Posts Tagged ‘snow boarding’

As you know we are all about extreme sports and in our endeavours to bring you interesting news and stories we do a lot of research into all kinds of whacky things that people get up to both in their spare time and professionally. One name that keeps popping up all the time is Red Bull. Beyond the high energy drink what is it with Red Bull?

Red Bull was founded by Dietrich Mateschitz, an Austrian businessman and billionaire, whose parents were Croatian and who currently owns a 49 per cent share in the energy drinks giant, Red Bull GmbH. He was born on May 20 1944 in St. Marein im Murztal in the region of Styria.

Dietrich Mateschitz

Life was fairly ordinary for Mateschitz as he grew up in Austria. He attended the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration and graduated with a marketing degree after ten years.

After finishing his degree, Mateschitz went on to work for Proctor & Gamble, where he was employed within their marketing department. He progressed up the career ladder to eventually become the marketing director for Blendax tooth paste. It was during one particular business trip that the initial idea for a stimulant beverage began to take shape.

Dietrich Mateschitz

In 1982, when sitting in a hotel in Hong Kong and suffering from jetlag, Mateschitz was musing into the popularity of ‘tonic drinks’ that were big sellers in the Far East when the idea of selling similar beverages in the West came to him. He then went on to form a partnership with a couple of local businessmen who were already producing a drink called ‘Krating Daeng’ (Thai water buffalo) and it was from this that Red Bull was born.

He founded Red Bull GmbH with his Thai partners Chaleo & Chalerm Yoovidhya. It was agreed that Mateschitz would run the company and after much research, testing and set backs, the caffeinated energy drink was finally launched in Austria in 1987.

Red Bull was an instant hit in it’s native country and as sales continued to grow, it was launched in other European countries. Not everything went so swimmingly though. Sales in Germany suffered as supply couldn’t meet the demand of 1 million cans per day and the product had to be re-launched six months later. France and Denmark banned the sale of the drink due to health concerns over the high caffeine level and the use of the chemical taurine.

But health issues aside, over the years Red Bull has managed to take a strong foothold in the competitive drinks market in Europe and America. In most countries, it lines up third behind the likes of Coca-Cola and Pepsi in the total number of cans consumed. By 2008 sales of Red Bull had increased by 17% on the previous year to 3bn Euros ($4.4bn; £2.3bm) having shifted 3.5bn cans in 143 different countries. These impressive statistics are mainly due to clever marketing which has increased the profile of the drink through non-traditional advertising streams.

From the outset the Red Bull brand has been associated with a variety of glamorous and exciting sporting events such as mountain-biking, snowboarding and paragliding. With Mateschitz being the marketing strategist that he is, he saw the potential on offer by tapping into large audiences and giving the Red Bull brand a “cool” image by being linked with sports and athletes. The profile of the brand seemingly increasing as a result of the many extreme sporting events the company sponsored.

So what are the extreme sports that the company sponsors. What follows is a compendium of just some of those extreme sports.

• Rugby Union
• Downhill Mountain Bike Racing
• BMX
• Snowboarding
• Freestyle Soccer
• Aerobatic Flying
• Kite Surfing
• Skate Boarding
• BASE Jumping
• Soccer
• Athletics
• Cricket
• Wake Boarding
• High Diving
• FMX
• Free Skiing
• Formula 1
• Cliff Diving
• Air Racing
• NASCAR
• Surfing
• Rallying
• Crashed Ice
• Break Dance
• Para Gliding
• MX Racing
• MX Freestyle
• Daytona
• Art
• Music
• Dance

Well that won’t be all – we are bound to have missed a few out – other than the energy drink then this is what Red Bull is about – marketing. It sponsors events and individuals in these high profile sporting events – what brilliant marketing – something Mr Mateschitz obviously learnt very well during his ten years at university.

To add to the fun we thought you would appreciate a couple of videos of extreme sports that Red Bull is supporting. The first, not surprisingly from redbull is of some truly awesome action from Red Bull Rampage – mountain biking in Utah.

The second is again from redbull of the Snowscrapers event held in New York in February which was won by Shayne Pospisil.

This one from redbullusa demonstrates the humourous side of Red Bull – some crashes from soapbox racing at an event they sponsored held in Seattle.

No doubt about it – a great combination of fun, sport and adrenaline – keep up the good work Red Bull.

The guys from expertvillage have put together some great videos of ‘how to’ – the other day we were complaining about the gallons of water that have been dumped on us here in the south of France. Of course what that has also meant is that when you gain altitude that rain has turned to snow so tomorrow we are heading into the southern Alps for the first days skiing of the year.

As a result we thought we would put a couple of ‘how to’ videos onto the blog about matters which concern the snow and today we present, courtesy of expertvillage a how to buy skiing or snowboarding trousers/pants, where the rating system concerning waterproofing and breathability is explained, and then we look at some basic instruction on how to buy a freestyle snowboard.

Basically when it comes to waterproof clothing the thing to remember is that you must be comfortable – so you don’t have water and snow coming through your clothing but at the same time have a material which will breath to allow the sweat to escape – otherwise when you cool down you will get cold. Also remember you must allow room for additional ‘layer’ or ‘layers’ of clothing under your ski pants. Its common sense really, conditions can get bad when you are at 9,000 feet above sea level and if you are uncomfortable and cold you will not be having much fun.

So the waterproof rating goes from 5,000 to 30,000 – the higher the number the more expensive – 30,000 is probably for polar explorers so a score at that level may be OTT – they recommend a mid range rating of between15,000 and 25,000.

As for the freestyle snowboard – consultation with the shop sales assistants is highly recommended but in a nutshell if you are looking for a freestyle board they recommend a symmetrical board which is no higher than your shoulder height as this will assist your direct switch and you should have no problem in going in either direction – too short a board is unstable and difficult for learning tricks, too long a board is tough to control.

We will no doubt find plenty of guys in the Alps tomorrow – the French schools break up for Christmas – wherever you are we hope you stay warm and safe in the mountains.

OMG – what is it guys – just check out this video (thanks vntidc) of what you nut balls get up to and what happens when you get it wrong.

Seriously though all these sports are a lot of fun but take it easy – all you are doing when you have a dreadful accident, as depicted in the video, is keeping the medics in gainful employment.

I reckon some of these guys must have been touched by some phantom to even attempt these stunts – really wicked. Enjoy……….better to watch than practice……..but respect to those dudes who did practice, certainly takes some…….

Search and rescue crews masterminded by the RCMP in Whistler, British Colombia were still out looking for a Japanese girl who was snowboarding in the area and has not been seen since March 2oth. Helicopters and dog handling crews have been assisting them with the search. Ai Ito was last seen taking the Seventh Heaven chairlift on Blackcomb Mountain but with temperatures falling sub zero at night the police are saying little about the prospects of a happy ending to this story.

In a national survey commissioned by AKSA (American Kite Surfing Association) kite surfing, a relatively new sport in North America, is ranked as the top extreme sport! According to Logan Long, a co-founder of AKSA, “it’s just .. the biggest adrenaline rush available”, and Cathi Long, another co-founder, adds “kite surfers are simply the sexiest athletes”!

This is the beginning of what will be a fabulous new site on extreme sports of all kinds. We are starting with a selection of 10: kitesurfing, hang gliding, scuba diving, rock climbing, mountain biking, sky diving, potholing or cave exploration, wingsuit flying (REALLY extreme!), snow boarding and bungee jumping.
Please participate in our poll as we are doing market research to determine the most popular extreme sport and please let us know if there are any glaring omissions!
Our website is in the process of being built. It will report on each of the extreme sports covered, giving instructional information on “how to…” and “where to…”. It will give information on what equipment is required (with links to sites from which the equipment can be bought), and will provide information on what competitions etc. are taking place around the world.
Thank you for dropping in. Please add your comments as we are really interested in feedback particularly from participants of the various extreme sports. As much as anything we really want this to be a fun site and with your help it will be…..
If anyone wants to put articles on our site with useful information this too can be discussed as long as the information is relevant.
You can find us at xtremesport4u but bear in mind that this site is under construction so please bookmark and check again next week.