bloggIR

Arrgh, mateys, what ye doin' on saturday?

2005-05-02T06:30:00.000-07:00

Notes from the field

2005-04-27T13:00:00.000-07:00

Pregnant woman in a j-lo woman's skirt:

New stickers floating around...

2005-04-15T12:58:00.000-07:00

we'll take it as a compliment.

This was a one-time only deal, so don't even ask..

2005-03-08T10:23:00.000-08:00

So we get this email from Keel Brightman, It reads (sic):

My name is Keel Brightman

im 20 years old and
been boating for 13 years.
for these 13 years of racing and playing from march to
november, ive never owned a drytop. only layers of old funky
spray jackets and a realy old wetsuitshorty.

there is a Full Conditions Dry Top Sample in your closeouts for
236$.
the caption says that its made with experimental fabric
is there any way that i could get it for less than that
and give you feedback or help you in any way.

ill even paint your webpage on my car in big bold print

any help you could afford a fellow water junkie would make this
march much, much warmer in Watertown NY.

please. im begging, in finacial desperation
thank you
Keel Brightman

How could we say no?

Keel also sent us a picture of his room:

LVM on vacation in Florida

2005-03-01T10:16:00.000-08:00

LVM called us and asked to help make a Thule instructional DVD in Tampa- Daniel's hometown. How could we say no? The product featured is called the Hullavator- it's pretty cool actually. Some pics:

Putting the "R" in IR

2004-11-18T06:58:00.000-08:00

This short film shows Professor Hartman testing our new Back Ratchet ™ adapter straps in our laboratory.

Quicktime, 4mb

Halloween paddling in West Virginia

2004-11-04T09:48:00.000-08:00

quicktime format, about 7mb

Two weeks in Italy

2004-10-22T15:24:00.000-07:00

It was all business, of course. We were paying a visit to the factory who makes the ratchets that we use in our backbands. R and D, you know. It's all very complicated, and involves tons of work. Pictured below is the factory where the parts are made- a beautiful plant just outside of Venice. The popular wine there is Valpolicella.

We were also regretably forced into paddling in the south of France by Philippe at Kayak Session. Here's Kara and our bud Simon on the Verdon Gorge:

Photo courtesy of Raphaël Thiebaut

This is how we make Overthrusters

2004-09-02T10:30:00.000-07:00

This 3.2 mb quicktime video shows Jess making the new IR/ Dagger Overthrusters. It seems simple, but it took almost a year for us to figure out how to do this.

The Hot Dog up close and personal

2004-09-02T06:45:00.000-07:00

This is the somewhat infamous hot dog costume, originally made for halloween 2003. When we made it, I couldn't stop laughing. It was like a tearful, howling laughing. It was great.

We made it with PFD foam we bought from Orosi like 5 years ago, during Orosi's first incarnation. I guess Orosi was planning on making PFD's. Anyway, it's been called a coffee bean, a turd, and a couple of other things. But we like it, and it's good for a jackass kind of thing on the half pipe. But very, very sweaty

Speaking of the half pipe, here is a pic of Dane dropping in, with EJ on deck.

These guys came to the factory to work on back bands for their boats, and in like 5 minutes, both father and son were dropping in. I'm not sure if they had skated before.

Jimmy Blakeney Has made the World'd Ugliest Dry Deck

2004-08-30T09:35:00.000-07:00

Team IR athlete Jimmy Blakeney came by the factory this week, and as with many of our athletes, he wanted a custom piece of gear. So we let him loose to choose his own fabrics, and this is what he picked. Green camo with red piping and grey panels.

Outdoor Retailer has come and gone

2004-08-20T07:05:00.000-07:00

From left to right: Spencer Cooke, Jed "Blood" Selby, Brent Toepper out to dinner with the CKS crew thursday night

Outdoor Retailer is the biggest trade show of the year for the outdoor industry, and it's where all the manufacturers show what they got for the up coming season. It's kind of a big pissing contest, with a lot of companies trying to have a bigger and better booth, host the best parties, etc. But whatever. It's still pretty fun.

The show is held in Salt Lake City, usually around the second week in August. Manufacturers start rolling in on Monday to start constructing their booths, the the sales reps and sponsored athletes come in mid week, and finally, the show opens on Thursday, with the retailers pouring in at 9 am. IR is pretty busy the whole time, as we set up our own booth, and then we are booked all four days of the show. During the show, we're basically in 4 meeting areas in our booth showing our 05 line over and over again to retailers from accross the country. In between presentations, athletes stop by and talk about sponsorship for the up-coming year.

At night, we would usually go out with friends we haven't seen in a year, our sales team, etc, etc, and then every night there's a party of some sort. IR's Big Gun Show is one of them. The IRBGS is held every year at Brewvies, about 5 blocks from the Salt Palace (where the show is held). It's a brewhouse/ movie theater, and we fill both theaters, with the party spilling out onto the courtyard outside. It's quite a scene. We hold the IRBGS at the Outdoor Retailer show (as opposed to a river festival, for instance) because it gives us an opportunity to really show case our brand to retailers- whoare ultimately our first and most important customers.

Sunday is the last day, and by then, we're pretty beat. At 3:00 pm the show ends officially, and tear down occurs as fast as possible. We rent a moving van to cart the 20x20 steel booth the 2 miles or so to the self-storage place where the $8000 booth will sit for a year. Sunday night we have a last, cathartic meal with some of our close friends in the biz, and monday morning we're on the plane back to PA

Here's what it's like when LVM comes to your house

2004-08-17T12:05:00.000-07:00

This is Spencer, with about 8 grand worth of video equipment in our kitchen. He's also watching cartoons, and this was probably taken at about 3 in the morning.

We shrunk Roger

2004-07-27T07:16:00.000-07:00

We hope this helps.

Kate-future boxer or kayaker?

2004-07-20T15:25:00.000-07:00

Our friends Julie and Nelson Oldham's adorable, little 2 year old, Kate tries out the Whittemitts.

"I'm the greatest"

"the one-two punch'"

"My Blood Hurts" and other comments

2004-06-30T07:28:00.000-07:00

We've gotten thousands of DVD requests, and of those requests, 1062 people (as of today) have filled out the "Do you have any comments for IR" field. Well, here they all are, the good, the bad and the ugly. I've edited them down a bit to get rid of duplicates and such, but it's a rather large file (420k) so, dial-ups, take note.

David Wu checking in

2004-06-25T12:19:00.000-07:00

And we got the call on tape. To hear it, go here (quicktime, 700 k).

Andre has been at our house for the past 5 days

2004-06-23T11:35:00.000-07:00

He's not a bad house guest. Quiet, helps with dishes. I have good reason to believe he sleeps naked, though. On Sat. we ran the upper B at 550 CFS- the "connoisseur's level". Most people would be fine with one run at that level, but he wanted to go again, so we went twice. Not bad for his first time down.

Back from 2 weeks of paddling in Peru

2004-06-22T13:36:00.000-07:00

And I'm too lazy to write about it. Check out Kurt Casey's account at his Peru Whitewater website See the rest of the photos here.