Check out Mike’s top 2 waves in each of his heats and watch him rip his waves to victory at the 2009 Vans Pier Classic at Huntington Beach this past weekend.
Stay tuned there are more Vans Pier Classic video pieces on the rest of the Spy team coming soon….
The inaugural FMF/KTM ride day held at Rynoland headed up by Lil D Emler went off without a hitch and included a variety of motorcycle celebrities. 7-time Supercross Champion Jeremy McGrath, Jeff Emig, Danny LaPorte, Kurt Nicoll, Ronnie Renner, and Nate Adams all participated in the festivities. The majority of the day was spent riding the motocross track and during lunch the first ever Manly Cup which took place incorporating both the motocross track and the off-road hare scramble course.
Everybody had a great time and the industry thanks FMF and KTM for putting on a great event!
Well the time is winding down for the Kustom AirStrike contest. This contest is a video submission that shows you best air maneuver.
We have 3 Spy surfers in this contest. Clay Marzo, Mitch Coleborn and Wade Goodall. They need your vote to win the wallet buster cash prize of $50,000.00. That’s a lot surf trips that they can go on that will help get even better footage for our viewing enjoyment.
Go onto http://kustomairstrike.com/ and look for the clip that Clay has. Hit the thimb nail the clip will load watch it. Once the clip is done, a Kustom AirStrike logo appears. Click that and then you will see a window that replaces the movie clip that has stars on the top of the box. Go ahead and click the 5th star and this will cast your vote for Clay Marzo. Now don’t go voting for anyone else since you got the lowdown from us. Clay Marzo, Mitch Coleborn or Wade Goodall only. This ends March 31 2009 so hurry up stop wasting time and vote for them now. I can’t wait to see more sick clips form these guys…….
This past weekend Spy’s Louie Vito made his way onto the podium in two events, while only competing in one. Vito, while tied for the top spot in U.S. Grand Prix Series going into the final leg in Vermont this weekend, decided to forgo the Grand Prix event to represent the US Snowboarding Team World Cup in La Molina, Spain.
Vito started the day off well, qualifying for finals amongst the fierce competition of fellow US riders Steven Fisher, Scotty Lago, and Danny Kass. Vito finished the day strong and pushed ahead for the US, taking second place to Swiss rider Markus Keller with back-to-back 1080s, air, back five and landing a front nine. Coincidentally, Louie’s tie-partner for the Grand Prix, Steven Fisher, took third.
As for Louie and Steven missing the final Grand Prix event, all other competitors were so far behind in the numbers that even without competing, Louie remained tied for first, making this his second consecutive Grand Prix win!
Escape into world-famous coastlines, iconic cities, wild corners and blue horizons…and make it home by Monday. Lonely Planet’s Trip Series is designed for all kinds of trippers - visitors, locals, that friend you’re putting up for the weekend. We provide the inspiration and the how-to, you shape your own adventure.
Download free sample itineraries, listen to regional playlists and ENTER TO WIN daily book prizes and a grand prize package to get you out on the road in style! http://www.lonelyplanet.com/usatrips
One of the prizes could have you wearing Spy’s Eliza sunglass to compliment your next weekend adventure!
Much to my enjoyment, Spy partnered with Filter Magazine last week at Cedar Street in Austin, Texas during the SXSW Filter party.The 3-day party was filled with amazing energy, including a Spy gifting suite for the performing artists…artists also received kicks from Onitsuka Tiger and the newest phones from Vtech. The artists and bands who stopped by were treated to a new pair of Spy shades and many of them took them straight to the stage.
The Annuals on stage
Filter is known to draw some of the best up and coming artists around and this year they definitely kept their reputation going strong…the crowd was breaking a sweat from noon until the weeeee hours of the morning, and not from the heat, but from rocking the party.
The crowd patiently waiting for The Whip…
Some of the performing artists included; Idle Warship, Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears, Annuals, Great Northern, Other Lives, Hockey, Zee Avi, White Lies, Razorlight, Late of the Pier, The Whip, Wild Light, Anya Marina, Bat For Lashes, Rye Rye, N.A.S.A., Flosstradamus, Asobi Seksu, Obits, Chairlift, Black Gold.
Late of The Pier before the 15 second brawl
Late of the Pier added an additional performance of attempting to bring down a Cedar Street bouncer, who was pulling the tour manager away from the soundboard, across the crowd, then up the stairs to the VIP area during their gig.The band was running over their time slot and things got heated as all 80 pounds…ok, maybe 100lbs - or 45 kilos for the Brits - of the lead singer Samuel Dust pounced an extremely large bouncer, a bouncer who was breaking it up with the manager and sound guy.Dust ended up on his back on the stairs with five fingers nicely wrapped around his throat, but within seconds, he weaseled his way back on stage, grabbing his mic to end the set…and that my friends, is the way a true rockstar ends a show.
Thank you for entertaining us all Samuel Dust!
And, of course, I’d like to personally thank Filter for a rockin’ time!
JLaw’s joined in the top ten by Spy’s Kevin Windham (9th) and Paul Carpenter (10th) at the Edward Jones Dome, Rd. 12 of Monster SX!
CARLSBAD, Calif., (March 23, 2009) – Spy Optic supercross racer Jason “JLaw” Lawrence (Boost Mobile/ampm/Monster Energy/Troy Racing) continues to impress the MX industry experts, this past weekend stepping up for the second time this year to the premier 450cc SX class and placing 5th in the main event at St. Louis’ Edward Jones Dome, round 12 of Monster Energy AMA Supercross, an FIM World Championship.
And joining Lawrence in the top ten at St. Louis was two other Spy Optic-backed racers, Geico Powersports/Honda’s Kevin Windham – running his signature Magneto goggles - who placed 9th, and Monster Energy/Cernic’s/Kawasaki’s Paul Carpenter who finished 10th.
Lawrence cruised to the main event, racing to a 2nd place finish in his heat race – which included a spectacular pass on all-time Loretta’s amateur national champ, Mike Alessi. The SoCal transplant from New Jersey, Lawrence, then stepped up in the main and again put it a number of factory-backed riders, including Ivan Tedesco, Alessi, Davi Millsaps and Billy Laninovich.
“That track was crazy, man. All sorts of lines and things going on,” said Lawrence. “I just tried to be consistent as possible, but there were a few sections where I was able to make up time. Had a blast railing that one big berm.”
Windham’s highlight would come in the second SX class heat race where he stopped James Stewart’s heat winning streak at 11. Windham, who won the St. Louis round last year, had this to say regarding his heat race win: “It’s definitely a one-of-a-kind track and James had a little run in with the ground. I’m looking forward to the main.”
When the gate dropped on the main Windham looked to get out quick, but ended up getting held up and was well outside the top ten after the first lap. He would put in some consistent laps, but remained around 12th place for some time. Windham would bide his time wisely and get by Carpenter to 9th place – a spot he’d hold through the checkers.
Carpenter’s return to action for Spy Optic was the first time he’d raced in more than five weeks (five races). Still no doubt nursing sore ribs, Carpenter buckled down and didn’t let the effects show, running in 3rd place in his heat race in transferring to the SX main.
“I’m just happy to be riding again,” said Carpenter, who’d finish 10th in the main. “I finally got the good starts that I’ve been missing so that was huge. There’s still a lot of racing left and I hope to get better each week and improve on my finishes.”
Noteworthy: With his 5th place finish at St. Louis, along with his 2nd place finish at Daytona (Fla.) two weeks ago, Lawrence moves into the top 20 (19th) in the SX class standings. And this caught the eye of ESPN which featured Lawrence this week in its action sports blog. Here’s the link: http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=4001081
Next up for JLaw, Windham, Carpenter and the rest of the Spy Optic supercross racers is this weekend’s contest at Toronto’s Rogers Center, 13 of Monster Energy Supercross.
Spy’s Shane Bonifay, Parks Bonifay, Danny Harf and Chad Sharpe will be on site at Red Bull’s Wake Lab event April 3-4th in Tempe, Arizona. The Wake Lab made its first debut in Orlando, Florida in September 2008. Due to the unique contest setup and overall hype from September, the event has now moved to Arizona joining the Circle K Tempe Music Festival.
