the evening saw us at the trouble show, where despite being the title sponsor of the event, it took us over half an hour to get into our own party. sheesh. and the worst part is, the bar had been busted for being over capacity the night before resulting in them being super strict and the bar feeling vaguely empty.
while it was nice to be able to walk around without jostling your drink, it wasn’t ideal for the hype factor. the show itself was pretty good although trev’s opening act would never make it past the first audition of american idol or even the white rapper show.

friday brought an enjoyable sleep-in followed by an attempt to connect the wii to the hotel room’s plasma. as a result i will never ever buy a phillips tv in my lifetime. the worst user interface known to human kind and the only tv that i have not been able to figure out. hence no wii action.

finally made it on hill for the crack of one club (its embarrassing, i know). multiple laps ruling it in the kiddie park. dinner brought some delicious sushi village although i could’ve eaten a lot more and drank a lot less. booked it over to the fashion show. enjoyable for something to keep the masses entertained but would be utterly laughed at by high fashion standards.

one of the the highlights has to be maestro fresh wes attempting a come back and calling out kanye, tupac and biggie in his freestyle. oh and times must be tough considering he was rocking the cheapest version of the all white AF1 re-releases. however, the ultimate highlight of the evening was prevail of the swollen members jumping into the air and smoking his head on an overhead lighting rig and getting knocked flat on his back accompanied by an almighty thud reverberating across the sound system from the live mic hitting the floor at the same time as his ass. oops.

its been fun though. getting a few hours of riding in the morning up at Seymour. its good to see how much everybody brightens up from even a few runs even in less than ideal conditions. our fri morning mission got cut short due to the rescue operations going on for that snowshoer. the SAR crew were buzzing up and down under Mystery chair with their sleds so Seymour didn’t want to risk any collisions. did a couple laps under the Lodge chair where a few school groups were rocking out. talk about dedication. kids in jeans, no beanies, sunglasses instead of goggles. some kids didn’t even have gloves. didn’t faze them one bit they were having a blast. kinda puts things into perspective (aka, i’m a whiny bitch)

been kinda half-heartedly searching for a Wii. i can’t really afford it but it would be kind of fun to have.

i finally got those Urich dunks. oddly they fit bigger. every pair of nikes i own fits differently. you would think that a company as big as them can afford to develop a standardized fit. again…i’m a whiny bitch.

noodle box disappointed me twice now. their singapore cashew curry was bland. and then today the spring rolls were too salty and they lost my satay order. grrr…i’m a whiny bitch.

well now that we’ve got that straight….

he was also telling me about some crazy faux-snowboard thing that was essentially a molded crazy carpet that screwed onto a real skateboard deck. weird huh?

makes me wish i kept all my old riding gear. my original burton cruise 155. sims switchblade 165. burton pj 149. burton a-deck 149. i would have quite the museum if i kept everything i every rode. boohoo…

the past week has been exhausting. thin air combined with constant alcohol and snowboarding takes its toll on you. i can’t wait to get home. i don’t think i got a decent night’s sleep the whole trip. oeuf.

so what happened while i was away?

started off at the hotel bar in Denver. it was good to see all the peeps again as well as meet some of the new crew. but the chaos started right away. we were originally going to be doing SG meetings in Denver for the day but it had just snowed in Vail so the meeting was postponed and we had to get up at 6AM to transfer to Vail for a ride day. i don’t envy Jody (our event planner).

so early morning out to Vail and the hotels weren’t ready so everybody had to drop off their luggage and get changed in the big ballroom of the hotel. that was funny. imagine 100ish snowboard reps with all their luggage and gear getting ready to go riding in a hotel ballrom. haha.

jumped on the gondola and off we went to ride. tried out a bunch of the 08 shit and there’s some dope ass gear for next year. some crazy new tech that i’ve already appropriated for this season.

after riding, they through the big opening tech launch party which was crazy. they had this concept car we worked on with Volvo there. Liam designed the interior and it was pretty cool. holders for you ipod and blackberry. heated boot storage cabinets in the trunk. dope.

the next morning was our official ride day so we broke up into groups to try out new tech with the product managers. i got to ride with most of the girls team (Kelly, Hannah, Elena, Amanda, Spencer) which was super fun. Got in a hot lap with Jake too. That only took five years to get in a run with Jake.

that night, marketing got up and did their thing. Volvo did a little presentation for us and then we got to see all the new footage from this past summer.

the next day was so tiring. late night at the hotel bar, followed by 14! hours of meetings. i don’t know how much i actually remember. but the last meeting of the day was super fun. it was the coalition introduction and the uninc team was there to introduce their gear in fine, funny, drunken style. that was the tipping point for absolute chaos at the hotel bar afterwards with much destruction and disapproving glares from the hotel staff.

on wednesday, we powered through some more meetings and then met our dealers as they arrived. big dinner and presentations and open house for them. blotto and curtes had setup a big photo wall and that was super fun. by the time i called it quites, mason had puked outside in the hallway, the mannequins were all in sex positions and finger food had managed to find its way onto the ceiling. not an easy task given the 20+foot high ceilings in the ballroom.

the next day saw a first tracks breakfast at the top of vail with some of the tastiest sausage i’ve had in a while followed by speed runs on fresh corduroy in a monster posse. it was a little crazy. imagine 30 or so decent riders at top speed on groomers all weaving in and out, popping off every little roller and hip and i’m surprised there wasn’t a collision.

that evening we had a big dinner at a local brewpub and it was super fun until this lame ass rock band came on. you know the typical resort ski bum band with 50 year old rockers who’ve never left the resort and think they’re the shit because they play in a band. try untucking your shirt next time buddy.

somehow we managed to get the hotel bar shut down within 20 minutes of arriving thanks to our canadian sales manager who i’ve now nicknamed “stampy”

friday saw us motivated to ride but lacking the coordination and energy to actually stay upright on our boards. we gave up after about 2 hours. we had to go to denver anyways where i caught my first and probably last NBA game. we did get some pretty dope seats though. 18 rows behind the net.

now i’m on my way home on a bit of a milkrun. bah!