But before I do, it's important that I start this on the correct note: I'm a poser!
I have never ridden a surfboard in my life. But... I spent most of my childhood summers in Hawaii surrounded by cousins who surfed.
I'm not sure if it was "lack of skill" or "fear", but I always ended going boogie boarding or body surfing with the younger cousins. Unfortunately neither of those sports are as glamorous as surfing. Which probably explains why I was so fascinated by the sport in my youth... even though I never tried it.
How fascinated you ask? Well... one of the first magazines I ever subscribed to was Surfer.
It sounds silly... but it was cool to see places I hung out at in scenes from the movie.
Anyways... that's why I was stoked to see Upper Deck include autographs of surfers in their 2009 and 2011 Goodwin Champions sets. Over the past three years, I've slowly been picking them up here and there. And two weeks ago, I was finally able to obtain the Tom Curren autograph that had alluded me for so long. It cost me more than the seven other autographs combined, but I can finally say the Surfer Project is complete.
Or is it? I just discovered that Upper Deck added three more surfers to the 2012 autograph set. Damn them!
Whatevahz, here's what I have so far...
2009 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions #CC Corky Carroll
2009 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions #LH Laird Hamilton
2009 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions #LO Gerry Lopez
2009 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions #PA Mike Parsons
2009 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions #TC Tom Curren
2011 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions #BE Layne Beachley
2011 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions #CJ C. J. Hobgood
2011 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions #DH Damien Hobgood
In addition to my Goodwin Champions autographs, I also picked up this 2009 Sportkings autograph of 11x ASP World Champion Kelly Slater:
I know he's one of the surfers who signed for the 2012 set, so if anyone out there has his autograph and is interested in trading it... please contact me.
Until then... let's hear your thoughts:
How do you feel about UD including autographs of bull riders, hacky sackers, runners, motocross racers, and poker players in their Goodwin Champions set? Love it, hate it, or somewhere in between?
Aloha and have a great week!
14 comments:
"He's so Barney he doesn't even know it!" Love North Shore...I have no problem with UD putting whoever (whomever?)they want into their sets.
It's not a product targeted at what I collect, but seeing some different faces and autographs is always fun.
Slightly off topic, "The Wave" by Susan Casey has some great chapters on big wave surfers especially Laird Hamilton.
I think it's really awesome. I love seeing greater diversity on who is showcased on the cardboard. I can think of so many things that should be on cardboard that just arent.
I like having Dwayne De Rosario and Kasey Keller in their set, but its too little of an effort for me to buy any.
If you want surfer flicks - Blue Crush is my choice. Bikinis !
Don't forget Tim Flannery!
http://royalsandrandoms.blogspot.com/2012/08/summation.html
Greatest line of the movie! I'm not a big reader when it comes to books (more of a blog guy), but I'll try to check it out. Thanks for sharing.
Send your thoughts to Topps & UD... if people will collect it, I'm sure they'll insert them into packs ;-)
Lol... I saw Blue Crush when it came out. Wasn't into the story line, but nice eye candy.
Lol... maybe I'll send Flannery that card and add it to this PC.
Btw... I'm a couple of months late, but that was one helluva post. Thanks for sharing.
I grew up surfing, the Ho brothers were among my favorites, mainly Derek, because they were hitting it big around the time I got in to surfing.
I like that Upper Deck is looking to additional options when it comes to creating sets, I know this was a forced hand because they lost the licensing, but it shows that they can continue to thrive going away from the traditional sports. Given that if they had the major sports licenses I am sure we would be seeing less sets like Goodwin but for now I like that they are thinking outside the box (I so dislike that "buzz" term).
Slater signed for the 2012 UD All-Time Greats Sports Edition release, it is a pretty cool looking booklet card with an on-card auto. They added a manu-patch but it still looks decent.
I was a huge fan of Derek Ho back in the day. He was definitely a favorite of many of my relatives, so I jumped on the bandwagon.
I never really thought about the whole licensing issue. These types of cards are a great solution, since they don't really need logos to be successful. Kudos to UD. I'll have to look for the All-Time Greats auto... but will probably hold off for the Goodwin, to keep the theme going.
I haven't bought an Upper Deck product (excluding singles) in a while and I've never even bought a pack of Goodwin so I'll try to approach this question by replacing UD with Topps and Goodwin Champions with Allen & Ginter.
Anyway, I'm more supportive of those kind of autos being included. Since well the positives are that if you hit them they could get you a pretty penny from fans of whatever sport the guy/gal plays, they could be an auto of someone you just genuinely want an auto of (I still want a Tony Hawk auto from A&G '10 lol), they'll save you trouble of grieving the fact that you bought a box only pull an auto of Marlon Byrd (or someone like him) and they could introduce you to a whole new world in sports. One that's different from the "core 4" that dominate ESPN.
Only negative for me is that I'm bummed out at first that I didn't get an auto of a baseball player. Although the thought of pulling a Marlon Byrd auto saves me 5 seconds later.
You brought up a great point... it could introduce a person to a new sport.
I'm enjoying reading everyone's comments and figure I'd share mine. I obviously am a fan of these non-"core4" sports autographs being included in products.
But... there's a place for everything. I'm glad that both Topps and UD limit the number of products they insert this stuff into like Goodwin, A&G, and All-Time Greats Sports Edition.
I would be strongly against Topps inserting autographs of surfers into their 2013 products.
Glad you liked it! Weird combinations on cards always make me smile.
Great information... It is good to have most of these articles around to maintain the regular flow of information. Help people that no one could do it later, good work!
goodyear brand licensing & harper’s bazaar licensing
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