Teva has been on a tear. Some of their competitors might choose to say terror. We are sorry to loose Simple but are optimistic that Teva will continue to up their game and be our shoe of choice as the seasons progress. We appreciate the multi sport functionality of most of their shoes and the waterability of the rest.

They have been pumping out new shoes all spring and we add another shoe to our – hope to test soon list. These launch in January 2012 and they look awesome.

More than half of Teva’s spring 2012 collection is comprised of new styles that appeal to active and adventurous consumers while staying true to Teva’s commitment to water, which continues to define the brand’s DNA.

The soon to be issued new style is the ReForge ion-mask™ and is beinc called by Teva the next evolution of the classic hiker. The moment you exit a watery environment, water drains through the midsole’s Drain Frame channels and the ion-mask-treated upper shrugs off water droplets. Unlike membrane waterproofing technologies, ion-mask is not a physical barrier to water, rather, it is an invisible nano-coating that makes the fabric totally hydrophobic. Being only nanometers thin, ion-mask does not add any weight and does not wash out or wear off with use.

The ReForge will be available on Teva in January 2012 and will sell for $130.

Teva has a new shoe this summer and I can’t wait to get my hands on it. The men’s Mush Frio Slip Canvas and Mush Frio Lace Canvas come in brown, grey and black hues accented with pops of orange, red, blue and yellow, feature ultra-light synthetic and canvas uppers with collapsible heels.

These shoes look awesome and they look for traveling, camping, journeying to a backcountry hut or anytime you want to lighten your load. I love light shoes and seek them out with tons of effort. No need here to have a baller watch the size of a iPhone or a pair of heavy shoes. I find them both useless.

The women’s styles are $45, and $50 for the men’s, which, compared to other weight loss solutions, is a steal. They are available now at retailers worldwide and on Teva.

Throughout 2011, Teva will continue its commitment to clean water through a new initiative called “Pair for A Foot.” The program will help protect one linear foot of global waterways for every pair of Teva shoes and sandals sold in 2011 through donations to clean water non-profits including the Ocean Conservancy and long-time partner Waterkeeper Alliance. Teva estimates “Pair for a Foot” will help preserve 4.3 million feet of waterways in 2011.

“The Teva brand was born on the water and we feel a strong obligation to help protect our most precious natural resource,” says Joel Heath, Teva Global Marketing Director. “We’re proud to support organizations that do vital work to protect water for the environment.”

Last year, Teva donated $100,000 to the Waterkeeper Alliance’s “Save Our Gulf” initiative, a fundraising and awareness campaign fighting to protect the Gulf Coast’s communities and environment from the long-term devastating impacts of the BP oil disaster. The emergency donation from Teva assisted in the effort to save marine life, wildlife, beaches and waterways that are relied upon for both fishing and recreation.

“Teva has been a terrific corporate partner for Waterkeeper Alliance and we’re thrilled about the Pair for a Foot campaign, both from a fundraising and an awareness standpoint,” states Marc Yaggi, interim Executive Director for Waterkeeper Alliance.

The “Pair for a Foot” program (www.teva.com/cleanwater) extends Teva’s commitment to clean water and its partnership with Waterkeeper through 2011 and beyond. “Over the years, we have participated in numerous community river clean-ups with local Waterkeeper chapters. We are excited to be making a deeper, long-term commitment to water with this initiative,” says Heath.

“We look forward to working with Teva to promote the healthy oceans and waterways that are the heart of our mission,” says Vikki Spruill, President of Ocean Conservancy.

Nice going Teva.

Growing up among the 1,341 people in Taylorsville, Miss., Oakland Raiders quarterback Jason Campbell probably didn’t encounter the best coaches or the greatest competition. Which probably helped him reach the NFL. Studies show that small towns are better breeding grounds for athletes than cities, and sports psychologists are using these data to question our ideas about talent development.

Only one-in-four Americans come from towns of fewer than 50,000 people, but nearly half of NFL players and PGA golfers do, according to two recent studies. The small-town figures for golf and baseball are just under 40%. The studies use 1980 Census figures because they most closely represented the birth year of pro athletes.

A co-author of the studies, Queen’s University’s Jean Côté, attributed the small-town overrepresentation to a number of factors. These include the accessibility of sports role models in little towns, the cultural values placed on sport (think “Hoosiers”), and even the “big fish little pond” effect, which can be a positive reinforcer for young athletes. Dr. Côté also argues that, despite the prevailing notion that kids need to specialize early and immerse themselves in 10,000 hours of repetitive training, small-town athletes excel precisely because they spend more time playing outside of schools and leagues.

“In bigger cities, youth sport is overorganized and overcoached,” Dr. Côté says.

Dr. Côté admits that potential superstars eventually have to move to get superior training, but specialization before age 13 or 14 is more likely to produce a tired-out teen than a Tiger Woods, he says.

Then there’s what might be called the boredom factor. As Jason Campbell once said, in Taylorsville, “you have nothing else to do but sit outside and throw a football at trees.
—Austin Kelley, WSJ.com

I get this in an email today, “PS, don’t get the Angry Birds game. It will suck your life away.”

So, I am beginning to see a trend. A friend gets an iPhone and they disappear.

Surf sessions are missed because they stay up late uploading apps. They spend hours playing ‘angry birds.’ At a dinner party with cool music they keep on yelling out the band, song and album name because they are obsessed with ‘shazam.’ I get it. Technology has captured us. And I kind of dig it.

Think of it this way. The next time you paddle out at trestles it might be empty. Because everyone is playing with their iPad. You are out for a trail run and the single track is in great shape because no one biked it during the rain tearing it apart. They weren’t biking in the rain because they were playing with their new apple product.

What do you think?

Last mental picture, you train for months to prepare for a half-marathon. On race day you find yourself passing dozens of people on a small climb. As you pass them you look over and see that everyone is playing with their iPhone. They didn’t do the training because they were playing with their iPhone4 32G. So now they are hunting for a song to pump them up and get them over the hill.

Tell your friends about the new phone and then join a club to keep yourself motivated so you can beat said friend at the next 10K.

6 tips to good recovery nutrition
By Colorado Premier Training
Sign up for their free newsletter at: www.coloradopremiertraining.com/newsletter

The 6 most common real world nutritional pitfalls, and the simple solutions to correct them to optimize recovery.

Pitfall #1 – Failing to prioritize recovery nutrition by socializing after a race or packing gear/bike away resulting in delayed feeding.

Solution – Sure it can be fun to hang out following a race and replay the deciding sprint or get a head start on packing up and leaving. Furthermore, most experts recommend eating something within the first 30 minutes to an hour so what’s the hurry? Well in the majority of studies examining glycogen replenishment athletes are fed immediately following the completion of an exercise bout. Thus, what you practice in the “field” should mimic the conditions of the “lab” as closely as possible. Make it a priority to eat and drink as soon as stepping off the bike as possible.

Pitfall #2 – Inadequate fluid consumption to replace sweat losses and allow for optimal glycogen replenishment.

Solution – You’re probably familiar with postexercise fluid recommendations to replace losses from sweat but few are aware that additional fluid is required to restore glycogen to preexercise levels. This is due to the fact that three grams of water are required to store one gram of glycogen. Since trained athletes will need to replace more than 600 grams of glycogen following exhaustive exercise, fluid and carbs should be consumed together. Research in this area is scanty at best but suffice to say simply drinking to replace sweat losses may not be enough to ensure optimal glycogen replenishment. To be safe, consume 16-24 oz of fluid not only at the first postexercise meal but also during every hour during the recovery period.

Pitfall #3 – Using the excuse of a hard effort to fill up on high fat junk foods and empty calories.

Solution – It is far too easy to use the need for increased calories after exercise as an excuse to fill up on high-fat content junk foods. The problem with this practice is two-fold. First, the consumption of fat interferes with your ability to ingest adequate carbohydrate and secondly fat is not nearly as an effective stimulator of insulin release as carbohydrate. Both of these follies result in inadequate glycogen replenishment and poor recovery. Resist the urge to give in to the temptation of dietary indiscretion and find peace in knowing you’re feeding your body only the highest quality fuel by selecting high carbohydrate lowfat foods.

Pitfall #4 – More than enough is not better than enough.

Solution – Although it is vital to consume carbohydrates in the post exercise state it is also vital to have some method to your madness. I have seen several cyclists who go about their eating in an unscientific haphazard fashion only to find that they gain weight from their post ride binges. Aim to consume 1.0 to 1.5 grams of carbohydrates per kilogram of bodyweight every two hours following exercise. Consuming more than this range will not result in greater glycogen replenishment and if done so chronically may result in undesirable weight gain.

Pitfall #5 – Overconsuming protein in the false belief that muscles require excessive quantities following exercise.

Solution – As stated previously, favoring other nutrients over carbohydrates leads to inadequate carb consumption and decreased stimulation of insulin release. Limit protein to one gram for every 4 grams of carbohydrate to replace what is lost through exercise. This 4:1 ratio of carbs to protein appears to have a multiplicative effect in stimulating insulin release.

Pitfall #6 – Following recovery nutrition guidelines for only the first meal after exercise.

Solution – You may be avoiding all of the above pitfalls but only at the first meal. Again, since trained athletes can store upwards of 600 grams of glycogen in muscle and liver it is necessary to consume carbohydrate dense meals every 2-3 waking hours until the next ride or race.

By avoiding these common pitfalls and implementing sound recovery nutrition principles you can be assured of recovering fully for a long season.

I’ve added a personal 7th tip, don’t forget your Fluid Recovery Drink! Tastes best ice cold!

Andy B
outsideallday.com

Dave Kalama is an all around Hawaiian waterman who comes from a lineage of surfing champions. He began as a world champion windsurfer and has evolved into one of the premiere big-wave riders of our time and one of the pioneers of tow-in surfing. Dave is rejoining the Oxbow team, an authentic rider/action sports brand boasting a rich 25-year history with internationally recognized athletes, as a sponsored rider and as a sales representative of Oxbow’s wetsuit and clothing lines.

World-renowned surfer, Gerry Lopez, describes Dave’s style in and out of the water. “He started at the bottom, paid his dues and worked his way to the top. In many ways he’s like a throwback to surfers of yesteryear, but he also takes the whole surfer’s image we are accustomed to and kind of blows it all away,” says Lopez, who has known Kalama since he moved to Maui two decades ago. “He’s not just a longboard, wind or tow-in surfer; he’s everything you can be or do in or around the water, and he does them all well.” Dave’s tow partner, Laird Hamilton, has experienced Dave’s poly-dimensional abilities up close. “I would say probably of any surfer I have watched, he has evolved and improved consistently at a higher level, greater than anyone I have ever seen. He’s doing some of the greatest surfing in the history of big-wave riding right now. He’s one of the main guys setting some benchmarks out there and pushing it to a higher level,” says Hamilton. ‘Path of Purpose’, a short documentary about Dave’s endeavor with Laird Hamilton to help fund and raise awareness for Autism, premiered on the Sundance Channel in July 2008.

A new film release entitled, ‘WaterMan’, premiered in film festivals in Spring 2008 and hit streets on September 23, 2008, distributed by Video Action Sports. Dave can also be seen in the award winning films ‘All Aboard The Crazy Train,’ ‘Step Into Liquid,’ from the filmmakers of ‘Endless Summer,’ the Bond film, ‘Die Another Day’, as well as the documentary big-wave film, ‘Riding Giants,’ that premiered in and opened the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. Other credits include American Express and Davidoff TV commercials. In 2005, Dave launched KALAMA KAMPS, a customized, one-on-one training program that embodies Dave’s training regimen. “It’s a way for people to experience an authentic waterman’s lifestyle,” says Kalama. He also runs his Kamps on Kauai for the land development company, Kukui’ula, where he serves as a ‘lifestyle ambassador.’

Compliments of watermanfilm.com

Matt S
Outside All Day

Laird Hamilton is known as the guiding genius of crossover board sports, and he is truly amazing in the water. His size – 6’3”, 215 pounds – makes him seem indestructible. ‘Laird is the elder son of 60’s surfing legend, Bill Hamilton, and is a throw back to that time when surfers prided themselves on being an all-around waterman.’ His mother, Joann, gave birth to him in a “bathysphere” with reduced gravity as part of an experiment at the UC Medical Center in San Francisco. Joann was also a surfer and decided to move the family from California to Hawaii when Laird was just a few months old. They lived on Oahu’s North Shore and later in a remote valley on Kauai, not far from one of the world’s best surf breaks. He learned to surf between the ages of two and three on the front half of a surfboard, and at age eight, his father took him to the 60-foot cliff at Waimea Falls where Laird looked down, looked back at his dad, and jumped. ‘He’s been bold since day one,’ says Bill, ‘and hell-bent on living life to the extreme.’

Laird teamed up with Steve & Barry’s in spring 2008 to debut his Wonderwall (thisiswonderwall.com) clothing line, a men’s surf and skate line offering high-quality, comfortable merchandise at low cost. Having grown up in a single parent home, Laird knows what it’s like not to have money. “My family was on welfare. If I lost my shoes, I wouldn’t have another pair for a couple of weeks. So I can appreciate that people can’t afford to buy stuff that everyone else is wearing,” says Laird. “Guys that live the surf and skate lifestyle want to spend their time tracking the next big swell or finding a new skatepark, not worrying about having enough money for t-shirts and shorts.”

Laird heads up a technical pro-model line with longtime sponsor, Oxbow. The Oxbow brand launched in the United States in summer 2008. Oxbow, an authentic rider/action sports brand, boasts a rich 25-year history with internationally recognized athletes.

Laird also joined H2O Audio’s Board of Directors in 2008. Laird will be strategically guiding the company with marketing its brand and developing its next generation of surf/music products. “I have been an H2O Audio proponent for several years, and I am really looking forward to infusing my passion for watersports and music into future developments with H20,” says Laird.

Laird is working on two books with best selling author Susan Casey. “100: Stalking the Giants of the Ocean” is due out in 2009 by Broadway Publishing Group. It’s about the science of giant waves, 100 ft. or higher, and the surfers who try to ride them, an undertaking that often requires helicopters, wave runners and precise timing. “Force of Nature: Mind, Body, Soul, and, Of Course, Surfing” is a fitness guide by Rodale Books and hit retailers on October 28, 2008.

‘Path of Purpose’, a short documentary about Laird’s endeavor with his tow partner, Dave Kalama, to help fund and raise awareness for Autism, premiered on the Sundance Channel in July 2008. A new film release entitled, ‘Water Man’, and distributed by Video Action Sports, premiered in film festivals in Spring 2008 and hit streets on September 23, 2008. The film has already garnered attention by winning awards at the film festivals and taking home Best Cinematography at the 2008 Surfer Poll Awards.

Laird is famous for doing all kinds of extreme things in the ocean from making epic long distance journeys on his ocean-going paddleboard to creating the fast forward speed sailing loop. When he was twenty-two years old, Laird entered a speed-sailing competition in Port Saint-Louis, France, defeated the heavily favored French champion, and broke the European speed record of 36 knots. Today, Laird surfs the outer-reefs in Hawaii with his friends and uses his years of knowledge of working with different board designs to catch the giant waves he’s famous for mastering. He and his friends use a method that involves getting into a Wave Runner, taking a water ski rope, and towing each other into waves that are too big to paddle into on their own. The water craft flings them into the wave at full speed. Laird uses footstraps on his board to keep from getting bounced off and to enable him to do mind-boggling things like aerial liftoffs and 360’s. “Jaws Maui,” a book published in 1997, features Laird in action and is filled with spectacular photography of the men who pioneered tow-in surfing. “Bigger. Higher. Faster. I want to go after the world speed sailing record. I want to ride bigger waves. I want to try and invent some new sports, combine some existing ones. I want to be creative,’ says Laird.

Photo shoots with sponsors such as Oxbow have taken Laird around the world from the Caucasus mountain range to snowboard, a jungle preserve in Java, Indonesia with a world-class surf break just offshore to the Great Barrier Reef. He can be seen profiled on the CBS News show ‘60 Minutes’ and on the cover of magazines such as National Geographic, Outside, The Surfer’s Journal, Men’s Journal, Surfer, Surfing, and in Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, Esquire, Sports Illustrated, People, Life, GQ, Interview, L’Uomo Vogue (Italy), Paris Match (France), Surf (Germany), High Wind (Japan) and Sailboarder. In 2004, the Surf Industry Manufacturers Association named him “Waterman of the Year”. He was named “Breakout Performance of the Year” at the Surfer Poll Awards in 2000 and was honored with overall “Rider of the Year” in France 2000 (M6). Laird was also awarded “Feat of the Year” at ESPN’s Action Sports & Music Awards in 2001, and People magazine named him “One of the 50 most Beautiful People” in 1996.

Laird was a featured surfer and an executive producer on the Summer ’04 theatrical film, ‘Riding Giants’, by Sony Picture Classics (www.ridinggiants.com). The film looks at the history of big wave surfing. Laird was also featured in the film, ‘Step Into Liquid’. He doubled as James Bond for big surf in the MGM film ‘Die Another Day’ and served as the stunt coordinator for the film’s big wave sequence. Laird has also been featured on TV as a host on Fox Sports Net’s, ‘Planet Extreme Championships’(2000), on the Outdoor Life Network (1999), and in ‘The Extremists’ (1996-97), where he took incredible risks while air boarding, rock climbing, kite surfing and jet-ski surfing. He is featured in the documentary film ‘Endless Summer II’ (1994). Laird’s filmmography also includes ‘Waterworld,’ (stuntman), ‘North Shore,’ ‘Night Waves,’ ‘Totally Committed,’ and ‘Five Summer Stories.’

Laird started his production company, BamMan Films, with tow-partner, Dave Kalama, manager, Jane Kachmer, and cinematic directors, Don King and Sonny Miller. BamMan Films produces for film, television, commercial and media companies. BamMan released ‘Water Man’ (2008) and the critically acclaimed film ‘All Aboard The Crazy Train’ (2005), which looks at the state of big wave surfing. Other BamMan films include ‘The Ride, The Day’ (2004), ‘Strapped: the evolution of tow-in surfing’ (2002) and ‘Laird’ (2001). BamMan’s other credits: Associate Producer on Maui for ‘Riding Giants’, production work on ‘Step Into Liquid’, and Producer for the television documentaries, ‘The Ride’ (2004), ‘Ride the Wild Surf’ (2001 with RDF in the UK), and ‘Ride on the Wave of the Gods’ (2002 with NHK in Japan). Commercial productions include: American Express and Coty Prestige/Davidoff.

Surfer Magazine’s editor, Sam George, in the magazine’s ‘Most Powerful People inSsurfing’ issue said, “Laird is flat out surfing’s biggest, boldest, bravest. He is the best big wave surfer in the world today, bar none. He is the sport’s most complete surfer, displaying almost unnerving expertise in a multitude of disciplines: tow-surfing, bodysurfing, longboarding, paddling, sailboarding, kite-surfing.”

Compliments of LairdHamilton.com

Matt S
Outside All Day

Outside Magazine posted a great interview with Lance Armstrong before Leadville.

Seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, 37, has lately taken up in Aspen, living in a smart mod-Victorian a few blocks off the main drag. According to residents, he’s become something of a local fixture: Here he is training for this Saturday’s Leadville Trail 100 mountain-bike race with Aspen hardmen Max Taam and Len Zanni. There he is having sushi at Matsuhisha, with his girlfriend and their eight-week-old son, Max. And all the while, he Twitters—skipping press conferences altogether and releasing everything from news of his son’s birth to his rebuttal (“Hey pistolero…”) of comments made by this year’s Tour de France Winner, Alberto Contador, directly to his 1.7 million followers.

Saturday, Armstrong rematches Dave Wiens, who beat him at last year’s Leadville 100. He had an Outside editor over for breakfast to talk about Leadville, his new sponsorship deal with RadioShack, and his plans for the coming year.

–Read the interview by Grayson Schaffer

Matt S
Outside All Day

Our friends over at Outside Magazine have posted their Summer Buyer’s Guide. If you are trying to figure out what sleeping bag to pickup for your affair with the Sierra or pair of boots for time in the Rockies then head on over to the buyer’s guide and get an educated opinion.

This Friday, June 26 at REI stores and REI.com the summer sale clearance begins. Items will be up 30% off. Be sure and get there early to grab some product for your summer adventures.

You can expect to save 20% – 30% on selected clothing, footwear, and camping and cycling gear. Selected bikes will be 15% – 20% off.

We all find ourselves scouring our collection of iTunes music for training music. Before my last half-marathon I carefully chose just enough music to finish without hearing one song twice. I timed it just so I would make my goal. As the race came to a close (iPods were legal) I picked up the pace as the final song came on. Normally I would have waited much later to pick up the pace for the final sprint – but the song urged me on. And so I only heard the first few seconds of the first song. Mission accomplished.

Finding the right music takes a little time. Our buddy Fitz Cahall over at The Dirtbag Diaries has sweet music on his site and I from time to time grab it and go.

My latest find from KCRW in LA is Loney Dear. The lead is Emil Svanangen an ex-pro cyclist. Spin Magazine says of Loney Dear, “Despair has never sounded so sweet.” But I beg to differ. There have been a few long climbs I have made where I could have used his music. Check them out on their site and their myspace page.

The new Ken Burns film is coming to PBS September 27, 2009

Filmed over the course of more than six years at some of nature’s most spectacular locales — from Acadia to Yosemite, Yellowstone to the Grand Canyon, the Everglades of Florida to the Gates of the Arctic in Alaska — The National Parks: America’s Best Idea is nonetheless a story of people: people from every conceivable background — rich and poor; famous and unknown; soldiers and scientists; natives and newcomers; idealists, artists and entrepreneurs; people who were willing to devote themselves to saving some precious portion of the land they loved, and in doing so reminded their fellow citizens of the full meaning of democracy. It is a story full of struggle and conflict, high ideals and crass opportunism, stirring adventure and enduring inspiration – set against the most breathtaking backdrops imaginable.

The National Parks: America’s Best Idea is a six-episode series directed by Ken Burns and written and co-produced by Dayton Duncan.