Words by Ryan Clements
Photos and Captions by Rob Meronek

John Gow is all about the Polaroids

That's Nice Nef with classic California Barbie Doll chick we met at some industry party. Details are fuzzy. I don't remember taking this photo. Hope I had a good time

Sick shirt, except for the Christians part. Nah, just kidding. I equally disrespect all superstitions like that

Another indoor smoking section in uptight California created by us Florida dirts

We found a self serve bar at one party

Porpe and I were out in front at the hotel when the Vans RV rolled up. Steve Van Doren was behind the wheel and setting up the red carpet to pick his crew up

That's a foot fetish with shoes we have but you can only buy in the Shop, not online. The purple pants, well, go somewhere else to get those

Even if you don't smoke, you'd like a lighter right now

Justin Strubing, proud member of the Skatepark of Tampa Party Team

That's a foot fetish with Stu Graham and his shoes in the old website colors

I walked around downtown San Diego and took some "grown up" type photos. They like their sailboats here in SD

I need a girl with me to re-enact the sailor make out statue. There's a museum in that aircraft carrier. You should check it out

Jason Lee was hanging out all day. He went through Paul Schmitt's CreateAskate.org program

During Tampa Am, Luis Tolentino was ollieing from the flat up onto the pyramid deck. His big snaps won him $500 in a high ollie contest

This is why a cheap domestic beer is seven bucks in the hotel. They need to pay for this lobby

Brian Schaefer and Wizard Clem were the microphone fiends all weekend

It was a full house

Shannon from Sole Tech is another classic California Barbie except she's cool and has style. She can assist me anytime. Check Rob G with the BGP grin

The Wizard Clem could not cast enough spells to make Mike Mo Capaldi skate the Contest

Torey Pudwill went home barbarian style with the Wizard's sword

We had a layover in Denver and flew from there to San Diego. I was mesmerized by the view out the window the entire time

I wish I could sleep on a plane. Porpe and Clem have no problem at all. I just sit there either writing geek computer code or listening to music while staring into space out the window

If you're flying into San Diego, make sure to get a seat in the "A" section by the window on the left side of the plane. It's amazing flying into this city because the airport is so close to downtown

Runway skateboarding reminds me of flying around Europe. I'm ready to go back not now but right now

So we're finally in San Diego and holy hell the weather is complete poop. It's raining and freezing - two very rare things in Southern California. Looks like crap all weekend

Well the weather was a little better in the morning and waking up to this view and sunrise was pretty amazing. Now it's time to go join the sketchy skateboard industry at this trade show known as ASR

So after getting to the show and skating for a little bit, I realized I have nothing to do until Saturday's Lord of the Lines contest. I'm on the lurk now just wandering around. At the Volcom booth, you get sprayed down with silly string. No girl is safe

Erik Ellington and Jim Greco are posted up at the Brigada booth. That's their sunglass company. All rock stars need sunglasses. Smokes help, too

This is one of the obstacles at the Lord of the Lines event we're doing Saturday. This thing is not so easy to skate. What do you got on it? I saw some random dude do smith grind on the inside frontside 180 pop out. Other than that, no one's really hitting it so far. Mike Mo's skating on Saturday so prepare for it to get the shut down for real

Nate Sherwood is on TV a lot lately it seems. This is the Duffs booth. A common sketchy skateboard industry marketing technique is to hire a decent looking female to man the front desk at your booth to attract attention. I think it works

That's the NHS booth. They make Santa Cruz and Creature boards, among other things. Where's the token hottie?

Hell yeah, Abdias Rivera! That's the Tum Yeto booth and Abdias has life sized posters all over it

I'm back at the hotel geeking out and updating the website right now. Have to take one more look at the view. San Diego is amazing downtown

Levi and I got lost on the streets for a bit. Then it got to be about 80 below and we called it a day

Wow, Kingpin Magazine did an entire article about Seagrette Dirty Bird Kring. Dirty Bird has been around the world and seen better shows and parties with us than the average human sees in a lifetime

The DVS Beer Garden theme for this year was a Hooters knock off called "Scooters." There was a wing challenge. Porpe stepped up

Holly is looking at the same thing I am at the wing challenge

Porpe lost to the fat guy next to him. Imagine that

Every time I go to this retarded uptight state of California, I'm amazed. There are some places here where you can't even smoke outside. My friend Lisa got kicked out of the local hot spot, Star Bar, because she was dancing and they don't have a "dance permit." Wow, uptight and overregulated California can suck it. Us dirty Floridians smoke indoors on purpose here and when we get caught, we pretend we're from Texas and we don't know any better

That's a foot fetish with Eunjoo, apparel designer at DC. The gear she rocks is always an interesting topic of conversation

I hate surfing

Some booths here are a full blown skateboard flea market

Oh yeah, there's actual skateboarding going on here. More on that later in the weekend. That's Stu Graham on the mini-ramp here

Beers are only $7 in this fancy ass hotel lobby. What a deal. Thanks ASR for sending this little care package up to my room. I have one of the beers in my hand right now. More silly photos of the ASR madness coming up tomrrow. There will be more skate photos, I promise, sort of

I can’t say that I was too excited about the weather in (usually) sunny San Diego, which was less than desirable. Upon landing and waiting for a cab, we started to get rained on and the temperature was in the mid-50’s. It didn’t look like we would be skating around too much.

However, ASR was kind enough to put us up in a pretty bangin’ hotel this time around. As a matter of fact, I’m on the 31st floor of the Manchester Hyatt watching the sun rise over the mountains as I type this. So the next time you hear me complaining, please remind me of this moment.

Since the crew was running deep, we had to find some cheap grub…and by chance cabbed it and ended up at a bar called The Local. They had cheap beer, pool tables, and good food, so what more did we need to waste some time on a rainy San Diego night?

I crashed early in anticipation of the Trade Show because that’s what I do, and the last thing you need the first day of any trade show is a hangover. Although the morning came quickly, it’s always easier to get up early when you’re on the west coast and your body is adjusted to east coast time.

Jorge, Rob, and I met for some breakfast and spent too much money, but trying to find a cheap meal in the Manchester Hyatt is pretty much impossible (good thing the rooms are comped). It was Jorge’s first trip to both San Diego and ASR, so it’s always cool to see a new person’s reaction to what’s going on around them in the trade show environment.

For me, both Thursday and Friday of the Trade Show were pretty much the same. Our main purpose was to hang over by the mini-ramp and run the demos. There are definitely some kids that skate in these things that are demo-material and really fun to watch rip, but at the same time there are way too many kids on the ramp trying to get theirs that just don’t belong up there.

I’ve probably said this before and I should have said it over the mic, but people don’t travel from all over the country to come to ASR to watch your dumb-ass-self learn axel stalls.

Throw in a few meetings about Tampa Pro, Make-A-Wish, Tech Decks, and Lord of the Lines, Muska and Smolik sightings, and general talk about Skatepark of Tampa and skateboarding in general, and you can pretty much figure out what I was doing from 9am – 6pm on Thursday and Friday.

When the evenings roll around you have your choice of parties to attend. But the clubs in Downtown San Diego, for the most part and from my experience, suck. They hold the lines out front to make it look like the place is packed, and then when they finally let you in you realize that the place is half-empty and the drinks are over-priced.

So I opted to chill solo one night and head over to this fancy sushi joint called Nobu located in the Hard Rock Hotel. The Hard Rock is amazingly nice and I have a friend that’s a manager there at Nobu, so I figured I would sit alone and have a mellow meal, but I was way off. That place was full-on LA status with Metal Mullisha dudes acting tough and chicks with their boobs hanging ¾ of the way out all over the place. I’m not complaining and the drinks and sushi were amazing.

The next night after the ASR Party, I did “try” to get into the Dekline/Stereo/The Skateboard Mag Party, but once again the door guys weren’t the friendliest and I wasn’t feeling it. So Schaefer and I took a stroll to the grocery store down some really cool streets. They’ve really laid out Downtown properly in SD. It would be like mixing Ybor City, Downtown, and Hyde Park all together back in Tampa, which would make for a pretty cool neighborhood.

Okay, so you get the point. I was a super-kooky-industry-guy for two days. Now click the other link and read about some great skateboarding.