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Social Media in Sports - 17 Mar 2009

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Tags: sports, documentation, news

World Economics and its effects on Sports Sponsorships - 18 Nov 2008

To highlight the effect that the current world economic crisis is having on Sports Industry, the pharmaceutical giant and highly reputable corporation, Johnson & Johnson, has just announced (via Yahoo Sports) that is not renewing its Olympic sponsorship at the end of 2008 in order to “enable us to focus on other business priorities”.

No other Sporting event in the world has had as much commercial success as the Olympic Games and this shows just how serious things are evolving as this is the fourth (Top level) partner to end their support this year.

Undoubtedly, things will evolve quickly when the new US Administration is inaugurated and the EU and Oceania Economic initiatives unfold but until then, we’re probably going to see more of these announcements.

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Tags: society, sports

El Camino del Rey - 05 Jun 2008

A friend of Laneo just sent us this great video of the “El Camino del Rey” trail.

Originally built in 1901, this walkway now serves as an approach to “Makinodromo”, the famous climbing sector of El Chorro in Alora southern Spain, near Malaga. “Makinodromo” is situated on the eastern flank of this fantastic gorge, the large overhanging limestone crag reaches a height of 80/100m and is most famous for “Lourdes”, a legendary 30m 8a ideally suited for those in search of their first ever 8a on-sight.

The photo on Wikipedia gives you an idea of what this “really is”!!

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Tags: films, sports

Primal Quest: An Eco-Adventure Race - 01 Jun 2008

Titled as the “World’s Most Challenging Human Endurance Competition”, PRIMAL QUEST is back for it’s 5th Edition in Montana (USA) this year, from June 21st – July 2nd.

Primal Quest was founded in 2001 with the goal of bringing a world-class, multi-sport expedition race to North America and it includes a mind boggling array of disciplines like navigation, climbing, paddling, biking, running, whitewater swimming and canyoneering over an incredible 5-10 day event.

One unique aspect is that this is an environmentally friendly, ecologically aware wilderness Expedition Adventure Race. Primal Quest is in full accordance with the United States Adventure Racing Association publication entitled “Adventure Racing Ecological Standards” and incorporates these standards in all phases of the planning, race management and post race activities. Teams only travel where permitted; do not build campfires; and strictly adhere to pack it in, pack it out rules. They also implement a recycle program for all their transition areas in order to minimize trash and landfill impact.

Origins of adventure racing date back to the 1980’s in New Zealand and became popular in the early 1990’s (I even met racers and organizers of the initial RAID GAULOISES races when I did Ironman NZ back in 1991) after which the concept became popular through the Raid Gauloises, Eco-Challenge and the BEAST of the East.

This is the type of outdoor event that gets us all excited at Laneo; really challenging, beautiful untouched landscapes, core teamwork skills and a “leave no trace” philosophy !

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Tags: races, sports, environment

Surfer Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz: The Last Frontiersman - 19 May 2008

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Tags: films, family, society, sports

Tyr & Speedo: The swimming pool is getting hot - 17 May 2008

Apparently TYR Sport has filed a federal lawsuit against Speedo (both are makers of great swimwear), on the grounds that their new record-breaking “LZR Racer” suit has created chaos amongst top athletes engagements with it’s competitors and might stifle competition on the eve of the Olympic Summer Games.

Since February when the LZR Racer’s was launched, swimmers wearing the suit have set 37 world records and this has launched a fierce debate on the role this new technology has in competitive swimming. Additionally, many of the worlds swimming governing bodies have been plagued with attacks on the legality of Speedo’s design. These new suits claim to improve performance by 2 percent, which is a phenomenal boost in a sport where 1st and 2nd place are often decided by hundredths of a second.

This isn’t the first time that technology has provoked uproar but once again it’s the poor athletes that are in the pools for 3-6 hours everyday that are getting the “heat”.

But then again, didn’t Mark Spitz win all those Gold Medals in baggy swim trunks ?!

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Tags: technology, brands, sports

DEFI POUR LA TERRE plays up a site for Outdoor Enthusiasts - 15 Mar 2008

The very well known and admired French Journalist – Would Be Politician – Environmental Guru & Foundation President, Nicolas HULOT’s initiative DEFI POUR LA TERRE has launched a web portal aimed at Outdoor Enthusiasts. This 3 year old online community – organization has become a great success here in France providing a very impressive range of tools and services to stimulate citizen participation in the Environmental – Climate – Social issues, all of it being expertly relayed by the very charismatic Nicolas Hulot during his TV and Radio shows and other media appearances and conferences. The Outdoor Sports portal provides a carbon impact evaluation test, “how-to” pamphlets and other media tools for each major outdoor sport and links to the other services of the site in order to encourage those playing outdoors to start taking action.

This is yet another great initiative that is sure to have great exposure and we hope a big impact for the summer vacation season and we’re especially proud to see that this site has be jointly developed by one of Laneo’s good friends “MOUNTAIN RIDERS”; a superbly run small outfit in the French Alps, check these guy’s out!

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Tags: websites, sports

RAID’SPECT: A carbon zero Raid Event in France - 05 Mar 2008

For our European readers, the 2nd edition of RAID’SPECT will take place this year on June 14 & 15 at Hauteville Lompnes in France. Co-Sponsored by the UFOLEP and QUECHUA, this unique event combines; MTB, Orienteering, Canyoning, Via Ferrata, Archery etc.. by teams of 2. The event is practically “carbon zeo” and everything is done to try to reduce environmental impact to literally nothing more than a family outing, even the food is locally produced and entirely organic. Run in parallel, there is a Eco-Expo with a number of manufacturers, local and national associations and federations that help participants understand how they can participate further and there are a series of debates & conferences that animate the 2 day event for those that aren’t participating in the raid.

We at Laneo think that last year’s event was great and this year’s will no doubt be even better, so check out the event, it’s not too late!

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Tags: sports, events

Jiwok: Music to your training - 25 Feb 2008

Our friends at JIWOK (they’ve enrolled over 120 members) have just launched a cool new MP3 Training Program to help everyone achieve their goals while having fun. The originality is that this service is delivered via the web onto any MP3 device and includes not only great music (under a Creative Commons license) but real scientific based coaching that is synced to the tracks. Anyone who has ever done any running knows what it’s like constantly gazing at your wristwatch computer looking for indications on whatever parameter you programmed if for, while trying to maintain a specific rhythm! Result – you almost get seasick while doing it. What’s neat about this is now it’s the music that tells you when to make your effort or to cool down and even better, you can choose from a wide range of training programs and different types of music, so you have an endless variety of material to get you out the door! And if that wasn’t enough, it’s free and you can join the community and share whatever crosses your mind with other athletes around the world!

Take a minute and check them out, they’re really great guy’s at JIWOK and just like us – they want to “save our playground”!

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Tags: music, sports, community, news

Mini-Movie #1: Courbevoie Triathlon (France) - 22 Feb 2008

As I mentioned in a previous post, we’re starting to receive some great initiatives from around the world in the form of short sport oriented videos that focus on eco-sports initiatives to demonstrate what exactly “reclaiming our playground” means.

Here’s the 1st of what we hope will be an international series of mini-movies that has been launched by Courbevoie Triathlon (just outside Paris, France) and in this sequence, we’re going “behind the scenes” to one of their prepatory meetings.

Enjoy !

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Tags: films, sports, community

“Les Bronzées” – was this where it all started? - 20 Nov 2007

The other day I got an email from a friend, Gregory, he sent me a link to the following popular video site (Daily Motion) that showed an excerpt from a very famous French movie called “Les Bronzées font du ski” (The Bronzées go skiing). In this short sequence, for those that speak French, you can understand why Gregory thought “that this is where the Laneo idea came from”!! Enjoy.

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Tags: films, society, sports

Interview: Benoit Mouren (Widiwici) - 02 Nov 2007

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Tags: websites, interviews, society, sports