I don’t know if anyone missed me but in case you did, I’ve been going crazy at X Games and SIA. Between 2 feet of fresh powder every day in Aspen, a 10 hour drive through snowstorms in Utah and Arizona to get to Vegas, and well just Vegas in general, I’m beat. But I’ve got some dope stories to drop on ya this weekend. Until then, here’s a look at Paradise.

I guess now he’s out for live presidents to represent him, say whaat???

What a day! I have to say that I’m almost at a loss for words to describe how it feels to have witnessed Barack Hussein Obama take office today. Luckily Rev Joseph Lowery was there to put it all in perspective:
Black doesn’t have to stay back.
Brown can stick around.
Yellow can be mellow.
The red man can get ahead man.
And white will embrace what’s right.

FINALLY SHIT IS STARTING TO MAKE SENSE!!!

Man I thought I had seen it all. Then I rolled up on this dude taking his goldfish for a tour of the transit system last night. He even had some sort of handheld oxygenator he was using to keep the little guys feeling fresh. Maybe he was taking them to Coney Island to set them free.

My homie and writer extraordinaire Mark Borden just put Shaun White on the cover of February’s Fast Company magazine. Mark is known for turning boring business stories into dope pieces that transcend traditional business reporting and this is no exception. I won’t divulge too much of what the story is about because God knows magazines need some support, (go out and pick this up at the newsstand!) but I will say that it’s a remarkable tale about how a 22 year old skater/rider has gotten super powered brands like Target, HP and AmEx to see the full potential of investing in the action sports market. Love him or hate him, you can’t front on S Dub’s accomplishments and you’ll be surprised to learn that he’s turned down way more deals than he’s done. Mark just sent me this behind the scenes video from the cover shoot. Check it out!

I had a sick weekend of riding at Mount Snow this weekend and also checked out the dilly-o at the new Winter Dew Tour. It was aight. Check out my writeup over at ESPN. I also did interviews with Torstein Horgmo and Shaun White, who won the Slopestyle and Halfpipe respectively. Check em out!

Oakley Week Teaser On FUEL TV from Matthew Murray on Vimeo.

My homey Matt Murray at Oakley has been on a top secret grind for the last few months. Well I just found out why: he’s been architecting Oakley’s takeover of Fuel TV’s “The Daily Habit” going down all this week. I wanted to hear more about this innovative branding x content collabo and Matt was more than willing to give me the scoop. Peep the interview after the jump and tune into “The Daily Habit” on Fuel every day this week to see how it all turned out.

I’m super proud to announce the relaunch of TheHypeBR! If you don’t already know, TheHypeBR is Brasil’s top streetwear lifestyle blog and the most widely read streetwear site in all of Latin America. The baby of my brother Lucas Penido, who founded TheHypeBR as a blogspot in 2007, the site deserves credit for connecting Brasil’s streetwear massive with the rest of the globe. Written in Portuguese, with special emphasis given to products and events in Brasil and South America, every article on TheHypeBR is filtered through Lucas’ unique world perspective. For more on that, check back for an in-depth convo between Lucas and me in the coming weeks. Also, be sure to look for my column on TheHypeBR launching soon. Lucas - Parabens meu grande irmao!!! 2009 E Noi$$$!!!

I couldn’t think of a better way to start off the new year than with some words from the man for whom “keeping it real” should be the Wiki definition. My homie Aari Jubran from Goods Magazine linked up with Primo just before the holidays to talk about the three major lyrical forces keeping hip hop alive: Jay-Z, Nas, and Lil Wayne. This dude is the epitome of knowlege god, peep as he says what we all think every time Nas drops an album of sick lyrics and wack beats! Thanks Aari!