ISA and Slater Brother's Recap

We just had an amazing October featuring two great pro surf events the Cushe team was proud to be a part of. Let’s recap, shall we?

The ISA World Masters in El Salvador bounced back from a bout of terrible weather to deliver the goods. Team USA, who made their debut in the ISA World Masters, did it up in style and took the gold! We’d call that a pretty successful start. Not only did they win the team trophy, but the USA had some stellar individual performances by Tom Curren, Jim Hogan, Allen Sarlo and Alissa Cairns as well.

Puerto Rico and Cushe team member Gustavo Betancourt had a solid showing too, taking the copper and 4th place! All in all, a great tournament with top kick competition. Hats off to all the riders and champions from the 2011 ISA World Master Surfing Championship.

Bonus – Cushe got to leave its mark on one of the most legendary surf spots in the world, Punta Roca! Check out the amazing graffiti mural in the picture below.

After the ISA's, we dropped in on Cocoa Beach, Florida, to set up shop at the Slater Brother’s Invitational. This event doesn’t just provide some great entertainment; the proceeds benefit the World Skin Cancer Foundation, so it was awesome to be in the company of our friends at Volcom, Oakley, Quiksilver and Go Pro supporting the cause.

Mitch “All the way from the UK” Corbett and Nolan Tyler were both representing for Cushe, and both had great showings. Mitch went on to the quarters in the longboard, while Nolan matched him and made it to the quarters in the shortboard. We’re definitely looking forward to the 2012 Slater Brother’s Invitational!

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Cushe Hits the Road to Waves

October may not seem like a big surf month if you don’t live near a coast, but trust us, it is. Cushe is a proud sponsor of two events on the waves this month – the ISA World Masters and the Slater Brother’s Invitational.

The ISA World Masters Surfing Championship is scheduled to start October 18th at Punta Roca El Salvador. The start of the event was postponed from the 16th due to the monster storms that hit El Salvador with several days of torrential rain. The ISA and the teams involved are committed to helping out the town of La Libertad, as Mauricio Funes, President of El Salvador, declared a State of Emergency.

This is a seriously stacked event with talent streaming in from all over the globe. In fact, a record 124 competitors signed up before registration closed. Our own sales rep, Gustavo Bentancourt (pictured below), will be representing Team Puerto Rico! We’ll be supporting Gus, Team USA, and hoping for better weather not just for the comp, but for El Salvador as well. You can check the live stream and catch all the action as soon as the event kicks off here.

Now onto the famed Slater Brother’s Invitational. This is our second year sponsoring this great event, which takes place October 28th – 30th in sunny Cocoa Beach, Florida. The Slater Brother’s don’t just put together a kick-ass competition; they raise awareness and money for the World Skin Cancer Foundation. That’s all kinds of cool we at Cushe are proud to be a part of. We’re bringing in our very own Team Cushe rockstar Mitch Corbett for the event, so if you are anywhere near Cocoa at the end of this month, don’t miss this.

Can’t make it to Cocoa? Don’t sweat it – you can tune in to a live webcast and see Kelly, Skippy, Sean, and all the competitors once the event starts. We’ll be hanging out taking some photos for your ocular pleasure as well, so stop by and see us!

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National Flip Flop Day

Did you know that June 17th (that’s tomorrow) is National Flip Flop Day? Well now you do. NFFD is legit too… and not just because we love flip flops. It celebrates the coming of the Summer Solstice (which is June 21st this year) and raises awareness for Camp Sunshine, a year-round facility where kids with life-threatening illnesses can go have a little fun. Very cool.

Stand by, we’re about to drop some history on ya. 

The flip flop design takes its cues from the Japanese zori, which was popularized in the Western world when soldiers returned home from the Pacific post WWII. The modern flip flop was born in the 1950’s in New Zealand, or in the 1940’s in Hong Kong; depending on whose side of the story you are on. 

At Cushe, we’re not into taking sides on this. We just know flip flops are great warm weather kicks and ours have the fresh style you’d expect from any of our designs. So wear your flip flops proudly on June 17th and party with us on Twitter for a chance to win one of 5 pairs of Cushe flip flops that are up for grabs!  As always, share your flip flop love with us on Facebook. 

We said flip flop like 2 billion times in that last bit... and we're not sorry for it.

Laters!

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Sasquatch! 2011 Wrap Up

Wow. What a fantastic holiday weekend in the Gorge! The 10th Sasquatch! Music Festival did not disappoint in any way. Not only was the lineup crazy epic, we were fortunate enough to meet massive amounts of cool people who came to hang out at the Cushe tent. Some of those same people are going to get hooked up with free shoes, so next time we say come visit us at an event, you should.

Since we were at a music festival, let’s get back to the music for a moment. With headliners like the Foo fighters, Death Cab, Modest Mouse and Wilco, you know you are getting a great show. But who else did we dig aside from the obvious heavy hitters? Both Sleigh Bells and Local Natives stole our little musical hearts, so check them out when you get a chance. Did you have a favorite performance from this years Sasquatch!? Let us know on Facebook and establish your indie cred. We're kidding, we already know you have cred :)

If you couldn’t make it to the festival this year, NPR has a bucket of photos and more importantly, a grip load of recordings directly from the board for your listening pleasure. NPR, once again, earns the "We're Awesome" badge.

Check out some of our photos below too, but remember, we’re not photographers… we make shoes. Also, we love the Hipstamatic effect.

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Find us at Sasquatch! Music Festival

Why? Because you can hang out with us, which is awesome. Also, because you can enter to win some cash for our webstore to outfit your feets with our kicks.

That's right, chedder, bread, cheese, paper, lettuce, cashious... you like to win it and we like to give it out. All you have to do is swing by our tent and plug your email into one of our iPads and you'll be entered to win. If you DO win, you are one lucky duck and you'll get a coupon code you can use to score a new pair of Cushes directly from our webstore. Frankly, we can't think of a better way to spend a holiday weekend. 

Happy travels and we'll see you at Sasquatch!

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Sasquatch! Music Festival

This Memorial Day weekend, we’ll be hitting the 10th anniversary of the Bigfoot-iest music festival of them all, the Sasquatch! Music Festival.  On May 27-30, some of the coolest music acts in the world will be putting on an amazing show at the Gorge Amphitheater near the Columbia River in Washington.  A beautiful venue for sure. 

If you are lucky enough to go, you’ll catch live performances we guarantee you’ll never forget.  The Foo Fighters, Death Cab, Modest Mouse, The Decemberists, Chromeo, Matt & Kim… whew… and that’s just a SMALL part of the lineup.  Look a little deeper into the schedule and find the one of the best live bands you’ll ever see in the Old 97’s, J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr., and Reggie Watts, who oozes soul. 

The lineup isn’t just all rock, roll, indie and folk though.  Our very own Bonobo will be throwing down a DJ set not to be missed.  Major Lazer which features Diplo, Ratatat, Bassnectar and Skrillex (who is absolutely blowing up right now) will also be there ensuring you get your daily dose of low end frequency. 

With four stages of this action, you are going to wish you had three clones.  Check out the full lineup – we can’t possibly cover it all!  Dare we say this is one of the best festival cards we’ve ever seen?  We dare. 

In between the awesome, stop by our space.  Maybe you can win some free shoes and grab some swag.  We’re cool like that and so are you.

Have you been to an unforgettable festival, or are you planning to hit this years Sasquatch!? Let us know on Facebook or Twitter.  We just like hearing from ya.

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Downtown Throwdown Recap

February 19th was a cold and windy day in Traverse City, Michigan; but it didn’t stop us from rocking out with all of the amazing skiers, snowboarders, the Epic Happens Crew and Danny Kass and the Dingo at TC’s first ever Downtown Throwdown Railjam! Despite the cold, the athletes were pulling some hotness by drop ping in from either the 25’ or 32’ platforms.

We were on site showing off some of next year’s Cushe designs, passing out some stickers and hats and cheering o n our fellow brave winter weather challengers. Check out the video to take in some of the awesome runs put down at the event. Don't forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to keep posted on our upcoming adventures.

Did we see you there?

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Cushe at the Downtown Throwdown

Traverse City Michigan is normally known as the cherry capital of the universe.  Well, maybe not the universe, but they have a lot of cherries and cherry related things – including a Cherry Festival.  On February 19th however, Traverse City is going to be the capital of awesome when the Downtown Throwdown happens during the Winter Wow Fest.

We’ll be hanging out in downtown TC (that's Traverse City for you non-locals) all day at the event, checking out the competitors from pee-wee to pro busting out their best tricks on two sticks… or one snowboard.  I couldn’t think of a clever rhyme for the snowboard part.  Two-time Olympic silver medalist Danny Kass will be there to help judge the best young talent and maybe throw down himself.  You never know.

If you are in the area or plan on attending, definitely stop and see us at the Cushe tent!  We’ll be showing off some of our latest designs and probably giving some stuff away because, after all, we like you.  Like… LIKE-like you.

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Curran and Hurley Top the Katin Pro-Am

It's all over in Huntington Beach.  It was all over by the end of Saturday, but now that we're back to work on Monday, it's really all over.  Tim Curran led team Hurley to victory and busted out the highest single-wave score of 9.77.  Out of 10.  Y'know, just .23 away from perfect... no big deal.  Coming in second in the final was last years champ Chris Waring, followed by Micah Byrne and Tanner Gudauskas in third and forth place.  What's next for Curran?  Dude says he wants to hit more events and eventually get back in the US Open.  Hells YES.

Overall, a great couple days that Cushe was proud to be a part of.  Check out all of the day two photos on the Katin Pro-Am site.

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