Wanna buy some boardies?
Seems the race between the big boys to be first with their online stores up and running has been taken out by Quiksilver. You can now buy a full range of QS gear via their website til your wallet is empty or until your card bounces..
I just went thru the process of buying something in the store, be prepared for multiple steps (5 steps) before you give your CC info and then you have another three steps before the process is finished. Thats a long time, patience will be key… There’s nothing on the site yet that is hyping the online store so if your keen looking, be sure to hit the Products button on the menu below to get to the shop area…
The Quiksilver Home Page. A lot of flash elements, not much navigational direction. Looks pretty, but whats more important to display; Julians cool board spray, or all that content hiden out back?
First range getting the online treatment is the second summer offering, or high summer as its more affectionately known. We took a quick sniff on what’s available in the store right now, heard there is more to be added, but at the moment you can grab Diamond Dobby Boardshorts, Tees, Accessories, and some other stuff..
Word on the street is that Jetty Surf/SDS is about to drop their online store. City Beach, if you shop there, already has. And I’m sure it won’t be long until the other brands all get their acts happening and enter the online sales realm…
surfstich.com : These guys know how to run an online store. I recently bought a t-shirt from them, the overall service was great.
It’s certainly leading a new era for the surf industry, in many ways it’s creating a whole new playing field. Be interesting to see how it all unfolds..
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Media Consumption Is Moving Online - Who Needs TV Ratings?
Nielsen Online have released figures showing overall online video usage has increased 49%, year on year as of May 2009, according to analysis of unique viewers, total streams, streams per viewer and time per viewer. YouTube was far and away the top online destination by video streams, with more than 6 billion total streams during the month, and more than 95 million unique viewers. Hulu, Yahoo!, Fox Interactive Media and ABC.com rounded out the top five.
What Does This Mean For Surfing?
Whilst this isn’t revolutionary news given current consumer trends shifting further and further online, this is no doubt excellent news for brands, sponsors, professional surfers and people like me, who probably watch more surfing online, than they actually do in the water.
Branded Content At ASP Events Will Keep Getting Better
Yes, I’ll have an ice cold Carona whilst twittering on my new LG Mobile on the back of a Honda Aquatrax PWC. I think it’s working?! The relationship of corporate brands and the surfing world where we chillax and watch some subliminal videos together, better known as ‘Backstage Content’ will continue to grow, and become more interactive.
Quiksilver’s ‘Backstage With Hoyo’ series on the Gold Coast was a tidy partnership, broadcast from “where I’d rather be”. Loads of little episodes catering to us surfers with short attention spans. Spot on.
The Billabong Pro paved new ground with their ‘Island Time’ live broadcast, and the popular ‘Say What?’ sponsored by their own Von Zipper brand which took one interactive step further in 2009 to incorporate user generate video questions.
Backstage With Hoy @ The Quiksilver Pro. Matt Hoy's Job Description. Be Matt Hoy.
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. It Will Be Webcast, 24/7
I predict that within a few years, the webcast for ASP events will be broadcast live, 24 / 7 through the however many days waiting period. How many times have you logged onto a contest and it’s not? Yeah, me too. The audience is there, keep them clicking through on lay-days, and through different time zones.
Professional Free Surfers Will Become More Free
Where's Rasta's blog? I'm sure his eco adventures would be well followed.
This new generation of professional free surfers, slab hunters, air punters and eco-recyclable soul surfers have the most to gain from online video, powered by social media. Finally surfers are catching up with the likes of ‘Power Moms’ and getting their blog on, and we are starting to see a very healthy online community.
5 Surfers Riding The Online Video Surge
Chippa Wilson - Rising star and ariel punter emerges from Stab & Billabong’s Little Weeds incentive shot to instant internet mini-fame after submitting this 3 minute assault.
Josh Kerr - Just how long Josh Kerr will last on tour is anyone’s guess given his seemingly casual approach to the tour, but as long as he keeps surfing, and someone’s filming, he’ll have a long lasting career.
Adam Robertson & Nic Muscroft – The Thelma and Louise of Victorian surfing recently sent their new blog live, teaming up for double the goodness.
Wade Goodall - Working with Runamuk Visuals, the Creative Destruction videos follow one of Australia’s hot WQS contenders.
The Hobgoods – What kind of list like this would be complete with out The Goodss. If you’re not a regular on the Hobgood’s blog. Then do it now.
5 Of The Most Viewed Surf Clips on Youtube
# 1 : “Stuck in tsunami” 20 Million Views!
#2 : ” Laird Hamilton – The greatest big wave surfer to have lived? 4.5 Million Views
# 3 Quiksilver dynamite surfing viral 3 Million Views
#4 BILLABONG BIG WAVES TEAHUPOO TAHITI 2 Million Views
#5 BILLABONG XXL (Biggest wave of the year) Contest 1.5 Million Views
***Please note that these videos have been posted by more than 1 user and these figures quoted have been accumulated from multiple users***
Recommended Reading
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Without attempting to drown in a pool irony, I thought it only appropriate to kick of this blog, with a post about blogs. I have to admit; this is about the 4th blog I’ve started, most of which went nowhere fast. Why?
Time and content.
Finding time to blog when you’ve got a number of commitments such as work, family, and not to mention surfing as much as possible often makes it hard for me to pull my finger out and start posting. Not to mention developing a niche content plan.
I’m not a photographer. I don’t shoot video. Though I wish I did both. So the chances of creating exclusive, quality content are slim and nil. My previous efforts saw me heading down the same 10 Questions road as every other blog and website out there. Whilst that was fun, it wasn’t unique or compelling.
So I went back to the drawing board to try and carve out a niche gap in the increasingly competitive world of digital surf media. And that’s exactly where I found the gap.
Is it just me, or has the number of surfing websites and blogs seemed to have doubled since the start of 2009 compared to years past? More so, it seems traditional print media have finally pulled their fingers out and realised they need to be just as competitive online as they are in print. But we’ll come back to that in the next few posts.
I’m a regular reader of all the industry press I can get my hands on, including Boardsport Source, Australian Surf Business and Transworld Business. But being a digital media enthusiast / junkie / tosser, I’m yet to find anywhere dedicated to the online environment of surf media in the digital space.
Surfing is leading the way in global sports with live web casting, and the endless amount of content that makes the sport so rich. So hence, this blog will be dedicated to digital surf media.
10 Blogs You Should Check Out (In Alphabetical Order)
5Ones Very ‘cali action sports’ (surf / skate / snow), which is all the more noticeable if you’re not from California, but this blog seems to be getting better all the time with the quality and frequency of their content.
Billabong I have to say, I’m on here almost every day because they’re constantly hooking me in with links via Twitter. Some brands don’t get how to differentiate between their website, and a blog, but they seem to have adapted a great strategy to creating content for the blog.
Board Of Marketing You guessed it, a marketing blog checking out some of the hottest marketing campaigns in surfing. Still early days for this blog, but definitely one to keep an eye on.
Caught Inside This is a cool blog because they’ve carved themselves a niche. Surfing movie news, reviews and insider tips. Not the most comprehensive blog by any means, and it’s very California (not there’s anything wrong with that), but if you’re after some surf clips to watch, and can’t be arsed with youtube, it’s worth a look.
.tv/dion Dion seems to have THE best job in the world. Surf. Party. Blog. BIG kudos to Globe for being one of the 1st on the case with letting free surfers run wild with the blog.
The Goods Life The social media stars of the ASP world tour. I say that because CJ and Damo are totally on it with their blog, posting pretty much every day on their adventures around the globe. Pun intended.
The Mountain And The Wave For a global brand, Quiksilver’s blog feels very pro-USA (which is not a bad thing), but I’d like to see them utilise their worldwide network with producing content from some other regions. But there is sh*t loads of content here which you could spend hours / days digesting. Digg in.
Modern Collective Incase you haven’t heard, Modern Collective is the brand spanking new project from Taylor Steele protégé Kai Neville. After kicking round for a while making awsomse DVDs for the Australian surf rags, and most recently having a major hand in the Poor Specimen production Stranger Than Fiction, Modern Collective channels the current psychedelic-electro-triangle-rave scene, with big crazy airs and busting of fins at every opportunity with the likes of Jordy, Julian, Dane and the newest of nu-skool.
RVCA This is one of those ones where the brand website adopts the blog format. And with the very strong artistic focus of RVCA, it works perfect for them. Cool as f**k. Please send me some clothes.
The Rock Rip Curl have adapted the calendar format blog, which is hardly revolutionary, but works really well for The Rock project. Daily blog entries over 20 days in Hawaii. Keeps me clicking on everyday. Hours of fun here.
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