Capital City Film Festival, Round 2

We’ve been a part of some pretty amazing events over the last few years. Pro surf invitationals all over the world, Sasquatch Music Festival, Treasure Island Music Festival, SXSW… we get around, and yes; we’re crafty and we’re always down.

It’s also really nice to support the up-and-coming events, especially when they are practically in our backyard. That’s exactly why we took a short trip down the road to the capital city of America’s High Five - Lansing, Michigan, for the second annual Capital City Film Festival.

The CCFF, which took place April 12-15, is an upstart festival that brings together movies, music, and ideas. This isn’t what you’d traditionally think of when you think film festival though. It’s much more rock n’ roll, and that is definitely reflected in the content they bring in during the four days.

Since we sponsored the music venue, the Cushe crew hit the road to spread the good word on awesome footwear, and to hear some amazing bands.

The kick-off was Michigan’s own Greensky Bluegrass, who really bend the genre of bluegrass when they dive into a jamming cover of the Beatles “Help”. Murder by Death (pictured above) put on an amazing Friday night show, and William Elliot Whitmore took us down the Americana road on Saturday night. Whitmore also had the most epic encore we’ve seen in a long time, which involved exiting the front of the stage, wielding a guitar, and a shot of whiskey (we’ll explain more over a beer sometime). The closing night was no slacker either, featuring a fantastic performance by LIGHTS, who is absolutely blowing up right now.

When it was all said and done, the festival boasted 72 films, a full day of fresh ideas shared by people who are WAY smarter than us featuring reps from Google and the New York Times, and four straight nights of top flight shows to close each day down.

Whew. Not a bad way to spend a weekend. We’re looking forward to seeing where the CCFF goes in the next few years.

<3 Cushe

More

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!

More

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!

More

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.

More

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!

More

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.

More

See us at Slater Brother's!

What's up guys and gals? We hope your 2010 has been packed with good times so far, but while summer is technically on the wind-down, there is still an event that is a must-attend occasion. At Cushe, we get pretty stoked about the combination of beach time, surfing and music. To us, they go together like an ice-cold beverage and a hammock; otherwise known as the perfect marriage. It almost makes us want to sing a remixed version of "Favorite Things"...

People in board shorts and band members singing,
Sand below our feet and cool people mingling,
Surfboards in pipelines and bonfire flings,
These are a few of my favorite things!

You sang it out loud didn’t you?
Well memorize that catchy jingle so you can belt it out at the 2010 Slater Brother’s Invitational. Not only is it a super rad (Aquabats anyone?) event, but also there will be free skin screenings provided by the World Skin Cancer Foundation. (Free skin screenings Sat. 9-1 and Sun. 11-1) As you know, Cushe is all for fun in the sun; but let’s be safe out there yeah?

We will be in Cocoa Beach, FL for this awesome event that features some of the world’s best surfers including C.J. and Damien Hobgood, Rob Machado, Shea Lopez and 9-time ASP World Champion, Kelly Slater. Come check us out, we will have three booths set up throughout the event area and of course we have some free stuff to throw your way! *HINT There may even be a Cornhole Contest to win a free pair of Cushe shoes.

The weekend kicks off on Thursday, October 21st with a street party and live music around Rusty’s at the Port. Save some energy for the rest of the weekend though because it only gets better. Friday night you can come party with us from 7-11 with raffles through out the night and tunes provided by Hayley Sales at Coconuts on the Beach.  Saturday night you can catch "Scratching the Surface"-The Julian Wilson movie to get pumped for the finals of short and longboard on Sunday.

So stop by, say hey, and we may just have to throw a free hat, shirt, stickers or shoes your way. Keep up to date with where we are at by following us on Twitter and fanning us on Facebook. Our fans are our friends and we like to take care of our friends… dig?

More