Wave Tribe's First Tradeshow ASR
The Wave Tribe company van left Ventura, California the day before ASR 2008 packed with goodies and a few Wave Tribers thrown in between the hemp board bags and other eco surf products.
This would be our grand opening, our eco coming out, and we were all super excited to be presenting the Wave Tribe Vibe at the industry's largest trade show in San Diego.
We used bamboo and metal to design the booth, saying no to plastic and glue.
The booth looked great and the energy was flowing like the high tide over PCH on a winter swell - especially when the free beer was served after 4, free beer puts a damn big smile on Seth's face and I must report he did lots of smiling during our trip.
It was great to see that the Wave Tribe Sales Reps had found a girl early on at the show that they could finally share, and from the looks of it there was enough of her to go around.
Rory Russell, shaper extraordinaire, was in the booth next to us and while the boys were chasing bikinis I had fallen in love with a yellow single fin lightning bolt, shaped that week by Rory—he is a cool cat and is really putting out some nice sticks.
We had lots of interest in our product and spoke with a few international types that want to import the Hemp jewels across the sea to find good homes amongst the foreign surfers abroad. We are happily working out the details.
We learned a lot and spoke with some great folks and we also learned a few things about the industry that we'd rather not focus on and the news confirmed our view on the money grubby corporates that are abusing their 'brands' and customers for profit.
We are super stoked to be doing what we are doing, and we look forward to being part of the change in the industry.
Thanks to everyone that came by and offered us support and stoke, special thanks to Wave Tribe staff and volunteers that helped us get the word out about ecological surf products.
We look forward to seeing you soon, come place an order and be part of a conscious decision to market and support clean surf products.