The California Adventure Experience

Two weeks ago I traveled to California with the sole mission to visit as many snowboard companies as I could, give away a snowboard and spend time with family. The end result was an amazing time on the west coast, a glimpse into the so-cal shred company life and the ability to see behind doors that some of us might never see.

I had no reason to fly to southern California but when I knew I was going to northern California it only made sense to make a slight detour for the blog.  It was my first trip where I was alone traveling which meant making sure I didn’t get lost and staying with friends along the way (thanks Justin and Moss!).  The experience that came out of it was 48 hours of snowboard companies, good conversations and being able to check out some companies I’m fond of (unfortunately not all of them). For me personally the most memorable tour was Signals Factory because it was the first time I’ve been hands on in a factory, working with Dave to make an edge and then being able to hand paint the OG topsheet.  But overall everyone I visited was such an experience and it’s not everyday that I’m able to sit down and meet with companies to see what their plans are and how they are doing.  When I landed in San Francisco, I was able to meet with Mike and Erik from sierrasnowboard.com and spend an afternoon talking about snowboarding with them.  It was definitely the icing to the trip before I went into family mode.

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I got to pick out the rental car!  Voom Voom economy class

I came back with some swag: Snaggletooth jacket, t-shirts, snowboard dvd’s, stickers, signed copy of SLIDE and one snowboard to test for the future.  The much asked about Signal Omni did come home with me, so you’ll see me start hitting the slopes with that snowboard soon.

Here was the schedule I followed during the trip.  You can click on the companies names to get the tour write up that I did.

Wednesday, October 21st

9:00am:  Arrive in LA

10:00am:   686

12:30pm Snowboarder Magazine

3:00pm:  Signal Snowboard Factory

6:00pm:  Snowboarder Magazine to do Guestbook

8:00pm:  Dinner and crash at Justin Cobb’s & family.

Thursday, October 22nd

9:30am:  Flow Snowboards

11:00am:   Dragon Alliance

12:30pm:   Transworld

2:00pm:  Signal Office

3:30pm:  O-matic Snowboards

4:30pm:  Drive to LA, crash at Moss Halladay’s house that night.

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Visiting Signal Snowboards.  Photo by:  Marc Wierenga

Friday, October 23rd

9:00am:  Arrive at Arbor Snowboards

11:00am:  Head to LAX to fly to San Francisco

5-6:00pm:  Hang out with Sierrasnowboard owners in San Fran

6:00pm:  The beginning of family time and the start of the weekend

Now that Ive completed that adventure,  I can always head back for more adventures and get some surfing/snowboarding time in next time!