Saturday Drop: Vans Invitational & VansSnow.com

Thank god it's the weekend. Time to get caught up on e-mails start prepping for ASR and round up all the tid bits from the weekend. However, on this Saturday morning we have a special magic word no it's not donoughts. That magic word is Vans. Yep, a couple of nuggets dropped from the purveyors of all things 'style 36' and beyond. Lets dive into them super quick.

The Vans Invitational

This weekend, proving it's better to buy in than sell out, Vans is hosting the Action Sports Tour up in Portland. Now, this is probably one of the more anticipated stops for a few reasons. First up: it's in Portland. Let's be honest they have more public skate parks than almost all of the East Coast. I wish that was an exaggeration but it's not. I've done the math. Check out Concrete Disciples for yourself. Second, Vans is hosting. C'mon who hasn't owned a pair of Vans in their life? Actually, and lets be serious now, when an action sports brand is involved we all feel a little bit better about why we are there. Wouldn't you say? So, if you are in Portland check out the Vans Invitational or as my not-so-english-savvy Ukrainian friend says: "make quick with the skateboard, most important." Hows that for a non-sequitor?

As for results from the Vans invitational. Shaun White qualified first in vert with PLG and Andy Mac rounding out the top three. On the park course Lutzka dethroned Sheckler and sent him down to the number two spot. Skating into third in was Fabrizio Santos. Jereme Rogers and P-Rod didn't qualify for finals. Not that it matters to them too much. I'm sure their Plan B contracts have more of a show up and get it donelause than a show up and win. On a side note it's nice to see Lutzka pull the win after getting a little bit jobbed at the X Games. That Wisconsin boy has come a long way and appears to be progressing. Hopefully we'll see good things from him in 'United By Fate'. More about that on Sunday though.


On the BMX side Jamie Bestwick continues to dominate vert and 16 year old Dennis Elarson came out to win BMX dirt. The crew at BNQT.com had a filmer on site. Check out his footage from the BMX Dirt prelims




VansSnow.com Relaunches

The list of skaters who have killed it as snowboarders is long Cardiel, Danny Way, etc and on the flip side the list of snowboarders who skate is equally long: MFM, Jeremy Jones, etc. So when Vans dropped their new snow site it was certainly worth looking into. Check out VansSnow.com for all of their 2007/2008 details.

The addition of the news feed this year is nice to provide a sense of riders accomplishments, whats going on and what's coming up next. Vans had a nice congrats note to team rider Hana Beaman on grabbing the cover of TW Snow. Things like that go a real long way. In addition there is plenty of media to download and get myspace-facebook page a rockin'.

I think this is their best effort yet on the web. A nice built in video player has some rad highlights of the Vans Cup and the product line up for '08 is really easy to navigate. The best thing is that the site gives you options on how to view and purchase the different products online. Now, I say review online and get your shopping done where it makes the most sense. But, as always, support your local skate and ride shops. Check out the site at VansSnow.com. You won't be disappointed.