Starting out life ten years ago to the day, Soulsports has come a long way since its athlete agency beginnings but confesses to having been a little modest to date about the company’s successes. Today, you’ll find us delivering an uncompromising level of service across Consultancy, PR, Athlete and Event management and are proudly launching a new website to demonstrate our good work. We welcome you to Visit Our World at soulsports.co.uk.

Soulsports founder and director, Stuart Brass remarks on the company’s journey, “Over the past decade Soulsports has been progressively building toward this, the moment it can confidently lay claim to offering a full suite of marketing services across all major action sports. We are The Action Sports Agency and our philosophy has always been to keep brands at the forefront of our thinking, whilst keeping the sports and athletes at the heart of our actions.”

Stuart was one of the UK’s most influential pro snowboarders, and among the first wave of riders to attract corporate sponsorship. It is to this corporate involvement that Stuart owes his vision (that and Jerry Maguire smashing box offices in the same year, he jokes), and in 1999 Soulsports was established to provide representation for UK action sports athletes.

In the ten years that have passed, Soulsports has attracted a team of experts to its doors and as recent client successes prove, we are as confident providing services to major industry players such as DC, Quiksilver, Vans, Extreme Sports Channel and the British Surf Association as we are dealing with global blue chip clients such as Nissan, Orange, Red Bull and Motorola. Naturally, we’ve not abandoned our roots and working with athletes such as X-Games Snowboard Champion Jenny Jones, World Champion Mountain Biker Steve Peat and Big Wave Surfer Gabe Davies still holds pride of place within the business.

In a nutshell, Soulsports is a dynamic company with a competitive edge and has its sights fixed firmly on becoming The Action Sports Agency of choice. We work hard to create amazing campaigns and imaginative content and urge anybody looking for a fresh approach to accessing the action sports market to take a look at our world through www.soulsports.co.uk.

We think you’ll like what you see.

Soulsports has just got back in from a weeklong trip to Dublin after organising a press trip to the DC King of Dublin Skateboard Contest. Check out the full event write up and a couple of images below.

Press Release:

Keith Walsh Crowned DC King of Dublin

Last weekend, Saturday 25th & Sunday 26th July, saw the first of the 2009 DC King of Series events kick off in Dublin, where local Keith Walsh was crowned the king of the two day amateur skateboarding contest, walking away with 2,500 Euro’s, a spot on the DC King’s Team and of course the bragging rights!

On day one of two, the DC US, European and UK skate teams and the city’s local skaters and contestants all met up at G1 Skateshop before skating across the city to the contest spot, Portobello Square, to skate the ledges and water gaps. With the spot fully de skate stopped and the gods shining down it made for a perfect set-up for Day One of the DC King of Dublin contest with everyone seeming stoked to have a skate event like this in their town.

Riding in heats of four, the 40 contestants flew through the 8 heats - 20 minutes a heat. The scene was awesome with the guys rolling deep to skate. The ledges of Portobello got handled and some amazing riding went down from both the 40 contestants and the DC pros, which included Jani Laitalia, Henning Braaten, Ruben Garcia, Manuel Margreiter, Jody Smith and Antony Lopez.

There were definite standouts from the days contest, but the judges, made up of the DC Pro Team, kept the scores close to their chests until Day Two when DC King of Dublin headed over to a rail spot, Wood Quay.

Sunday brought day two and the finals of DC King of Dublin—what a finals it was. It definitely went down as the best am skate contest Dublin’s ever seen. Outside of the spot, the scene was sick. The natural outdoor auditorium set up made a rad setting to watch Ireland’s best battle for the DC King of Dublin crown.

The spot for day two was decidedly heavier than at Portobello’s. Wood Quay was a long 12 stair with a new handrail added to the middle of it to mix it up. Men and boys were separated, with some of the skaters from Day One’s ledge spot not even showing up to skate. It didn’t look that big, but once the guys started jumping down, it was a different deal. And unless the ams were on their street game, they were out. With the DC team jumping in to keep the energy high, a lot of stuff went down by those actually competing. We’ll bare you the list of tricks, go watch them for yourself through the video recap at www.dcshoes.com/skate.

The finals boiled down and rising to the top were Keith Walsh, who took the top spot, followed by Joe Hill, and then Cian Eades. The boys were ripping. For their efforts, they split an impressive 5,000 Euros prize pot. It was an unprecedented opportunity to shred some otherwise-illegal street spots, get some exposure, and earn some Euros. Congratulations and thanks go out to all of the skaters and skate shops (especially G1) that made it an unforgettable contest and legendary success.

Really, the best way to see everything that went down in Dublin is to check the www.dcshoes.com/skate website, which has a gallery showcasing the event. Later, don’t forget to watch out for DC King of Dublin footage in an upcoming podcast video.

Keith Walsh

Portobello's

Wood Quay

On July 22nd Soulsports PR worked with DC to host an exclusive event at the Maverik Showroom in London to celebrate the release of DC skate photographer, Mike Blabac’s first book, BLABAC PHOTO – The Art of Skateboarding photography. More than 400 guests, including Ryan Smith - DC professional skateboarder, came to support Blabac and view the photo gallery exhibit showcasing 20 years of Blabac’s photography pulled from his extensive collection of work.

Available now, BLABAC PHOTO is the first skateboarding book of its kind featuring 224 pages of iconic images in skateboarding in a beautifully designed, cloth-bound, large format hardcover book. Published by powerHouse Books, BLABAC PHOTO takes you on a visual journey from Blabac’s humble beginnings as a kid who was intrigued by cameras to shooting some of the most legendary skateboarders of all time. Coinciding with the release of BLABAC PHOTO is the Blabac Azure mid, the first DC signature shoe that has been made for a non-professional team member. This shoe was designed to compliment the book and pay homage to Blabac and his work with DC over the past 10 years.

Both the book and shoe are available at www.dcshoes.com/blabac., DC flagship stores, select skate shops, powerHouse, and select book retailers.

Blabac’s London gallery exhibit will be available for viewing at the Maverik Showroom located at 68-72 Redchurch Street from July 23-31. BLABAC PHOTO launched in New York at the powerHouse arena in Brooklyn New York on June 30. The NY exhibit will be available for viewing at powerHouse arena from July 1 – August 2. Other previous tour stops included Los Angeles, Melbourne, Tokyo, and Barcelona. The last stop will be in San Francisco on August 28. For more information on Blabac and the world tour visit www.dcshoes.com/blabac.

A few pictures from the night:

Soulsports is pleased to announce the DC FA09 & WI10 Press Days, 13th & 14th May 2009 at the DC London Showroom, Camden. We’ll be showcasing the DC Skateboarding, Life, Apparel, Footwear and Snow collections. Please see invite below for times and RSVP information.

Soulsports is stoked to have renewed its contract as the UK PR agency for DC Shoes, which we’ve been doing since October 2007.

To celebrate the eagerly awaited launch of DC Snowboards in the UK, we laid down the red carpet to welcome pro freestylers and DC Global Snow Team members, Devun Walsh, Lauri Heiskari, Iikka Backstrom and Aaron Biittner, who came across the Atlantic to London for one of the biggest weeks in the UK snowsports calendar, the Metro Ski & Snowboard Show.

Soulsports worked with DC to organise for the team to head down to the Snow+Rock stand at the Metro Ski & Snowboard Show, where they were giving away DC product and signing posters, t-shirts and no doubt a host of inappropriate items along the way!

Check out the madness below: