Lots of Chaz Ortiz buzz on the web today: The kid's apparently the key piece in Gatorade's new push into action sports, along with snowboarder Ellery Hollingsworth, and, as Justin Kosman just reported, BMX rider Nigel Sylvester

Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal has the most details on the deal so far, with some follow-up from Transworld.

A couple of interesting sidenotes in these stories:

From the Sports Business Journal story: “We’re not ready to talk about the depth and breadth of what we’re doing, but we’re going to be invested in the sport and a bit more visible across a number of platforms,” Urban said. “As a leader, we want action sports athletes to see themselves in our brand. It’s an important part of our expansion.”

From the Transworld story: "In addition to working with action sports athletes like Ortiz, snowboarder Ellery Hollingsworth, and BMX rider Nigel Sylvester, Gatorade also has plans to support professional and amateur action sports events in 2009 and will do more with parks and in films as well."

The Alli folks, in partnership with Gatorade's PepsiCo/Mountain Dew friends, now have most of the major action sports properties besides X Games all sewn up, and Red Bull and Monster are all over a lot of what's left, so it will be interesting to see what other pieces Gatorade can pick up here as they try to expand their brand reach into action sports. At any rate, seems like a good fit and a huge deal for Chaz.

More on this story as it develops, but it's always interesting to see another player jumping into the ring.