Rise Above Plastics

Check it out, Rise Above Plastics is a site all about the awareness of the effects plastic has on our lives. Since Rise Above Plastics luanched thier website over 11 BILLION plastic bottles have ended up in landfills... YIKES!

You've probably read here in the past about the North Pacific Gyre and the Blob of plastic floating in the Pacific that is 2 times bigger than Texas.

Rise Above Plastics is supported by everybody from the Surfrider Foundation and Jack Johnson (who we really dig!) to the Algalita Foundation, Heal the Bay, Junkraft, and a whole bunch of other really cool people.

How are you going to reduce your plastic usage? A couple of easy ways are to get your own reusable bags for those trips to the grocer and a cool Sigg Water bottle!

Maku Furniture featured on The Alternative Consumer

One of our favorite sites The Alternative Consumer featured a few Maku Furniture pieces on their site over the weekend. The Maku Sectional, Maku Lounge Chair, and Maku Coffee table were all pictured in a great little blurb about how we use 100% reclaimed wood in our furniture.

And by the way that's Pro Surfer and Maku Lifestyle Ambassador Rizal Tanjung chilling on the lounge chair pictured.

Thanks for the support A.C. crew!

Click here to check it out!

Structured Green - The Creative Gale, Savannah

Mike and crew are hosting in their store a cool entrepreneurial support event with The Creative Gale. So if your in Savannah, an entrepreneur, or just want to meet some very cool people check it out!

The Creative Gale, this Thursday March 5 at 3:00pm, will be held at the wonderful Structured Green!



A great group of speakers will be coming:

Jamie Wolf – The Creative Coast Alliance

Chris Miller – illuminomics

Nathan Belzer — Belzer Law

Brian OliverSmith — Urban Planet Mobile

Blaz Ruzic -Structured Green

Ray Wenig - Ariel Savannah Angel Partners

We're excited to meet all of the talented, connected people who are attending.

Anyone can attend this Entrepreneurial Support Infrastructure event. Just register online at this link: http://creativegale.net/savannah

Butts at the Beach

One of my biggest pet peeves is when people throw their cigarette butts out the window. Be it on the highway, in a neighborhood and especially on the beach.

Cigarette butts are the #1 item found in urban run off pollution throughout Southern California. If you smoke, hold on to your butts. If you don't smoke, even better!

As a member of 1% For the Planet we donate a portion of our total sales to our friends at The Surfrider Foundation. They just came out with a cool little PSA on you tube about cigarette butts.

The Labyrinth of the Sand People.

One of the things I love about living near the beach is that sometimes you still see some "funky" stuff despite the commercialization that is now Southern California. It's nice to know that North County still seems to have a bit of that "funk" especially in Leucadia.

On the occasional low tide afternoons through out the year and particularly as we enter the vernal equinox I'll see the sand people creating their "sand art". Not sandcastles mind you but very cool and intricate designs in the sand.



It turns out this particular "labyrinth" is designed to bring peace and tranquility to those enjoying it. It was also built in celebration of one of the sand people's birthdays. The results were funky crystals, the beat of drums, and dancing through the labyrinth.







Good to see people going to the beat of their own drum still, Keep it funky Leucadia!



(sorry for the poor photo quality, I took these with my iphone since I didn't have my camera with me...)

Even more Custom love... - Vernare

Check out this rad little custom dining table that just arrived for our top retail partner in LA - Vernare. As with all Maku Furniture pieces this table and chairs is made from 100% reclaimed / repurposed wood. Meaning no live trees are cut down to make our furniture. The wood we use comes from buildings that are being renovated or torn down. Leaving more trees to clean the air and less junk in landfills. sounds like a win win!




We shot these photos in the garden right outside their showroom in the heart of west hollywood just off Melrose. It's such a cool little tranquil getaway that you would never know you are smack in the middle of one of the largest cities in the world...

Evo Lofts L.A. - More Custom pieces...?

As you may have read at the end of last summer, we did a number of custom table tops for the Evo Lofts in downtown L.A. The Evo Lofts are the premier Eco friendly lofts in So.Cal with not only amazing views and archictecture but they also have LEED Silver certification.



From time to time I like to analyze the metrics of our little furniture project to see who is checking us out and looking at the Maku Furniture website. I continue to see that a lot of you are interested in the Evo Lofts. If you are fortunate enough to live in one of these beautiful buildings and would like to compliment your space with some amazing and sustainable furniture than look no further than our DEZINE partner in LA. Dan and his crew can not only offer you a myriad of eco friendly accessories to beautify your space but they can also design anything custom than you may want for the inside or out! Click here to contact DEZINE LA!

The Search...

I found this cool little video from my friends at Boardistan via the LA Times. This vid truly gets to the roots of why we as surfers travel to every imaginable corner of the earth in Search of the next rush or the next great wave.

By the way, another double surf session for me today. Surfing with my buddies this morning and then my son this afternoon. What a great way to spend a Saturday!

What? Reclaimed Wood Candle Holders by Maku...!

The ultimate accessory to your organic living space: Dinner by candlelight, aromatherapy, indoor or out, relaxing transcendence of visual fluxuations...

The Mod Pillar Candle Block and the Obelisk Candle Block are the newest additions to the Maku Collection. Just like every piece in our collection, the candle blocks are hand made of 100% re-purposed / reclaimed teak from Indonesian architecture of yesteryear...

The Mod Pillar Candle Block Set is available as pictured below or with the Maku Frangipani Carving that was found on the Maku Limited Edition Lounge chair from last season.



But wait there's more! the Maku Obelisk Candle Block pictured below is available in 3 different lengths (8", 16", 31") with or without carvings.





Check out the Maku Website to order yours today and be the first on your block to have this very cool eco-friendly accessory! By the way FREE SHIPPING on all Domestic orders!

Everything Green Oregon Expo

If you are up in the NW and happen to be in Portland this weekend, stop by the Everything Green Expo and see our good friend Dennis Rose from Eclectic Home. Dennis will be showing a bunch of very cool eco friendly furnishings for indoors and out. (including a few Maku pcs!)

Better yet, pick up an organic mattress from Eclectic Home and break it right for Valentines Day...!

Hundreds Attend Global Warming protest...

While were at it, check out this little gem from Fairbanks AK. Frozen Gore

Aptera

While on the subject of Electric cars, check out Carlsbadistan based Aptera. Aptera is on the cutting edge of eco friendly automobiles and should have production out and rolling by late fall 2009. These all electric vehicles will be priced from $20,000-$40,000!

Aptera is even using P.E.T. (recyled plastic bottles and cups) for the seats and other parts of the car along with Eco Friendly dyes, etc. And the best part a whopping 230 miles per gallon is achieved in part by a lower coefficent of drag than what Lance Arstrong has on his bike!! WOW!

Now if they only made an Aptera pickup, we'd be all over it. It's pretty cool nonetheless to see a company like Aptera in our humble little village by the sea.

Who Killed the Electric Car...

Check it out, it's a pretty interesting and compelling movie. Makes you think even more about why gas was approaching $4.50 a gallon last summer and question how a company like GM can put short term profits (Or the lack there of currently) over long term sustainability and most likely greater profitability.

By the way and in the interest of full disclosure, I'm no saint when it comes to cars. I have always driven a Chevy pickup. I use it to the full capability of the vehicle be it camping in Baja or hauling recycled mulch to our garden and back yard and as it fits our lifestyle and needs...

But given the option of a different fuel source or availability of bio diesel I would with out a doubt make a switch.

Here is a link to the trailer of the movie if by chance it is not loading properly below.

Good bye Vegas...

For the last 17 years as part of working in the Snowboard and wintersports industry (in addition to our little furniture project) I have made the annual pilgrimage to Lost Wages for the Snowsports Industries of America show. Last week was the last SIA show in Las Vegas as it is now moving to Denver.

The gathering of our tribe over the years and the memories of the show in Las Vegas will be hard to top in Denver. But the industry will be much closer to the mountians and the snow so that should be pretty cool instead of spending a week in the desert and a smoke filled casino.

Some memories that come directly to mind -

1997 - getting hit by a car that ran a red light as I skateboarded across Paradise to the 7-11 just across the street from the Las Vegas convention center (That for sure took one, maybe 2 of my 9 lives...)

1992 - 1994 The Snowboard Ghetto as we so affectionetly refered to by our Ski industry "Colleagues". Of course we called the Ski section of the show "The Library..."

The AVN show taking place at the Hilton the same dates as the SIA show. WOW, those were some fun times!

"Smoke" billowing from the windows of Yellow Bus Snowboards and the resulting pizza deliveries. Before they got kicked out of the show.

Rail Jams at the Hard Rock

The Circle Bar at the hard rock and The Round Bar at the Las Vegas Hilton well before the HRH was even built...

Too many good times to list here but check out some of these sites for a recap of shows past and some good stuff.

Shay Boarder.com

The Tackedlbox

Yo Beat

Take it way back with Sacklunch

Transworld Biz

The Black and Gold

Usually we're talking Green but today we're going Black and Gold. Since our Chargers didn't make the superbowl we are sticking with the AFC and rooting for the Steelers, terrible towels and all!

If the Steelers win they will be the winningest team in superbowl history with 6 wins.

Super Bowl Standings

Team	W	L	Pct.	Pts.	Opp.
San Francisco 49ers	5	0	1.000	188	89
Baltimore Ravens	1	0	1.000	34	7
Chicago Bears	1	0	1.000	46	10
New York Jets	1	0	1.000	16	7
Tampa Bay Buccaneers	1	0	1.000	48	21
Pittsburgh Steelers	5	1	.833	141	110
Green Bay Packers	3	1	.750	127	76
New York Giants	3	1	.750	83	87
Dallas Cowboys	5	3	.625	221	132
Oakland/L.A. Raiders	3	2	.600	132	114
Washington Redskins	3	2	.600	122	103
New England Patriots	3	3	.500	121	165
Baltimore Colts	1	1	.500	23	29
Kansas City Chiefs	1	1	.500	33	42
Miami Dolphins	2	3	.400	74	103
Denver Broncos	2	4	.333	115	206
St. Louis/L.A. Rams	1	2	.333	59	67
Atlanta Falcons	0	1	.000	19	34
Carolina Panthers	0	1	.000	29	32
Tennessee Titans	0	1	.000	16	23
Seattle Seahawks	0	1	.000	10	21
San Diego Chargers	0	1	.000	26	49
Cincinnati Bengals	0	2	.000	37	46
Philadelphia Eagles	0	2	.000	31	51
Buffalo Bills	0	4	.000	73	139
Minnesota Vikings	0	4	.000	34