#gold coast surf skate

[obfiveskateboardsau]

OBfiveskateboards.com.au - OBfive Best Surf Skateboards Official Shop Australia

Discover the outstanding range of OBfive Skateboards at Australia's leading Surf Skateboards Official Shop! OBfive, a trusted name in Australia's surf and skate lifestyle, offers a premium collection of cruisers, longboards, and surf skates that seamlessly blend style with top-notch performance. Known for their exceptional craftsmanship, OBfive captures the essence of Australia’s coastal vibe in every board. Whether you're cruising the streets or carving land waves, OBfive’s diverse lineup is designed to elevate your skateboarding experience. Embrace the best of Australian skate culture with OBfive and take your ride to new heights!

[qnewsau]

Wheelchair Motocross champ's message to his queer community

New Post has been published on https://qnews.com.au/wheelchair-motocross-champ-has-poignant-message-for-his-queer-community/

Wheelchair Motocross champ's message to his queer community

When he’s not pulling backflips in the skate bowl in his Wheelchair Motocross (WCMX) wheelchair, you’ll find occupational therapist Tim Lachlan teaching others advanced mobility skills so they can overcome access barriers in daily life.

Using his WCMX wheelchair, the 27-year-old can hop up or down curbs to enter a shop, go up and down stairs, and traverse rough terrain and steep slopes, places you wouldn’t expect a wheelchair could go.

“I started the initiative to get people involved in WCMX after I finished high school, as I wanted to share my skills with people so they don’t have to rely on wheelchair access and can go where they desire and do what they want,” Tim said.

Since beginning wheelchair skateboarding, Tim has progressed through to bigger ramps and tricks, and in 2016 became the first Australian to land a wheelchair backflip.

“The feeling of surfing concrete waves is so freeing. When skating, I’m not focusing on my chronic pain; I’m focusing on the feeling of carving the bowl,” he said.

The Holmview local, who has spina bifida and Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, said he realised the therapeutic potential of Wheelchair Motocross and adaptive skating after sustaining a mild traumatic brain injury in 2018, which impacted his balance and motor coordination.

“I improved my balance and bilateral coordination by doing exercises such as standing on a skateboard on the carpet with my crutches and working up to standing on a board and propelling with crutches, something I couldn’t do pre-injury,” he said.

Tim, who recently established the Australian branch of WCMX and Adaptive Skate, is passionate about helping others and regularly hosts free WCMX mobility skills workshops at Pizzey Skatepark on the Gold Coast.

“Workshops are semi-structured and provide an opportunity for mobility aid users to increase their skills in a supportive and fun environment,” he said.

“We adapt each workshop to the needs of our attendees and the skills they would like to learn. I hope to see more people with disabilities in skateparks having fun on their wheels in the future.”

Tim also offers occupational therapy (OT) at the skate park and uses adaptive skating as a tool to teach his clients life changing mobility skills.

“Being a disabled OT is incredibly rewarding, I can connect with my clients and understand their needs on a much more personal level,” Tim said.

“In the professional world, I am helping change my fellow OT’s perception of disabilities and what we can achieve.”

Tim, who identifies as queer and neurodivergent, was supported by Carers Queensland to access the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and said he now receives the supports he needs to achieve his life goals.

“Growing up with invisible disabilities was tough; it took me 10-plus years to get a concrete diagnosis. Finally, having my disabilities recognised and receiving the support I’ve needed for so long is incredible,” Tim said.

Tim is also part of Carers Queensland’s Beyond the Sidelines reference group and is one of nine people with disability helping the organisation to increase participation and representation of people with disability in sport and recreation on and off the field.

The young Wheelchair Motocross athlete also has some firm views on the lack of accessibility in South East Queensland ahead of the 2032 Paralympics.

“The folks in charge of infrastructure for Brisbane 2032 need a week where they all use manual wheelchairs to navigate the city, accommodation, public transport and tourist attractions so they can gain first-hand experience of the access barriers people will face if we don’t improve access,” Tim said.

“Accessibility won’t just benefit wheelchair users, it will benefit parents with prams, older folks with mobility aids and make bumping in and out for 2032 run much smoother.

“In short, almost everyone can use a ramp, but not everyone can use stairs.”

Tim said he would love to see all the sporting facilities, pathways and public transport sites that will be used during 2032 revamped to be accessible, and not just accessible to wheelchair users, but to all people with disabilities.

“Make sure all the tactile indicators are installed correctly and that all crossing buttons make an audible tone,” he said.

“I would also love to see advertisement campaigns displaying disabled athletes as strong and capable, instead of objects of inspiration.

“I want society to know that people with disability can do anything they put their mind to. We deserve to have any many sporting opportunities as other people in the community.”

As for the rainbow community of which he’s a proud part of, Tim has a poignant message.

“My message to the queer community is always assume competency,” he said.

“So often people with disabilities are excluded from the queer community because there is this false assumption that we aren’t sexual beings or that we can’t be sexual.

“How we mobilise or communicate may be different, but we just want to be loved and understood.

“Give us a chance and let us show you our wonderful, queer, wheelie world!”

Carers Queensland can support you to find out more about the NDIS, to apply for funding and to help you get started with the NDIS. If you have a disability but are not eligible for the NDIS, Carers Queensland can help you identify and link to options for support in your community.

You can also contact Carers Queensland on 1300 999 636, or cq.enquiries@ndis.gov.au

For the latest LGBTIQA+ Sister Girl and Brother Boy news, entertainment, community stories in Australia, visit qnews.com.au. Check out our latest magazines or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

[nitsaholidays]

Top 5 Winter Family Destinations for Unforgettable Adventures

Winter is a magical time of the year when the world transforms into a sparkling wonderland of snow and festivities. It's also a fantastic opportunity to bond with your loved ones while embarking on unforgettable family adventures. Whether you're seeking snowy landscapes or warm getaways, here are the top five places to visit with your family during the winter season.

1. Lapland, Finland: A Winter Fairy Tale Come True

Lapland, located in northern Finland, is the epitome of a winter wonderland. From meeting Santa Claus at the Santa Claus Village to chasing the mesmerizing Northern Lights, Lapland offers a range of family-friendly activities. Embrace the thrill of husky sledding, reindeer safaris, and snowshoeing through pristine forests. Engage in snowball fights, build snowmen, and enjoy a memorable stay in cozy, traditional log cabins. Lapland is a place where childhood dreams and winter fantasies come to life.

2. Banff, Canada: Snowy Adventures in the Canadian Rockies

Nestled in the heart of the Canadian Rockies, Banff National Park boasts stunning winter landscapes that are perfect for family adventures. Enjoy skiing and snowboarding on world-class slopes, go ice skating on the enchanting Lake Louise, and take a dip in the Banff Upper Hot Springs to warm up amidst the chilly surroundings. The park's breathtaking scenery and abundant wildlife offer ample opportunities for family hikes, snowshoeing, and even wildlife spotting.

3. Tokyo, Japan: Winter Magic in a Modern Metropolis

Tokyo is a vibrant and dynamic destination that becomes even more enchanting during the winter months. Experience the dazzling illuminations that light up the city, especially around landmarks like Tokyo Disneyland and Roppongi Hills. Explore the Tsukiji Outer Market for delectable street food, and don't miss the chance to soak in an onsen, a traditional Japanese hot spring, for ultimate relaxation. The winter months also offer a chance to savor seasonal dishes like hot pot and oden.

4. Salzburg, Austria: A Fairytale Getaway in the Alps

Known for its timeless charm and musical heritage, Salzburg transforms into a picturesque winter wonderland during the colder months. Take your family on a journey through history as you explore the Hohensalzburg Fortress, then warm up with some hot chocolate at one of the cozy cafes. The surrounding Alps provide ample opportunities for skiing, sledding, and snowshoeing. Additionally, the festive Christmas markets add a touch of magic to your family vacation.

5. Gold Coast, Australia: Sunshine and Surf in the Southern Hemisphere

For families seeking a break from the cold, the Gold Coast in Australia offers the perfect escape. With its sunny climate and stunning beaches, this destination is a paradise for those who prefer warm weather during the winter season. Explore the theme parks, such as Warner Bros. Movie World and Sea World, for thrilling family adventures. Spend your days surfing, building sandcastles, and enjoying various water activities on the beautiful Gold Coast beaches.

Conclusion

Winter is a fantastic time to create lasting memories with your family through exciting adventures and heartwarming experiences. Whether you're exploring the snowy landscapes of Lapland, the majestic Canadian Rockies, the modern charm of Tokyo, the fairytale streets of Salzburg, or enjoying the sunshine on the Gold Coast, these top five destinations offer something special for every family member. Embrace the magic of winter travel and cherish the moments spent with your loved ones.

[meetinginsamarra]

My Fave Sherlock BBC AUs: Sports fics

Around mid-month I´ll do a fic rec list with my fave AU genres or tropes. Summaries are taken from OP´s on AO3.

Not featuring ballet because there is a separate rec list.

------------------------------------- 

“Sticking the Landing” by SweetMandolins

https://archiveofourown.org/works/8797708

John Watson, Captain of Team GB’s gymnastics squad is confident and primed for his third and final Olympics. Disappointed in London with a shoulder injury putting paid to his Olympic dream, can he secure an Olympic gold finish before retirement? Meanwhile, Sherlock Holmes has other problems. Men’s Rhythmic Gymnastics is the newest Olympic sport, but a series of peculiar accidents both on and off the floor have taken out some of the competitors. Does something more sinister lurk under the spangles and spandex? Can Sherlock solve the mystery in time to deliver a flawless ball routine? And does something more valuable than medals await the boys in Rio?

“Thermocline” by J_Baillier @jbaillier​

https://archiveofourown.org/works/22068541

John "Five Oceans" Watson — technical dive instructor, dive accident analyst and weapon of mass seduction — meets recluse professor of maritime archaeology Holmes. As they head out to a remote archipelago off the coast of Guatemala to study and film its shipwrecks for a documentary, will sparks fly or fizzle out?

“Summit Fever” by J_Baillier @jbaillier​

https://archiveofourown.org/works/16143296

After graduating from medical school, John Watson followed his heart to the Himalayas. Ten years later, he's a haunted cynic working for his ex-lover's trekking and mountaineering company. Will leading an expedition to Annapurna I — the most lethal of all the world's highest mountains — shake John out of his reverie, and who is the mystery client added to the group at the last minute?

“Passion connected” by songlin

https://archiveofourown.org/works/14298093

(This is unfinished but imo still worth a read!)

John Watson retired after an injury pulled him out of the 2010 Winter Olympics. He's resigned himself to living out his days sharpening skates in Catawissa, Pennsylvania, fighting with his drunk sister and watching his number of students dwindle away.

Sherlock Holmes was banned from competition for a doping violation he did not commit before the 2014 Winter Olympics. Ever since, he has whiled away his time on odd jobs as skater after skater fires him as a coach. He no longer dreams of proving his innocence and making his comeback.

Uphill by scullyseviltwin @scullyseviltwin​

https://archiveofourown.org/works/1179526

Sherlock Holmes is striving for gold in this, his fourth and final Olympics as a downhill Alpine racer.

“Working on the Edges” by earlgreytea68 @earlgreytea68​

https://archiveofourown.org/works/1185555

No matter where you put Sherlock and John, they click. Including the Winter Olympics.

“Tennis-series” by JupiterAsh (7fics) 

https://archiveofourown.org/series/16847

starting with “A Study in Winning”

John and Sherlock are professional tennis players and it’s Wimbledon. One is a broken almost was at the end of his career, the other an arrogant rising star tipped for greatness. It should have been a straightforward tournament. It really should have been. How were they to know that a chance encounter would change everything?

“Gimme Shelter” by SinceWhenDoYouCallMe_John @sincewhendoyoucallme-john​ 

https://archiveofourown.org/works/11578941

(also published as “The sea ain´t mine alone” by C.L. Beaumont)

All John Watson wants is the feeling of a freshly waxed surfboard under his feet and the hot California sun baking down onto his back. To finally go pro in the newly formed world of professional surfing and leave the dark memories of his past behind him as he rips across the face of a towering blue barrel. To lounge beside the beach bonfire every evening with an ice cold beer tucked into the cool sand beside him and listen to Pink Floyd and the Doors while the saltwater dries in his sun bleached hair.

That's all he wants, that is, until the hot young phenom taking Oahu and the Hawaiian shores by storm steps up next to him in the sand in the second round of the 1976 International Surf Competition.

“Slipstream” by khorazir @khorazir

​https://archiveofourown.org/works/15975143

It’s going to be the last Tour de France for professional cyclist John Watson. Despite the hardships of cycling more than 3000 kilometres in three weeks, in blistering heat and torrential rain, over dangerous cobblestones in northern France and the mountains of the Alps and the Pyrenees, battling thirst, hunger, injury and exhaustion, not to mention bitchy rivals, doping allegations, and the ever scoop-hungry press, he is going to enjoy the ride, damn it. That’s what John keeps telling himself – until he meets his new teammate, Sherlock Holmes, who adds a whole new list of problems as well as an extra dose of excitement to John’s life

“The Bang and the Clatter” by earlgreytea68 @earlgreytea68​

https://archiveofourown.org/works/744242

Sherlock Holmes is a pitcher and John Watson is a catcher. No, no, no, it's a baseball AU.

“Boyfriend Material” (-series) by PoppyAlexander  @fuckyeahfightlock​

https://archiveofourown.org/works/8857168

Boston Brawlers' team captain John Watson longs for two things: a championship before he retires, and a boyfriend. Assigned to room with goaltender Sherlock Holmes--known around the league as both a genius and a "weird dude"--on Brawlers' roadtrips, John discovers the things they have in common that lead to an easy friendship and a convenient arrangement.

Slow-burn, adversaries-to-friends-to-lovers, romantic comedy.

[yeaahishowedupatyourparty]

MORE ABOUT MY NEXT GEN BABIES. 

Adelaide ‘Addy’ Maeve Coleman - daughter of Zara & Danny. 

- scars to your beautiful - alessia cara   - july 1st, cancer  - actress, studying at diamond bridge (LA) - bisexual with no preference, single  - esfp, hufflepuff  - raised in lilac heights in zara & danny’s home they live in now  - ditzy, naive, energetic but also sensitive and insecure. she has a tendency to let herself be walked all over by friends and lovers. she also lacks the confidence to really accept that she has talent and is capable of doing things.  - she was painfully desperate to be one of the popular girls in high school, to the point where she would let her “friends” treat her like dirt. even though she’s now in college, the effects of the underhand bullying stay with her and it makes her very reluctant to trust and open up to new people.

Allison ‘Ally’ Marie Cortes-Smith - daughter of Adrian & Holly. 

- seven - sleeping at last - august 13th, leo  - model & athletics (surfing, figure skating & dance), studying at gold coast (australia)  - heterosexual, dating brett jackson - entp, gryffindor  - raised in violet springs (?), in her family home with adrian and holly - energetic, outgoing, adventurous but also explosive and stubborn. ally is constantly looking for family-like connections away from holly, adrian and haley. she craves feeling like somebody’s first choice because - particularly with holly - she felt like the back-up plan until she got custody of haley. she has one song about her, whereas haley has enough for an EP of music with holly worshipping her and she’s just always felt that subtle favouritism in her household.  - from an early age, she’s sought out love in all of the wrong places but is currently in a good place with brett, who is definitely her safety net. she’d be lying if she said living in australia made her homesick. 

Aurora Faith Kingsley - daughter of Soraya & Julian.

- boss bitch - doja cat  - january 17th, capricorn  - fashion designer, studying at rosewell (paris)  - heterosexual, bisexual dating peter romano  - entj, slytherin  - raised in violet springs (?), in her family home with soraya and julian. she definitely has a dual-citizenship like soraya, though, and often spends summers in cuba with her grandparents.  - outspoken, confident, witty but also explosive, judgemental and harsh. aurora was definitely spoilt with love when being raised by her parents; both soraya and julian doted on her in different ways, and while she knows the value of materialistic things, she’s not entirely used to not getting her own way or not having people adore her. that being said, she’s a fiercely loyal friend and shows the love she was given when she was younger to people she thinks deserve it. - aurora’s expectations and standards are impressively high and she’ll always credit her parents, who always modelled a healthy and secure relationship to her. she doesn’t take it for granted & always strives to find people who treat her the same way julian treats soraya.

Belle Cynthia Carmichael - Daughter of Anastasia 

- donatella - lady gaga  - november 3rd, scorpio  - dancing & modelling, studying in west ivys (london)  - heterosexual, single  - esfp, slytherin  - raised partially in los angeles and also in lilac heights with anastasia and her father (divorced) as well as her older sister, darcy.  - aesthetic, good-humoured, magnetic but also irresponsible, self-indulgent and superficial. belle is the baby of the family and took a shine to the socialite los angles lifestyle from around 12 years old. she’s a big spender, loves the night life of any big city and is a BIG fan of the attention that being a rising star brings her. unlike her sister, who’s a lot more lowkey, belle demands attention and will do anything to get her own way in any situation. - everyone was expecting anastasia and ryder to split from their (what would have been) their fifteen year marriage. everybody except belle and darcy, anyway. the girls were caught off-guard and it wasn’t easy. belle had the most extreme reaction, becoming very emotional and self-indulgent. her way of dealing with it has been to do everything in her power to go against anything either of her parents ask of her; she’s definitely out of control.

Daisy Louise Romano, daughter of Florence & Dominic. (tw: cancer) 

- style - taylor swift  - may 22nd, gemini  - dance, studying at liberty (new york city)  - heterosexual, single   - isfp, gryffindor  - raised in violet springs (?) in dom and florence’s family home, but i imagine they have a family home in italy because of dominic’s roots too. florence and dom spend a lot of time in italy in general, so it’d make sense.  - creative, friendy, warmhearted but also over-protected, nervous and idealistic. daisy is the only daughter in her family and it definitely shows. on top of dominic, she also has carter and peter who have kept a close eye on her growing up and has definitely been protected from things other girls her age may have learnt to deal with themselves, or without as much back-up. rather than rebelling against it, she’s very comfortable & probably relies on her brothers - especially peter - for more than she should. she’s very rooted in family and while she’s a hopeless romantic and loves flirting, going on adventures and seeing the world, her heart is with her family. - daisy’s pre-teen years were snatched away by the fact that she was diagnosed with cancer. she spent three years of what would’ve been her high school life in hospital and was far too weak to dance or do anything she usually did. she was put into remission at 15 and was cancer free for three years before it made a return, now she’s nineteen (pushing 20), she’s once again in remission but her anxiety and trauma from the sickness are very much alive.

Darcy Briar Carmichael - daughter of Anastasia. 

- nothing breaks like a heart - miley cyrus  - february 27th, pisces  - modelling, studying at st judes (violet springs)  - bisexual, single - infp, ravenclaw - raised partially in los angeles and also in lilac heights with anastasia and her father (divorced) as well as her older sister, darcy. - patient, imaginative, loyal but also argumentative, guarded and defensive. darcy has always been wise beyond her years in the sense that she’s mature and has a responsible head on her shoulders. anastasia used to worry that she wouldn’t enjoy her early twenties/teen years in the same way everybody else seemed to, but it just never appealed to her - she preferred to lose herself in art, reading and individual activities rather than going out to huge parties and festivals like her sister. she’s quietly confident and is happy to be seen as the ‘boring’ one if it means not having to be forced to sit at social events she’d rather not be a part of.  - darcy’s confidence was knocked by her parent’s divorce. it actually ruined her application to blossom bell academy - where she wanted to go and do art and photography. she was unorganised and just a mess in general, so she knew she’d get rejected. st judes, her second choice, also rejected her art portfolio but because of her looks, offered her a modelling position. she figured it was better than nothing but it’s never been her passion. only now is she starting to feel inferior in comparison to her little sister.

Dixie Gisele Carmichael - daughter of Disney and Brody. 

- god is a woman - ariana grande  - october 1st, libra  - fashion design, studying at rosewell (paris) - heterosexual, single  - estj, slytherin  - raised in new york but spends the summers in france & christmas in violet springs to be close to grandparents  - confident, hard-working, charming but manipulative, calculated and jealous. dixie has grown up in the spotlight due to being the child of arguably the most famous couple to come out of st judes in her parents era. she’s very used to it and it’s something she’s numb too. however, unlike her sister, who seems to just get things a whole lot easier than dixie, she has clawed her way to the top of everything she has, not caring who she scratches on the way up; being the most popular, young socialite on the upper east side, her fashion career and everything else are things she’s had to fight for out of the threat of otherwise being branded as ‘fleur’s twin.’ she holds herself and others at a viciously high standard. she’s been on dates and enjoyed attention from guys but she hasn’t slept with anybody and has never had a boyfriend; it’s not something she hides either. her main goal right now is to become the best designer there is, and she’s proven that she’ll stop at nothing to get there. - while at gallagher high school, fleur was already booking modelling jobs and becoming the more successful of the twins. dixie resented it. she couldn’t stand feeling inferior or lesser than and wasn’t happy for her sister at all. quite the opposite. the two of them applied for rosewell but unfortunately for fleur, when their acceptance letters came through, she was out at new york fashion week, leaving dixie to reject her offer and forge a fake one telling her she’d been rejected....and she’d do it again.

Dylan Samuel Powell - son of Janey. 

- fine line - harry styles  - february 15th, aquarius  - photographer, studies at west ivys (london)  - heterosexual, dating lily  - infj, hufflepuff  - raised in sweden until he was thirteen, and then moved to violet springs to be closer to his family with janey.  - patient, practical and compassionate but over-protective, nervous and sensitive. dylan had a quiet childhood. when janey graduated from west ivy’s, she moved out to a rural part of sweden where she started a new. her life consisted of writing and exploring until she had dylan with a man who’s no longer in the picture. dylan fell into janey’s lifestyle too; quiet, peaceful and creative. he enjoyed it for the most part, but the trauma of janey’s experiences definitely became his too. he grew up seeing his mother have anxiety attacks in public or not want to leave the house if she had a feeling she was being watched. in many ways, dylan became the parent. he was the one who made his mother feel safe. he was the protector. he never really understood until he finally met his grandparents at 15 and was told exactly why janey was the way she was. this only brought out an even more protective side of him, after having his eyes opened to how disgusting the world can be. - dylan was reluctant to study anywhere too far away from janey, but she pushed him to branch out at least a little, because she has a lot of guilt about holding him back for al of these years. 

Emmett Charles Hamilton - son of Imogen & Nate. 

- go stupid - polo g  - april 12th, aries  - actor, studying at st judes (violet springs)  - heterosexual, single  - entp, slytherin  - raised in london (south kensington) with imogen and has always been a city boy. he’s your typical private school kid; his father has been out of the picture only for a few months but it hasn’t had much effect. his younger brother, ethan, chose to move in with nate while he stuck with imogen. - intelligent, intuitive, social but lazy, restless and unmotivated. out of emmett and ethan, emmett definitely takes the crown for the family disappointment. his brother’s childhood was full of sports trophies, A*’s on report cards and being at the top of the social hierachy. emmett, on the other hand, would’ve happily lived in his parent’s loft and never seen the light of the day if he could. he did pretty wel in school and had al of the potential, but a life of getting high and falling back on to his trust fund seemed way more appealing. imogen was more willing to let him coast through life (being from wealth herself), whereas nate was always pushing him to go out and make something of himself, meaning naturally he prefers his mother.  - emmett is in the process of burning through his trustfund. he’s impulsive and careless and without proper guidance, will soon find himself with nothing. he has no respect for his dad - who is the stricter parent - and thinks he’s invincible. 

Jay Alexander Hamilton -  son of Park. 

- tonight you’re perfect - new politics  - september 17th, virgo  - athlete, liberty academy  - heterosexual, seeing sylvia(?)  - enfj, ravenclaw   - raised partially in the canary islands with his dad, running their hotel, but also in violet springs with his grandparents.  - friendly, ambitious, a deep thinker but also impatient, overly-critical and a perfectionist. jay was brought up on the canary islands with his father after losing his mother when he was eight. constantly being at the beach, the hotel and new people, he’s a social person with an active imagination and is always on the go. he’s both book and street smart but can at times hold himself to impossible standards; he definitely gets his perfectionist streak from his aunt. the loss of his mum has hurt him, but he buries his feelings as much as possible to avoid talking about them. jay’s always fit in with popular crowds seamlessly and it’s exactly the same story for liberty academy. - jay has already shown huge potential at liberty academy and has been given attention that first years usually don’t get. he’s currently dealing with the end of a friendship with ethan, though, his best friend for many years. it’s lowkey weighing on him but he’d never show that it effects him.

Kai Arden Powell - son of Louis & Lexi. 

- fireflies, owl city  - march 3rd, pisces  -  writer and actor, studying at willow house (cardiff)  - heterosexual, dating sofia  - infj, ravenclaw  - raised in violet springs (?) with louis and lexi, close to his family with good connections to both sides.  - imaginative, selfless, creative but pessimistic, self-pitying and emotional. kai is the perfect example of a high achieving burn-out. all through his school life, he boasted great grades and came at the top of the class for most things, but as the years went on, he lost momentum and started to rest on his abilities. while everybody else levelled up and got better, he declined and started to slowly stop caring about his academic achievements. he was more concerned with the social side and fitting in with people who really didn’t care much about him. when it came to college admissions, he was already failing many classes and got rejected from everywhere besides willow house. he hates it and refuses to even try to enjoy it. - sofia is his lifeline, at the moment. she’s trying to get her dad, wesley, to negotiate with people at st judes to get him a space, but it isn’t necessarily going to work. especially if kai can’t get his grades up and apply himself to his writing and acting seriously. 

Charlotte ‘Lottie’ Bradford - daughter of Drew & Annabel.

- first man, camila cabello -  june 30th, cancer  - singer-songwriter & musician, studying liberty academy (new york)  - enfp, ravenclaw  - raised with drew & annabel as an only child  - romantic, loving, protective and sympathetic but touchy, defensive and an overthinker. lottie grew up with both of her parents and spent a lot of time on the road with drew when he was touring. she’s used to big crowds, music and moving around a lot but grew up very attached to her mother, annabel, she’s her favourite person in the entire world and everything she does is to make her proud.  - lottie ended up dropping out of high school to go to a stage school in london when drew stopped touring; she was around 14, but eventually got homesick and returned, spending her last few years at springs park high before she got accepted into liberty. she’s really set on making memories and doing her absolute best in music - but she’s prone to falling in love with people and getting extremely distracted.

Sullivan Rosini - son of Ruby.

- song undecided  -  14th may, taurus  - actor & singer (vc: frank ocean)  - esfj, gryffindor  - raised by ruby  - independent, humanitarian and sociable but also head-strong, stubborn and judgemental. sullivan was adopted by ruby when he was seven and settled very quickly into the family home. since around 12 years old, he’s been an activist and had a huge presence online for animal rights. he’s been arrested multiple time at different protests and it gives ruby the most anxiety but she’s also very proud of him. 

[klaineccfanficlibrary]

Do you know any KLAINE fanfics in california?

There are 15 fic recs under the cut. Happy Reading! - HKVoyage

Ride by @nellie12

Blaine is pretty popular in his city of Long Beach, CA. Summer is here and he’s ready to spend it with friends- BMX bike riding in the skate park and surfing when the waves are perfect. Flirting with girls is a definite. But when a new kid from Ohio shows up, Blaine finds himself wanting to share all these things with him, too. But Kurt’s just his friend, right?

~~~~~

Sotto Voce by GSJwrites

Wine critic Kurt Hummel can make or break careers with his column for Taste Magazine. But when his publisher orders him to spend a year profiling rising stars of California’s wine country and organizing a competition between the big name wineries of Napa and the smaller artisan wineries of Sonoma, his world gets turned upside-down by an enigmatic young winemaker who puts art before business.

~~~~~

Needles & Thread by msslss  [PDF only]

While a student at NYU, Kurt visits his family who recently moved to Southern California. A chance encounter in the unlikeliest of places may just spark the one thing Kurt lacks: romance.

~~~~~

Haunted by a Broken Record by DaybyDay

Once in awhile things make sense. A lot of times, they don't. Blaine Anderson and Kurt Hummel lose and find one another once again; this time under the California sunset. Kurt/Blaine

~~~~~

All for you by reidbetweentheelines

“Never be afraid to love.” Too bad Kurt never wants to find his soulmate, but sometimes fate has a funny way of doing the exact opposite of what you’d like. After the death of his father, Kurt moves to California to live with his cousin Nick Duval. A new state, new school, new family, and a Grammy nominated singer who wants nothing more than to find his soulmate.

~~~~~

Something Unpredictable by tonks42

Kurt moves from New York City to Los Angeles to take a job working in the wardrobe department of a television show. Once there, he’s introduced to Tina and Mike’s ex-roommate, Blaine. The two hit it off, but will their budding romance be derailed when Blaine unexpectedly takes custody of his nephew? 

~~~~~

If I Could Use Your Love by raeofultraviolet  

Blaine Anderson is an incredibly talented musician living in Los Angeles and trying to make a name for himself. He is also incredibly shy and can’t assert himself enough to get in the limelight. When a chance meeting with Kurt Hummel, a famous actor, opens up an opportunity for him, how can he say no? The only problem is, it requires the two of them to lie to everyone around them.

~~~~~

Rumor Has It by @xxxraquelita

When their careers took off, and took them from New York to Los Angeles, Blaine and Kurt had dealt with their agents and friends all giving them the same advice – end their engagement if they wanted to be successful. So they had. It took years for for any of it to come back to them, but when it did, it certainly did, and the truth was more than anyone anticipated.

~~~~~

Make a Lover of Me by @twobirdsonesong

Kurt Hummel has just moved from Ohio to Los Angeles and he has no idea what he's doing there. He begins an internship at a talent agency where he meets Blaine Anderson, an assistant who has more to his name than Kurt knows.

~~~~~

It Takes Two by AlexaCardew

In 2009, recent college graduate Kurt Hummel takes a job as talent agent Ari Gold’s assistant and is asked to pretend date Blaine Anderson to help with the actor’s coming out. All hell breaks lose when a jealous co-star and the media get involved.

~~~~~

Letter to a G.I. by DyrneKeeper

Cast opposite the successful actor and performer Blaine Anderson as a romantic lead in a historic drama Kurt, a relative newcomer to the screen, has to learn to navigate his relationship with his character – and with his co-star.

~~~~~

Every Word by pene

After years apart Kurt and Blaine have moved on from one another and built separate lives. Kurt is developing a quiet reputation off-Broadway. Blaine is a fledgling musical theatre writer and producer on the West Coast.

Then they reconnect - because of the music, because of the theater. Because of course they do.

"This show is Blaine’s baby. The madness is that the only person he can picture in the lead role is a boy he has been failing to forget for six years."

Sequel: Every Road 

~~~~~

Those Summer Nights by thelilacfield

Kurt Hummel and Rachel Berry are the power couple of Hollywood, madly in love and smiling for the cameras. But in private, their marriage is one of convenience and friendship. Until Rachel decides to hire a young and gorgeous pool boy and Kurt starts to wonder if he wants this for the rest of his life.

~~~~~

Not Like the Movies by Knightlycat

When new Hollywood golden boy Kurt Hummel receives some disturbing letters, his manager hires bodyguard Blaine Anderson to be with him 24 hours a day. In an attempt to hide Blaine’s true identity from the press they decide he needs to go undercover…as Kurt’s boyfriend. Famous!Kurt Nevermet!AU

~~~~~

Find Your Freedom in the Music by Teilo

Elizabeth A. Hummel died on September 11, 2001 at the World Trade Center. While visiting his grandparents in California Kurt decides to throw away all his future plans in order to honor his mother’s memory.

[find-them]

ESP/ENG . Esta foto la tomamos en seguramente uno de los lugares más iconicos de la costa este australiana, Gold Coast. Concretamente en el suburbio de Surfers Paradise, el lugar de vacaciones por excelencia de los jóvenes australianos 🇦🇺🏖️🎉 . Como su propio nombre indica, esta es una de las capitales del surf del país, allá donde vayas se nota que el surf está presente por todos lados. Eso sí, las olas de la playa principal no son tan altas, son ideales para principiantes y novatos (como nosotros jaja) 🏄‍♂️🌊🌇 . Conocida como la Miami australiana, a nosotros lo que más nos gustó es el ambiente relajado y la buena vibra que se respira por todos lados. Gente descalza caminando por la calle, música en las terrazas, surfers y skaters patinando por cada calle… un lugar peculiar donde los haya 😃😍✌️ . This photo was taken in surely one of the most iconic places on the Australian east coast, the #GoldCoast. Specifically in the suburb of #SurfersParadise, the quintessential vacation spot for young Australians 🇦🇺🏖️🎉 . As its name suggests, this is one of the #surf capitals of the country, wherever you go you can tell that surfing is present everywhere. Of course, the waves of the main beach are not that high, they are ideal for beginners (like us haha) 🏄‍♂️🌊🌇 . Known as the Australian Miami, what we liked the most is the relaxed atmosphere and the good vibes that you can breathe everywhere. Barefoot people walking down the street, music on the terraces, surfers and skaters skating down every street ... a peculiar place where there are 😃😍✌️ . #australia #travel #backpackers #goldcoastlife #surfersparadisebeach #mochileros #viajeros #findthem (at Surfers Paradise, Queensland, Australia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CK-_5oYgkGg/?igshid=7i56unsbsvp9

[artcenterstories]

Climbing the Ladder: Meet Catalyst CCO Josh Wright

AC: What inspired you to co-found Catalyst? Josh Wright (BS Product Design '03) Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer, Catalyst: The seed was planted when I was at ArtCenter. The College trains you to think about design, not just from the aesthetic or mechanical point of view, but also from a business perspective.

At ArtCenter, I was encouraged to look for a business partner. When you have someone who focuses on the financials, you can focus on making design work for the business.

AC: You've had an interesting career trajectory. Can you speak about your journey? JW: Designing for an outdoor lifestyle has always been important to me. In the early years of my career, I started working in California, designing a lot of sports and lifestyle products, including footwear and backpacks for various surf, skate and snow companies.

Then, I moved to Wichita, Kansas, to work for the iconic Coleman company. It was a cool experience because it was a very small design team, and I got to touch all of their products. After six months, I contributed $30 million to the company's bottom line.

That's something else ArtCenter taught me: Don't go to Porsche; don't go to Apple — they already have great design. Go to a brand that doesn't have great design, yet. Bringing good design and storytelling to their products transformed a 100-year-old brand into something fresh and fun. And they still sell some of my products today.

I later worked at Tumi in New York designing some of their carbon-fiber luggage and helping to expand some of the product categories into footwear, wristwatches and apparel. In 2006, I got this amazing opportunity in Hong Kong and I spent the next four years working at a world-class design consultancy firm. But I was always on the lookout for a business partner, based on what I had learned in school.

AC: How did you meet your Catalyst co-founder? JW: Rock climbing. It's one of the reasons I wanted to move here — the climbing community in Hong Kong brings together such a diverse group of people. My co-founder and I have such different backgrounds — she's from bio-tech and finance.

Through the years, we developed a friendship based on trust from countless days of climbing the jungles. We realized that we had complementary skills, with her business and my design background and our mutual desire to be outdoors. We wanted to create outdoor products that brought value to people's lives — that was the genesis of Catalyst.

AC: What was the first Catalyst product you designed? JW: At the time in 2010, the iPhone was becoming the device of choice, even for climbers, so our product was a fully waterproof protective iPhone 4 case. Soon after, we launched and had a successful Kickstarter campaign.

Today, Catalyst has reached a tipping point where it's becoming a global household brand name; our products are available in over 70 countries and major retailers, including Apple, BestBuy and Target, as well as eight Amazon marketplaces, four Shopify websites and WeChat in China.

AC: Catalyst 20L Waterproof backpack recently received the prestigious Red Dot Award. Can you speak about the design process? JW: Each of our products fills a need and solves a problem. The waterproof backpack offers travelers an ultra-compact, -lightweight pack that folds into a carry pouch that's a little smaller than a 12-ounce soda can.

Waterproof is a core component of Catalyst. I'm kind of a nerd for waterproof products.

I've used this bag as a flotation device while snorkeling in Thailand. I've carried it through heavy tropical rainstorms and through a canyoneering trip in northern Italy, where I was jumping off waterfalls. The backpack works incredibly well. When the bag is rolled up, anything you keep inside it will stay dry.

AC: What are you working on right now? JW: We're always working on something new — we launch eight to 12 products every year. We were the first company to make waterproof cases for Apple watch and AirPods.

The backpack line is something we're currently working on expanding, and soft goods in general. We're heavily focused on expanding our business solutions for industrial applications of our products, including for oil and gas, hospitals and schools.

AC: How do you define success? JW: Being able to create products I believe that bring value to the people who use them, and seeing a lantern I designed for the Coleman company being used on the show The Walking Dead.

AC: Do you have any superstitions? JW: My dad always told me that it is bad luck to be superstitious and I live by that.

AC: What’s the design cliché you’re most tempted to use? JW: I really subscribe to modernism. I believe that form should follow function with zero added details for ornamentation. Everything I build is intentionally designed, but not decorative. We are loosening up this "cliché" by adding some fashion and styling elements to some of our future collections, which I'm pretty excited about.

AC: What’s the one tool you can’t do without? JW: My iPhone.

AC: What’s the first site you look at when you open your computer in the morning? JW: Slack.

AC: What do you do to detox from media and screens? JW: It's not just screens, it's the city itself because Hong Kong is so crowded. My detox is my weekends out in nature: rock climbing, hiking, canyoneering or surfing. I think an amazing secret of Hong Kong is that two-thirds of the territory is subtropical jungle with unreal, pristine waterfalls and beaches.

AC: If you could trade jobs with anyone for a day who would it be? JW: As a designer, there's no other job I'd rather be doing. But as a kid, I always wanted to be a marine biologist like Jacques Cousteau.

AC: What book is on your bedside table? JW: I have three books; none of them are finished. One is a history book called Tragedy & Hope: A History of the World in Our Time, another is a business book The E Myth and the third is a just-for-fun, fiction book called This Book Is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don't Touch It (John Dies at the End).

AC: Who are the most interesting designers working today? JW: Marc Newson. I also really like Michael Young — he's a British-born designer based in Hong Kong. Toy designer Michael Lau was at the forefront of the urban vinyl movement and I love his style. I'm also a huge fan of James Dyson, Jonathan Ive, and entertainment designer Stan Winston has always inspired me.

AC: Were you exposed to design growing up? JW: I come from quite an artistic and mechanically inclined family. My grandfather was a renaissance man: a photographer, inventor, mechanic, engineer, architect, designer... He had so many hobbies and passions, and he created so many things. He made all of my grandmother's jewelry.

He designed and physically built the house his family lived in, including the thermostat and heating system from spare parts. He built motorcycles for my mother and her siblings. When I was a kid, he built us a tree house with a zip line, which was super dangerous, and go-karts. I was always around people who were artistic and creating things.

AC: Describe a moment in your childhood when you first identified as a designer. JW: When I was in high school, I was lucky to have an art teacher who brought in different brochures from art and design schools around the world. For the first time, I was aware you could design cars, toys or products as a career. As a kid, I was always sketching, building models, taking things apart and putting them together. When I found out it was a career path, there was no other option for me.

AC: If you could have a superpower, what would it be? JW: Eternal life — I have too many hobbies and not enough time.

AC: What’s your most prized possession? JW: My grandfather passed away this year, and I have the camera he used when he was working as a photographer and a backpack he built for his Boy Scout group in the 1950s.

AC: Where is your happy place? JW: There are so many! Twenty meters deep, swimming with manta rays off the coast of Thailand, snowboarding in Japan. There's a canyon in Hong Kong that looks like Jurassic Park — it's just so raw with waterfalls everywhere. But to summarize, my happy place is being outside in a gorgeous location with people I care about.

AC: How would your closest friend describe you? JW: A relentless, laser-focused — I hate to say it — asshole, but with a heart of gold.

[dippedanddripped]

Throughout their active career, the Beastie Boyshave had a unique relationship with skateboarding. Despite none of them being particularly accomplished on a sponsorship level, they maintained an authentic connection to skate culture for so long that it’s hard to imagine the two not being linked. However, when their debut album Licensed to Ill was released in 1986, the synergy between skateboarding and mainstream music was tenuous at best. The idea that three Jewish rappers from New York City – a decade-plus before the entire East Coast had a thriving skate industry – known for boisterous hip-hop rock party anthems connected with the then-subculture of skateboarding was foreign, to say the least. Contextually, there were no bands charting who had any real roots in skating, and if they did, it wasn’t touted as a marketing tool. In fact, there were only a handful of pro skaters from the East Coast, let alone any who were Jewish.

Skateboarding in the mid ’80s was California; hip-hop was still finding its legs and identity in culture and the actual music industry, and the only true “skate” music being pushed was skate rock via Thrasher Magazine’s editorial and compilation albums. During this time, skateboarding still had a very Anglo-punk stigma to most, which was completely inaccurate considering how many Latino and Asian pioneers there were in the sport, and hip-hop represented urban street culture. The two seemed worlds apart. But for Adam Yauch, Mike Diamond, and Adam Horovitz, whose musical journey began in punk rock clubs and dance venues around Manhattan, cultural lines were bridged by subway stops and the explorative innocence of youth. There were no better ambassadors than a bunch of wise-asses steeped in crate digging, graffiti, DIY, and utilitarian fashion to champion skateboarding. Contrasted against INXS putting skate photography on the cover of Kick a year later, the Beastie Boys posing in photos with skateboards just seemed like how they got to the shoot rather than a prop – and it probably was.

Unlike most music autobiographies, the new Beastie Boys Book traverses more than a band’s story arc within music. While the 590 pages do detail several industry clichés – including cowboy booted A&R guys and tense relationships with major labels – the monograph is a written and visual journey of style, trend, music, fashion, culture, art, slang, and, most importantly, friendship. While the book has many characters and B-stories, the main figures are the three members of the band and the locales of New York City and Los Angeles. Written by surviving members Michael Diamond and Adam Horovitz, Beastie Boys Book is also a love letter to Adam Yauch who, despite being just a year-ish older than Diamond and Horovitz, comes off as a mentor and almost stabilizing figure of the iconic band.

Unlike Diamond and Horovitz, Yauch is depicted as a the least celebrity-yearning of the Boys, never fully assimilating to fame as evidenced by his spiritual journey and immersion into Tibetan Buddhism. As the group’s constant, the images of Yauch throughout the book, save several where he’s wearing costume, are the most stylistically consistent. While his facial hair combos often fluctuate, MCA mostly looked what we identify now as a “typical skateboarder,” which is fairly accurate since he was, but there’s more significance than him being able to pump on a halfpipe. Yauch’s and his bandmates’ affinity for skateboarding not only set off a grip of style trends and influenced soundtracks and even brands (via their friendship with Spike Jonze), but it can be argued that it grounded and revitalized their careers.

The genesis of this relationship began with their 1989 sophomore effort Paul’s Boutique. Though it is now heralded as a masterpiece, it was initially a commercial disappointment and consequently thrust the band, most of whom had relocated to Los Angeles, out of the spotlight. Prior to their second album the Beastie Boys were superstars, but they not only lost their glow but, even worse, appeared kitschy to their mass audience as the funked out dance track “Hey Ladies” was their only single to chart. For many, the last images they had of the band were them dressed up in garish 1970s gear, emulating both Saturday Night Live more than rising rap crew.

Several other visuals were crafted in support of the record, but it was “Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun” that proved predictive and revelatory. Directed by Yauch himself, it’s a lo-fi pastiche that mixes candid footage with clips from action sports videos, and it even shows Yauch skating on the streets of Los Angeles. In between the surf, skate, and snowboarding tricks are footage of the band recording the track, driving around stoned wearing costumes, a confused kitten, and generally staying loose without the frat bro layer. In a sense, the song and video are the secret sauce that created the loose, free blueprint that allowed their subsequent effort, Check Your Head, to hit so hard.

When the project’s lead single “Pass the Mic” was released in 1992, it was a lowkey announcement that Beastie Boys were back for the first time. They hadn’t lost the irreverence of their early “Cookie Puss”-era, there was a nod to their punk past with a Bad Brains sample and production that was both sparse and dense at the same time, as well as wealth of skate clips/B-roll in between the vocal deliveries for the video, including footage shot at the ramp they erected at their G Son studio while recording the album. During the tail end of the track they even announce that they’re going to “rock this joint in an old school way,” which was more than a stylistic declaration but the announcement of a cultural zeitgeist.

Though the group was simply wearing the clothes they had always worn, albeit without the B-Boy bravado and accoutrement, what happened in that seven-ish year stretch was that 1980s clothing had become vintage. So rather than looking slightly out of date, they stepped it up by pairing newly vintage parkas, denim, and trainers with newer yet classic workwear, specifically Carhartt and West Coast-centric Ben Davis, as well as peppering in sunglasses, beanies, and even simple Champion hoodies (which had yet to become a thing). The Beastie Boys were not only fresh, but coyly self-referential. It might be an oversell to say it was the birth of modern retro-vintage, but then again, maybe not. In fact, the only thing that really wasn’t emulated to a degree in the wake of Check Your Head was MCA’s oversized snowboarding boots, so expect those to pop off in 2020.

With imagery shot by iconic music and skate photographer Glen E. Friedman and typography designed by Eric Haze, the cover of Check Your Head was also a visual mash up that spoke not only to the band themselves but what was happening in culture – hip-hop had become a part of mainstream America as well as the soundtrack of street skating, which was the industry defining voice at the time. Haze had also designed a promotional skateboard for Vision for the band that never made it past the prototype stage back in the Licensed to Ill days, which has since become a collectors grail. Check Your Head’s cover – a subtle take on Minor Threat’s final 7” Salad Days, also shot by Friedman – and music not only became one of the most important examples of punk, funk, hip-hop, rock, and psych music blending together into a new form, but even the clothes the band is wearing on the cover spoke to the audience. Remember, this is 1992, in the thick of an era where hair metal clichés and the B-Boy looks of the 1980s were being phased out. Grunge was starting to boom, rock stars dressing like their audience was a new thing, and even though gold ropes and chains were still in the mix, rappers in 1992 were far from dressing in the club looks of their forefathers. Here were the Beasties; wearing beanies, Ben Davis, and deadstock sneakers, well before brands knew what models to retro, let alone retro anything at all.

After a string of successful singles, the Beastie Boys made a meaningful connection while working on a promo video for “Time For Livin’.” Even though the under two-minute hardcore punk track wasn’t a proper single, it was edited and featured “out of focus” live footage shot by a young skate photographer, videographer, and writer “put on by Yauch,” named Spike Jonze, who they had previously met in 1991 while he worked at the short lived magazine Dirt. Jonze fused the black-and-white and color performance footage with raw skate footage taken from Plan B’s “Questionable” video. Heralded as a superteam, Questionable was the most innovative skate video released at the time and featured three Beasties tracks during pro Mike Carroll’s part.

“I got an advanced copy of the album from Lance Dawes at Slap Magazine,” Carroll told Highsnobiety when we discussed the video. “When it came time for the video we used the music from that advanced copy – I didn’t think anything of it, because the album wasn’t even out yet. So yeah, we didn’t get the rights and the album didn’t even come out for two weeks after Questionable. It’s pretty fucked up. [laughs] We were recently on a Lakai trip in Japan and Tony Hawk actually asked us if we got permission to use those Beasties tracks. Years ago he was snowboarding with MCA and Tony asked him if Plan B had gotten permission. MCA told him we didn’t but said it didn’t matter because he thought the video was ‘sick,’ well… he used some other words, but getting that sign off was all that mattered.”

Hailing from the Bay Area, Carroll (who would win Thrasher’s coveted Skater of the Year award two years after the video) was one of the leaders of San Francisco’s E.M.B. crew that was setting all the technical and style trends in skating in the early ’90s. Even though he was sponsored by Vans at the time, Carroll specifically had a penchant for deadstock Puma and adidas, as well as Ben Davis and beanies, making him almost appear as if he was somehow an associate with the group.

“I’ve always tried to figure out how it all started [the retro craze],” Carroll says. “It was going on before Check Your Head but that album – the cover, the videos, especially ‘So What’cha Want,’ that whole style is where it started for me, really set it off. Stop dressing like a goofy boy and get back to normal. When I first started skating I had Puma Clydes, then I saw Cab [Steve Caballero] wearing them, then a few years later this was happening. I got a pair again at a place in SF called Famous Footwear, but when we traveled to England on a Plan B tour I must have bought 10 pairs of shoes because we couldn’t get those old shoes in the US. There was a store in SF called Kaplan’s that would sometimes have Campuses or Shelltoes, but I don’t think I ever even got any there. Later on Nick Tershay [Diamond Supply Co.] met Paul Shier [Pro skater and current team manager for adidas Skateboarding] and he’d start sending shoes to him, and for me too.”

Oddly enough, Girl Skateboards, the brand Carroll formed with Jonze, Rick Howard, and Megan Baltimore in 1993, would not only release Beastie Boys decks (including a recent capsule collection), but released a video directed by Jonze in 1994 titled “Goldfish,” which featured skits that mirror and the famous “Sabotage” video Jonze had directed just a few weeks before. Much like their video for “Hey Ladies,” Jonze channeled the specific, genre satire that was central and symbolic of the group, but with much more success, nailing the references and tone perfectly. To add another layer, in 1993 Jonze was at a party with the Beastie Boys when Howard mentioned his idea to start what would later become Girl to Jonze. As he told the Nine Club, Jonze – knowing that Mike D was an investor in the original XLarge store and brand – wrangled everyone together and convinced them to distribute the conceptual brand via XLarge.

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Back to the Ben Davis for a minute. In the Beastie Boys Book, Diamond elaborates on his role as an investor in the original XLarge store in Los Angeles. He mentions the having the idea of a brick-and-mortar store that would not only carry difficult to seek out workwear but also deadstock sneakers, crediting founders Eli Bonerz and Adam Silverman with actualizing it. Originally opened in Los Feliz, on Vermont Street, Los Angeles in 1991, the store instantly clicked with skaters, hip-hop, and graffiti heads alike, even employing several skaters such as former Menace pro Billy Valdez. Not only did it start to become an underground culture enclave, but it was the go-to spot for out of town heads to cop gear. As pro skaters and musicians traveled back East or to wherever they called home, they were returning with clothes and sneakers that weren’t on the average racks, as well as X-Large gear that was initially only available at the store.

In 2012, Girl and sister brand Chocolate released Pretty Sweet, a full-length video directed by Jonze and Ty Evans which featured Carroll, Alex Olson, Rick McCrank, and Brian Anderson, skating (fittingly) to “Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun.” Both Olson and Anderson have recently become fashion icons themselves. The video’s New York premiere was attended by Diamond, Leo Fitzpatrick, Michael Rapport and Kanye West who reportedly commented after the viewing that, “That shit was stylistically dope.”

Looking back specifically to the era of Check Your Head and its documentation in the Beastie Boys Book, the transformation of both the band and youth culture as a whole is striking and surprisingly understated in other monographs and media. If you experienced it, the impact was massive; so obvious that it’s just part of your DNA. At a time when a live performance was a more momentous experience, when photographs and media of artists was still rather sparse, seeing the Beastie Boys on MTV Sports skating the G Son ramp or watching them discuss vintage clothing and their perspective on fashion during a House of Style segment was a validation of underground movements from the people invested in it. While they may not be the “definitive” skate band, the Beastie Boys, through their videos, Grand Royal magazine, as well as diverse opening act choices, acted as gatekeepers – the older guys who made you the perfect mixtape and hipped you to other worlds. Whether it was skateboarding, soul, funk, rap, punk, graffiti, or fashion, they offered the perfect mix to a global audience, feeding a creative boom that pushed the ethos and aesthetics of streetwear, skateboarding, and music forward for generations.

[obfiveskateboardsau]

OBfiveskateboards.com.au - Skateboards Online Australia

Explore the outstanding OBfive Skateboards collection at Australia’s top Surf Skateboards Official Shop! A well-loved name in the Australian surf and skate scene, OBfive offers a premium range of cruisers, longboards, and surf skates that blend impeccable style with high performance. Known for their quality craftsmanship, each OBfive board captures Australia’s unique coastal vibe, letting riders carry a touch of the iconic Aussie beach lifestyle wherever they go.

Whether you're gliding through city streets or carving up smooth concrete waves, OBfive skateboards are designed to elevate every ride. With versatile cruisers perfect for casual cruises, longboards built for stability, and surf-inspired skates for smooth, surf-like turns, OBfive's collection has something for every type of rider. Built from durable materials and engineered for precision, OBfive is celebrated for creating boards that fuse lasting quality with bold, standout designs.

Embrace the essence of Australian skate culture with OBfive Skateboards and discover new heights in your skateboarding experience. With their commitment to innovation and the surf-skate lifestyle, OBfive’s boards give every rider the freedom, thrill, and style of a true Australian adventure.

Store - https://www.obfiveskateboards.com.au/collections/sale

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[goldcoastlongboards]

Goldcoastlongboards.com.au offer high-quality cruiser longboards in Australia. We provide a wide range of longboards apparels, surf skate, sunnies and more. Visit our site for more details and place an order!

[volaviwrites]

I Would Teach My Feet to Fly

Dick escapes Gotham for Los Angeles in December, but everything reminds him of Jason and their failed relationship. At least he can surf. Now if he just stop hearing that song everywhere he goes. 

A Christmas fic inspired by “The River” by Joni Mitchell, especially Robert Downey Jr.s version. It’s also a loose sequel to the my fic “The Candle” but can be read on its own.

Dick all but snatched the opportunity to get out of town, because, God, he thought he was over it, over Jason, but seeing him on the street the other week had ripped off the thin scab that he had been able to pretend was true healing.

And it wasn’t even officially winter yet, but November had been cold even for Gotham, and Dick tolerated the cold, had slowly grown used to it over the years, but fundamentally he was still the child who’d spent his winters in Florida off the Gulf Coast. Maybe a change of climate, a view of a different ocean, some trees that still had actual leaves on them, would be good for him. No snow, no bare branched trees, just balmy beaches and 70 degree weather.

Dick deliberately ignores the voice in his head that tells him that his quick agreement to run B’s errands in California had nothing to do with the fact it would dramatically reduce his chances of seeing Jason for the duration of the trip.

“La la la denial,” he sings quietly to himself to the tune of ‘Silent Night.’

The grand foyer of the hotel has swaths of real pine garland, a giant fake tree decked in tasteful gold and crystal, and a grand piano playing soft holiday music. While he’s standing in line to check in, the musician moves to a few bars of Jingle Bells, then starts the melody line of ‘The River.’

Dick closes his eyes.

He’s not that kind of guest, but part of him wants to find someone in charge and complain about them playing such a depressing song at this time of year. It wouldn’t even be that out of character, really, since he is checking in as Richard Grayson-Wayne, billionaire’s son. Though Dick doesn’t want to risk TMZ running an article speculating on why a song about a broken relationship and heartbreak provoked such a reaction. And if this song hits a bit close to home, well, that’s hardly the piano player’s fault.  

When had Jason bought the ring? Why did he finally decide to sell it, two years after they broke up?

Two years after Dick broke up with Jason.

Dick steps forward when he realizes that the clerk has been calling him for at least a few seconds. He plasters on his smile, the smile that has earned him more than one headline in gossip magazines and tabloids, more than a couple of flirtatious comments from Extra hosts. The check in process goes smoothly, but he still has to endure the rest of the song, thinking of all the times he fucked up, was too needy, too demanding, expecting Jason to change. And now he’s lost the best relationship he ever had.

He’s moving to the elevator as quickly as he can, but not before the song has finished.

Before the encounter on the rainy street, Dick had barely seen Jason in civilian clothes since the break up. Nightwing and Red Hood had managed to carve out a respectable, if cooly civil, working relationship - Bruce’s training in emotional suppression for the win! But that’s it. Nothing else. Not a word.

He knew that Jason had eased away from the whole drug lord mob boss thing. Red Hood rarely even killed these days.

But scathing words can’t be unsaid.

Not for the first time, Dick wishes he could fly away.

The business that brought him here was a felicitous overlap of Wayne Enterprises and Batman interests. Dick is going to ceremonially break ground at a new wing of the Children’s Hospital, and have a few “for the sake of appearances only” meetings with some West Coast executives. Meanwhile, Nightwing needs to deliver a new form of Kryptonite to Star Labs and wait for them to stabilize it before returning it to Batman. B didn’t want to risk transporting the mercurial element through the Zeta tubes, and there were very few people he trusted enough to travel across country with it.

Richard Grayson-Wayne smiles for the cameras. He goes shopping on Rodeo Drive. He eats at a trendy vegan restaurant in West Hollywood that just happens to have some of the best cocktails and spicy margaritas on the West Coast. He perhaps drinks one too many in an attempt to suppress memories of Jason carefully learning to cook a vegetarian version of khoresh bademjan. After Damian decided to quit eating meat, but missed the Iranian eggplant stew usually cooked with lamb, Jason made it a personal mission to replicate the dish as closely as possible.

The combination of chiles and tequila burn going down, though they can’t quite disguise the tang of regret.

He spends an early morning at El Porto Beach, catching some winter waves. He’s not a great surfer, but he took a week’s worth of lessons in Hawaii as a young teenager. This had been back when Bruce and Alfred actually went on occasional family vacations, and the key skills of surfing are balance and flexibility, something that Dick has been granted from birth and worked hard his entire life to enhance.

The feel of the Pacific Ocean at his back, the thought of thousands of miles of undulating waves, the unexplored depths, the unknown cold crevices, reassures him in a bleak midwinter kind of way. He thinks of fish that are luminous in the dark, of scudding sail boats, krakens and storms, stretches of nothing but water and sky, of mermaids. Here there be monsters.

Dick has always loved too well and not wisely. He loves slowly, softly at first, and then sudden and all at once, like sand falling from an hourglass. He’s needy and emotional, yet not always conscientious of his lovers own emotional issues.

As the beach starts to fill with tourists, he heads back to his rental car. He unzips and peels off the top half of his wetsuit, so similar to his Nightwing costume. Sand sticks to his feet in the outdoor shower. He ignores the glances from the others at the beach. Whether it’s for his scars or his muscles, it doesn’t matter to him. Their speculation washes off him easier than the sand. Easier than regret.

Back in the car, Dick checks his cellphone out of habit more than expectation.

There’s a text from Jason. His pulse quickens.

“Dickie. Let’s get coffee when you’re back in Gotham. -J”

He scrubs his hands through his hair, already drying salty and wavy.  The phone sits heavy in his hand.

Thumbs slow and uncertain, Dick types back, “Sure. Sounds good.”

As an afterthought, he sends a second text. “Come to LA. I’ll teach you how to surf.”

Dick sits for he doesn’t know how long waiting for a reply before giving up and driving back to his hotel. He curses himself for being an idiot. Yet when he’s walking through the lobby again, he hears the chime of a text alert over the sounds of the piano hitting a minor chord, then a major lift.

“I already know how to surf, Goldie. Used to live on a tropical island with Kori and Roy.”

Dick bites his lip. He wishes he could skate away from here on a river of ice. Or at least go back to the beach and let the ocean pull him away with the rock of the waves and the inexorable pull of the tides.

Then his phone lights up with another text. “I’ll be there tomorrow.

AO3 link

[seokingstar]

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Regardless of whether you're searching for an undertaking occasion, a beachside occasion or something totally strange for your next family excursion, Australia has it thus considerably more. With such differing geography, atmosphere and history, Australia is a genuine wonderland of occasion openings, with such a great amount on offer nobody might see it all in a lifetime. Regardless of what your financial limit, time period or occasion inclinations there's a plenty of astounding goals inside Australia standing by to be investigated.

 Byron Sound

Byron Sound, situated on the far North Eastern corner of New South Ribs, has been a well known occasion goal for a long time and pulls in a great many both nearby and worldwide travelers every year. Well known with hikers, families, the rich and celebrated and everything in the middle of, Byron truly has something for everybody. Awesome coastline and sea shores are the fundamental draw card of the region, despite the fact that the inland hinterland territory is additionally developing in prevalence. The Bryon Inlet Beacon is the most Eastern Point in Australia and guests can appreciate a dessert while getting a charge out of the marvelous perspectives and viewing the deft local mountain goats explore the precarious precipices of the headland without breaking a sweat. During whale movement seasons, the lively humpback and sperm whales can be seen rupturing on their way up or down the coast. Nearby cafés have some expertise in crisp, neighborhood produce with a scope of cooking styles to equal any significant city. The surf breaks all through the district have gained notoriety for incredible waves and the sea shores are all watched giving safe swimming to kids. The neighborhood bar is kid amicable with an outside brew garden/bistro appropriate for families and offering a children menu at sensible costs. Settlement in Byron Straight is copious with outdoors for the economical, lavish inns and resorts for those needing to overdo it and numerous inhabitants exploiting the zone's prominence by leasing their private homes for occasion rentals, perfect for families. In the event that you like to stay away from the groups booking some Ballina settlement is an extraordinary alternative or the much calmer Bangalow in the hinterland ought to likewise be considered.

 Gold Coast

The Gold Coast will consistently be one of the most mainstream family goals because of its bounty of amusement parks. Ocean World, Motion picture World, Dream World, Wet 'n' Wild World and White Water World are all inside a short drive of Surfers Heaven and all offer an energizing day of good times for families with offspring everything being equal. Alongside the amusement stops, the Gold Coast is situated on an entirely stretch of coastline with long white sea shores and unblemished shining water, and its warm atmosphere takes into consideration swimming nearly all year. There are various different attractions focused on families and youngsters including a wax exhibition hall, Currumbin Untamed life Haven, Interminability World (a hallucinogenic, cutting edge, labyrinth like world), small scale putt, Ripley's In all honesty and the rundown goes on... also, on! There are more cafés, bistros and bistros in the Gold Coast than you can jab a stick at and the challenge guarantees that the nature of nourishment stays high. Families can appreciate pizza, fish sticks and french fries or cheeseburgers or overdo it and appreciate some high end food. For families searching for certain rushes, there is zorbing (goliath explode balls you can hop inside and move down a slope in), an entire day stunt institute, Kart dashing and a fly pilot test program. For something else visit Thunderbird Park, an astonishing natural life and geographical desert spring with the longest and most elevated experience rope course in Australia. Steed trailing, hedge strolling and laser engagement are different exercises accessible in the recreation center. Convenience in the Gold Coast is practically boundless and the high measure of rivalry makes it truly moderate. There are various family resorts all through the coast alongside campgrounds, lavish lodgings and inns. Mermaid Waters convenience is family arranged and somewhat expelled from the 'club' area of the Gold Coast.

 Lake Macquarie

In case you're the kind of family who enjoys a lower key occasion, Lake Macquarie is just a short drive from Sydney however a world away from the buzzing about. The biggest seaside saltwater lake in Australia, Lake Macquarie offers an enormous scope of water sports including angling, water skiing, swimming, surfing, wake boarding, kayaking and drifting. On the off chance that this isn't sufficient to keep you involved there are additionally indoor exercises, for example, ten pin bowling, ice skating and films. Steed riding, Go Karts and bicycle contract are other extraordinary family exercises accessible in the zone. Lake Macquarie settlement is all around estimated and there are a decent scope of family inviting alternatives going from outdoors to great worth inns and occasion lettings.

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Deal, Victoria

Like Lake Macquarie yet this time just a short drive from Melbourne, Deal in Victoria is situated on the tremendous beach front Gippsland Lakes which feed into the sea at Lakes Passageway. Deal is a perfect occasion goal for families who appreciate nature. Encompassed by National Park that is home to terrific Rainforest, Wet Grounds and nature strolls, Deal is likewise wealthy in water sports. The huge lake framework is perfect for cruising and sailing exercises, swimming, kayaking and swimming and close by Lakes Passage has excellent stretches of extraordinary surf sea shores. The Tarra Valley Rainforest Walk wanders through rich plant dells, underneath transcending old mountain debris trees and is home to fantastic lyre flying creatures and a plenitude of other local natural life. The Wetlands walk takes you through a totally extraordinary condition with freshwater bogs and a gigantic exhibit of birdlife noticeable from the winding timber walkways. Once more, Deal Victoria convenience is family cordial and fluctuated and offers something for each spending limit and style of voyager.

 Inland NSW

A great many people don't consider inland NSW when they're considering spots to occasion, however it offers a one of a kind take a gander at a piece of Australia that is dissimilar to anyplace else on the planet. Broken Slope with its rich mining legacy is a captivating town. Situated next to the notable Line of Deposit, where in excess of 800 excavators have lost their lives working in the mines, Broken Slope is as yet a functioning mining town. The Line of Deposit Remembrance pays tribute to the lost diggers and is a moving spot to see. Visit an old mine in close by Silverton and see the bar where scenes from the first Frantic Max motion picture were shot. The craftsman network in Broken Slope is energetic with the Living Desert Figures an absolute necessity see. Local emus are frequently spotted along the side of the road alongside kangaroos, echidnas, wombats and an assortment of birdlife. There is a decent assortment of convenience accessible including various troop parks perfect for families alongside lodgings, lofts and overnight boardinghouses. For something other than what's expected book some Coober Pedy convenience in an underground inn for an encounter the family will always remember.

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[rememberthattime]

Chapter 50. Goodbye Australia

I can’t believe we’ve been here for two years. How has it already been 22 months!? 

We’ve basically lived here just as long as the UK, yet our time in Sydney feels more like a semester abroad. I know the toilets flush a different direction here, but does time move faster too?? Are we so far away from the rest of Earth that there’s relativity distortion???

Regardless of how quickly it’s arrived, our time in Sydney is coming to an end. Like anywhere we’ve live, Sydney had its highs and lows, though I’m surprisingly more sentimental about Australia than any of our previous homes. Australia is a unique and special place, and this goodbye post will capture how proud and fondly Chelsay and I will remember our time Down Under.

The best and worst of Australia can actually be captured by the setting from where I’m writing this post. It’s 6:30 AM. The sun is rising, and I’m looking out my window at an empty Manly Beach, the vast Pacific Ocean in the distance. I have my iced coffee because it’s 85 degrees. It’s quiet. The setting is just perfect.

The birds start to rise from their evening slumber. Some light chatter. But then the magpies wake up. And then cockatoos. And then kookaburras. Pretty soon the romantic notion of waking up to birds chirping has turned into Baghdad. And that’s Australia in a nutshell: an absolute dream for the right amount of time, but then the magpies start & you know it’s time to wake up.

Now, it’s obviously more complex than that. Australia may be the most perfect place in the world to raise a family. First, the weather and setting are unmatched. Anywhere. In an age where American and British kids are glued to screens, Aussie kids are distracted from their phones or TV by sunshine, swimming, and surfing. Chelsay and I first observed this when we discovered the Northern Beaches.

Sydney has some phenomenal coastal walks, but our hikes through the Northern Beaches were my favorite. For 15 months, we were ferrying over to Watson’s Bay for the Bondi-to-Coogee. We’d wrap up with a frosé slushee from Coogee Pavilion, and stop in CBD on the way back for 678 Korean BBQ. It was great.

But one weekend, we instead decided to head north to see how many beaches we could cover by foot. North Manly, Freshwater, Curl Curl, Dee Why, Collaroy, Narrabeen. Pretty soon, we’d walked 20 miles and were stunned. This beautiful, quiet coastline had been in our backyard the whole time!? 

The Northern Beaches walks became our “Richmond Park” equivalent, and as we walked barefoot along the sandy beaches, Chelsay and I took note of the young families. Their kids weren’t stuck back on the beach blanket, looking at their phones. It’s impossible when your spoiled by one of the best settings in the world. They played backyard games on the beach, or volleyball, or ran around with their border collies. Dads surfed with their sons and moms & daughters worked out with the lifesaving club. Yeah, the LIFESAVING CLUB. Instead of tee-ball, Aussie kids are learning to swim out in the ocean and save people. It’s easy to see how Aussies have great attitudes when they’re raised in an environment like this.

That actually brings me to my next point about why Australia is special: the people. Just phenomenal. There are a couple bad eggs like anywhere, but on the whole, Aussies are light hearted, funny, kind, optimistic, and always after a good time. At work, I had the most supportive and entertaining colleagues, enabling the best two years of my career so far. When learning to surf, strangers were welcoming and encouraging (they would tell us when to paddle and cheer when we caught a wave!). And only Aussies could come up with sayings like “Piss in your pocket”, “Good bloke, like a beer” and “We’re not here to ____ spiders.”

I have two stories to exhibit this lovable Aussie attitude. The first came when Chelsay and I visited the Museum of Industry. It was the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11, so the museum was hosting a NASA exhibit. The whole thing was great: it was all about how Aussies helped with the moon landing. Really, they played a very small part by simply receiving the camera feed from the moon, which was only due to the Earth’s rotation making them best positioned for Armstrong’s first step. But the Aussies had so much pride in contributing to the accomplishment. They didn’t have the resources to send a man to the moon, but when the time came, Aussies happily and proudly stepped in.

My second story comes from North Curl Curl. Chelsay and I were on one of our Northern Beaches walks, when we came across a kids surf contest. (Again, instead of peewee football, Aussie children have surf competitions.) Anyway, the scene was great. It was sunny, the parents had come out to watch, and one of the teenagers set up a microphone to give play-by-play. Some highlights:

“Aw I’m calling it: best day of the year. The waves are     rolling, sausages are rolling.”

“There are sets! Out! The back!”

“Suns out, buns out! Well no buns yet, but the lasses     will be here soon.”

“Just a reminder to any surfers: yield your waves to     the kids. You got a problem with that, we’ve got a group of 20 locals     here. Get amongst it.”

This teen captured what it means to be Australian: funny, positive, and energetic.

I actually have a bonus third story about how much I love Aussie attitudes. Perhaps no story better sums up Australia’s priority of just having a good time than Steven Bradbury. Bradbury was an Australian speed skater that made it to the 1000m finals of 2002 Winter Olympic. As a quick aside, it’s a testament to Aussie athleticism that there is zero snow in the country yet they consistently compete and medal at the Winter Olympics. Back to Bradbury though. He basically only made the finals because all of his opponents crashed in the semi-finals. So now he’s in the finals. He’s matched up against the three fasted skaters in the world, and he knows he really shouldn’t be there. So, for 950m, he holds back. He’s enjoying that he’s made the finals in the Winter Olympics, taking in the moment and happy to let the other skaters fight. The front runners are stressed throughout, constantly passing one another and jockeying to take the lead.

With 50m left, Bradbury is a full 15m back. But then the aggression of the front runners costs them - after battling on the last turn, they all tumble. Bradbury, who was just enjoying a leisurely skate, passes them all and somehow with a grin and somehow wins gold! His quote afterwards captures his Aussiness: “I was the oldest bloke in the field and I knew that. Skating four races back to back, I wasn't going to have any petrol left in the tank. So there was no point in getting there and mixing it up because I was going to be in last place anyway. So I figured I might as well stay out of the way and be in last place.”

“Doing a Bradbury” is now another phenomenal Aussie saying.

The weather and people of Australia certainly exceeded Chelsay and I’s hopes when we moved to Sydney. That said, we’d never been here before, so how could we really know what to expect? Here are some other Aussie realities that turned out different than expectations:

The biggest surprise is how isolated Australia is. I knew it was far away, but didn’t grasp just HOW far. This makes travel harder, both because of flight times and flight prices, which ultimately is the biggest drawback of Australia. Sure we had some absolutely amazing trips (New Zealand, Western Australian, Fiji and Indo all stand out), but a just weekend trip doesn’t get you as far as it would in London. For this time in Chelsay and I’s lives, we’re really looking to see as much as possible.

On the positive side, We expected more bugs, spiders, and snakes. These have been a non-factor in Manly.

Despite the absence of insects, there have been far more sharks than expected. Not Great Whites, but 5 foot Dusky Whalers, Reef Sharks, Wobbegongs, and Port Jackson’s. I see at least one almost every time I go for a swim. After swimming with about 100 sharks over the past year, both Chelsay and I are much more comfortable with them than     expected.

We should be better at surfing. We live on an absolutely ideal beach to learn. Sure, we can competently stand on a 5-6 ft wave or catch the occasional “green face”, but we’d never be confused with pros. After two years, we can barely turn. Those kids in the North Curl Curl competition would surf circles around us.

Okay, we’ve made it to the end. As a “completeness check”, I took a look back at my Goodbye London post. That post was absolutely spot on - I perfectly predicted how I’d feel about London 24 months after leaving. It was such a good prediction that I actually feel a bit of pressure to do the same for Australia.

So here it goes. With Australia, I predict we’ll forget the lack of travel options and focus more on memories we did make. The freedom of driving through outback in Western Australia and the Top End. Drinking wine, snacking on “the goods”, and listening to the hits on a warm night in Esperance. Vacations visiting dinosaurs (Komodo) or other worldly Mordor (New Zealand). Day trips near Sydney to see koalas (Port Stephens) or kangaroos and wombats (Kangaroo Valley). Chic brunches on the Sunshine Coast, and capturing all the Pokémon (Aussie wildlife) on trips to Tassie, the Barrier Reef, and Far North Queensland. Our long weekend walks through the Northern Beaches, followed by delivery daal from our favorite Indian place.

Ultimately though, what I’ll miss most is the free Saturdays and Sundays that we so easily take for granted. Waking up and getting a pretzel croissant from Sonoma. Watching the surfers from the corso, followed by barefoot morning walk along the beach. Grabbing our boards, snorkels, a book, and some guacamole and hitting the beach. Ending the day with chicken nuggets, truffle fries, and an elderflower spritz at Hemingway’s. Taking in the unbelievably colorful sunsets EVERY SINGLE NIGHT!

Unlike London, there won’t be sights or events or attractions that I miss about Australia. It will be the feeling of a free weekend in Manly, the hot sun, and warm Aussies around us.

[magzoso-tech]

New Post has been published on https://magzoso.com/tech/can-gopro-reinvent-itself-by-going-back-to-its-past/

Can GoPro Reinvent Itself... By Going Back to Its Past?

The action-camera company grew fast, and crashed hard. Now it’s trying to pick itself back up — by thinking a lot smaller.

November 21, 2019 15+ min read

This story appears in the December 2019 issue of Entrepreneur. Subscribe »

­This past August, 40 influencers from 19 countries left their homes with camera in hand. Their mission: Film themselves from the moment they stepped out the door, onward to the airport, and en route to the remote Western Australia town of Broome. They’d charge into the ocean, do bike flips, and ride camels on the beach. And then they’d race to stitch the footage together into a montage and submit it for a contest by 11:59 p.m.

The next morning, the influencers are surprisingly bright-eyed, sitting in a conference room, waiting to learn who made the best video. “I know you guys are curious to know who got the award,” says Devon DiPietro, head of community at the action-camera company GoPro, which organized the event. “But there were so many good submissions that we’re not ready to announce it yet.”

The influencers nod. They know they’re good. So does GoPro, which is why the company spent a lot of money bringing them here. With any luck, the influencers will now help the company make a lot of money.

Related: With Girlboss, Sophia Amoruso Is Using Past Failures to Fuel Her Latest Success

This big bash in Broome is what GoPro calls its Creator Summit, and it’s the pinnacle event in an ongoing effort to fix its business. GoPro never had trouble with exposure — the brand’s name is synonymous with first-­person action footage. But it’s had an on-and-off relationship with profitability. In 2014, its stock topped out at $93.85. Then the company stumbled, and it lost more than $700 million between 2016 and 2019. This year, its stock price dipped below $3.50. If you’d invested $10,000 at GoPro’s peak, you wouldn’t have enough cash to buy its flagship camera. (It goes for about $400.)

Now GoPro is going through the same process countless companies do at every stage of business: It’s rethinking exactly who its target audience is — and how to appeal to them. That’s why, over the next four days, the influencers GoPro has brought to Australia will ride boats and Jet Skis, snorkel through a flooded mangrove forest, and swim with sharks. They’ll take mud baths, buzz the coastline in floatplanes, and document a schedule of activities GoPro believes its core users thirst for. The company foots the bill and has put up an additional $10,000 in prize money to reward these influencers during an array of challenges. In return, the creators will post 566 times, generating 30 million impressions and 1.8 million social engagements.

Will that generate revenue? It just might. “You’re seeing a real turnaround in their core business,” says Andrew Uerkwitz, a senior tech analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. “They’re actually going to turn a profit this year.”

But first, the influencers need their validation. A little later this first morning, DiPietro finally announces who made the best video. “Congratulations, Nick Pescetto!” she says.

Pescetto, an Italian influencer with gorgeous sun-fried dreadlocks and a quarter-­million social-media followers, steps up to accept his award. With one hand, he shakes DiPietro’s hand. With the other, he holds a GoPro, rotating it between his own grinning face and the applause of his peers. 

Image Credit: @davidoc by @chrisrogers

“Everybody likes to see the champ fall from grace,” says GoPro founder and CEO Nick Woodman. “It’s ‘We love you! We love you!’ And then you slip up and they’re on you with daggers, stabbing you to death.” 

If it’s not immediately clear, GoPro is the Julius in this allegory. Before the brand’s assassination, it was widely held up as a shining example of entrepreneurial glory.

The origin story is well-told. In 2002, during a five-month surfing trip through Australia and Indonesia, Woodman, then 26, began fidgeting with a strap that would allow him to rig a waterproof camera to his wrist. If he could document his time in the barrel — what surfers call the inside of a wave — it might help him go pro. (Get it?) So he raised some money from his parents, put in $30,000 of his own savings, created a 35-millimeter camera with a strap on it, and sold his first unit in 2004 for $19.99.

A natural salesman, Woodman drove up and down the coast, pitching his camera to surf and skate shops. They understood the appeal. “Before GoPro, unless you had a photographer following you around, nobody had footage of themselves doing anything active,” says Woodman. “It was always the before and after photos in the parking lot.” Growth was steady, thanks to trade shows and athletes using the cameras, but the real pop came in 2006 when GoPro launched its first digital camera. Sales topped $800,000. As the cameras improved in functionality, so did profits. In late 2009, it sold a camera called the HD Hero that brought in $64 million over the course of 2010.

The following year, GoPro raised $88 million in venture funding and was valued at $400 million. When it went public in 2014, it had 25,000 specialty retail accounts. “Those were the good days,” says Todd Ballard, GoPro’s chief marketing officer. “It felt like everything we touched turned to gold.” 

In truth, it was a lot of fool’s gold.

In the company’s IPO documents, GoPro acknowledged that virtually all of its revenue came from selling cameras and accessories — ­but instead of calling itself a consumer electronics company, it claimed that it could become an “exciting new media company.” It had secured Xbox and Virgin America as distribution partners, and it was working on original content that it hoped to monetize with advertising, sponsorships, and increased camera sales.

“People were like, ‘Damn! That’s a great idea!’ ” says Uerkwitz. It got GoPro a lot of attention. GoPro declines to reveal specifics on how much it spent on its media division, but “it was a pretty big spend,” says Woodman. “We had a very large team of filmers and editors,” including sports, lifestyle, and reality-style scripted divisions. The year before the company went public, GoPro’s operating expenses were $263 million. In 2016, it spent $835 million — three times as much. But no serious content was released with any regularity. The project flopped.

Meanwhile, as part of a growth promise to investors, GoPro launched entry-level cameras designed to steal market share from point-and-shoots and DSLRs. “We started getting greedy as an organization,” says Ballard. “It drove us to think, How do we get soccer moms to buy our cameras? How do we get everybody to buy our cameras?”

Related: How This Ex-Con Started From Nothing to Build a 7-Figure Business

That’s not to say this is an inherently bad strategy. Companies need to grow, which can mean expanding their audience. In books and podcasts, LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman advises founders to ignore the needs of their early, core customers in favor of appealing to their future “scale customers.” And when the extreme racing company Tough Mudder looked to expand its offerings, appealing beyond its hard-core base to attract everyday athletes, it approached the project carefully — but determinedly. “What I didn’t want to be seen doing was somehow diluting the brand,” says Tough Mudder cofounder and former CEO Will Dean. So he acted slowly, introducing new, easier races at the same time he introduced harder, more extreme races. For inspiration, Dean turned to a Harvard Business Review case study on Porsche, which went through this same issue. In 2003, Porsche launched the midpriced Cayenne SUV to attract its own soccer moms, and some high-end drivers got grumpy. Porsche had to convince its core fans that the brand would still deliver on their expectations of exclusivity — which it did in part by taking some of its earnings from the SUV and investing it in making new, expensive sports cars.

But GoPro wasn’t as delicate. Scroll back far enough in the company’s Instagram feed and you’ll find evidence of how it approached its mass-market effort — through photos of sunsets, sleeping cats, and babies eating cookies. None of this attracted the soccer moms, but it did push GoPro’s core user away. Even Woodman lost interest. “I stopped paying attention to our own Instagram feed and YouTube channel,” he says. “I thought they were lame. If you’re a 22-year-old who’s really getting after it and you’re seeing this type of marketing, you’re like, Is this my brand?”

In 2016, GoPro released a $1,099 drone called the Karma, but it was bedeviled by reports of battery problems and crashes. It seemed like a metaphor.

Image Credit: @geoffgulevich of @dberrecloth

The GoPro decline came fast. It laid off 450 people in 2016. Rumors swirled that the founder and CEO was unable to carry his company. “There was a period where it really bothered me,” he says about the headlines. “It was like, Can you guys get off it now?”

But GoPro had a reason for hope. Even as it bled cash, it still owned the action-­camera market. Since going public, the company has sold at least 4.3 million cameras annually. No other company has come close. “Sony tried and failed, Garmin tried and failed, Xiaomi tried and failed — and those three companies are all much larger than GoPro,” says Uerkwitz. (Today, GoPro captures roughly 95 of every 100 dollars spent on action cameras in the U.S.)

So it kept developing cameras. In the spring of 2018, it was preparing to launch a new one called the Hero7 Black. This camera would improve upon previous editions with a seemingly magic feature that turns shaky camera footage — the kind you get by mounting a camera to a surfboard or a helmet — ­into a buttery-smooth motion picture. It was an impressive technological leap, but when Woodman reviewed the proposed marketing, he hated it. “It was super safe and boring,” he says.  

Chasing the mass market was threatening GoPro’s identity. It had been ignoring its core customers in favor of what LinkedIn’s Hoffman would call “scale customers” — but what if its extreme sports users actually were its scale customers? That’s when Woodman had an epiphany. “Nick was like: ‘Dude, we’re not doing this anymore,’ ” says Ballard. “ ‘We need to go back to what we stand for.’ ” The company wouldn’t be about appealing to broad audiences or making so much of its own content. It would be about enabling the most adventurous people on the planet to capture — and share! — their own accomplishments. It would double down on them.

Back in 2015, GoPro had launched an awards program that encouraged users to submit videos and photos for a chance to earn up to $5,000. GoPro then used the best stuff in its marketing and social media. The strategy was more cost-effective than paying an in-house media team to capture footage all over the world. But more important, it created a community of travelers, producers, and athletes who began to see GoPro as another way to make money doing what they love. Since its launch, the awards program had paid out roughly $3 million, and now supplies roughly 70 percent of GoPro posts on social media. 

Related: How This Family Rebuilt Their Business After Devastating Losses

The users who submit to the awards program make up what Woodman calls the “tip-of-spear” consumers — the people going into surf and skate shops 10 years ago. These were the people Woodman wanted to reengage. So he told his staff to rethink the creative launch of the Hero7, as well as everything that came after it. “That was a pivotal time,” says Ballard. “We needed to hear that from him.”

Prior to this revelation, GoPro’s most recent camera was launched with a nearly five-minute marketing video opening on a couple running hand-in-hand through a park. The camera’s technology was not discussed. 

By contrast, under Woodman’s new (but old!) direction, the fall 2018 launch of the Hero7 featured fast music and quick cuts. Users received a full technology rundown in two minutes: stabilization, voice-­command features, the ability to speed up and slow down footage. You see a rocket blasting away from Earth and motorbikes hitting dirt jumps while graphics like “HDR” and “1080p240” flash across the screen.

The marketing campaign was coupled with GoPro’s biggest award incentive yet — a million-dollar challenge that produced one superhot sizzle reel shot entirely on the Hero7. From 25,000 customer submissions, GoPro chose 56 award recipients, and the average payout was just under $18,000.

During its first week on sale, the Hero7 became the fastest-selling GoPro ever. In the first half of 2019, the company earned 2.2 million new social media followers, a 41 percent increase compared with the first half of 2018. In June, GoPro’s YouTube channel set a single-month record with 46 million unique views.

Woodman was right. Now it was time to dig in deeper. The company invested more heavily in an insights-and-analytics team — which, unlike before, could now explore the needs of its narrowly focused users. GoPro was going to learn exactly what they wanted. And then it would do whatever it could to please them…including taking 40 of them to Australia.

Image Credit: @fredfalco

The Australia trip is an influencer’s dream — the camera equipment, the beach, two pools, a yoga studio. Between the on-camera explorations, GoPro hosts breakout sessions on Photoshop, video editing, and personal branding. And then, on the last day of the summit, the group is brought together inside a coffee shop, in front of a deli case with a crocodile’s head inside. For the first time in days, they’re told to turn off their cameras. In advance of this moment, they’ve all signed NDAs. 

This is GoPro’s big payoff for the trip. It’s about to reveal two new cameras: the next-level Hero8 Black and the 360-degree Max.

“The Hero8 is a nod to everyone here,” says Jeremy Hendricks, a GoPro senior product marketing manager. “It’s a nod to the pros.” 

At first, the new camera looks just like the old one. It’s a black box. But then Hendricks unfolds a pair of concealed tabs, which extend from the bottom of the camera like stumpy legs.

Related: How to Maintain a Professional Relationship After a Business Partnership Falls Through

The influencers immediately understand. With previous GoPros, in order to clip the camera to a helmet mount or extendable selfie stick, users had to first snap it into a finicky plastic frame, which had tabs on the bottom. But now, with the Hero8 update, these tabs will be built directly into the camera — ­there when you need them, hidden when you don’t. “You guys!” says Hendricks. “No more frames!” 

Hendricks is confident in his delivery, because those flip-out tabs solve for a pain point specifically identified by GoPro’s insights and analytics teams. The influencers erupt. 

“Folding fingers!” says Tim Humphreys, a pro snowboarder. “Keep talking dirty to us!”

GoPro sure will, because when people like Humphreys love GoPro, more seem to follow. After three years of losses, the company is expecting 6 to 9 percent growth in 2019.  But it still has a lot of work to do. Core users are once again sweet on the brand, but investors are still sour. After a second-quarter earnings call during which the company reported international growth, margin growth, and a million new social media followers, GoPro’s stock price actually dropped. 

“You have to remember that there were multiple years of mis-execution, and investors got burned,” says Nikolay Todorov, an analyst at Longbow Research. “These guys have done quite a good job at stabilizing the ship. But it’s going to take some time for investor sentiment to shift.”

The stock recovered, but then in October it dropped again — this time 20 percent — when GoPro reported a late-stage production delay on the Hero8. The camera was originally slated to launch in the third quarter but instead was bumped to the fourth. That’s crippling for a company that pins almost all its success to one flagship product — and indicates that despite all the lessons GoPro has learned in the past few years, it’s still got work to do.

What investors want in a consumer electronics company, according to Uerkwitz, is a deeper bench. Garmin, Apple, Logitech: They all have diverse product portfolios. But GoPro’s previous efforts to diversify crash-landed (sometimes literally). So what the company needs to do is hold the line, hit its targets, and wait for investors to come around. 

Woodman understands this. “We’ve got to deliver consistent profitability and growth,” he says. GoPro has more than three years of product launches mapped out, and its immediate goal is to simply continue blowing the minds of its core users. Then, who knows? “If we identify a big enough market opportunity, absolutely we’ll go and build additional hardware,” says Woodman. He takes a pause. “But you’ve got to be really careful that you don’t spread yourself too thin.” 

So for now, GoPro just wants to geek out. Back in Australia, Hendricks walks the influencers through a suite of modular accessories that will snap onto the Hero8 to provide lighting, a shotgun microphone, and a rotating screen that allows vloggers to see themselves talking into the camera. He shows off its new stabilization capabilities, HDR upgrades, and functionality that allows users to speed up and slow down footage on the fly. The influencers ask questions and speculate about the creative ways they’ll deploy the new features. And when the presentation is done, they exit the coffee shop and walk right onto the hovercraft — a literal hovercraft — waiting for them outside. 

They turn their cameras back on. Everyone has work to do. 

[yahooin-travel-inspirations]

What to do in Sydney’s Bondi Beach

Sydney’s most iconic beach is beloved by locals and travelers, sporting a curvy strip of sand backed by hip bars, cafés, and shops. The impressive waves are a magnet for surfers, but swimmers should stay between the lifeguards’ flags to dodge the dangerous rip tides that have made Bondi Rescue such a popular Aussie TV show. Amateur surfers can take classes with Let’s Go Surfing. Fringed by grassy picnic areas and barbecues, the beach also has a skate park, pavilion, and dramatic pool overlooking the ocean. Foodie drag Hall Street is the go-to for smart eats. Work off the Gelato Messina ice cream on the nearly four mile long Bondi to Coogee Coastal Walk, which takes in beautiful beaches and coves. Stop off at Tamarama for serious surfing or sunbathing, Bronte for lunch or a swim, Clovelly for snorkeling, and Coogee for a final cooling dip. Coogee Pavilion pours rooftop cocktails with sexy sea views. Spring’s Sculpture by the Sea showcase brings art to the walk route. To reach Bondi take the train to Bondi Junction, then a bus; Coogee has bus connections to the city. And while it’s perfectly possible to visit Bondi for a day trip, we recommend staying a night or two. Start with the seven places listed below.

Bondi Icebergs

Oprah Winfrey famously dropped in to Bondi Icebergs during her much-ballyhooed 2011 visit to Australia, which means this place has essentially been anointed as a go-to for anyone with a global profile. But even the plebes among us feel pretty special simply walking through the doors of this beachside icon, which boasts excellent food or, if you’re simply wanting to throw back a few drinks, a nice balcony for tippling.

The Crabbe Hole

This alfresco café, perched above Icebergs pool at Bondi Beach, is a bit of an insider secret. Follow the steps below the Icebergs bar and bistro, and ask the crew to let you through the turnstiles.

Aquabumps Gallery

Founded by local surf photographer Eugene Tan, Aquabumps Gallery occupies a sleek white-walled space in Bondi with a tropical garden courtyard at the end. Come to admire, or buy, Uge’s gorgeous color photos of beach life, with sunrise and sunset shots of surfers catching waves, idyllic ocean pools, and hedonistic sunbathers. You’ll also find black-and-white shots. Alongside snaps of Sydney beaches (Bondi, Tamarama, Bronte, Clovelly, Coogee, Maroubra, and Cronulla) and New South Wales’ blissful Byron Bay, you’ll find images of surf action from Bali to Fiji and Tahiti. Aquabumps started out as a website in 1999, and now attracts a huge, devoted following online as well as via its daily email and Facebook updates.

Gelato Messina

Decorated with cartoonish street art, Gelato Messina dishes up some of the best ice cream and sorbet in Sydney, with unusual house-made flavors from salted caramel to Aperol with pink grapefruit. You’ll also find kooky daily specials on the board and cakes that look like they were whipped up by aliens. Originally started in Darlinghurst, its outlets now include Surry Hills, Pyrmont and most recently Bondi in Sydney, as well as Melbourne, the Gold Coast, and Las Vegas. What’s more, it’s open late into the night. Cue dance music as you wait in line — going out for ice cream is the new clubbing, don’t you know?

Gertrude & Alice Cafe Bookstore

Named for Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, you can browse used books, settle into a comfy couch, or munch on “modern Australian cuisine” like mushroom and leek soup or sweet soy chicken with broccoli; there’s no menu, just a changing list of a dozen specials.

Coogee Pavilion

The Merivale hospitality group is responsible for many of the city’s most successful venue makeovers over the past decade. They have a way of coming in and sprucing a building up so perfectly that you barely remember what it looked like before. Their latest project is this beachside location where you can grab a drink (try the organic juices!), visit the flower stand, get a haircut, or play a classic game like ping-pong or Scrabble.

Adina Apartment Hotel Bondi Beach

Scandinavian-inspired interiors create a sleek vibe at Adina Apartment Hotel Bondi Beach, just a stroll from iconic Bondi Beach on fashionable Hall Street. It’s part of a mixed-use development that has brought big brands to this once laid-back strip, with a bunch of top-notch restaurants and cafés near the pastel-pretty Adina, as well as a handy food hall. Book one of the 111 studios or one- or two-bedroom apartments with neutral schemes featuring hits of coastal color, photos from Bondi surf gallery Aquabumps, smart tech, kitchenettes, and balconies for people-watching. A covered outdoor pool beckons beyond the eye-catching lobby, plus there’s a gym and jacuzzi. At chic Bills restaurant, which serves creative fusion cuisine like tea smoked trout with green tea noodles, kimchee, spinach, and ricotta dumplings with chili oil, and a waygu beef cheeseburger, you can charge food to your room; Sensory Lab café and Gelato Messina’s ice-cream kiosk offer more temptation nearby.