This is the final installment of Malakai Kingston's reports from the floor of January's ASR, but not the conclusion of our coverage of products, developments, weirdness and "stuff" that we gathered over the ten days that contained Surf Expo and the ASR show. Dig in and enjoy...
Shutting It Down
The reality is that a great deal of work goes into a show. The logistics of it are staggering and the orchestration of the vendors is no less mind boggling than the 2008 Olympics. However, when the show is less than half the size it usually is because Quicksilver and all its representatives pull out, then things get a bit more simple. With less floor to stomp, you find yourself digging for scraps and standing in the same places over and over wishing you could think of something new to say.
I was given a task only to realize the booth I was looking for, a regular of almost 3 years, was not even there at ASR and I spent at least 30 minutes looking for them. Where is my mind? Do you really want to know? Read on!
It's the West Coast's big trade show for surf, skate, fashion and more, and it's going on right now in San Diego. The skate contests and parts of the show are open to the public, but we're here to give you a peek behind the curtain on the rest of it. There's more to come, but here's a scroll through two days worth of it, brought to you by our man on the move, Malakai Kingston...
SHOWTIME!
ASR JAN. 09
There is something in the relm of endurance racing to think that many people just got from convention to convention hawking their wares and slinging their swill. Show after show, single serving soaps and pockets full of cards. Everything running together bleeding and merging faces look the same and wares the more so. I for one, while being quasi prepared for SurfEx was not in any way prepared for ASR. Who was I supposed to meet, who was going to be there? Had I made all the contacts I needed to pre show? What was I even looking for at the show? I usually knew these things prepared weeks in advance through a slew of phone calls, text messages, e-mails and bathroom graffiti. Compared to what I was about to get involved in, Surf Expo seemed like a well choreographed breakdance routine performed by ferrets. ASR? The proverbial table full of hermit crabs. I had no idea what I was getting into, I knew the list of ways I was prepared left me knowing I had no idea what was going on.
This time though, I only knew 3 things. I had a badge, a camera, and a show to cover.
Press Release Information for 22 Jan 2009 at the Meeting Room of Hotal Vistamar , Quebradillas, Puerto Rico, is approved for immediate release to the Island and International Media by the organizers of the Guajataca Beach Downhill 2009, (The Pirate Surf Club) and the Quebradillas City Government (thru its Protocol/Media Officer, Wandalee Tosado:
The Northwest side of the Island of Puerto Rico celebrates the traditional long skateboard downhill races for its 27th consecutive year, on what started out in the late 1970’s as a way for surfer/skaters to get down to their favorite surfing break to slowly evolve over the years into an Island-wide phenomenon. The winding tropical mountain State road # 113 begins up on the coastal town of Quebradillas, and ends some 2.8 kilometers away at scenic Guajataca Beach, The Guajataca Downhill will be held this year on 25 January 2009, beginning with registrations at the Town’s Baseball Park at 8:00 AM, with racing starting at 11:00 AM. There will be several age groups to include children, girls, and women, as well as men and masters. An open category will also be held with a $500 cash purse for the first prize and $300 for the second place.
Day Two of our entrenched writer's experience at Surf Expo 2009, one of the largest Surfing and Skateboarding industry conventions in the US. With one day of coverage under his belt, he's been given directives to bring pack some content about very specific things. If he doesn’t bring back the intel we want we are not going to FedEx him his ticket home. Orlando, how do you feel about having your own Malakai Kingston?
Day Two:
Digging In.
Orlando, Florida. Jan 16th. I made a mistake, made a major mistake. I went to bed way too late - somewhere around 5am. When my alarm started screaming, I could hardly see my bleeding eyes in the mirror past the cotton balls someone had jammed in my eye sockets. I wanted to make an 11am lecture on utilizing technology and right now I was having trouble utilizing my pants. On the up side, I had packed and charged the night before so all I had to was splash, brush, void, dress, load up and roll. So I did just that, but stepping outside was my second mistake. Apparently, the burning day star had actually risen in the courtyard of my hotel, searing my eyeballs and forcing me to run into a pole. Not a good start but par for the course.
Nothing quite makes a man more aware of his surroundings than being set upon by the unfamiliar. There is a great deal to be said of the importance of conventions and their ability to connect relative parties by good old elbow rubbing and the sweet scent of con and ploy, catcher and pray, deals and scores. With the advent of the zero point of contact advertising, many traditional forms of advertising are slowly vanishing. The old snake oil cart of yore, print ads, smoke signals, pay per click and even product placement all seem to be losing their ground to guerilla, street level, grassroots, community based, cult of identity, worship-focused advertising campaigns. So what could be more fun for our embedded journalist than to not only make him cover one of the biggest action sport conventions but also, make him do it literally all the way across the country? Nothing we could think of that didn’t require 10 badgers, a rototiller, road flares and 17 feet of duct tape.
Surf Expo:
Back from Day One
Before we get into the good stuff a little about Orlando, for those of you that don’t know Orlando has the 2nd largest convention center in the county, it is also terrorized by “weather” which sometimes can cause accumulation of rain, and from time to time, act of God style revelations inspired destruction. Currently, there is a cold snap flowing through and give or take a month; you won’t be drinking any citrus from these here parts. On the local news, I also noticed that there is a fecal flinging primate on the loose! I guess the buyout didn’t change the chain of command @ 9350 TRADE PL #C. While you are looking it up, we will lay out a few more fun facts about Orlando!
It got its name from a tree-scribed scrawl that was supposedly some dude's grave, what a joyous coronation. Orlando gets its fat sacks of cash from aerospace and defense, tourism, citrus and finally, film industry. To sum up Orlando (as well as much of Florida’s history), it goes like this: something happened then a hurricane, something happened then there was a hurricane, something happened aaaand.... then a hurricane. You can more or less repeat that pattern from either the separation of the continental plates from pangea or the mid 1800’s whichever you find more relevant.
So that is it. An embedded journalist, camera clenched in white knuckles , teeth gritting and grinding, pad and pen steady, ready to venture into the fray to find the best, the worst, the truly inspired and the truly inept. When you are in a corner, all you can do is go press onward. Click through to see what I did, yesterday:
Events & Coverage 
