Skate Blog Intern Blog

Hey Guys!

So this past Saturday, we were at an event called, The Future of Surfing. It was an awesome event where people can basically trade in an old surfboard for a ticket which they get to use at different booths… like ours! We gave away a couple of boards and had a great time.  The event was held in Solana Beach and it was gorgeous outside.  Kaila and I gave away tattoo’s and wore fake mustaches, we looked pretty good.  Check out some pictures from the event!

So I’ve been messing around at the warehouse a little bit with the bamboo deck I just put together. I didn’t really know what to expect. From the start, I thought it was an awesome concept. But, when I picture bamboo, I think of it as something that’s really strong, yet pretty flimsy at the same time. So, the board itself might be a little flimsy too, right? Au contraire my friends. These decks are constructed in such a way that you can really trust what you’re standing on. They’re super sturdy, resilient, really responsive, and have great pop. The concave of the board also gives it a really good feel.

I’ve been traveling back home to LA a lot recently to visit and spend some of that quality time with the family. While I was up there, I spent some of my downtime on the bamboo deck just messing around throughout my neighborhood. Unfortunately, I don’t really have anyone to go skate with when I go back home because the guys I used to skate around with either don’t really skate anymore or have moved out of our hometown. So I don’t have any pictures or footage of me skating (plus you wouldn’t wanna see them anyway cuz I suck pretty bad…sooo I’ll spare you the pain and myself the embarrassment). Anyways, despite my limited bag of tricks, I know enough to say that I love the board and it rides like a champ. And when I get a nice break from all the work we’ve been doing up in here, I can’t wait to mess around on the little box and manny pad we’ve got at the warehouse.

Oh and P.S. if you’re around Solana Beach this Saturday (Sep. 25) come drop by and check us out at the Future of Surfing event.

HOLA! We are about to kick off our skatepark tour and Im soOOOooo STooOOoked!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Its going to be great getting our skate  team and local hook its kids out there shreddin up the park on our bamboo boards. UNGH! Its gonna be sick! The interns are working super hard to get our kids involved and to make our skatepark tour super fun. Woohoooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love seeing little kids rip.

That’s about it for now.. over n out.

Hey guys!
So this is my second blog and my 4th week at BambooSK8.  I am learning soo much! At first, I think we were all a little overwhelmed by the work and trying to adjust to a new environment, but I think we’re starting to really get the hang of it and work as a team.  We’ve gotten our responsibilities, I am in charge of Facebook, Longboard research and soft goods with Dana.  I’m pretty excited to move forward with it all.  Last Friday we had our first event.  It was at Point Loma for Creation Care Week and it was a blast.  Kaila, Andrew and myself went and  manned the booth, handed out flyers and stickers, etc.  Not to brag, but our booth was definitely the most popular and it helped me become more informed about our product by the questions asked by the students.  This Saturday we have another event, The Future of Surfing.  It sounds awesome and I can’t wait to experience it.  As for things in the cave? I am just staying busy busy busy  and learning as much as possible about every part of this business.

More to come…

Andrew & I in the BambooSK8 booth @ Creation Care Week.

What up my peeps in the streets!

So a lot of things have been happening in the last couple weeks… getting settled in the cave, bringing in my lunch/coffee cup (thanks Wyatt!) and getting to bond with my other interns by taking skateboarding trips to get Mexican food! I’m way excited to chill with the interns more in the future! We have had a slight change up in our intern roster but I don’t think it will discourage the rest of us still left here to work hard. But to top off everything in these last couple weeks, I just celebrated my 24^th BIRTH-day! So along with getting my work done here at Bamboo Sk8 I had a lot of plans for my b-day week. First, a very appropriate party bus to kick off the celebration then an annual Las Vegas trip I go on every year. Let’s just say it was an extremely FUN/ interesting week and I surprisingly got back in one piece from Vegas! Otherwise, everything else has been going alright and I’m really beginning to get familiar with the types of different kids we have skating our boards.  I’m really enjoying talking to them about skating and hearing the stories they have to tell. This whole experience has opened my eyes to how a real business in the action sports industry works. I know I still have a ton to learn about everything but it’s helping me to analyze my strengths and weaknesses as an intern. I know in the upcoming weeks we have a couple of events to take part in and I have to say I’m excited to get out and promote Bamboo Sk8 to the fullest! Alright so I think I have babbled on enough…this is Nika signing out until next time PEACE, LOVE & SHRED!

Oh and ps…here are some pics of my b-day adventures!

Hello hello! So, WOW, four weeks have already gone by and boy oh boy did it fly!  It is funny how I dread going to my other jobs where I actually get paid, but I am willing to drop everything to come to BambooSK8.  I just really love this place!  Don’t get me wrong, I am working my butt, but this is the most hands on/hard-working experience.  I really am learning how to overcome my infamous skill of procrastination because with this internship, my job, babysitting, and school; there is no roomf or procrastiantion!  My life has officially become all about prioritizing and planning.  Even though we work real hard here at BambooSK8, the best part is going to different events opening the eyes of the world to BambooSK8!

Last Friday, September 17th, a few of us went to Point Loma Nazarene University to participate in their Creation Care Green Week Fair.  IT was awesome!  We got to meet all different types of people and feed their knowledge about what BambooSK8 is all about.  We were their for about 3 hours just mingling within students, chit-chattin it up about BambooSK8.  The students and staff at Point Loma were amazing.  Everyone there was so nice and welcoming; oh! and especially helpful!  This event just made me that much more excited for the future events that we will be attending!  See you in Solana Beach on Saturday for the Future of Surfing!

P.S. Check out the pics from our Point Loma booth!  Gorgeous school! Hello ocean EVERYWHERE!

Hola!

So here is my last article from Costa Rica, I m flying to Bulgaria in few hours with the locker well packed in my board bag. I dont wanna leave! I arrived yesterday night in San José from Tamarindo, I had a really good time there, a little to touristy for my taste but really good waves. The hostel I was staying at was more than cool, the owners were taking me for free to all the spots around, the most epic session was a solid 9 feet an hour north by car from Tamarindo.

Guys, here are the last pics, I do not have a camera so no pics from Tamarindo sadly, but enjoy those!

Alex

Hey mates,

How’s Cali, still nice and sunny? How are you new interns seeking to learn as much as possible from this cool company? Is Mark and Uno treating you well, cause they better! Lets stop the bull shit and get to the aim of this article..

Right now I m back in San José, came yesterday at night from the Nicoya Penisula and more precisely between Montezuma and Cabuya. 12 days ago I met some cool people around Santa Terressa (other side of the penisula) , and we decided to head towards Montezuma area. A little view of the roads quality, there is no roads! Just dirt road, getting floated and muddy as hell during the rainy season, so right now.. Santa Teressa to Montezuma is just a 35 miles trip but it takes you around 2 to 3 hours, you have to use the public buses they are the cheapest (2000 Colones so around 4 bucks) and they are more than old school, but work well. Just ones we had a flat tire, the driver didnt had a spare wheel so he just took one of his back one to change the front flat one, sounds maybe odd for you but it works perfectly!

Montezuma is a small town facing the ocean, full of great surfing spots, waterfalls, monkeys, iguanas, empty beaches, we end up for few nights in great hostel called Luna Llena. Its located  a little higher on the hill, in the jungle, there are monkeys all around on the trees, really nice and relax athmosphere. The owners are a German lady Milly and a American guy Chris, they are more than helpfull, giving you rides when they can, surfing information from Chris (he surfs damn well!) and more..

We moved to a house 45 minutes walk south from Montezuma, 2 minutes from a magic right point break, establishing our little community! Our life could be summarized as such, surfing, fishing, chilling, napping, hiking, enjoying the day as much as we could with our neighbors the monkeys and chickens .

We were at the beginning 6 people, Uli and Chalotte from Germany, Nathalie from Switzerland, Cig and Adrian from the US and I. We got perfect right waves every days. 3 days after Uli headed back home, Charlotte continued to Nicaragua. The community was left at 4 members.

After more than a week of such great dinners (Cig is a great chef, specially regarding shrimps, fishes of all sort, coconut hunter..) the swell sadly changed of angle. Nathalie had to move back to Switzerland and me looking for some better oriented spots, so we headed to San José, living Cig and Adrian behind, the end of our community..

I just said goodbye to Nathalie, and I m leaving in an hour to Tamarindo by bus for the rest of my trip

Well thats how it goes, people come and leave and you never know in which part of the world and when you will see them again. Thats the great part of travelling, life is full of surprises!

Here are some pictures of Montezuma and around, enjoy!

Alex

PS: Word press is a little messy, I cant put the rest of the pics, so they will be on an other article

Hey Y’all!

So I just got back from an amazing trip to the south (while the high temps and sticky humidity make you appreciate our killer SoCal weather I must say it was nice to jump into the ocean without freezing your you know what off) and already I feel the pressure of missing the first week of school!  My first two days have been a total whirlwind but I think in the end the hard work and long hours will totally pay off.  It’s been great to finally meet some of my fellow interns and of course get to know the masterminds behind BambooSK8.

It seems like we have an extraordinary four months ahead of us and I’m super excited to see what’s next!

Well…I’m one of them here at BambooSk8…and we’re all just wrapping up our second week here. So far, the internship has started off pretty intense, but in a good way. I came here to further develop my marketing and graphic design skills, and I’m already making commitments to help out in those ways. We’re also getting some real world lessons on running the business and also just getting to know everyone. Even though we’re working hard on different projects, there’s a lot of fun events coming up too that I’m excited about! One event already that we’re trying to make it to is the Cardiff Surf Classic and Green Beach Fair…check it out and hopefully we’ll see you there!

http://www.robmachadosurfexperience.com

Four months ago I wondered into the BambooSk8 office, “fresh off the boat” from Colorado, with no California friends or family and not so much as a leased roof over my head. I was quickly welcomed by the cave full of newbie interns, which many of who were like myself and not from these parts. The “executive” team seemed stoked to have an office full of eager beavers and off we went to achieve finality in what we set forth to accomplish… the reason I mention all of this is because this first day, in particular, reminded me that I am on the path I am meant to be on. Although extremely skeptical to move from my winter wonderland to fun in the sun San Diego, the first day at BambooSk8 confirmed that the skepticism was unnecessary and I had a new {daytime} home and family at BambooSk8.

I am still hanging around the office, working an the Social Media side of things… 3000 FB fans here we come!! So please “like” BSk8 if you haven’t already – you know we are the shiznit or you wouldn’t be on our website reading our blog…

Sorry for the lack of goodbye’s to all of my intern buddies… I really hate that sort of thing and might have gotten all teared up and then things would have been really awkward {if they weren’t already}… I really do “heart” you all and have certain plans to see each and everyone one of you again – whether you like it or not… Alex and I will have a back-country ski/board French Alp adventure and then he will tutor me on my Finnish while I am getting my MBA in Finland, Brian and I will shred the champagne powder that caresses Utah’s glorious slopes, Uli, Dan and I will chug 4loco at Oktoberfest, Nick and I will party with actual Rockstars, Dana & Jen will join me on the trip of a lifetime and Steven is finally going to come hang out (I mean your only like 15 mins away, so really… its time) I miss you all already!! I am not going to wish you luck in your future endeavors because not a single one of you needs luck, you are all brilliant enough. Much love and I’ll be seeing you again!

Because that was so sweet and I really am bratty, I will adjourn with this THANK YOU for forgetting about me in the only group photo of the 4 month internship:

Thanks and I heart you all - even if you forget about me...

Times are constantly changing in this crazy world we live in. Whether for better or worse, we can always count on change being inevitable. As a result, we all have to learn to grow and adapt with the changes around us. I think it’s fair to say that a majority of us can attest to having taken some advantage of this Earth that we live in. Fortunately, a stronger “Green” movement is on the horizon, and more and more people are making environmentally conscious decisions each day. I’m pumped to be interning over here at BambooSK8 for this very reason. Not only are we promoting environmental awareness, but we’re also making some really quality and resilient decks. And, I mean, look at how sexy this thang is! This is my first bamboo deck ever…I’ll let you guys know how I think it feels, rides, and all that good stuff once I really get a chance to mess around with it.

Heeeeeey there! My name is Kaila Michalkiewicz, and I am a 22 year old Gemini born on Flag Day!  I am a newbee here to the BambooSK8 team.  My first day was exciting, nerve-racking, relaxing, and overall AWESOME!  Already I have learned so much about how BambooSK8 works, and I have even done a little soul searching to figure how my new upcoming goals.

I am currently a senior at Cal State San Marcos, and cross your fingers**, I hope to graduate this December.  After I graduate, I would love to start my career of doing marketing, public relations, event coordinating, and project management for an awesome company in the action sports industry.  Most importantly, I would just like to obtain a full time job, and jump head first into the “real world.”

I grew up in the Sacramento Area pretty much all my life, but moving around to different parts of Sacramento as my dad’s job changed.  I am from a small town within Sacramento, called Granite Bay.  I have been born and raised in Northern California all my life until I graduated from high school, and that is when I moved down to Southern California.  I love Northern California purely because I am a lake/snow girl.  I love to wakeboard, snowboard, and run as my outdoor activities, but if there was a contest for “Best Home Body,” I would win for for sure because there is nothing else I love more than just lounging around watching my favorite TV Shows and/or a good movie.

I am so excited to be here at BambooSK8 and begin my adventures here as an intern!

Thanks for listening! Ta ta for now!

And my first skate on a bamboo skateboard. I used one of the decks laying around the warehouse, it was old and used, however, it still had mad pop and looked brand new. The board is very durable, which gives it a long lifespan because bamboo boards take longer to develop razor tail, and have the strength to chip less easily, unlike conventional skateboard decks.

Alright Alright so technically my internship is over but I didn’t say goodbye properly. And lets be honest, I wouldn’t be me if I wasn’t fashionably late. So I’ve had a great time with everyone this summer, I met some amazing people that I miss already. Luckly most still live in California so I can still bug them! And as for the rest of you, don’t you worry your pretty little heads about it, this won’t be the last you hear from me. I am still going to be here but working on the Marketing and Product Development stuff for the parent company and continuing with developing the appareal line. Hopefully I can get some of the new interns to create some sweet designs with me! Busy busy lots of stuff to do!! But if you want something done, give it to a busy person! I’ve also decided that I am going to document my adventures in learning how to skateboard. Or learning how to not fall so much while on a skateboard rather…. so I’ll keep you posted when that project gets underway. I have a feeling isn’t going to be a painful one (I am not the most graceful person). But luckily my darling Andrew said he was teach me a thing or two. Perhaps Jen and I will reach our dreams of becoming professional skateboarders at the age of 25!! Seems like the right time to pick up the sport, right? Well time to get back to work, got lots of designs to work on, products to market, and things to invent! Till next time…

Happy after Labor Day ya’ll…So First week down and headed right into the second with the best intentions and I have to say I’m loving the whole experience so far. Even though I’m slowly getting familiarized with everything… and yes I do mean slowlyyy but I can’t wait to see what class #8 has to offer! I’ve gotten the chance to meet some of the other interns and I’m stoked to say they seem chill so there will be definitely some fun times to be had in the future. As for the life of Nika, I find it pretty hard to complain being born and raised in Southern California. With everything to do from skateboarding to surfing I definitely try to live life to the fullest and I’m excited to see what Bamboo Sk8 knowledge I gain over the next couple months. I truly feel lucky to be part of the new class, and I will try my best to make my time here worth while.

Hey Hey Hey, My name is Jaime Zehner.  I grew up in Orange County, CA… going to the beach, skateboarding, snowboarding, and surfing were all things that I grew up doing.  From a very young age, I’ve been surrounded with family and friends who have taught me almost everything I need to know about action sports and have inspired me to pursue my interest in the industry.  I graduated from the University of San Diego in January 2010, and moved to Australia in February.  I spent 6 months there living, working, exploring and loving all that the country had to offer.  But alas, I realized that I eventually needed to come home and start the next chapter of my life… work.  A few months after I returned, I found this awesome opportunity as an intern at BambooSk8 and I could not be more excited.  I am currently in my second week and cannot wait to see what else is in store for us here.  Stay tuned; there will be more to come.  x.

I didn’t sleep well last night because I was nervous about being late to the office. I was an hour early. So I went to Starbucks to get my crack fix and read a book while I waited. It’s been a gloomy morning and I’m hoping that’ll clear up by midday cause after the office I’m hitting up Carlsbad for shred fest 2010. Anyone ever notice that Carlsbad gets really stinky on the freeway? Anyway, it’s a full house in the cave today. It’s awesome cause everyone is as lost as the next person. We’re just working on our assignments at the moment, which involves lots and lots of writing. I was more hoping they would teach us how to ride ramps and skate bowls but they’re having us set goals and to be responsible for our goals so that we can accomplish them. Pssssh. Besides all the writing, I think that my time at Bamboosk8 will be super fun and I’m looking forward to the next few months.

Hey fellows!

How you guys doing? As you realized our internship is over, this class was a success for most of us, and I really appreciated the overall atmosphere!  So, a lot of us left Oside including me, I m writing to you guys from Costa Rica. Hell you should drop by here, amazing surfing and landscape. I m at playa santa Teressa, went for a cool morning session with some nice Euro chicks and back to my sweet hostel, swinging in a hammock, Pura Vida as we said here in Costa!

You guys will get some pictures soon from the travelling Octobomb, the concept is taking pictures of the board and cool people from all around the world, so stay tuned for some interesting pics!

Alex

As summer comes to an end so does this moment…. it all began with excitement that never died… questions, determination, falls, and great accomplishments that assured learning was at hand at all times… But what made it what it was, were definitely the people I may now call great friends….all the moments in the cave… oh the many moments in the cave..lol…dana and her “what the French! toast?” and her awkward turtle……I swear stephen played “Little Lion Man” by mumford & sons just about a hundred times….. Brian or shall I say bee + rock= b-rock, always kept it entertaining and Ill miss playing sk8boarding and ping-pong… dan awkwardly sending skype messages when your sitting right next to him but he always had the best youtube videos….the Frenchman or aka Alex just kept his swagger in the office all day everyday…Nick and his crazy rockstar self….Mr. Uli, oh the moments, and I know he secretly wished he could have had, what he called, the “Sissy 29″ board…..Ms. Jess and all of our many moments especially how we always seemed to be hungry, all of our food runs for Mexican food and our beloved heart attack roll, oh and can’t forget our last supper at the BBQ place..mmmm….BambooSk8/BambooBuddy has taught me many things that I will definitely take with me in my future…..As the summer sun begins to set and paints the colors on the ocean blue the seasons shall change and bring something new……