camp is always the same. ‘Why should I care? It won’t change the way I enjoy skating/snowboarding/surfing’. Very true – and not just for this sport. After all, if video goal line technology is introduced in football to tweak the format of the professional game, it will have very little effect on how things go down at my weekly Wednesday five-a-side. But change happens anyway. And our sports are no different.



One key difference between football and, say, snowboarding, is the difference in how easy both sports are to understand. Point a camera at a football pitch, or show somebody the highlight of a game like the Germany v Italy semi final at the World Cup in 2006, and it’s fair to say that someone who had never seen the sport before could get caught up in the drama and sporting theatre. That’s not quite the case with action sports, the intricacies of which can take years to understand and appreciate. Hell, even seasoned observers get the trick names wrong.



And that’s one of the major obstacles action sports face before they can achieve true mainstream acceptance. Witness the half pipe at the last Winter Olympics. Much of the hype around that event, particularly in the media, centred around personalities, and pundits repeatedly telling the uninitiated how hard and dangerous tricks like double corks are. And it worked, in a way. Even my Mum had an opinion on the double cork by the time Shaun White stepped onto the podium. But as a means of maintaining interest in the sport, is it not particularly sustainable. At some point, punters are going to have to get what is going on if they are ever going to turn on their TVs in large numbers.



So what’s the solution? It’s a debate that is being played out right now across action sports, as event organisers experiment with formats and judging to try and achieve this delicate balance. TV is certainly the main driving force behind this effort. Rumours have been swirling for months that the only reason slopestyle has been fast tracked into Sochi 2014 is at the behest of NBC, the TV company that control the rights to the Winter Olympics. It also explains the success of the X-Games, at an event that has clearly been designed to look good on TV first and foremost. Incidentally, I also heard an interesting anecdote from Ed Leigh recently about how the only snowboarding event the BBC will touch for Ski Sunday is the Air and Style – purely because they feel it’s the only event where the production levels are high enough. Take a look at the footage above to see what you think.

Looked at from this perspective, the IOC’s preference to work with FIS on snowboarding makes a kind of sense. FIS might not have been running snowboarding contests very long, but they have certainly been running large scale, TV-friendly ski comps for a very long time indeed.

So what all that in mind, it’s interesting to speculate how things will turn out. In snowboarding, all eyes will understandably be on the World Snowboarding Championships in Oslo next February. Run by the people behind the TTR, who have been protesting the most loudly against the FIS monopoly on snowboarding at the Olympics, it is surely going to be a competition that reflects their vision of how such events should be run. In surfing, the Quik Pro in New York is surely another effort to take the sport to the masses. After all that town has waves, but it would’t be for first choice to run a contest if waves were the sole priority.



And what about skateboarding? it might not be an Olympic sport yet (or ever, to the relief of most skaters), but events like the Street League and the recent Maloof Money Cup (above) are probably the most innovative examples of yet of an action sport attempting to package their complex offering for both audiences.

In truth, we’ve got no idea how this will turn out. It’s a story that will run as long as these sports exist. One thing is for sure: better this evolution is in the hands of those with the knowledge and expertise to truly do justice to their passions, than those solely attracted by the cash and opportunities suddenly on offer. Need a reason why you should care? There’s one.

Posted in: ACM, Contests, skateboarding, snowboarding, surfing by matt 13 Comments

Broken

Published at: 10:09 am - Thursday September 01 2011



All was going well. Several of the office guys had got back into skating, and with a few more friends from Brighton we’d started to visit the nearby skateparks: Cuckfield, Crawley, Shoreham Bowl, and Angerming. Yeah we weren’t the Bones Brigade, but we were having fun cruising around the concrete bowls, and riding the mini ramp transitions. Grinds were being thrown down again, frontside rocks being dished out, and even the odd blunt was landed. Not by me I should add.

True, we weren’t exactly spring chickens (on one trip to Unit One in Rochester we worked out the combined age in the car was 180 years old), but we weren’t the oldest guys in the parks either. I even pitched the older skater story to the Telegraph, based on the idea that the rebirth of skating was creating a Rad Dad phenomenon, where older guys were hitting the skateparks again with their kids.

They commissioned the piece, so I went on the Middle Aged Shred forum to find dads and kids who fitted the bill. My post aroused a fair bit of suspicion but that was understandable, given the bad press skating often gets. In fact given the bad press that action sports in general get. But by me? Never. I ride boards, I know how these sports should be broadcast. I don’t take the piss.

And then a disastrous month. Firstly, Lucozade decided to shoot a skateboarding advert down the very roads some of our crew use to get to the office (meaning from then on, passers by would think we’re buying into a fizzy drinks-based lifestyle. Oh, the shame of it).



And then the Telegraph piece came out. I got a mixed reception from the Middle Aged Shred website forum, with one person even suggesting they should all “just spam the fucker” – ie: me – when the Telegraph editor decided to hold the piece back for a week. Such anger, about a skateboarding article being a week late.

And the worst thing of all? When the article did finally did come out, I had to read it from my hospital bed, because in the intervening week, I hung up on the coping at Crawley skatepark and fractured my hip. The result? This little lot 9below) holding my femur together, and months of physio and rehab till I”m back skating again.



Skateboarding is amazing, but it’s a fickle mistress. And if you’re 30+, get some pads yeah?

Posted in: ACM, Random, skateboarding, Uncategorized by chrismoran 2 Comments , , ,

Storm In A Twit Cup: The Bruce Irons and Chopes Controversy

Published at: 10:08 am - Thursday August 25 2011



Another day, another surfing-themed Twitter storm in a teacup. And in Tahiti of all places. Over the last few days, the #putBruceinchopes hashtag has gained traction in the surfing world. Making no sense? Well, the ‘Bruce’ in question is Bruce Irons, and ‘Chopes’ is the nickname of the infamous wave of Teahupoo, where the latest elite pro surfing competition, The Billabong Pro, is being held this week. That (above) is Bruce’s late brother Andy ruling the wave back in 2002.



Bruce, of course, is also a famous big-wave surfer in his own right. In the lead up to this year’s event, Bruce was in Tahiti to both surf in the trials event, and to hang with his good mate and world title hopeful Joel Parkinson. Given that Andy won last year’s event (see clip above) and has since died, it’s fair to say that there’s been a fairly large emotional cloud hanging over Chopes this year, as Bruce alluded to when he in tribute to Andy he rode his brother’s winning board in his trials heat. So far, so good. A dead brother, a tribute and a beautiful island. 

Until two things happened. Bruce lost in small waves in the trials, thus meaning he’d be ineligible for the event itself. And a huge storm formed, promising some of the biggest and heaviest waves possibly ever seen for a pro surfing competition. 

It’s at this stage that things got even more emotional and at points extremely political. It started when fellow Hawaiian surfer Jamie O’Brien (@whoisJOB) told his 30-odd thousand followers that it was ludicrous that one of the world’s best big wave surfers couldn’t both a) defend his brother’s title and b) showcase his skills at a wave that he is synonymous with. Especially during a swell like this.



The ensuing #putBruceinChopes movement was soon dominating Twitter timelines, with fellow surfers Kelly Slater (a recent convert, but making up for lost Twitter time with real zeal) retweeting and endorsing it.



Another Hawaiian surfer Dusty Payne was soon telling stab.com that Bruce should be given a direct invite into the contest, regardless of his trial results, “He’s the best backside tuberider in the world. He’s the best tuberider in the world, period. It only makes sense for him to be in there. His brother won the event last year, qualified for tour this year, which is a spot, y’know? I think an exception should’ve been made by the ASP to let him in the event.”

Next, an extremely vocal group of surf bloggers (led by Rottmouth, below) got in on the act, calling out the ASP and event (and Andy’s) sponsor Billabong in particular for their role on not letting Bruce surf the comp.



It would obviously be a great story, and a nice gesture. But as has been pointed by the under-siege ASP, rules are rules. And, with the event underway, it is pretty much impossible to grant Bruce (or anyone else for that matter) a start without kicking someone else off the event unfairly, no matter what the Twitter trend chart is saying. Nick Carroll explains why pretty clearly here.





Late last night, Billabong and the ASP appeared to soften their stance, saying that Bruce would be able to free surf for half an hour between the semi finals and final during the event. A fair compromise? Not according to Jamie O’Brien, who was once again on the Twitter offensive. It’s another example of the way AI’s passing has revealed a massive disconnect between what you might term core and corporate surfers: pro surfers like Jamie O’Brien, bloggers such as Rottmouth and grass-roots surfers that do seem to be genuinely angry about this, and brands and institutions such as Billabong and the ASP. Expect more of these as action sports sports continue too grow at the rate they are.

Meanwhile the swell is beginning to build, and the surfers are getting nervous. Bruce will be there, sitting in the channel watching inferior surfers fail where he would have succeeded. He might not get the chance to defend his dead brother’s title, but he still might put on a show that will keep the Twitter storm-in-a-teacup going for another few days at least. To watch the event live (and we suggest you do) check out www.aspworldtour.com

Posted in: PR, surfing by matt No Comments

Thoughts on Concrete Circus

Published at: 10:08 am - Friday August 19 2011



Last Monday saw what must have been the highest profile action sports’ (or ‘street sports’, as it was referred to throughout the programme) TV slot ever, with the 90 minute documentary Concrete Circus on Channel 4.

Director Mike Christie previously directed Jump London, which followed a couple of freerunners around London, back in 2003. I remember speaking to Sidewalk writer Ben Powell after that was aired, and we both said the same thing: imagine if they’d done the same thing with a skater and a real skate filmer. It could have been epic.



That was pretty much the premise for Concrete Circus, which saw four teams (Danny MacAskill and Stu Thomson, top; Killian Martin and Brett Novak, above; Blue, Phil Doyle and Claudiu Voicu; Keelan Phillips and Kendy Ty) from different ‘street sports’ (that phrase again) brought together and given a deadline and nice big budgets to try and surpass their previous online virals, all of which had, as plummy-voiced narrator Dominic West kept informing us, ‘gone viral‘.



The films themselves were visually amazing with obviously outstanding riding/parkouring (if that’s the technical term. Sorry free runners), although personally I wasn’t hugely keen on the slightly cheesy narrative in the parkour one (above), or the overly stylised nature of the Keelan Phillips/Kendy Ty offering (below).



So – was it any good? On the whole, I thought it was, even if I saw my Twitter stream filling up with plenty of negative comments from action sports industry types while the show was on. I can partially understand why – it was too long and drawn-out, there were some pretty wince-inducing moments in the script (such as the description of flatland BMX as ‘breakdancing on a bike’) and the end ‘Barbican Bolero’ section (below), was a bit too much like, well, Torvill and Dean’s Bolero for my liking.



All that carping aside, I did think it was a good achievement. Firstly, that Channel 4 are dedicating 90 minutes of primetime to these sports, and treating them so seriously, is a sign of how far we’ve come. That would have been a laughable prospect twenty years ago when I started skateboarding.

Secondly, I liked how the film at least tried to put all these sports and riders into their proper context, the odd duff note aside. Showing action sports to the mainstream without a) alienating the core audience b) completely confusing the newcomers, is a pretty difficult trick and I’ve seen some of the biggest brands in action sports get it hopelessly wrong. Similarly, when mainstream filmers get the chance to film action sports for the first time, it can be a disaster. We’re not talking about football here, where you point a camera at a pitch and it’s pretty obvious what’s going on. These are complex sports that don’t easily translate. There’s a reason why backflips get the biggest cheers at inner-city rail jams featuring the world’s most technical snowboarders, after all. In that light, I thought Concrete Circus was a good accomplishment.

Posted in: films, skateboarding by matt 1 Comment , , , , ,

Longboarding is Back: 2011 Relentless Boardmasters

Published at: 10:08 am - Tuesday August 16 2011

Tuaca Men’s Longboard final Relentless Energy Drink Boardmasters 2011 from Boardmasters TV on Vimeo.

I just got back from Boardmasters in Newquay. It was the usual carnage – late nights, old friends, and a stay at the swanky four star Headland Hotel (thanks Vans and Canoe pals for that one).



The best bit for me was getting to surf with French ripper and current ASP World no 2 Antoine Delpero, who went on to win the first ASP 3-start Tuaca Longboard Pro against Ben Skindog Skinner on the Sunday. Longboarding has been undergoing something of a renaissance recently, and seeing Antoine surf at first hand I could understand why. He made three foot onshore Fistral look very good indeed, and I learned a few things following him out through the slop and watching him take ten times more waves than everyone else.



Probably more than in other sport, the retro angle in surfing has undergone a major resurgence in the last few years. Part fashion, part function, part a nod to the carefree days of the early ’60s, the popularity  of longboarding is a prime example. The push has come from a modern breed of surfer who combine old school moves with the latest of modern surfing’s manoeuvres, and get paid serious cash for their efforts. Surfers like Antoine and Skindog have one eye on surfing’s heritage and the other on a new type of progression. In both looking back and looking forward, and combining the two with flair and retro style, they’ve made longboarding both cool and relevant. No wonder then it’s so bloody popular. And, incidentally, perfect for the UK’s uniquely crumbly waves.

Posted in: ACM, Journalism, surfing, Travel by matt No Comments , , ,

Move/Eat/Learn Virals

Published at: 12:08 pm - Tuesday August 09 2011

A series of three videos hit the internet this week, and became the most watched travel virals since the “Where the Hell is Matt” film – which is up to 16-million hits on YouTube. Remember him? The dancing dude who filmed himself juggling on the spot in various locations around the world?

The crucial difference with Rick Mereki’s new films is that they were commissioned by STA Travel Australia, who specialise in round the world trips and gap-year jaunts for young Aussies. The three films are here:

“Move”



“Eat”

EAT from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

“Learn”

LEARN from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

Each film has foresaken a narrative thread and instead gone for a snappy edits to suggest the fun elements to be found in traveling. They are, essentially, the film equivalent of a mood board, aimed at showing young Aussies what’s out there in the big wide world.

STA must be overwhelmed with the success of the films. In just 6-days since their release, the films have picked up plenty of mainstream coverage (such as this this blog at the Guardian) and featured on enough travel blogs to get over 3-million views for Move, over 1-million for Learn and just under a million for Eat.

It just goes to show that for a small outlay (the film’s tagline is a call-sheet of sorts: “3 guys, 44 days, 11 countries, 18 flights, 38 thousand miles, an exploding volcano, 2 cameras and almost a terabyte of footage”) and a courageous, creative approach, you can reach a lot of people. It’ll be interesting to see the figures in six months or so time.

Posted in: films, PR, Uncategorized by matt No Comments

Peeping Behind The Curtain: Outside v Surfing

Published at: 10:08 am - Monday August 08 2011



For most people the most fascinating aspect of the recent News International phone hacking scandal is what it has revealed about the reality of how the press works, and the somewhat murky relationship between big business, the media and the world of PR. It was a peep behind the curtain, and no mistake.

As something of an action sports press lifer, being an ex-editor of Whitelines magazine and long-time contributor to many core press titles over the last 15 years, I was also intrigued. That’s because I know from experience that there’s long been a sometimes unhealthy relationship between brands and the press in action sports. When small titles only shift between 10,000 and 80,000 copies a month, they rely on brands’ ad spend to survive, which in turn means that companies often wield a fairly large amount of unspoken influence on the content of this magazines. As a writer, you quickly learn to accept and ignore this fairly large elephant in the room. Still, it does exist.

Now, we’re not in the same territory as News International and NOTW here, but in recent weeks we’ve had our own little example of the curtain being pulled back to reveal something of the truth of this relationship, thanks to the industry reaction to Outside magazine’s recent stories on the death of Andy Irons.

When AI’s tragic death became public, most core and mainstream press reactions chose to celebrate his life and accomplishments rather than dwell on any of the rumours of substance abuse that were doing the rounds. The prevailing mood in the industry was that the circumstances of his death had little to do with his exemplary surfing life, which is what should really be celebrated. This piece by Chas Smith was pretty representative

The notable exception was American outdoor bible Outside, which published two pieces on Andy’s death, both by Brad Melekian. The first broke cover to openly challenge the surfing community’s (and the surfing press in particular) whitewash of Andy’s problems. It’s fair to say that this piece did not go down too well in the surfing and action sports community.



Now the second piece, which in part dealt with this reaction from the press and Andy’s sponsors Billabong, has caused a further stir in the form of a public Twitter spat between Outside staffers and some members of the core surf community, notably ex pro-snowboarder Circe Wallace (@CirceSnow) and surf writer Chas Smith (@chasdoesntsurf) of Stab Magazine.



Both sides’ arguments can be quickly summed up by two tweets: Chas Smith of Stab Magazine’s ‘They didn’t know Andy Irons and don’t know the surf family. So they can take their self-righteousness with them to hell’, and Outside magazine Senior Editor Grayson Schaffer’s riposte: ‘What happened 2 the chas who used to write for the sake of truth?’ (he’s referring to this piece)



But what I find fascinating here (other than rubbernecking at a good old public scrap – some of the tweets are pretty vicious) is what this reveals about the changing landscape of board sports culture, and how the old familiar relationship between the industry and press may soon have to adapt as the sports rapidly grow up, and quickly.

After all, surfing, snowboarding and even skateboarding have grown to the point where something like Andy Iron’s death is of massive public interest beyond the action sports world, and as such was a legit object of interest to a magazine like Outside. Reports on AI’s death appeared everywhere from the Guardian to the New York Times . In hindsight, the idea that action sports could control the way his death was represented with the old ‘keep it in the family’ approach was probably always doomed to failure from the start. And it raises another question – if this piece had run in the New York Times or Wall Street Journal, would people from the action sports industry be tweeting angrily to those responsible? Doubtful, to say the least.

The other interesting point is what it adds to the debate begun by Ben Mondy last week, in his blog about old and new media. True, Twitter helped spread the Outside take on events quickly. But in the end, it was an old fashioned bit of in-depth journalism that broke the story. Much like how the Guardian skewered News International over the phone-hacking scandal.

Posted in: Journalism, PR, surfing by matt No Comments , , , ,
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