| If you are involved in the surf, skate, beach clothing, and urban apparel industries you were there, sent someone, or should have gone. Every September the Action Sports Retailer trade show is a must for the big industry companies and can be a make it or break it for businesses of all sizes. The larger company reps and sales people usually already have a lot of orders pre-booked and yet they have scheduled appointments most all day everyday of the 3 day show. It used to be a 4 day show which was good and bad. The good was there were 3 nights to have video premieres and promotional events. The bad was that the last day was kind of slow and the burn out factor was intense with around the clock activities. The last day this year was a little slower that the first 2 but the ails were still packed; especially around the Reef booth and other popular spots. |
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 Oneill Party at the Chart House  Mac Dawg and Standard Films Premiere |
Thursday night there was the Snowboarding Premiere by Jamie Mosberg, the Empress by Misty Productions, and the Osiris video Premiere as well. Another fun and popular gathering was the fashion and art show. I caught the end of the fashion show; the kind of thing that makes me embarrassed to be human but all these extra beautiful people seemed really interested and happy to be there. I did like the art show that features the art works of action sports athletes. Friday night a few hundred people and myself attended the Oneill party at the Chart House and on the O boat. The appetizers, drinks, beer, and wine were flowing; thanks for the good time Oneills. You had to act quick to get some of the food as the vultures pounced on it as it came in the door. Pat O was stoked so the open bar stayed open for a long time and beyond the O riginal spending cap. I slipped out and caught a cab up to the Mac Dawg and Standard Films video premieres in time to see the last half of the Dawg's newest film: Technical Difficulties. Another excellent cellulose showing the best in skateboarding influenced snowboarding with a lot of new young talent showing what they can do. You know it that it including the technical difficulties (bad crashes) of some of these guys; ow owe that's gotta hurt. Of course the Standard Films TB Infinity did not disappoint; it went above and beyond previous vids with impressive riding by Rippy and Shawn White. The Brian Savard segment was awesome. I really enjoyed the surf snow combo on Dave Downing. The little sniglets of skiing, motorXing and snowmobiling gave the film the right amount of lifestyle input with out letting you forget it is a snowboarding movie. |
| The skateboarding demos were limited to 30 minutes each, even though the skaters would usually stretch the session out to 45 minutes or more before Don Bostick could get everyone off the course or ramp. The people that run the ASR in all their wisdom (not) do not allow you to film or video unless you have a special sticker. They seemed to have their head in the sand because they do not give these stickers to on-line publications; even if your site has a larger audience than some of the traditional media that they let in to the show for free (they charge $225 per on-line publication personal) and gladly give these privileges to smaller print publications. Undaunted, I managed to get the shots here for you even though I did get shut down by the over zelous camera cop. It was fun to get the shot of her getting plowed by one of the skaters that jumped the gap over the fence. |  Camera Cop Gets Run Over |
  Gap Jump Over Fence |
  Oly Op |
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Not supposed to take pictures in the show without media sticker - here is a poached image of some floor traffic. Some of their position may be due to the fact that they are focused on retailers whom sometimes feel threatened by this exploding on-line e-commerce thing going on lately. |
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