Easter weekend might as well be Christmas for the racing community. It traditionally marks the first off-weekend of the Monster Energy Supercross season, and you can bet that the riders really appreciate a little downtime after thirteen straight weekends of bumps and bruises.
Most trainers will tell you the best thing to do this time of year is focus on recovery. They'll literally instruct their guys to sit down on the couch and do nothing—rest, rest, rest that weary body.
So, what do you do to pass the time? How about reading and watching some of the best web content while staying on that couch. We've even done the legwork so the boys can enjoy their time before it ends—we'll be racing in Houston again this weekend.
From iRacing to REAL RACING
Michael Conti is a NASCAR world title holder. Yet, you’ve probably never heard of him. You see, Conti has never actually driven in NASCAR, per se, until recently. He won his 2014 championship in the iRacing series—the pinnacle of online racing. iRacing isn’t along the line of GranTurismo or something similar. It’s a pure racing simulator with thousands of drivers from around the world competing against one another, according to Yahoo. Even professional drivers such as Dale Earnhardt Jr. have accounts and compete regularly to stay sharp. Recently, Yahoo Auto took Conti to Las Vegas Motor Speedway and put him in a real NASCAR for the first time. Can he transfer his virtual skills into a real car? The story, though, has a broader context. From Yahoo:
Now I wonder whether I’m witnessing a potential new route to the top, one that won’t force all but the wealthiest of families to scale bankruptcy. If someone like Conti can prove to the NASCAR community that tools like iRacing are as effective at training drivers as real-world racing, every kid with a PC may have the opportunity to succeed – whether they come from a family of means or not; one day, we may live in a world where Rick Hendrick selects his development drivers based on their iRacing resume.
“It takes one person to open up a door, “ Conti says. “And I feel like if I can open up that door, that door is going to be wide open for everybody behind me.”
Read the full piece here.
Oh. My. God
Ronnie Renner is a bad dude on a bike. But, this is probably the coolest thing he’s ever done. Nay, this is the coolest thing he’s ever done. Dubbed “snow biking” Renner and crew, according to Red Bull, took “ a regular motocross bike, slapped on a snow mobile track and a front ski instead of wheels.” Call it whatever you want—this is awesome.
Skier’s Stunning Run Through Paint-filled Poles
World Champion alpine skier Marcel Hirscher teamed up with Red Bull to construct the best thing ever. The Austrian took a run through paint-filled poles and the results are amazing. Check it out below.
New Horizons For Surfing Icon Kelly Slater
When surfing icon Kelly Slater left Quicksilver last year, a brand he’s been with since 18, it was part of a strategy to build his own brand. Slater, an eleven-time World Champion, struck a partnership with Kering, the conglomerate behind Gucci, Balenciaga, Stella McCartney, and Bottega Veneta, to launch his own brand, Outerknown. The New York Times recently profiled the move. From NY Times:
Yet the decision to part with Quiksilver, long in coming, and the later partnership with Kering were part of a strategy to build a brand with lofty ethical goals, one that deployed his renown without turning him into what he called “a fame whore,” one whose nominal cornerstones are “style, sustainability and travel.”
From the start, Mr. Slater chose as collaborators seasoned insiders (Julie Gilhart, the former fashion director of Barneys New York; Stella Ishii, the woman instrumental in nurturing brands like Alexander Wang, 3.1 Phillip Lim and the Row) whose selection telegraphed the intentions of a man who claims to have known from the very first surf contest he entered that he was destined to win. “I looked around, and the other people weren’t that good,” he said.
Read the full story here.
Too Fast, Too Furious
The latest installment in the Fast and Furious franchise—Furious 7—hit theaters last week. For all the gear-heads out there, it’s a chance to see some muscled out cars like the 1968 Charger R/T that Vin Diesel’s character drives. But these cars aren’t just randomly selected. There is actually someone in charge of finding said cars. Since 2006, that man has been Dennis McCarthy. Wired did a profile last week on what goes into the selection process. From Wired:
The old-school Charger doesn’t look like the cars that surround it on screen, but it actually has the same powertrain as all the cars McCarthy builds: a 500-horsepower unit, plus a rear locking differential, to make sure both rear wheels spin (it wouldn’t be a Fast and Furious movie without buckets of spinning tires).
It’s all about simplicity: One powertrain means just one set of spare parts to carry around. But it also means every vehicle sounds the same, and that won’t fly. This is why McCarthy works with sound editor Peter Brown in post production. For the ’68 Charger, the picture car coordinator tracked down a car with a powertrain to match what the real car would have had. Then he and Brown cover it in microphones, take it to an empty airport tarmac in California City, and spend the whole day sliding, revving the engine, and smoking the tires. Then they repeat the process for every car in the movie. In the understatement of the year, McCarthy admits, “It is not a bad way to spend a day at work.”
Read more about the process here.
The Triple is Coming
A double backflip is not enough for Josh Sheehan. Nah, he wants three. Here's a teaser from the Nitro Circus crew on the upcoming triple backflip.
Air Bud Ain’t Got Nothing on This
Let’s get the obvious out of the way: this dog is way cooler than your dog. It’s a fact, people—deal with it. Some guy named Dean Potter has released a new documentary, When Dogs Fly, that follows him and his dog, Whisper, flying around the Swiss Alps. Again, your dog sucks compared to this dog. Noted dog hater Jason Weigandt may even snuggle up to this bad-ass. [Editor's note: No chance, Chase. –Weege]
Disney Goes Big on Fantasy
Disney is betting huge on the recent rise of daily sports fantasy for-money sites. Mickey Mouse and his pals recently dropped $250 million to invest in the site DraftKings. Not exactly play money. According to the Wall Street Journal, DraftKings is valued at $900 million. As most of you know, Disney already owns ESPN. More from Mashable:
The investment from Disney is among the biggest votes of confidence yet for this young industry. Disney, which owns sports media giant ESPN, has become an aggressive investor in new markets. About a year ago, Disney bought Maker Studios, one of the biggest and most popular homes for online video creators, for $500 million. Disney had also reportedly considered buying BuzzFeed for $1 billion.
You can read more here.
Kite Photography Is Real
Remember last week when we told you about kite photography? Truth be told, we were kind of on the fence about its validity. It turns out, it’s very real. I didn’t read the entire thing on Mashable, because, well, I don’t care to read what looks like more than two thousand words on kite photography. It has to be real, though. No one is going to that length for something fake. Or, are they? Nah. They can’t be, right? We’re still confused.
Whereas drone operators have deliberately flown into dangerous situations, KAPers work hard to mitigate risk. I found a KAP forum discussion about how to get in touch with Air Traffic Control if you plan to fly within five miles of an airport. In another, a KAPer proudly announces he avoids flying in places where the kite will distract people from operating vehicles or power tools. People mowing lawns, for instance, can't hear shouted instructions, or a kite flyer might walk backward into the path of a passing machine without warning.
Benton told me he once sacrificed a rig in order to prevent his kite from colliding with some hikers. (He had been trying to take photos of a replica Chinese fishing junk on a near windless day.)
If you have the interest, or time, check out the full, “real” story here.
Rob Ford Named to Hockey Hall of Fame board of Directors
You many remember Rob Ford, the former mayor of Toronto, from such things as this, or this, or… well, you get the point. Google him if you want more. Last week, for some reason unbeknownst to, um, everyone, the Hockey Hall of Fame elected him to the board of directors. From Fansided:
This is a head-scratching decision by the city council who appointed Ford and two other councilors to the board, but in what world did they think this would be a great idea?
Not only is this surprising and puzzling, but this is a black eye and an embarrassment for the Hockey Hall of Fame to be associated with the disgraced mayor.
Read more here.
Wasn’t a Good Idea to Steal This Bike
Having your bike stolen may be the worst feeling in the entire world. Intense, manic rage immediately takes over, and you can no longer be responsible for what happens next. It’s a bad deal all around. Luckily for a guy in San Francisco, his bike, a Stromer ST2 E-Bike, was equipped with theft-mode capabilities. According to Wired, “the ST2’s on-board system includes a feature that locks the bike’s back wheel as soon as your phone leaves the bike’s immediate location. If a would-be thief attempts to pedal it away, the bike automatically launches into Theft Mode. The lights flash, and you can spot the bike on a map using GPS. Theft Mode can also be launched remotely, via the mobile app.” The bike was so new, though, that the guy hadn’t yet turned it on. What happened next was pretty cool. From Wired:
“I thought, ‘Now I’ve got to go through the motions of calling the cops and creating a report because that’s what you have to do,'” he says. “In the back of my mind, I’m like, ‘There’s no way I’m going to find this bike.”
Kiriakis called The New Wheel to ensure he had the correct serial number. Karen Wiener, who co-owns the shop with her partner Brett Thurber, had the idea to call Stromer. The hope was that they’d somehow be able to use the bike’s GPS capabilities to locate it.
It worked. Stromer manager of operations Oliver Dine pinpointed the bike’s location in the UN Plaza in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood.
The full story is pretty cool and worth checking out.
Bro Gets Cleaned Out Taking Video of Himself
If there’s anything worse than selfies, it’s selfie sticks. A selfie stick is a giant, annoying stick that bros use to take video of themselves on the slopes. Although the videos typically turn out pretty cool, it’s not worth looking like a jack-hole all day… or like this guy.
Interesting Piece of the Week
J Strickland, a legend in the skating community who has filmed and photographed some of the biggest names in the industry, recently released Shoot to Kill, a self-published photo book documenting his past fifteen years. Vice recently caught up with him for this pretty raw interview.
[Viewer discretion is advised.]
VICE: Your Baker Bootleg videos are some of the most fun and beloved videos of all time. What do you think your place is in skate video history?
J Strickland: Doing those videos fun was kind of out of necessity. I always wanted to be involved in making videos and then I got the opportunity to work on Birdhouse's The End because I was the Birdhouse team manager. I don't want to say that video was over-produced, but it was a big production and after that I wanted to do my own thing. I also wasn't going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars. I had been sitting on that footage for the first Baker Bootleg tape and nobody, like Tony Hawk or anybody, cared about it.
Read more here.
GoPro Produces Best Skiing Line Ever
GoPro is currently holding a video contest in conjunction with Transworld Snowboarding, and Newschoolers.com, in which they are looking for the “best line” this winter. Well, they found it! This guy wins. Case closed. Send him some prizes. According to GoPro’s YouTube page, this is Léo Taillefer in Val d' Isere, Italy.
Marlins Have Game Delayed. Marlins Have a Retractable Roof.
Opening day of Major League Baseball was Monday. What used to be a quasi-national holiday is now just something that scrolls across your twitter feed. Weather delays are typical in baseball. But this takes the cake. The Miami Marlins, who spent $515 million on a new stadium that opened a few years back, and which is mostly paid for by Miami-Dade County, according to Bleacher Report, had their home opener get delayed due to rain on Monday. Baseball is mostly played outside, so, you know, it happens. BUT THE MARLINS HAVE A RETRACTABLE ROOF. Why didn’t they use it? According to this Deadspin post, the “Marlins don't have a meteorologist consultant. Instead, three team executives monitor weather forecasts on APPs.” Apps??? Really??? This is a new low, Miami. Money well spent if you ask me.
