Editor’s Note: We flew Mark Conahan on an all expenses paid trip to ASR, and put him up in the most luxurious of hotels… Not really. Actually, he was already going and footing the bill himself, so we asked him to make some observations and take some pictures if he felt like it. What follows is an outsider’s take on the industry show, or in Mark’s own words “I suppose it's a warning not to attend the show unless you like going to the mall.” Well done Mark.

September 9-11, 2005 Action Sports Retailers Trade Show, San Diego Convention Center
Words and photos by Mark Conahan

This is a show to sell paraphernalia related to skateboarding as well as a few unacceptable lifestyle choices. It's companies selling to buyers from stores. I went to San Diego for the show but mostly to go skateboarding.

FRIDAY

We landed about 5:00 in San Diego. First thing we did was head to Washington Street to check out the Burnside-style DIY skatepark. really easy to find: just Northeast of the Airport and a few blocks from the rental car place. The session was going off. Omar Hassan was there skating but he wasn't necessarily the best dude there. I expected the session to be too crazy for an old guy like me to skate, like Halloween at Burnside. After all, there was a huge skateboarding trade show in town. Didn't that imply lots of skateboarders? Walking around with my camera I spotted a great looking pool with nobody in it. I was ready to get my board from the car and jump right in but we had a party to go to.

So we took off for a party to meet an old friend of CGs who works for Hurley/Converse. The trade show was over for the day by the time we got to the convention center. Saw Screech skating by outside. Saw Steve Olson heading out for a smoke and Tony Magnussen strolling by. I've been seeing those dudes so often lately they might start to wonder why that old nipponese dude is following them.

Lots of parties. First we dropped in on a video premier in one of the ballrooms but the beer line was way too slow so we went down the hall to another ballroom for the screening of some new stuff that Bob Burnquist is up to - kind of like that open-topped loop thing from King of skate but ramp-to-ramp on a crazy engineering extravaganza. Video watching and Hurley Margaritas, then off to a bar at the hotel where the Converse dude and OSI bought more drinks. Saw Nyjah Houston checking in with some other youngsters looking very much like a little kid. The outdoor bar was called J6 and was full-on singles action - it was Friday night after all.

At a burrito house I text messaged Kevin from NikeSB and he said to come over to a party they were throwing featuring Mudhoney. After a $20 pedi-cab ride to the venue all Kevin could say was, "Sorry, we're 300 people over capacity, I can't get you in." Another $30 ride back to the hotel. I guess I'm into them for more than $50 bucks worth of (free) shoes, but it looked like a fun party, I'm sorry we missed it.

Hard to get to sleep with the flesh bazaar outside the hotel, Lots of whooping, hollering and drunken laughter 'til the wee hours. I also figured Chris and Nick would stumble through the door as soon as I managed to nod off.

SATURDAY

Chris and Nick out all night which was nice - the tiny Ramada hotel room never got crowded. Woke up and had breakfast with hotel fire across the street, Smay got to watch a dude escape by jumping out a second floor window. Flames and black smoke roiled from the window. S.D.F.D. brought at least twenty emergency vehicles to put the fire out. No one was injured it said on the news, they didn't even have to close the hotel, I had bacon and eggs over easy and a pot of coffee.

When Chris got back we went to skate Washington Street. We met Jim Gray there. Chris was running on no sleep but he was game. A few guys were there but nobody skating yet. Very much the same vibe as Burnside. A couple of cool bowls to skate. Some amazingly gnarly coping, deathboxes, loveseats, a cradle and a West-Linn style oververt wall, big extensions, brick coping, curbs, pool coping, flat faced coping, the place has it all. A few bumpy spots but a lot of good transition too. There was one unfinished corner with exposed dirt and rebar. I thought the place was great. We skated for an hour or so with just four guys and then decided we should get back and check out the show. Better than a sauna for sweating out the booze.

We hung out with the Rebel Skates crew - our hosts for the show - and walked through maybe two thirds of the show area. We saw people selling skateboards, shoes, apparel, surfboards, sunglasses, watches. Duff's provided vitamin water. You could get tattooed at the Sessions booth, in case the trade show wasn't memorable enough. Quicksilver was giving away a poster that included a shot of Christian Hosoi doing a rad layback. I was wondering if he made it. Then I noticed the monitors showing video of it and it was even radder in full motion, he did make it. They were giving that away too.

Some of the booths were amazing works of architecture. Art-gallery-like spaces with bordello-parlours in the back for closing the deal. Highlight was hanging with Jim Muir and checking out board art in the DogTown booth. Aaron Murray came in while we were there. Jeff Ho strolled by the booth in his Zephyr Team jacket. In one neighborhood of particularly high-ticket booths I found a small t-shirt company from New Zealand. Cool shirts with a story screened on the inside. Their booth was an astro turf floor with a picnic table and the shirts displayed on clotheslines. It was a great contrast. I suggested a few beer cans scattered around or maybe a car up on blocks.

I kept seeing groups of three dudes, guys in their mid 20s to early 30s; knee length or better grey shorts, black t-shirt, black ball cap, tattoos, bald, cropped or mohawk, at least one is sporting a long van dyke beard; stone cold expressions to a man. I saw about a hundred of these dudes, it was a tribe. Probably all owners of little skate shops. Walking around with your schwag in the little freebie shopping bags kind of kills the effect though. Made them look like a dude in the mall holding the purchases while waiting for his girlfriend to come out of Hot Topic.

The show was also full of scantily clad young women and models showing off swimwear lines for the surfshop buyers. Lots of bikinis. The award for most trashy - yet strangely alluring - boothbabes went to a dealer of electric skateboards - red minis, tanktops and black fishnets - lovely, but they didn't convince me that the product wasn't stupid. On the plus side the booths for women's lines like Nikita and Roxy were looking professional and tasteful. Lots of women skaters around too. There was also one dude walking around in headband and speedo with fanny-pack.

There were skaters everywhere you looked. Lots of ASR badges in the street. We missed watching the ASR skateboarding action because we went to get some. Coronado Skatepark has a couple of really well-built, smooth bowls with steel coping. They were small though and the tallest walls were extensions so it's easy to be tearing around and suddenly run out of wall. Fun little bowls. Too many rules at California parks, though. Release forms, $10 membership. The desk dude actually told us to put our shirts back on while skating.

Back to the hotel for a little rest before meeting Jay after the show for a run to the Clairemont skatepark. We got to bypass the admission fee thanks to Rebel Skates flowing to the guys working the gate. Clairemont has 53,000 square feet, mostly masonite ramps in any configuration you can think of including a 60-foot-wide 13-foot-high half-pipe with roll-in and extensions.

Still running on no sleep, CG couldn't resist the awesome combi-pool. He dropped in, did a couple of grinds and then slammed and broke his wrist on his first run. He also smacked his head so he didn't know about his arm right away. Six of us got him out of the bowl and splinted his arm with the latest issue of Concrete Wave magazine and some shoe laces. A really neat trick - the doctor at the emergency room was impressed.

CG was going to be there for a while so he sent us back to the park and we enjoyed an hour or so of skating before the park closed at sundown. We spent a lot of time back and forth to the hospital over the next 24 hours.

Nick went off to party with a friend from Simple footwear (who flowed us multiple pairs of shoes, hats and bags from his limited supply - thanks, man!) A bunch of their flow shoes were stolen from the booth before the show opened and this happened to several companies. Mike from Duff's told us some twerp tried to steal David Gravette's skateboard out of the Duff's booth but was spotted by a vigilant Duff's booth babe. The little fucker escaped but didn't get the cheese. Hard to sleep again. Mating call of the mentally-challenged well into the twirly hours. At least we knew Chris wouldn't be coming home late and waking us up.

SUNDAY

Tried to check out more of the skate booths early, nobody was there yet but I did say hi to Nathan Pratt at the Z booth. Went to the skate end of the show and looked at the big mini-ramp. Looked like a lot of fun but no-skating. Spotted the area where Eric Koston's Game of Skate went down, also the beer garden. Realized I had missed probably the most interesting parts of the show because I was selfishly off skateboarding and then taking my friend to the hospital. We wanted to catch Chris before he went into surgery so we left the show early. We actually missed him at the hospital, he was on his way to surgery 10 minutes before we got there. The nurses said we'd have at least three hours before he was out of recovery, so back to the skatepark for Mark.

I wanted to try the big roll-in on the ramp. I did, Eight feet above the deck of the 13-foot half-pipe I couldn't help but bust some big air right? I made it down without much hesitation then wobbed out at the bottom and slammed into the opposite wall. Full pads and wrist protection. I got back up and did it again, got wobbles again, but I made it into a six-inch out backside-air, rad! That was enough for me. I took one more picture from the top of the deck and skated the ramp and the cool Wally Holladay combi-bowl some more. It was just me for a while there.

We never made it back to the show. Chris was in surgery for three hours and didn't get back to his room until 4:00. We had to head to the airport and he had to stay an extra night.

I saw a dude at the airport who had forgotten to take his ASR badge off, what a dork. Skateboards in the overhead bins. Mike Estes, the NW Duff's rep was on the plane to Portland with us, He was super busy at the show and didn't get to skate at all. He did, however, get into the Nike party.

Beautiful sunset over the ocean for our take-off. I had an empty seat next to me, Chris's I guess. Smooth flight and the city lights for a good part of the flight home made a pleasant end to an interesting weekend, I found the ASR show pretty boring but it looked like folks were doing a lot of business - which is good for the industry. Even with the boredom and the inconvenience, at least I wasn't the dude with the broken arm! ASR was a good excuse to put three more notches on my helmet but I'm not sure I would do it again, although I loved Washington Street and there is still that roll-in to conquer.