The land of fist bumps & high fives

The land of fist bumps & high fives

The bi-annual brofest known as ASR is going down in SD right now and, as hard as we tried, we were sucked into it once again. This year wasn’t especially any different than any other years, still lots of dudes rolling around trying their hardest to be seen by anyone willing to look. More after the jump with a slew of pictures to keep you abreast of the art that seemed to be the theme this year.

Before you even got in the show, you were inundated with art. This collection by the folks at Loser Machine was pretty nice, featuring hand painted helmets by a bunch of different folk including: Kris Markovich (paisley day of the dead), Persue (zombie), Lance Mountain (jesus loves the loser) and Jayme Schmidt (70’s van snakeskin fade).

RVCA had a pretty nice photo wall out front as well, completing the surf / island feel were two hula dancing mannequins which upon closer inspection were armed to the teeth…. and somewhat manly?

Naturally, painted skateboards would be there with so much other art. Two notable standouts were Tocayo’s Posada’s Puppet and Haley Robinson’s woodgrain, painted on a wood deck worked out nicely in my eyes.

There was a very nice collection of custom shaped surfboards all alone one wall of the show facing the lobby. A standout to me was Peter Schroff’s. Also, a New Zealand company called INLAYZ was there pumping it’s strength enhancing graphics… pretty interesting

Skullcandy didn’t want to be left out of the art party, so they one-upped everyone & had artist Taylor Reeve painting a couple single speeds at their booth.

You’ve heard that rally racing is now, somehow, part of Action Sports right? You know, million dollar cars fit right in with kids who can barely afford to eat at Taco Bell. I’m not complaining, because they are badass… just a bit out of place in my eyes. Whatever though, GoPro takes the cake for the most awesome, random, booth display (again) with an amazing Rothmans Porsche rally car. Dang. Oh and Subaru had Pastrana’s STi there as well, not too shabby. Extra points for GoPro not having the car roped off though so you could get a picture in it if you want (which I did not).

Might as well report on some of the stuff actually related to the show I suppose. They had a lot of skating going on with a nice looking 40′ or so wide mini ramp which was basically a demo of every street / miniramp killing pro you can think of going for the gold (gold meaning the large cash reward related to that gold). Aldrin Garcia decided to take his 2nd high ollie contest with a mere 44″ ollie. Seriously? That’s almost 4′
picture courtesy of Boardistan

Volcom’s booth is always hilarious. Just about every absurd theme you can think of, they’ve done and yet they keep coming up with new ones. This year was their 23hr party people theme complete with a dance game, raver outfits & techno dj. Only they could pull it off and again…. they pulled it off.

That’s it, that’s all. It was nice seeing the friends you only see at trade shows, meeting new people and it is a convenient one-stop shop for meeting with clients but thank god it doesn’t happen for another 5 months.