It's getting busy around the Convention Center, along San Diego's waterfront, this week and the Action Sport Retailers Expo is the reason.  The recurring skate/surf/lifestyle industry trade show commences January 25th and runs through Saturday the 27th.  The smaller of the two Expos that run each year, the January ASR is sold out in terms of floor space, and it's heavily focused on the surf industry this round.   The aftermath of the Clark Foam implosion has been a diversification and revitalization of the surfboard industry, much of which will be evident on the floor.  Heck, they've even taken a page from the 'Fish and put together a "Board Builders Contest"!   

The skate industry will be there, of course, albeit in record low numbers for the longboarding side of the sport.   That's a reversal of trend, and we won't be seeing booth displays from burgeoning upstart GFH, Bennett, Tunnel, Revenge, Exkate, Thruster, Scriber or others.  On the other hand, the traditional attendees from the mainstream side of the industry are pretty much going be there, including Crimson Skates with the Riviera Longboard and Paris Trucks line they've just taken on as sole distributors.  The 'Fish Team will be coursing the aisles, checking out what's new and what's not.  We'll calmly survey the scores of swimwear models, grope and grovel for stickers, shirts and beers handed out by the "big houses", such as Hurley International, Roxy or Birdhouse, and  watch those with the largest accounts, largest checkbooks and favored markets score appointments to enter the "invite only" sections of displays erected by big corporations like Oakley and a grouping of 35 retailers known as the "Gold Box Mission".  

Our editors and photogs will bring you coverage of the show, peaks at the innovations in product (or just in marketing) that will come our way in the next several months and our selections for the "Best and Worst of ASR".  There are bright points and stoked people to see, too...    Peruse the Official ASR site (go ahead, click that) and tell us in the forums what you'd like our crew to find and cover for you.  Scroll through the event floor plan, check the registry.  What would you like to see, if you were in there?  Tell us and we just might chase it down for you!

There's more:  if you've been reading Michael Brooke's blogs, or the 100% Skateboarding Forum inside the 'Fish, you know about the brewing anxiety and frustration over "blank decks" that's starting to pit big, mainstream companies against small skateshops and their customers.  At ASR, the ruling Cabal of Core Companies will be issuing a large manifesto on the "blanks issue".   It promises to be controversial and to shape the content the skateboarding aspects of ASR.  We'll report on that, with analysis from the industry, retailers and consumers.  Of course, the 'Fish Forums will continue to be a place to read all the dope, rant and prognosticate.  Whether you're clickin' yer heels or thumbin' yer nose...