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  Val Surf's Brandon Richards and daughter

By SHELBY STANGER

Retail shop Web sites and interactive blogs are becoming more prevalent, and Val Surf is stepping into the arena.

Brandon Richards, Val Surf marketing manager and the son of Val Surf co-owner Mark Richards, launched a video blog Web site this month at www.vsboards.com. The purpose is to have a hub where people in the industry can find relevant, quality video content related to surfing, skateboarding and snowboarding from brands and Val Surf team riders without having to search through fluff.

“We try to get stuff up as often as possible,” said Brandon, who has been spending the last few months working with brands and team riders to collect content.

Richards said there is a lot of content on YouTube, but it’s hard to search for quality videos. He also said as a young surfer, skater or snowboarder, it can be hard to get a lot of traction to your videos by positing it on YouTube alone.

There are specific pages dedicated to the three sports, and everything links back with Twitter and Facebook. They also have specific features on each of the three pages to host brand new Val Surf edited video montages from their own surf, skate and snow teams by the first and 15th of every month.

Val Surf will also host a series of online video contests including a current one they are doing with Oakley featuring a shared team rider, surfer Danny Fuller, for “Danny Fuller’s Best Barrel Online Video Contest.” The winner will receive $1,000.

So far, Richards says the response has been incredible. There is no e-commerce attached directly to the site, although there is a link to go back to www.Valsurf.Com.