Bruise Control

WrestleMania Hits Houston

Image via Wikipedia

Mention WrestleMania to me, and I wrinkle up my nose. My friend and colleague LOVES WrestleMania. Confused, because he's a refined, articulate, model citizen, I asked, "WTF?"

"It's about integrity," he said. "When you look past the merchandising and promoters, the athletes are intent on wrestling as an art form."

A great Sage wrote, "Don't be fooled by outer circumstances."

I never would have believed higher wisdom could be applied to what I previously perceived as mundane.

The Houston Chronicle writes more about the belief in something greater from the players:

“We were just kids who never thought we would make it,” said WWE veteran Jeff Hardy, who in one of Sunday night’s featured matches will face his real-life brother, Matt Hardy, in an “extreme rules” grudge match. “But we believed, and we found that anything is possible.”

WrestleMania XXV at Reliant Stadium, today, Sunday, April 5th in Houston.

I won't be there, but my friend will.

Big Wave Body Boarding

From our friends at Spongewars.com whose purpose is to develop, promote and bring together the bodyboarding society. The name - SPONGEWARS symbolizes the ever going wars between bodyboarders and they’re “rivals” – the regular surfers. The name also signifies the ongoing war on the false conception that was built about bodyboarders.




The website also contains a long list of links to the best surfers' Web sites.

BASE Jumping : 5.3+ Million Fans

You know that when an Xtreme Sport like BASE jumping makes the Travel section of The New York Times, then it's time to consider BASE jumping of mainstream interest. A recent search revealed 5,317,172 Web pages featuring some element of BASE jumping!

"BASE" is an acronym that stands for the four categories of fixed objects from which one can jump:

• Building
• Antenna
• Span
• Earth

It differs from skydiving in that you are not in a flying aircraft. In BASE jumping, getting to the jump point under your own steam is part of the adventure. (Learn more: BASE jumping vs. Skydiving)

Due to the inherent danger and fatalities associated with BASE jumping, it's unlikely this Xtreme Sport will be acknowledged as a mainstream sport any time soon. I guess there are just a lot of people who like to live vicariously.

Enjoy the ride down.

Paintball Bruising Safety

I work with mostly Gen X- & Gen Y-ers which helps me understand the Xtreme Sports mindset. At lunch last Friday, the subject turned to paintball play. One coworker told how, when they play with this one friend he, invariably, catches one in the cajones. This gives he and his teammates great pleasure.

Paintball bruising safety is the furthest thing from their mind, yet almost every guy I've ever known cringes at the thought of bruising his testicles. Instead they giggle like a girl when it happen to a friend.

This got me to thinking about paintball bruising prevention. Of course, there's the century-old athletic protector, but this is the 21st Century. Had science and technology merged to create protective gear to minimize or even prevent bruising?

A quick online search finds a number of protective paintball vests, kneepads, head gear and product reviews:

• International Survivor, Inc. demonstrates the No Surrender Vest.

• Paintball Online offers every manner of paintball protective gear including paintball gloves, paintball kneepads, throat and neck protectors, paintball vests and paintball goggles. Sheesh, this is like playing hockey without the skates.

• Paintball Gear Review helping keep paintball players safe with reviews on paintball protective gear.

These are excellent resources I'm happy to share, but there's only one proven way to get rid of paintball bruises and that's when you apply the NoBruise! towelette immediately following a hit.

If any paintball player would like to challenge that claim, just send me your request for a free sample by clicking the "Email Me" link.

Ultimately Fighting for Endorsements

Mixed martial arts (MMA) offers the most extreme example of endorsement economics, according to R.M. Schneiderman, writing for The New York Times'Economix section.

The purpose of Economic section is to explain the science of everyday life presumably in economic terms. This article is a great primer on how and why ultimate fighters fight for so little pay.

Unless you're at the contender level in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, expect to make far less than the millions a Chuck Liddell earns. Even Karo Parisyan makes roughly $175,000, which includes endorsement dollars.

Despite MMA becoming increasingly popular and mainstream, the ultimate fighters rely almost exclusively on endorsement deals to keep going, which is why you'll see some fighters with sponsor logos on their backside.

It's PURE Off-Road Racing

The latest in racing games comes to us from Disney Interactive. Developed by their UK-based Black Rock Studios, it's a far cry from Hannah Montana.

GameCyte.com, a news Web site dedicated to the latest news and analysis of the video games industry, published a lengthy and excellent gamer review here.

"Pure is first and foremost a solid ATV racer with spot-on-controls, set in beautiful environments, modeled on real-world locations.

"With all the air you’ll be getting, there’s plenty of time to pull off crazy tricks and rack up points during each descent; and as virtual skateboarders and snowboarders might expect, it is here that Pure’s first level of strategy is to be found. Do you go for broke, and risk chaining tricks together to create killer combos? Do you simply hold a trick midair for greater control? Or, over those smaller jumps where you’re only getting — let us say, one or two double-decker buses worth of hang time — do you play it safe and not trick out at all?"

Get your game on at GameCyte for unbiased video game reviews.

Pure:Extreme Off-Road Racing trailer.

Ships September 16th, and arrives in stores September 23rd, for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.

Boom Boom Huck Jam a Bust

Bruise Control focuses on positive, entertaining and even outrageous happenings in the world of extreme sports, in general.

If I hadn't read negative comments about the Tony Hawk Boom Boom Huck Jam Tour, I may have let our recent experience in Houston pass. In a previous post, I mentioned that NoBruise!, the bruise healing product developed by FutureSavy, was to be a sponsor. It was an opportunity to reach those ever-elusive, 18-34 year-old, male eyeballs.

And, as we all know, Xtreme sports enthusiasts tend to bruise a bit. Perfect marketing fit.

Since no money changed hands, we were grateful.

When I learned that the event in Houston had been canceled, the explanation was vague. The band didn't show...Tony Hawk was a no-show. The organizers weren't saying. No biggie. I let it lie, until a very positive review appeared in the Quad-City Times about the same event that was held in Davenport, Iowa.

How could our show be canceled and it go on as planned in Iowa when Houston's the 4th largest city in the U.S.? Now I'm not a snob, but IOWA!?

Being a large city and all, there's a lot of competition for the entertainment dollar. Maybe they didn't sell enough tickets. I don't know, but after reading the "negative" comments left by the Quad-City Times' readers, I had a sneaking suspicion that this was the case.

"Crowd goes wild as extreme sports stars perform," reads the July 30, 2008 headline. But these attendees weren't crazy for the event:

"It was a good show, but a total waste of money..."

"She and the kids said that yes the show was good but for the money was way too short..."

"I want a refund. It was so ridiculous, my 11 year old decided to leave early..."

Someone once said: You can fool some of the people, some of the time; but not all of the people, all of the time.

Boom Boom Huck Jam better get its act together, because once the kids turn against you, it's all over. I guess Houston's extreme sports fans weren't fooled.

Boom Boom HuckJam Hits Houston

StopBruises.com Sponsors Boom Boom HuckJam

Skateboarders, BMX riders and freestyle Motocross athletes will gather at the Sam Houston Race Park (West Lot) Sunday, July 20, 2008.

Tony Hawk’s Boom Boom HuckJam will feature skateboarders Tony Hawk, Kevin Staab, Jessie Fritsch, Sergie Ventura and Neal Hendrix; BMX riders Kevin Robinson, John Parker and Dennis McCoy and Motocross stars Greg Garrison and Drake McElroy.

The event will be held come rain or shine.

If you've been reading this blog, and are curious about NoBruise!, keep a look out for our Bruisin' Babes who'll be cruisin' the grounds with product samples.

For more info visit www.boomboomhuckjam.com or www.stopbruises.com.