San Diego Day Three: Trade Show Madness & Video Premieres

Words by Ryan Clements
Photos and captions by Rob Meronek

I left my hotel room at around 8am and didn’t get back to it until 11pm. Even though there were certainly some fun times throughout the day, it was non-stop work.

I saw a few “celebrities” here and there. The likes of Christian Hosoi and others were roaming the Center. I’m going way back here, but I’m always stoked on seeing Jeff Kendall because he was one of my favorites from when I first started skating.

We hosted some Mini-Ramp Demos and got to see some serious ripping. Don’t know if Rob got any shots of Chad Bartie and a slew of others killing the wide contraption with vertical accessories, but it was definitely pretty entertaining at times.

In between each Demo we had meeting after meeting after meeting. I’m not complaining by any means, but I do remember the days of walking the aisles at ASR looking for something to do and having a beer. Now I don’t want the beer in an attempt to keep my head screwed on straight.

After our final meeting of the day, Rob and I went our separate ways. I headed to Ocean Beach with Rothmeyer and the crew to watch the Consolidated Premiere of “Goin Bananas.” We were the first ones there in some crappy bar…at first I thought that it was a good ol’ Consolidated joke. I was thinking, “They’ve got to be kidding me. This is ridiculous. We’re the only skaters in the bar.” Then the entire Consolidated crew rolled in and I felt more at home. Good times for sure. You’ve got to see Berard’s “music video” part.

Rob headed over the to “Man Who Souled the World” Premiere, which is the documentary of Steve Rocco’s take-over of skateboarding in the early ‘90’s. I actually can’t wait to see that one. That all happened during a time in skateboarding where all I did was skate and didn’t understand the business side at all. Times sure have changed.

One day down and two to go!

Starting it off with a nice phone fetish

SPoTlight Productions had its first official bid'niss meeting in one of the rooms at ASR. Those are all the leaders of your favorite companies right there. Basically, we discussed how we can make contests suck less in 2008

Red Bull hooked it up with the ice tub and energy sauce that helped us get some real work done, but we had to pay 80 mil to ASR for the brew

Yes, I was paying attention in the meeting, but Vans Robin's bare feet were a brief distraction. Love the barefoot foot fetishes

Zoom out on this BTM (bad teenage moustace) and you will find...

...that it's Jake, the new ATM (assistant team manager) at Volcom. That's Stevie Stratton and Brian Schaefer with him in our sketchy skateboarding industry bid'niss gathering. Thanks for coming, fools

Arie's got two in the pink, one in the stink gloves

I showed up at the DVS Photographer Series Shoe Party and it was packed with wasted people and great skate photos

Dave Swift has taken some of the most memorable skate photos of all time. Check his recent work on the Captain Corporate Coverage Patrol

A Filmer Sara reunion with Anthony Schultz and some random lurker

Daewon Song and Mike Burnett from Thrasher. Mike's work can also be found on the super skate nerdy Captain Corporate Coverage Patrol. Burnett is currently the highest ranked photographer

That's Burnett's shoe

They were giving away free shirts with photo prints on them. Check this one out with the moat on it. I took about four of these. That's Steve Nesser, back on Birdhouse, and Brian Schaefer

Vern Laird is disrespecting the city of San Diego by pissing in the streets

Pause for a phone fetish

After the DVS thing, I ended up at the premiere of The Man Who Souled the World. It's the film about how Steve Rocco the pro freestyler turned the skate world on it's ass back in the early 90's when it was run by grey haired fat dudes

While in there, some dude stole a chick's purse, ran out, slashed another girl in the arm with a knife, then went crashing down in front of the club where he was folded by the bouncers before the police came. Yeah, dude

The Professor Paul Schmitt and his wife Carrie, one of my most admired and respected dudes in the sketchy skateboard industry

Wow, people still have those things, huh?

Gotta' do a phone fetish with The Professor

Former Tampa local and now SD resident, Holly, has been part of the crew all weekend. She and her friend Tanya are afraid to smoke indoors so has to be done undercover. I just use the "Dude, sorry I'm from Florida" excuse. UPDATE: Ooops! Her name is Ashley. Sorry Tanya, I mean Ashley

Yeah, Tanya can party. UPDATE: Ooops! Her name is Ashley

Went for a crowded rickshaw ride and randomly ran into Manny Santiago, one of the happiest dudes on Earth

Now its'a cleavage battle back at the Westin hotel bar. It's a raging party every night here

Foot fetish and foot tats

One more phone fetish with a crew of my friends who all have phones that suck ass

One of the OG members of the Skatepark of Tampa Party Team, Braydon, with Barak

There's another BTM, but this time it's on a full grown man

That's Daina and Short Bus. They partied a lot longer than I did last night. Today I set a no booze before 8pm rule for myself. Wish me luck