SIA was a great time. For my first experience at the trade show it was almost overwhelming but got a lot easier to manage as the days passed. Some of the booths at the show were set up for just having fun while doing your business. Who is this hippy?
I met so many radical people and had some awesome friendships develop. I also had some really interesting things happen on the journey. First off, I lost my wallet. I went out to a couple of parties after the Transworld Rider's Poll Awards and ended up at a strip club. I have never really enjoyed strip clubs. I have been to my share over the years and to tell you the truth I find them to be quite depressing. Nothing that I want to spend a whole lot of time doing. I managed to stay longer than I had intended because I was hanging with a couple people that I found to be full of information about the industry and chose to talk to them about some of my ideas and gain further insight. By the time that I got back the hotel that I was staying in I noticed that my wallet had gone MIA. I honestly think it fell out of my pocket while I was sitting having a conversation, but it could have fallen out getting out of the cab, too. Losing a wallet sucks, but the worst is when you are trying to be good and sober only to end up with a very important part of your life has disappeared.
That was on Friday night/ Saturday morning. The following two days at SIA were cool, but I was finding it hard to focus on my goals due to the fact that I had a very serious dilemma. I hung out with the Mervin crew for a while those days and got to know the Mervin family pretty well. I say family in the strongest sense of the word. Those guys and gals are a riot and have one hell of a culture. Lots of fun and lots of business. It was a lot of fun helping out breakdown the booths and I made a couple of t-shirts in the process. I did manage to make some new connections during the last two days of the show and that was pretty sweet, too.
Monday and Tuesday were the On Snow Demo days at Winter Park. I ended up riding with the Wildcard and having a whole lot of fun. I tested out a few different boards and have to say that my favorite of the two days has to be the 11/12 Attack Banana (2010/11 Specs). It has the EC2 camber set-up and holds an edge like a dream. I didn't particularly enjoy the lack of pop, but it was still a lot of fun on the Colorado hardpack while also very maneuverable in the park. I tested a couple other LibTech and Gnu boards and they were just as enjoyable. The only board that I didn't ride from Mervin was the 11/12 YESnowboard Basic w/ CamRock. It was a lot more playful than the Attack Banana in the park and had really good pop. I would have to say that I would choose the Banana over the YES board in Baker Pow due to the stiffness, but they both have great qualities and excellent construction.
I will add more pictures and videos of the show and the demo later on.
Today I took advantage of the free lift tickets to other Colorado resorts that came with the SIA package. I rode Copper Mountain with a couple of friends, old and new. The weather was really good as far as clear blue skies, however, the temperature left a lot to be desired. At one point the temp dropped to -22. It was really tough going back to my Nitro Team that I picked up last year, especially after really enjoying riding the GNU Mutant bindings for two days. I still hauled ass all over the mountain and was having a ton of fun getting brainfreeze while keeping up and racing my skiier friends down the smooth, fast groomers. I think my eyelids froze shut during one of the mach 10 descents. It would have been a totally different day had there been some fresh pow but I still had a great time racing the tracks, throwing up slash plumes, and hitting the park. I even hit up the ice pipe a couple of times. The last run down I took a pretty sweet fall from the lip of the pipe down to flat on my noggin. I also slammed my knee during the same fall and it is already bruised and kinda painful to walk on.
After we left the mountain we got some grub and headed over to the local Breckenridge airport for some fly time with a new friend. He owns his own plane and took us up. We flew over the Rockies and buzzed some mountain tops and ski areas.
We also played with gravity. Check out my nasty snag in this video. This is how you catch a clipboard whilst it flies weightlessly through the air!
All in all I have had one hell of a ride. Tomorrow we begin our journey back home on the road. I am very excited to sleep in my own bed for the first time in two weeks. The only thing standing in my way at this point is a good nights sleep and a 25 hour drive with Matarik!
I met so many radical people and had some awesome friendships develop. I also had some really interesting things happen on the journey. First off, I lost my wallet. I went out to a couple of parties after the Transworld Rider's Poll Awards and ended up at a strip club. I have never really enjoyed strip clubs. I have been to my share over the years and to tell you the truth I find them to be quite depressing. Nothing that I want to spend a whole lot of time doing. I managed to stay longer than I had intended because I was hanging with a couple people that I found to be full of information about the industry and chose to talk to them about some of my ideas and gain further insight. By the time that I got back the hotel that I was staying in I noticed that my wallet had gone MIA. I honestly think it fell out of my pocket while I was sitting having a conversation, but it could have fallen out getting out of the cab, too. Losing a wallet sucks, but the worst is when you are trying to be good and sober only to end up with a very important part of your life has disappeared.
That was on Friday night/ Saturday morning. The following two days at SIA were cool, but I was finding it hard to focus on my goals due to the fact that I had a very serious dilemma. I hung out with the Mervin crew for a while those days and got to know the Mervin family pretty well. I say family in the strongest sense of the word. Those guys and gals are a riot and have one hell of a culture. Lots of fun and lots of business. It was a lot of fun helping out breakdown the booths and I made a couple of t-shirts in the process. I did manage to make some new connections during the last two days of the show and that was pretty sweet, too.
Monday and Tuesday were the On Snow Demo days at Winter Park. I ended up riding with the Wildcard and having a whole lot of fun. I tested out a few different boards and have to say that my favorite of the two days has to be the 11/12 Attack Banana (2010/11 Specs). It has the EC2 camber set-up and holds an edge like a dream. I didn't particularly enjoy the lack of pop, but it was still a lot of fun on the Colorado hardpack while also very maneuverable in the park. I tested a couple other LibTech and Gnu boards and they were just as enjoyable. The only board that I didn't ride from Mervin was the 11/12 YESnowboard Basic w/ CamRock. It was a lot more playful than the Attack Banana in the park and had really good pop. I would have to say that I would choose the Banana over the YES board in Baker Pow due to the stiffness, but they both have great qualities and excellent construction.
I will add more pictures and videos of the show and the demo later on.
Today I took advantage of the free lift tickets to other Colorado resorts that came with the SIA package. I rode Copper Mountain with a couple of friends, old and new. The weather was really good as far as clear blue skies, however, the temperature left a lot to be desired. At one point the temp dropped to -22. It was really tough going back to my Nitro Team that I picked up last year, especially after really enjoying riding the GNU Mutant bindings for two days. I still hauled ass all over the mountain and was having a ton of fun getting brainfreeze while keeping up and racing my skiier friends down the smooth, fast groomers. I think my eyelids froze shut during one of the mach 10 descents. It would have been a totally different day had there been some fresh pow but I still had a great time racing the tracks, throwing up slash plumes, and hitting the park. I even hit up the ice pipe a couple of times. The last run down I took a pretty sweet fall from the lip of the pipe down to flat on my noggin. I also slammed my knee during the same fall and it is already bruised and kinda painful to walk on.
After we left the mountain we got some grub and headed over to the local Breckenridge airport for some fly time with a new friend. He owns his own plane and took us up. We flew over the Rockies and buzzed some mountain tops and ski areas.
We also played with gravity. Check out my nasty snag in this video. This is how you catch a clipboard whilst it flies weightlessly through the air!
All in all I have had one hell of a ride. Tomorrow we begin our journey back home on the road. I am very excited to sleep in my own bed for the first time in two weeks. The only thing standing in my way at this point is a good nights sleep and a 25 hour drive with Matarik!
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