Extreme Athlete Profile: RANDY JONES

Flying high off creativity, on camera and off

Ask any extreme athlete and they’ll tell ya what separates their sports from more traditional athletic conquests is the danger, the risk.
But there’s another thing too: the creative flair.
No diss to Albert Pujols, but there are only a few ways to hit a baseball. And LeBron, well, he can only put a ball in a basket so many ways.
But a skater or snowboarder? In their worlds, creativity reigns supreme.
Just ask Randy Jones -- the first of Erb Magazine’s sponsored athletes.
“The thing that appealed to me with skating and snowboarding is that you have creative freedom,” says Jones, 29, of Dinuba, a small Central California town near Fresno. “There are no rules on how to ride, if you can visualize yourself doing a trick you can probably do it.”
This, of course, leads to everybody who skates or snowboards having a crazy story about some trick they completed. So Jones took things a step further. He started his own production company, Daylife Productions, that creates videos of skaters and ’boarders.

“I’ve always been inspired after watching videos,” Jones says. “When you put so much work into something, having a video part is kinda the payoff.”
Jones started at China Peak Mountain Resort in Lakeshore, Calif., but he’s gone all over the western United States in search of footage.
“During winter we do a lot of traveling to film,” Jones says. “I’ve been everywhere from the local Sierra Nevadas to Tahoe, Colorado, Oregon and Washington. Most of the people we film are all friends, but anyone can get involved and end up in a video.”
Much like he’d get creative as a rider, now Jones gets creative behind the camera.
“There is a lot to take into consideration when you’re filming,” Jones says. “Lighting is very important and shooting from the right angles can make the difference between a good or bad shot. I like to use two cameras for multiple angles, this gives you more options when you’re editing.”
Jones still finds time to get out and ride recreationally, but approaching something like snowboarding from a video standpoint has changed the way he prepares.
It’s not just about having the right gear to wear anymore.

“I try to snowboard as much as possible but the video aspect has definitely changed things,” Jones says. “Instead of just riding the resort I spend more time snowmobiling and exploring trying to find new places and new ideas to film.”

He also gets a little bit of help from what he’s smoking on. These days that’s Banana Kush, Candy Kush and O.G. Kush.

“I don’t know if makes me more creative,” Jones says. “But it gets me in the zone.”


ON THE WEB
youtube.com/RandyLJones

Read More

POP CULTURE PANEL - ISSUE 1

This month: What’s your favorite movie about pot?

HALF BAKED
“I wanna talk to Samson! Fly me to the moon like that bitch Alice Kramden! 'Cause it's hard being black and gifted! Sometimes I wanna throw it all down and get lifted!”

- Peter, Seattle

“Dave Chappelle said his best friend was an Abba Zabba bar.”

- Mike, Visalia

BLOW
“‘Blow’ was essentially an herb movie about the incremental steps of moving small end to making deals with a product swap in a time of supply and demand. Kinda.”

- Pop, Fresno

ASSASSIN OF YOUTH and REEFER MADNESS
bauching effect of society. These films foretold of the escalation in violence and perverse lawlessness that our future would hold if we did not put an end to marijuana use.”

-  Leanne Porterville, CA

CHEECH & CHONG’S NEXT MOVIE
“First movie I watched while I was actually high. It’s Still funny till this day.”

- George, Dinuba, CA






HAROLD & KUMAR GO TO WHITE CASTLE
“NPH is great, and the scene where they sing Wilson Phillips is too funny”

- Tanya, Denver





CLERKS
“If I had to pick someone to sell me weed, it would be Jay and Silent Bob.”

- Mike, The Bay





NEXT POP CULTURE
WHO’S YOUR FAVORITE POTHEAD COMEDIAN?

Read More

MAN ON A MISSION

Phatmanz Alley devoted to great pipes and making customers to feel good

Rick Zimmerman knows the importance of owning a good pipe.

Don’t believe us? Listen to this story. 

One day a few years ago, he was driving down the freeway, window down, arm hanging out, pipe in hand. Suddenly, he lost his grip, his pipe flew out of his hand and went clanking down the road. He was bummed. It was his favorite.

About a year later, a customer came walking into to Phatmanz Alley -- the Central California smoke shop that Zimmerman owns -- looking to buy a new pipe. Zimmerman whipped out one similar to the pipe he lost. The customer balked. Said he already had one like that, that he found it on the side of the freeway.

Could it be? At Zimmerman’s request, the customer brought the pipe into the store and -- sure enough! -- it was Zimmerman’s beloved pipe. What were the odds? So they worked out a trade. The old pipe for any new one in the store.

All this is just a long way of saying that Zimmerman is really devoted to pipes. It’s why he got into the business and why his store is overflowing with pipes for any customer who is just as dedicated as him.

"As I kid," Zimmerman says, "I always had the best selection of pipes out of all my friends. My favorite part about this whole culture is the apparatus you smoke with."

Inside Phatmanz Alley -- which has two locations, one in Clovis and one in Visalia, which are both near Fresno -- there’s a huge wall of pipes. They’re the main attraction in a store that sells everything from detox products and jewelry to stash cans and digital scales.

"The biggest challenge is making sure we have everything our customers could want in stock," Zimmerman says. "I hate it when someone asks me for an item and we don’t have it. I watch them walk out the door and that is no good for business."

Spoken like a true businessman.

Zimmerman opened Phatmanz Alley in 2004 when he moved his family from Illinois to California. Prior to moving to California, he owned a smoke shop called Cloud 9 in McHenry, Illinois for five years.

One cardinal rule of the smoke shop biz, he says, is employing friendly, attentive workers. Between his two shops, a garden center in Illinois and his custom glass business, Zimmerman employs 14 people.

"After years of hearing how rude the staff at other shops was, I knew we needed to be different," Zimmerman says. "Because if our customer thinks our employees are rude, why in the hell would they want to give us their money? Customer service is No. 1.

"What makes us unique is the fact that we have a wide range of products, we specialize in American made products and we also blow a lot of our own glass," Zimmerman says. That's something he started when the country sank into recession.

Zimmerman wanted to diversify his business offerings, so he started Phat Tubz (pronounced Fat Tubes), also based in Clovis.

"We had to find a way to stay above our competitors," Zimmerman says. "So by making our own glass line, the customers in our area could only get these pieces from our stores. Because we make them, we can sell them for less than other places, making our prices untouchable."

In addition to Phatmanz Alley, Phat Tubz are sold at smoke shops up and down California and in states such as Colorado, Illinois, New York, Texas and Virginia.

While pipes are obviously a love, Zimmerman says he’s also always on the prowl for new merchandise that will bring in new customers. He sells tattooing gear and plans to start stocking homebrew equipment as well.

Basically, anything his customers will love as much as he loved that pipe.

"We want our customers to feel good",  Zimmerman says.  We are a happy hippie kind of shop.

Phatmanz Alley

200 W. Shaw Ave # 107 / Clovis, Calif.

1746 South Mooney Blvd. /  Visalia, CA

phattubz.com

Read More

THE VAPE CRUSADERS

From humble beginnings

to a worldwide network, Got Vape has been on the forefront of the vaporizer movement

The folks at Got Vape are predicting a big boom in vaporizers in 2012.

If they’re correct, then the Got Vape crew -- the leading distributor of vaporizers and vaporizer related products -- is in for a big year.

“Usually there's like one or two new vaporizers per year, this year we have about eight,” says Nano Donlin, the marketing and promotions for Got Vape.

 

He’s counting off new products his company is unveiling at the CHAMPS Trade Show Feb. 21-23 in Las Vegas. The “Class of 2012” he calls it -- with new products from Volcano, ThermoVape, Arizer Solo and VaporBLUNT among others.

Got Vape debuts these new products first because it has been in the forefront of the vaporizer market for a decade now. The Orange County-based company was started in 2001 with one product -- the company’s own Inspector Vapors Kit.

“It literally started off with just an IV Kit,” Donlin says. “That was one of the innovative things we did. No one had ever thought about using vaporization via heatgun before.”

Got Vape quickly started selling products from Volcano and Vapir, and the company has been ahead of the curve on the vaporizer market ever since.

Today, it sells more than 40 different vaporizers and more than 200 products total. It’s also a go-to source for vaporizer repair and education. In short: It’s the pied piper of the vaporizer world.

“If you look at the industry 10 years ago, vaporizers were in one section of a store’s case,” Donlin says. “Now people are dedicating whole cases to vaporizers. That’s big. We’ve been the movers and pushers. We started letting people know not only the health benefits of vaporizers, but we also started going in and dressing their shops.”

That’s paid off. Got Vape has a big network of smokeshops that it sells to -- more than 3,000 worldwide -- and an online retail set-up that directly serves customers, both nationally and internationally.

The company has four distribution centers, on each coast and in the midwest. It prides itself on quick shipping and delivery. It promises three-day delivery across the country, and to customers in New York, New Jersey, Colorado, Northern California, Oregon and Southern California, it even offers free delivery.

If you talk to Donlin for even a short time, he’ll surely bring up the health impact of vaporizers. It’s something he’s obviously passionate about. Vaporizers and their smoke-less, clean technology have built a market with cancer patients and diseases like COPD.

“Our main motto,” Donlin says, “is ‘Because your health matters.’ ”

It’s why Got Vape contributes to AIDS walks and cancer walks.

“That's my big thing,” Donlin says. “Whenever I hear from someone who’s using these things to benefit their lifestyle, it just make happy to be a part of it.”

With that, Donlin expects to see growth for Got Vape, as vaporizers become more and more mainstream.

While Got Vape’s core customers is -- and will continue to be -- men ages 18-24, they’re reporting growth with females and older customers.

Says Donlin: “We know that is the movement itself gets to more places, it’s just going to give us more opportunities.”

ABOUT GOT VAPE

gotvape.com

facebook.com/gotvape01

twitter.com/gotvape01

youtube.com/gotvape

1 (888) VAPE101

Read More

STUFF WE DIG - ISSUE 1

STUFF WE DIG

(aka stuff we’re high on at the moment)

Music

El Camino -- The Black Keys

The stomping bluesy-rock duo recently unveiled its latest album and it’s more of what they do best -- great guitar riffs, groovy baselines and infectious songs. Is it time for them to finally crack into full-on mainstream stardom? Perhaps.

A$AP Rocky

Rocky is a New York rapper with a Houston drawl -- a guy whose music is equal parts Mobb Deep, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and UGK. Many are picking him as a breakout hip-hop star for 2012. Check out his debut mixtape, “Live Love A$AP,” which is a free download at ASAPmob.com. We recommend track No. 14, “Roll One Up.”

Movies

“Safe House”

What can we say? It’s always fun to see Denzel Washington being a bad ass, and that’s what he’s doing here. Alongside co-star Ryan Reynolds, Denzel plays a dangerous ex-CIA operative whose safe house is attacked. Carnage ensues. Sign us up.

 

 

“Mission Impossible IV: Ghost Protocol”

Think what you will about Tom Cruise’s life off the camera, but he sure can deliver as spy Ethan Hunt in the “Mission Impossible” series. “Ghost Protocol,” the fourth film in the series, is a rush. You might be able to still find it in theaters near you. Or watch a little bit and bring the Blu-Ray home.

TV

“Luck”

Looking for the next great HBO series? It might be “Luck,” which is centered around the world of horse racing -- the gamblers, the jockeys, the ups, the downs. The high-powered cast includes Dustin Hoffman, Dennis Farina and Nick Nolte, among others.

 

“Unsupervised”

This new cartoon on FX is one part “Beavis & Butthead,” one part “Bill & Ted” -- with all the wackiness and (hopefully) edginess that made FX’s “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” a favorite. In fact, it comes from the “Always Sunny” team. The show is about two teens who live, as the title suggests, without adult supervision.

Video Games

“SSX”

The “SSX” series is looking to redefine the snowboarding video game. Not only is the new installment about pulling off mind-bending tricks, but you’ll have to make it through missions that pit you against Mother Nature’s most dangerous mountains. Lucky for you, it’s only a video game.

Tech

iLaunch Thunder

We all understand the appeal of a Nerf gun that shoots foam bullets. The iLaunch Thunder takes that idea and makes it 100x more awesome. It’s a moving missile launching station you control with your iPhone or iPad via Bluetooth. It costs $99.99 -- a small price for being the baddest foam-missile shooter on the block. More: dreamcheeky.com.

80-inch 3D LED TV from Sharp

Sorry, Big TV Guy -- Sharp just blew up your spot. Sure, you thought your 55-inch flatscreen brought plenty of wow, then Sharp announced its 80-inch 3D LED TV. It actually has twice as much screen area as the 55-incher, and all the modern bells and whistles, such as Wi-Fi and web apps. Look for it in April and be prepared to drop $5,000.

Read More