If you can remember way back to… well, I can’t remember. But we used to do an article in the mag called ‘Where You At?’ which was a little annalysis of the media rankings for skaters and snowboarders in Australia. This was modeled off the Exposure Meter done by Transworld… now there’s a new guy on the scene. SkateCoverage.com is aparently a far more detailed version of the Exposure Meter. So, why would someone want this kind of information? Well, companies use it to guage their team spend - if a team rider is getting all advertising exposure, then they aren’t great value. If they’re getting a lot of editorial coverage, then they’re worth a few coins. Anyway, you can’t access the actual stats without some kind of subscription - I got the above screen shot from Skatebook. If you’re interested, click through here for a little more info.

This is bad news for skateboarding and a lot of rad brands in Australia. The guys over on the Skateboard.com.au forums are reporting that Kwala is closing down. Kwala handles brands like Krooked, Anti Hero, Thunder, Osiris, Hubba, Venture and more. There is no official reason given for the closure at this point.

Transworld is onto an exclusive this morning reporting that Future Snowboarding has handed ‘you’re sacked’ letters to its employees stating that “that the company has closed its doors and will discontinue its print and online operations effective immediately.” Click here for updates.

This isn’t really news, I just thought it interesting… Tony Hawk (via Joan Raymond) has managed a few words in yesterday’s New York Times - check it out here. Just a short article about traveling with your skateboard. Not exactly Pulitzer worthy and I wouldn’t pick him as the next Bob Woodward, but it’s interesting anyway. Enjoy.

AST, the umbrella group for the Dew Tour have announced that Nike 6.0 is taking the option for the footwear, outerwear and apparel sponsorship of the tour. For the uninitiated, Nike 6.0 is more of an ‘action sports’ footwear range covering snow, surf and other less important action sports. This is distinct from Nike SB which is skate only. The Dew Tour’s next event is the Panasonic Open in Baltimore from June 19th to 22nd. Check below the cut for the full release.

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The Quiet Life have released their new Spring/Summer 2008 collection! The new collection features one tee by guest artist Christian Morin… I’ll admit I’m no art fiend therefor Christian Morin is lost on me, but I like the tee design anyway. Andy Mueller and his buddies Jennifer, Kevin & Owen are the creative genius’ behind the brand. I’m not sure yet where/how you can get it in Australia, but The Quiet Life website ships internationally so you can get your fix here.

Volcom has opened a flagship store in New York. The store is located at 446 Broadway and features custom art, photos and memorabilia collected over the last 17 or so years that Volcom has been operating. Check the full press release over here. Thanks to Transworld for the tip!

I’m pretty sure this no longer counts as news… Kelly Slater has won another surf event. It’s like reporting that the sun has in fact risen this morning. For the benefit of those who are shocked enough by the win to still be reading, Slater beat out C.J. Hobgood in the final at Cloudbreak. This is the first time Slater has won three out of the first four events on the tour. Check the full release over at Transworld here.