Slide Show Streetboarding Write Up
I arrived to meet Neil on Saturday afternoon at the building formerly known as the gemex in Manchester for Highlands first official trade show - The Slide Show.
We were located in the centre of the hall with a prime spot in the fresh product area. This was basically an area of smaller stands who were slightly newer to the industry than some of the Snow and skate high rollers. On arrival Neil had begun to unload the van and things were looking like they were going to be tight on the stand but thanks to the interior design assistance of Sophie my doubts were quickly squashed and the stand was looking like the most professional of the fresh products. In our 3x2m stand we managed to fit the entire Highland and Dimension current product lines as well as a fat flat screen TV to show off the talents of the team riders.
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After many hours of setting up the stand it was time to go and find our hotel for the night.
We stayed in what was affectionately referred to by the locals as a right shit hole of an area outside of central Manchester. The hotel was basic but the staff were awesome, no idea what a streetboard was and after much explanation - still no idea. Myself and Neil took it easy with an early start on mind for the show.
Sunday Morning.
We had expected Jay to arrive yesterday afternoon but after some calls agreed Sunday morning would work better for his schedule. Myself and Neil Jumped into the Highland Mobile and headed for the show. On arrival we found we had made a schoolboy error by not arriving at the crack of dawn and could not find a parking space. After some time we managed to squeeze the van into a space so tight you could not have got a rizla between the van and surrounding vehicles and headed in to start the show.
We had received a fair bit of attention from the other retailers whilst setting up the stand as many had never seen Streetboards before. Once the show had opened and the retailers started to flow in we had a steady stream of interest from the start. Before long we had started to hook up a lot of new retailers from around the country and as a testament to how fast the hype surrounding streetboarding is growing most of the people who approached us had been asked for boards in their stores! By the afternoon thanks to rolling around the hall on the new Cartel 56 we had even more visitors including some of the major online and high street retailers showing interest. Many people stopping by to check out the videos with the HPT video going down like a Dutch hooker at a stag do - everyone loved it. By 3pm Jay had turned up after what sounded like the most epic journey from London to Manchester a man had ever undertaken. Never to be spoken of again.
Neil had arranged for us to attend a nice 3-course meal and snowboard session at the recently completed Manchester Chill Factor indoor snow slope. Unpredictably we turned up amazing late for reasons I have now forgotten. The restaurant staff took pity on us and managed to get the chef to knock up some food and beers for us before we hit the slope for the last hour of the session. Chill Factor was awesome and a little bigger than the indoor slope in MK. We all got to ride for about an hour before they closed the place and we headed off to our luxury accommodation and got stuck into a pretty serious business meeting. After what seemed like hours we had worked though all the points on the agenda, a bottle of JD and I think another of Scotland's finest Neil had smuggled over the boarder for us! Finished.
Monday brought several hangovers, one vanload of streetboarders and a faint smell of reggae in the air.
We were met by the friendly faces of our neighbours in the fresh products area and laughs about our laid back approach to the whole deal. Within the hour we had signed more retailers and what would turn out to be one of the crowning achievements of the show - begun talks with the good people from NASS. As I'm sure you all know by now; during the event we were approached by NASS and invited to run a competition at this years event NASS '08. Ideas were banded around very quickly about getting some of the international riders over for the event and before long there was talk of Worlds. With Neil and Jay at the reins on this one it was set for success from the beginning.
We closed the day off with some serious partying at the 32 Snowboard boots party. This is was time for our team to Shine. We hooked up with some new friends when we arrived at the club and quickly got stuck into some drinking. Many hours passed, many drinks were consumed and around 4am we all got separated. I managed to find my way back to the hotel and met Neil some time later. We had however, completely lost Jay at this time. Last reports had him getting on a bus not knowing where he was going looking for a party. God only knows what he found that night!
Next morning - Worse hangovers than the previous day and no Jay. Unable to reach him we decided to go and make the most of the last day of the show. Things had seriously quietened down by now and there were very few people still visiting the show. On arrival we were greeted by many many new friends it seems we had made the night before and since forgotten. Jay surfaced around mid afternoon. Seemingly after having gotten on to the bus with no idea where he was going Jay fell asleep and woke up lost. It had taken him from the night before to figure out where he was and how to get back - Legend! Kids, this is the stuff Streetboarders are made of! As a group we had now achieved some kind of notoriety for our product, partying ability and wandering team members. We will not be forgotten in a hurry.
We closed up for the day, broke down the stand and took care of a few last minute deals before loading up the stand and making one last night of it in Manchester. The boys took me for a tour of Manchester and my first Nando's before we hit an off license and ended the show drunk once again in the hotel with everyone feeling the burn.
We all parted our separate ways with myself and Jay heading south. We stopped off at Stoke Skate Plaza on the way home for a quick test of the new Cartel 56 boards. On first test I can say these boards are awesome. As a 6ft+ rider I found that the increased stance and width of the board means I finally have a board that has the right dimensions for my size. We hit up some gaps at the Plaza before calling it a day to beat the traffic home. Stoke Plaza is an amazing place that we will be visiting again in the future for sure.
Slide was not only the first tradeshow Highland had displayed product at but also the first industry show I had worked at. The event was a huge success for Highland and has given us many ideas for future events as well as opening some new doors for not only the company but the sport on the whole.
A big shout out to all the friends we met whilst at the show - AJ from Never summer, the guys from Apocalypse snowboards, Sole technology (thanks for the hook up by the way - best footbeds on the market!) the guy with the hats and many many more who I can't remember right now (cos I left it too long before I wrote this up - apologies).
An excellent start to the year for Streetboarding in the UK and things are set to get better as the year goes on.
Peace
Paul.
Highland Sales Ninja & Flipside Team Rider