Author: Paul Eide (Page 10 of 36)

Suave Men Heritage Edition and Dale Earnhardt Jr. want you to be a man again

June 22, 2015 / Paul Eide

If NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his JR Motorsports teammate Regan Smith admit to doing it, then there’s no shame in admitting you have, too. So go ahead and unburden yourself – 80% of men have used their girlfriend, wife or spouse’s haircare products.

“We’re all guilty of getting lazy and grabbing whatever the girlfriend or wife is using,” admitted Earnhardt Jr., as he forced a room of roughly 40 men to confront a grim reality about themselves.

“And, you know, that stuff’s not made for men: It’s not made for your hair. Guys out there, stop being lazy. Get the haircare products for our hair and for our needs.”

The numbers are appalling. 70% of men are interested in their own personal style, yet only 20% actually use products made for men.

But Suave Men wants to change that. And they know that education leads to prevention, and ultimately, choices a man can be proud of.

The “Suave Men Heritage and Hair: A Discussion with the Icons of Speed and Style,” took place on the eve of the NASCAR XFINITY race in Brooklyn Park, Michigan.

Grooming, Interviews, Lifestyle, On Location

Dale Earnhardt Jr.NASCAR Regan Smith Suave Men Suave Men Heritage Edition

Product Review: Dreadnought Post Shave Balm

June 11, 2015 / Paul Eide

I know shaving your face is being marketed as an “experience,” a “moment for yourself.” But out of 100 shaves, how many times do you treat it like a spa day the way hot babes and high-rolling Atlantic City sweathogs do? Exactly.

This review was eight months in the making. I initially reviewed the Post Shave Balm from Dreadnought Shaving over a year ago (Jesus, look how distorted that image is. You’ve come a long way, baby).

At the time, I loved it. So much in fact, that I babied my supply, even cutting it with water when I ran low, the way you fill up your parent’s vodka from the liquor cabinet in high school.

In that eight months, I tried every conceivable aftershave and post shave incarnation, some high-end, though mostly sleazy and easily accessible. And all that time, I was really longing for Dreadnought.

I tried to deny it, but nothing was as good in the interim, or even now. Finally, tail between my legs, I reached back out to Dreadnought.

I was going to publish the actual email, but it was so #WeakSauce, so sappy, it was embarrassing, and it still is. I’d prefer you continue to think of me as a man, not some blathering, near-woman idiot, gassed up on chardonnay and scorn.

Grooming, Lifestyle, Stuff to Buy

Dreadnought Shaving Dreadnought Shaving products Dreadnought Shaving review

Burning nitro with Patron Funny Car driver Alexis DeJoria

May 29, 2015 / Paul Eide

To some people, Alexis DeJoria is the wife of “Moster Garage” star Jesse James. To others, she is the daughter of Jean-Paul DeJoria, billionaire businessman and co-founder of Paul Mitchell hair products and the Patron Spirits Company. But on the NHRA Mello Yello circuit, Alexis DeJoria is one of the best Funny Car drivers on the tour.

We spent two days with Alexis and her team from Kalitta Motorsports at the Kansas Nationals at Heartland Park in Topeka, and inadvertently found ourselves in the middle of the most exciting weekend in the history of the sport.

The day before we arrived, during the second day of qualifying, DeJoria ran the best run of her career, an Elapsed Time (ET) of 3.994.

During the weekend, there were a total of 15 three-second runs. There were 19 three-second runs in the entire 2014 season.

In this video, Alexis talks about how her car accelerates faster than anything on earth (yes, even a fighter jet), how she got into racing, and her career-defining victory in the 2014 NHRA U.S. Nationals, it’s 60th anniversary, a feat akin to winning the Super Bowl.

While ET (the time it takes the car to get from the starting line to finish line) determines qualifying order, it is not as important on race day.

On race days, the car that crosses the finish line first wins, regardless of ET. So the quicker car might not be the winning car, because that driver may have left the starting line slower.

For any driver, a time in the low fours is considered a successful run. But in Kansas on this weekend, the perfect storm of weather conditions and high performance vehicles combined for the most sub-four runs in one weekend, ever.

So what does that even mean? Each run, or “pass” is 1,000 feet. Going a thousand feet in under four seconds means the cars are travelling at speeds in the 300-315 MPH range. Alexis’ car goes from a complete standstill to 100 MPH in less than one second.

Interviews, Lifestyle, On Location, Sports

Alexis DeJoria Drag Racing Funny Car Jesse James John Force Kalitta Motorsports Kansas Nationals NHRA

Riding shotgun with Speed Stick driver Cole Whitt and Playboy’s April Rose at Talladega

May 7, 2015 / Paul Eide

Confidence opens doors that nothing else can. But confidence can also be misplaced. How do you know if the shirt you’re wearing is completely ridiculous until you actually wear it outside the house? Thanks to Speed Stick, at least I had confidence in my underarm scent.

But confidence was definitely not lacking for driver Cole Whitt. Even though Front Row Motorsports is at a distinct disadvantage, operating on one-eighth the budget of its competitors and Whitt’s highest previous finishing position this season a modest 22nd, Whitt was ready.

A Top 20 finish at Talladega would’ve meant a lot, as Cole explains in our interview below, shot immediately before the race. But Whitt was able to #DefyTheDoubt and lead the entire field with under 40 laps remaining en route to his best performance this season. Speed Stick is all about giving you confidence for the moment you shut down the naysayers, as Whitt did finishing a career-best 13th in the race.

I got a little excited during my interview, and it isn’t completely my fault – there’s so much energy at a NASCAR race, it permeates the grounds and is as real as the guy with the Dale Jr. shirt on next to you.

There is no other major sport that allows fans’ access the way NASCAR does. No one is too big or too important. The mix of American pride and Bible Belt-bred Christianity adds two additional layers that don’t exist north of the Mason-Dixon.

That ethos permeates the grounds and is exemplified in a myriad of ways, from the ease in dealing with on-site officials, to the random mix of cool people you meet while watching the race, to the drivers themselves.

Interviews, Lifestyle, On Location, Sports

April Rose Cole Whitt Cole Whitt interview NASCAR Speed Stick

Interview with Duracell’s Kevin Jorgeson, first to free climb El Capitan in Yosemite National Park

April 22, 2015 / Paul Eide

It may not rain, it may not be cold or windy…but it always gets dark. In the outdoors, light is essential. Experts trust Duracell Quantum to provide dependable power in the dark because it lasts longer in 99% of devices.

During Kevin Jorgeson’s free climb of El Capitan, he trusted Duracell Quantum to power him through the night so he could climb in the dark and be one step closer to reaching the top.

We spoke to Kevin about his epic 19-day climb, the wear and tear on his body and his partnership with Duracell.

How are your hands? I’m worried about your hands.

I wish I could say you could still see the battle scars, but unfortunatel,y they are all healed. I was actually quite sad when they healed because it was the last physical remnant and evidence of the climb, you know? Now it is literally all memory.

How did you partner with Duracell?

I’m pretty selective on all my partnerships and I try to work with companies that I am already using their products. So that includes my climbing shoes, my harnesses, the equipment we use to stay on the wall, and that goes for batteries too. So when we started this conversation, it was a natural fit. I had been using Duracell for years, we even had them up on the wall (of El Capitan). It was something that already existed, and it just meant that now we’d be able to tell that story.

What does “free climbing” mean? Does that mean you walk up to a mountain and climb it, with nothing?

No, the word “free” kind of messes with people’s perception. Really, it’s climbing as you would imagine climbing — it’s just climbing. 99% of climbers are free climbing. Meaning we climb, but we use equipment to catch us if we fall. And we fall a lot. It took us six years to put this thing together. Six years of a lot more failure than success. It wasn’t like we just walked up and climbed this thing. We started working together on this in 2009.

Interviews, Lifestyle, Recreation

Duracell Duracell Quantum El Capitan free climbing Kevin Jorgeson Kevin Jorgeson interview Mountain Climbing Yosemite National Park