SIA 2012 Highlights

It’s pretty amazing to attend the SIA Tradeshow each year. It really boils down to a great experience because of the people you meet who run the industry, the products that come out after years of hard work and the amount of fun each night at the parties. By the time the on-snow rolls around, you finally get to take laps with your friends and really judge the products on the snow where they are meant to be ridden. This year was 4 days inside and 2 days outside on the snow, 6 days of a lot of hard work for Shayboarder.com. It’s really rad to meet everyone who supports Shayboarder.com and feel part of this industry. If you missed the individual posts, here is day 1, day 2, day 3 and day 4.

Over the next couple months, you’ll see 4 days of SIA in product write-ups that dive into each company and the products they have created for 2013. I’ve been really impressed with the level of tech and new ideas coming out this year. It was a great show to be at and the products speak for themselves. I made sure to meet with the brands you are interested in (and try my best to meet with everyone). I’ll be posting up the reviews on the gear I rode at the on-snow starting in the next couple days. But just remember, winter is still here and enjoy it.

Snowboarding legend Terry Kidwell and myself

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• So many faces, new and old at SIA. This is really my favorite highlight is being able to catch up with new and old friends at the show. The first year I attended SIA, I only knew maybe 5 people there. Now I can walk around and run into tons of people to hug and chat with. It’s an experience that gets better each year I come out for SIA.
• Meeting Terry Kidwell at the show then hanging out with him and Joel Gomez at the Riders Poll later on that night. It’s really amazing to meet the snowboarders that have brought us to our level of passion. I wouldn’t be where I am, have this blog or any of the amazing snowboarding experiences if it wasn’t for the snowboarding legends like Terry Kidwell.
• Getting in the SPY RV to travel to the Riders Poll for a pre-party. Huge thanks to Charlie for the invite. We ended up having a blast, getting our drink on and catching up with a lot of people before the Riders Poll. By the time the Riders Poll hit, hanging out with Trent and watching Jess Kimura take home three Riders Poll Awards.
• New technology. It’s great to see the assortment of ideas coming out at this SIA show. The Flow Rush snowboard with the implant dampening, the NOW bindings from JF and the new highback from Burton snowboards. It’s great to see that even though snowboarding has come so far, that there are still new ideas and technology that are always coming.
• Partying with Henrik from Freeskier and Jon from Snowboard Mag. If it wasn’t for snowcial a couple weeks ago, I probably wouldn’t have been partying with them but we met and realized partying together is fun. Those guys are my favs and love hanging out with them.
• Dinner with our crew of friends the night before SIA began. For the second year, we went to Capital Grille for a night of drinks, amazing food and good company. My friend Jessica hosts it and it really kicks off for a great SIA show.
• On-Snow. Huge thanks to my friend Justin for housing us in Winter Park. I gave my mom the bedroom so she could have privacy while I slept on the couch and didn’t mind a couple more nights of late parties and too much fun.
• Sorry for the Instagram/Twitter/Facebook tons of photos, I hope you enjoyed them and it wasn’t too overwhelming.
• Finally everyone who supports me in this industry. I’m no longer with Mammoth Mountain and just made the move from Mammoth to the Northwest, so it was great to catch up with everyone, see about opportunities for jobs and connect for future possibilities.