UK – The new Relentless NASS festival is shooting high with the news that it has secured both PendulumDoes It Offend You, Yeah? for live performances during the two day event. The festival, in Shepton Mallet, Somerset U.K is mainly built around extreme sports and features BMX, skate, FMX, Parkour, mountain biking and street courses. In addition to these high jinks will be performances by over a dozen top bands as well as entire stages of DJ sets. Relentless NASS ’08 runs from June 13th – 15th. MALAYSIA – the Wildeness Langkawi Challenge takes place this coming weekend in Pulau Tuba with 150 teams attracted. Participants are from a diverse mix of adventure races, mountain bikers, runners, tri-athletes, outdoor adventure buffs and extreme sports. The Challenge has two categories – Slow and Steady(beginners) and Fast and Furious (professionals) – those in the Slow and Steady category will have to cover a distance of 10km -15km while those in the Fast and Furious have to complete 40km -45km. Activities involved in the Challenge are kayaking, trail running, mountain biking and caving. FRANCE – the FISE or Festival Internaitional des Sports Extrêmes, was a great success this last weekend in Montpellier. Held on the banks of the river Lez there was a grand mixture of extreme sports such as BMX, skating, wakeboard, dirt-bike, skateboarding and more. With great weather the whole event went off in a relaxed atmosphere with the large number of spectators being treated to some fine performances and spectacles. RESPECTS – An extreme sports accident in New Zealand claimed the life of a Swansea University (Wales, UK) graduate. Emily Jordan, aged 21, drowned while riding river rapids on a bodyboard – a fierce torrent trapped Ms Jordan in the middle of the Kawarau River whilst three guides who were leading the party of ten tourists struggled to release her and return her to shore where, in vain, they attempted resuscitation. Our respects go to Miss Jordan’s friends and family. SurfingUSA – Sebastian Zietz (Hanalei, HI) claimed the 2008 Oakley Pro Junior Global Challenge North American Qualifier in firing three-to-four foot (1 metre) surf at Lower Trestles over fellow finalists Jason Harris (Huntington Beach, CA), Travis Beckmann (Vero Beach, FL) and Dusty Payne (Lahaina, HI). The ASP Grade-2 Pro Junior event climaxed a week’s worth of competition as performance levels rocketed, with some of the highest scored waves of the event being logged in during the hard-fought final. Zietz, who proved the in-surfer of both the Oakley Pro Junior and the ASP WQS 4-Star 6.0 Lowers Pro (only knocked out with a last-minute interference), completely dominated the final, seamlessly blending terrific rail work with explosive fin-free manoeuvers to net the highest-scoring heat total of the Oakley Pro Junior: 18.40 out of a possible 20.