Infectious has always made kick-ass gadget skins, wall stickers and car decals, but now they’re expanding out into skateboard decks too with their recent purchase of PopDeck.
The link includes some very unique designs from some of the top artists in the industry right now, and they’re priced so that normal people can afford to add a little style to their skateboarding, or even their wall if the art is just too nice to grind away.
Dirk Auer recently set a new world record by speeding down an 860-meter roller coaster track on a pair of in-line skates that he built himself after setting the world record for the fastest in-line skating at 190mph while being towed behind a Porsche GT2.
Where do I sign up?
[Via: Daily Mail]
Robbie Maddison has already been featured on DYH a few times for his crazy, two-wheeled stunts, which means it should come as no surprise that he’s back for another death defying jump.
This time, he used his motorcycle to no-handed back-flip over the Thames River in London thanks to the raised roadway of the famous bridge.
Check it out:
Hot on the heels of Marisa Miller’s appearance, Bar Refaeli has been given the honor of gracing the cover of the 2009 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition.
As expected, this year’s issue packs quite a few girls in, but not a lot of bikini, and Danica Patrick even makes an appearance to further remove herself from the sport that she’s supposed to be good at.
[Sports Illustrated - 2009 Swimsuit Edition]
When Cheetah Ultra Sports set out to build a new snowboard, they weren’t worried about lifestyles, cultures or snazzy graphics. Their goal was entirely technical: To design and build a better snowboard without rules or limitations of any kind.
Four years later, and after countless hours of research and development, they think they’ve reached that goal with The Whip FR-117, aka The Lamborghini of Snowboards.
According to Cheetah, The Whip will:
- Fit better.
- Feel lighter.
- Go faster.
- Cruise smoother.
- Turn quicker.
- Edge harder.
- Carve sharper.
- Jump higher.
- Land softer.
And it will do all that without chatter, and without heel or toe drag. They’re even claiming that most experienced riders will have to relax their riding style just to get greater performance out of the board, because it’s so easy to ride.
The key to The Whip’s performance is an open V hull that is specifically designed for speed and maneuverability. They board is made out of wood, plastic, steel edges and carbon composite, and by reducing the amount of board that comes in contact with the snow, this smaller surface creates less drag, which translates into more gliding speed, better maneuverability, quicker edge-to-edge transitions, and more.
For now, The Whip is being hand made in very limited production, and each board is carefully hand crafted and will include an individual serial number, so if you want one, get your name on the waiting list and put down $1899 for a pre-order, and you’ll be killing the slopes in no time.
[Cheetah Ultra Sports - The Whip]
[Via: Core77]
Red Bull loves bringing sports to where they’ve never been before, so on Thursday, February 5th, 16 of the world’s best snowboarders, iconic Olympic gold medalist Shaun White, freestyle / backcountry legend Travis Rice, ultra-progressive phenomenon Pat Moore, Burton’s Kevin Pearce, Mikkel Bang, Danny Davis, Kohei Kubo, Kazuhiro Kakubo, Nitro’s Andreas Wiig, DC’s Torstein Horgmo, Forum’s Jake Blauvelt and Greg Bretz, Rome’s Bjorn Leines and Ride’s JJ Thomas will hit the slopes of New York City to battle it out for $100,000 in prize money.
How will they hold a snowboarding competition in a city without slopes?
Easy: They’ll build their own.
The monster backcountry-style mountain, which will tower more than 90 feet above the ground, features a huge hill, a three-story, step-up style landing ramp, and three different kinds of snow. Having trouble picturing what 90 feet looks like? Here’s a sneak peak of the ramp being set up:
For reference, each of those colored boxes is a shipping container, and there are 10 levels of them holding up the structure.
If you’re in New York, this is a can’t miss event, but if you can’t make it in person, you can still catch it live on Go211.com, or on NBC on Sunday, Feb. 15th.
[Photo Via: TheJamesC]
If you missed last night’s Red Bull: New Year. No Limits. event in Las Vegas, then worry not, because Red Bull has kindly uploaded footage from the event to YouTube in HD.
(Side Note: It’s good to see a company finally understand that people want instant access to television content online and in HD so that you don’t have to sift through a bunch of low quality screen grabs that people took of their own TV!)
First, there was Rhys Millen’s truck backflip attempt:
And then Robbie Maddison jumped onto, and then back off of the Arc de Triomphe at the Paris hotel:
Great stuff, and I’m glad to see they both made it out of there (relatively) unscathed!
Remember last year when Rhys Millen managed to miss the landing pit during his truck backflip practice and break three vertebrae in his neck and compress and break two vertebrae in his back?
Well apparently his doctors have given him the go and he’s going to give it another try this New Year’s Eve during the second annual Red Bull New Year No Limits event, and he’s even posted a video of the crash to wet everyone’s appetite:
According to Rhys:
Last year we attempted what was before then thought impossible. Laws of physics and vehicle dynamics were pushed to the limits with success, but failure came in one small mis-calculation. My body can be broken but my mind cannot. This year, people will witness the first ramp to ramp back flip in an off-road truck – ever.
In addition to Rhys’ record setting attempt, Robbie Maddison will also be breaking a record during the event as he attempts to jump over 100 feet into the air and land atop the replical Arc de Triomphe in front of Paris Las Vegas. He’ll then drop off the Arc and freefall for more than 50 feet to land on a massive landing ramp below.
I know I’ll be tuning in; will you?
[Red Bull - New Year No Limits]
When you slow down the movements of a skateboarder as he goes through a set of tricks, the intricacy of each move, and the difficulty of each moment become apparent like never before.
By shooting at 120 frames per second using the new RED camera, Opus Magnum Productions was able to create this beautiful film, called simply: “Skate”.
After Jake Brown fell last year during the X-Games Big Air Skateboarding event, it seemed like things couldn’t get much worse.
However, Danny Way decided that this year, he too was going to prove that he can take a fall by catching his ankles/shins on the coping, and flipping to flat bottom some twenty feet below.
Keep in mind that the ramp itself is 20+ feet tall, and Danny soars some 20+ feet out of the top of the ramp, so he’s basically falling out of a fifth story window, and then getting hit by a baseball bat on the way down.
And he walked away.
Amazing.
[EXPN]
Ken Block and Travis Pastrana look like they’re trying out for the next superman movie on this cover shoot for Racer X magazine.
The stunt involved Travis backflipping his MotoX bike over Block’s Subaru, and then fire was added in just for fun (and to keep things interesting).
When asked about the stunt, Block replied “Glad Travis didn’t hit his head on the top of my car, and at least I didn’t break my back this time.”
Nice.
[Racer X]
[Via: 0-60Mag]
Cameron Hughes is a professional superfan; paid by team owners to get crowds on their feet and to create team spirit wherever he goes.
“I’m that guy,” says Hughes “the funny, happy, dancing, possibly very drunk guy you’ve seen at the ballpark at least once.”
But he’s not drunk (he says he never drinks before games, and prefers to down three Red Bulls instead), and he’s not just doing it for fun either. Teams pay him an average of $2,000 per game to work his magic in the stands, and when you consider the fact that he works an average of 80 to 90 games per year, you’ll see that he’s making a comfortable six-figure salary by whipping fans, and maybe even you, into a frenzy.
So how did Cameron get his start?
After college, he moved to Los Angeles and tried to make it as an actor. At a Dodgers game, he put his acting skills to work in the stands, and was approached by the team about hiring him to do his “superfan” gig full time. Soon word of Cameron’s skills spread from team to team, and he started receiving unsolicited offers from all across the country. Before he knew it, the acting career was out the window, and he was doing a new kind of acting at any game that needed a little more spirit.
So keep Cameron in mind the next time you’re at a game and wondering what the guy dancing through the stands is doing, because he just might be paying the bills from your fun.
[Portfolio - Superfan Cameron Hughes]
What’s the highest you can jump a motorcycle out of a quarter pipe?
Ronnie Renner and the Red Bull Experiment decided to find out, and on July 11, in front of thousands of fans on the Santa Monica pier, he sailed some 59’2” trough the air and upside down to set a new world record:
I’m a big fan of outside the box thinking, but this one takes the cake:
During the 1994 Shell Caribbean Cub between Barbados and Grenada,
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Barbados needed to win the game by two clear goals in order to progress to the next round. Now the trouble was caused by a daft rule in the competition which stated that in the event of a game going to penalty kicks, the winner of the penalty kicks would be awarded a 2-0 victory.
With 5 minutes to go, Barbados were leading 2-1, and going out of the tournament (because they needed to win by 2 clear goals). Then, when they realized they were probably not going to score against Grenada’s massed defense, they turned round, and deliberately scored on their own goal to level the scores and take the game into penalties. Grenada, themselves not being stupid, realized what was going on, and then attempted to score an own goal themselves. However, the Barbados players started defending their opponents goal to prevent this.
In the last five minutes, spectators were treated to the incredible sight of both team’s defending their opponents goal against attackers desperately trying to score an own goal and goalkeepers trying to throw the ball into their own net. The game went to penalties, which Barbados won and so were awarded a 2-0 victory and progressed to the next round.
On August 31, join a million of your closest friends for Nike’s The Human Race, a 10K that takes place in 25 cities around the world, as well as in your own backyard thanks to Nike+ technology.
If you can’t make it to one of the designated areas on the day of the run, but you’ve got a Nike+ kit, simply register for the event, synchronize your watch, and run when everyone else does.
The goal is to get 1,000,000 people to run together, and to raise money for The UN Refugee Agency, the Lance Armstrong Foundation, and the WWF.
Think you’re up to the challenge?
Then sign up, and start breaking in those long lost running shoes once again.
Each year, the English town of Ashbourne gathers during Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday for a sport with one simple rule: Don’t kill anyone.
To divide up the teams, the townspeople simply group up based on where they were born. Those born north of the town river are the Up’Ards, and those born south of the river are the Down’Ards.
The field of play is three miles long, with a town mills on either end, and to score, a team must bang the custom painted ball against the wall three times.
So just how intense is Royal Shrovetide Football?
Well, to get ready for the game, all stores and shops board up their windows, and all cars are parked outside of city limits. In short: These guys mean business.
According to the rules, once the ball is in play, it’s basically a free-for-all towards one of the goal lines. Unnecessary roughness is “heavily frowned upon”, but besides that, it’s every man for himself.
A three mile long game of football with no pads, no rules, and town pride on the line?
Sign me up!
[Wikipedia - Royal Shrovetide Football]
[Via: The Fan Manual]
If all goes according to plan, Michel Fournier will complete a two decade and $20 million long journey today to balloon into the upper reaches of the atmosphere and then skydive back down in what he’s calling Le Grad Saut, or, The Great Leap.
His leap begins on the ground, where he will load into a 10 foot tall pressurized gondola that will hang from the bottom of a 650-foot balloon. This balloon will take him to a height of 130,000 feet (25 miles) over the course of two-hours, at which point he will open the door and step into the blackness of space.
To survive the fall, which will last for a full 15 minutes, he’s going to be wearing a special space suit and a parachute that is designed to automatically deploy when he’s 5,000 feet above the ground.
Along the way, he will reach, and then cross the speed of sound. (And then top out at a speed of around 1,000 MPH) If that sounds crazy, it is. Scientists are still unsure of what will happen when a person crosses the sound barrier unaided.
With those speeds, Fournier will also be breaking four new records: fastest free fall, longest free fall, highest altitude for a human balloon flight and highest parachute jump.
So what are the potential risks?
If his suit fails, the pressure would cause his blood could boil, and he would loose consciousness in less than five seconds. (Which sounds like a blessing if your blood is boiling during those five seconds!)
His first try was yesterday, and was canceled due to weather related complications, so let’s hope that today provides Michel with smoother sailing, and that he finds his way back to Earth in one piece!
[Via: The New York Times]
With a Pringles can, a box cutter, and a little bit of time, you too can make your own mini-golf holes that are perfect for both quick games and extended competitions.
Just remember to eat the Pringles first!
[Instructables - Pringles Golf]
Remember when you thought your life was hard?
In this video, Tony Hawk interviews Tommy Carroll, who hasn’t let anything stop him from skateboarding.
Including the fact that he’s 100% blind!
Cheese Racing is a sport that was pioneered back in 1997, when someone discovered that processed cheese slices thrown on the BBQ will actually boil inside of their plastic pouches, inflating the bag and baffling the mind.
The rules are simple:
- Each player throws a slice of cheese onto the BBQ.
- The player whose cheese fully inflates first wins!
The CRASS (Cheese Racing Association) has a full set of rules, but if you follow those two, you’ll pretty much guarantee a fair fight.
Also, though their have been zero fatalities so far from cheese racing, you must keep in mind that this is an extremely dangerous sport, and not one that should ever be attempted indoors.
Gentlemen, start your cheese slices!
[Via: The Presurfer]
