by Board Retailers Association | Dec 10, 2019 | Industry, News, Surf, Women's Market
The Surfer Awards Fan Favorite Poll Results Are In…And Some Are Shocking YOUR CHOICES FOR BEST SURFER, MOVIE OF THE YEAR, BEST BARREL AND MORE FOR 2019 DECEMBER 10, 2019 BY TODD PRODANOVICH In case you hadn’t heard, last Thursday was the capital-b Biggest Night in Surfing. It was a big ol’ party at Turtle Bay Resort on the North Shore of Oahu, where elite surfers dressed to the nines, The Mattson 2 melted some faces and gorgeous bronze statues were handed to the year’s most impressive surfers. One of the biggest shifts in our sweeping overhaul of the Awards this year was that all the winners in the live show were crowned by the Surfer Awards Academy, consisting of nearly 50 experts and icons like Gerry Lopez, Bruce Irons, Albee Layer, Taylor Steele, Carissa Moore and many many more (the only exception to this rule is the award for Battle of the Vlogs, which was awarded based on the Fan Favorite Poll). The Academy was broken into panels of 10 judges based on their specific expertise, and judges couldn’t vote in categories they were nominated in, of course (you can see the full results voted by the Academy here)). But we didn’t just want to know how surfing’s elite felt about the year in surfing, so we decided to do a Fan Favorite Poll to run in tandem with the Academy vote. The fan poll winners may not be crowned on the night of the big show, but it certainly does give a different kind of bragging rights to the winners—the people’s champs, as they were. What follows are your picks for the Surfer...
by Board Retailers Association | Dec 10, 2019 | Industry, News, Point of Sale, Private Label, Resources, Skateboard, Snowboard, SUP, Surf, Trade Shows, Vision, Wake Surf, Wakeboard, Women's Market
Such an outstanding event. Massive thanks to the Distinguished Panel and Supporting Event Partners including Surfing Heritage and Culture Center, Locally, Solite Boots, Action Watch, Exchange Collective and Sambazon as well as all of the Retailers, Brands and Vendors that attended this outstanding Regional Retailer Roundtable Event. Check out the Highlight Reel by clicking below. Filmed and Edited by Noah Schuler. The next BRA Regional Roundtable will happen at Surf Expo in the Learning Lounge on January 9, 2020 at 4 pm. For additional details on this and other upcoming BRA events, click:...
by Board Retailers Association | Dec 6, 2019 | Industry, News, Surf, Women's Market
PRESS RELEASES | Published Dec 6, 2019 on Shop Eat Surf Surfing celebrated its biggest night of the year last night with the 49th annual Surfer Awards, held at Turtle Bay Resort on the fabled North Shore of Oahu. The industry’s most prestigious award show celebrated the year’s greatest achievements in surfing and surf filmmaking, with newly-crowned four-time world champion Carissa Moore winning the Women’s Best Surfer award, and 2019 world title hopeful Italo Ferreira claiming the Men’s Best Surfer award. Director Michael Oblowitz received the Movie of the Year award for “Heavy Water”, a documentary about the life of one of surfing’s most venerated big-wave chargers and aerial pioneers, Nathan Fletcher. This year’s Surfer Awards saw the addition of new categories, allowing for an equal number of performance awards for both men and women for the first time in the show’s history. In addition to Carissa Moore’s Women’s Best Surfer win, big-wave surfer Justine Dupont took top honors in the Women’s Heavy Water category, Courtney Conlogue claimed Women’s Best Maneuver, Vahine Feirro took Women’s Best Barrel and local Hawaiian longboarder Kelia Moniz elegantly earned the Women’s Best Style award. Nearly all of the night’s big winners were chosen by the Surfer Awards Academy, which consists of surf experts, including stylish ‘70s legend Gerry Lopez, modern aerial maestro Albee Layer, Hawaiian ripper Coco Ho, and many more icons of the surfing world. The one award of the night that was not voted on by the Surfer Awards Academy was the Battle of the Vlogs award, which celebrated surfing’s most beloved YouTube stars and was voted on by the surfing public as...
by Board Retailers Association | Dec 5, 2019 | Industry, News, Skateboard
ESPN Images Considered the godfather of adaptive skateboarding, Jon Comer’s influence on skateboarding transcended boundaries and pushed the awareness of adaptive skating to the forefront. Jon Comer, the first pro skateboarder with a prosthetic leg, died on Thursday, Dec. 5 at age 43. Comer turned pro in the mid-1990s and won fans around the world with his vert and concrete skatepark videos, including a full part in the 1999 Powell video ‘Magic,’ inspiring a generation of athletes with disabilities to take up skateboarding and other action sports. “It goes without saying: Jon Comer was the godfather of adaptive skateboarding,” says Daniel Gale, the sport organizer for adaptive sports at X Games including the Adaptive Skateboard Park event that debuted as a medal event at X Games Minneapolis 2019. “A lot of skaters seeing his videos and photos in magazines in the ’90s didn’t even immediately notice the prosthetic leg. The stuff that he was doing on vert ramps on a prosthetic leg when nobody else was, was as good as just about any other pro skateboarder at the time.” Comer injured his right foot in a car accident when he was four years old, and had it amputated several years later, at age 7. It didn’t stop him from taking up skateboarding at age 12. The 2004 documentary ‘Never Been Done: The Jon Comer Story,’ directed by Matthew J. Powers, chronicles his life and skateboarding career and won awards that year at the San Diego Film Festival, Houston International Film Festival, Tiburon International Film Festival, and the X-Dance Film Festival. Comer was humble about his accomplishments when interviewed for...
by Board Retailers Association | Dec 3, 2019 | Industry, News, Resources, Snowboard, Statistics, Sustainability, Trade Shows
Outdoor Industry Association (OIA) is excited to announce our Outdoor Retailer Outdoor + Snow Show 2020 education lineup. OIA will be kicking things off two days before the show with Sustainable Business Innovation education and workshops. Don’t miss this opportunity to discuss climate strategy with REI, determine best practices for chemicals management and implement the Higg Index to track your sustainability efforts. Start day one of the show off right with breakfast co-hosted by OIA and Snowsports Industries America (SIA), exploring the impacts of climate change on our industry. In addition to sessions, throughout each day OIA will also be hosting daily lunches to share outdoor participation stats, how you can protect your business while reducing your impact and efforts to build the outdoor industry employment pipeline. View full agenda here. For more valuable industry press releases and articles, click on...
by Board Retailers Association | Nov 26, 2019 | Associate Members, Industry, News, Resources, Skateboard, Statistics, Surf, Women's Market
By Tiffany Montgomery | Published Nov 26, 2019 October is typically not a blockbuster month at retail because it falls after the back-to-school rush and before holiday shopping kicks in. However, this October, cash registers at core stores were ringing like crazy with sales on the ActionWatch Retail Panel jumping 15%, according to ActionWatch’s Patrik Schmidle. Year-to-date, the panel has recorded a 4% increase. In October, unit sales jumped 14% despite a slight increase in average selling prices. The sales increases were broad-based with both men’s and women’s growing 15%. All geographies also showed growth, led by the Northwest at 23%. Several categories increased double digits, including a 21% increase in apparel, a 15% jump in footwear, an 11% rise in hardgoods, and a 10% increase in accessories. Even wetsuits, which have been soft, posted a 1% gain. Brand Breakdown Apparel Sisstr, Vuori, Burton and Patagonia are among the fastest growing apparel brands. Boardriders’ brands combined grew moderately at 3%. However, Dot Dash, DC Shoes, Element, Roxy and RVCA increased double digits. Quiksilver and Billabong also grew, but in the single digits. Rip Curl had a good month in bottoms and wetsuits. Volcom had a good month in T-Shirts and accessories. O’Neill Clothing had a good month in tops, bottoms and hats. Vissla had a good month in jackets, hats and wetsuits. Hurley also had a good month across the board, including bottoms, shirts and accessories. Hurley long-sleeve T-shirts grew triple digits. Footwear Oofos, Flojos, Havaianas and Hey Dude were among the fastest growing footwear brands, but some of the more established players such as Vans, Nike SB and New Balance also showed...
