Skate Blog Intern Blog

What’s up everyone?

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Geoff Consolacion and I hail from the action sports haven known as Oceanside, CA. I’ll be joining this talented group of interns as class 9 for BambooSk8. From a very young age, I can remember being an ambitious little kid with big goals and dreams. It never mattered what it was. If it was something I wanted to do, I was going to make damn sure that I was going to be great at it. A lot of that competitive spirit and energy was channeled through school and sports and it wasn’t until I was about 11 years old when I was introduced to something that would forever change me.

My cousin gave me a World Industries Rob ‘Sluggo’ Boyce skateboard. Bom chika wah wah! It was love at first. Skating consumed almost every part of my free time. I spent hours on end learning new tricks and trying to put together little videos. For the longest time I was either doing school work, playing baseball (another great passion of mine), or skating.

Fast forward a few more years. I graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a Bachelor’s of Business Administration in Finance in May 2010. I spent a couple wonderful months traveling through the Philippines, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Thailand. Like many of the other interns, the search for full time employment, especially in the financial services industry, was less than ideal. Even though that sheepskin diploma makes wonderful wall décor, it hasn’t quite yet opened any doors for me.

I was very fortunate to have found BambooSk8 and I was very attracted to their mission. It’s business related, involves skateboarding, and is environmentally conscious. It’s a grand slam. I will be focusing much of my time on Public Relations and Social Media, but I will also be lending my voice and opinions to the Marketing and Sales teams. I feel that the hard work and effort I plan to put worth will make this a wonderful learning experience. Having the intent of being a business owner someday, I plan on taking advantage of this invaluable opportunity to motivate me towards my future goals.

and that’s a little about me.

-geoff c

As you can see, there’s a lot of activity on the intern blog lately, and that is only a small taste compared to the action that’s been happening in the office.  There are so many big things being worked on, the Interns and I have decided to purchase one of these for the office,

so that we can utilize every available moment of the day.

Like many people these days, my success in the recent job market has been less than ideal.  As a result, I chose to utilize my down time to improve my resume and make myself standout more to potential employers.  In my quest to accomplish that, I stumbled upon the opening at Bamboosk8.  At the interview, it was obvious that the internship was going to be much more than making copies and fetching coffee.  The program has been methodically organized and tailored for developing us into a goal oriented, proactive, and forward thinking, business weapon.

In a true eco-friendly business, “closing the loop” is a critical step in maximizing value and sustainability.  From this internship, I expect to take away a clear understanding of how to close the loop of communication between all of the departments in a business (sales, pr, manufacturing, marketing, etc.).  That is, how to effectively communicate the important information through each department and back again, to derive progress within the industry.

There is going to be a lot of hard work ahead, but I’m looking forward to the perks as well.  After all, this is a skateboard company; if we’re not having fun, then we’re doing something wrong.

Hey all,
This is my first blog ever so bare with me (although I spend countless hours on the computer, I rarely voice my opinion online). My first few weeks here in bambooland have been a lot of fun and quite a bit of work. I’m making the commute from north OC so I get to share the 5 with 123,323,411,238 of my best friends honking their horns at ungodly hours that I’m not used to being awake at.

Although it is a lot of time and work, I love it. I graduated from CSUF in May and since then I have not had anything to do during the day except sleep, surf, and travel. I spent 6 weeks in New Zealand, 3 months in Australia, and 3 weeks in Bali after I graduated. I was just traveling and surfing and thinking that when I came back I would somehow magically get an awesome job in the action sports industry where I could still sleep, surf, and travel. Why I thought my little degree would get me a dream job is beyond me.

When this internship came along, it seemed like an awesome chance to get my feet wet in the industry and see how the real world works. Although they do a great job of structuring the intern program, they don’t baby you. You are expected to set you own lofty goals and follow through with everything you set. With the help of my awesome fellow interns I will be focusing on direct model sales, marketing the website, and keep our customers happy.

Stoked on life ☺

-Ryan

Lindsay here, hailing from the BambooSK8 intern cave.  I am in my second week and still not quite sure how this is all going to play out, but I know week by week things will come together.  I came to BambooSK8 to gain experience in the action sports industry and to be part of an organization that’s doing their part to take care of the planet.

After working for a few companies, I’ve learned what I want and expect out of my future career.  Although, it’s becoming more apparent how hard it’s going to be to get my ideal career.  Taking an internship after college, when you’re in the middle of life, is not easy.  It’s hard to find the time and money, but if you want something that bad you find a way to make it happen.  I’m makin’ it happen!  It also helps to have the support of friends and family, like I do. I believe this internship at BambooSK8 will be an amazing step along the way to a job that makes me happy.  I figure if I am going to be working for the next 45 years, I better like what I do.

In the few days that I have been at BambooSK8, I’ve gotten a realistic picture of how a small business works and where the action sports industry stands.  Let’s just say business and the industry is anything but glamorous. Not all brands in this industry work as hard or have as much foresight to realize the effect they have on the industry as a whole. The BambooSK8 team works incredibly hard to keep this brand responsible and successful.  BambooSK8 I believe you are the bee’s knees!  That’s right I said it, bee’s knees!  I look forward to the next 16 weeks, contributing what I know and learning a whole bunch of new stuff!

Oh and one more thing I am stoked on, Parker the office dog!! I’d like to thank Wyatt, Parker’s owner, in advance for all the puppy playtime…after my work is done of course!

Ahhh, your back for more fun and excitement! GREAT!

So this was my first full week at BambooSK8 and I love it! The working environment is both fun and focused. My tasks involve website design, research, and updating our inventory on Amazon.com and Eco3P.com (check it out!). Obviously, it’s a bit overwhelming this week with staying organized and properly managing my tasks at hand. I’m going to be honest, it feels good to use my noggin as much as I have… sounds stupid but I’ve been out of school since August and working at a small board shop, applying for jobs, and hanging out, so needless to say I feel productive and inspired! I have so many ideas just running through my brain with marketing and web design; I can’t wait to see the results. So, I’ve been exposed to this site called Hook’it, man I feel like I’ve been living under a rock! If you don’t know what it is check it out! Here’s a link to our page: http://www.hookit.com/members/bamboosk8/  . I’m stoked to see what our new Eco Tribe members are able to put out there! Shout out to Big Eddie B, that kid is cool! It’s almost Friday and I’m super stoked! This weekend I might be checking out a photo shoot here at the warehouse, so I’m excited to see how that works out. Lovin’ it! I’ll get back to you guys next week with more updates!

Stay tuned!

-Amanda

The first indications I got that everything was going to be alright.

Ok take two. Apparently Safari didn’t like the first blog I wrote so as soon as I finished it decided it would rather unexpectedly quit than be part of its publishing.

So here we go again.

My name is Andrew and I moved here to heaven from Chicago (Go Bears) via SL,UT. I recently left the world of positive hopes and dreams known as college and entered the darker, crueler world called reality. After treading through this desolate landscape of nothingness known as the job market for a time that felt like forever, the stars aligned and I saw a glimmer of light off in the distance. This glimmer of light is the BambooSk8 internship program. The glorious key to the door that bridges college and the real world where I’ll learn some of the skills that are required to succeed (or atleast get a job that doesn’t have ‘burger’ in the name) in places outside academia.

So after opening this door I’ve found out a great deal about myself and a lot about the $60k+ so called education I’ve received but I digress. I am in charge of a bit of the marketing for BambooSk8, namely, the viral videos, skatepark visits, and social media outlets. At times this first week I’ve felt a little like this:

Sink or Swim

(For the record, this is super awful and CPS should be notified if you see anything like it in real life)

No coddling here, just like real life. All those feel good lessons ever do is set you up for a letdown.

But my fellow interns as well as my superiors all have been super helpful at making this transition as painless as possible and for this I thank you for being totally BEAST. I have gained more confidence and I’m sure it will continue to grow (hopefully one day I’ll be cocky enough to run a major corporation). I am currently setting SMART goals and will be working diligently to be sure that I pay the cost to achieve those goals. I have also been forced to streamline my methods for better efficiency which is always good. Another high point is to see how stoked the Hookit.com kids are on the sport and on BambooSk8, it’s just a friendly reminder as to why we do what we do. I am excited for all I will learn. Can’t wait.

My future is clearly looking a whole lot less bleak, I feel like I have regained some control over my life and that feels fantastic. Hopefully, I can find a little spot to carve my name into somewhere in the action sports industry. I’m still not sure what I want to do when I grow up and where my talents will be best used to serve, but when I do I’ll be ready to grab my piece of the American Dream (think:American Dream).

Anyways, I think that if you’re still reading this you deserve to be rewarded with a little somethin delicious so here ya go!

Siiiick.

That’s pretty radical huh? Dude gots mad talent. Sorry if you were hoping for something a little more racy but this is a family company. Jah bless til we meet again.

here we re again,
straight out of ice cold southern Germany. I suppose thats the second blog of class 9. What’s going on with you guys, is Collin the only one able to write?
Anyway, it has been a long long time since I wrote something down here. I apologize but its also been a busy busy time and its getting worse and worse; thats how live is if you are close to graduation.
Ok, that doesn’t mean I can’t take a timeout and head to southern hemispheres to catch some waves, which I’m am actually going to do in exactly 10 days. Nicaragua here I come; let’s hope I can somehow get one of the boards we fetched form the boarder control last week in my luggage to show those guys how to get from point A to B eco-friendly and smooth.
Yes you got that right, the first 15 bamboo boards touched the German territory and 3 of them already got their new owner, and guess what, the love them ( ” its amazing, I get every single tre-flip”)
We’ll thats the mojo of Dr. Bamboo.
We are looking forward to get rest onto trucks asap and then, logically get a couple over. Fortunately I get backup form my buddy Manu, who is actually a pretty sick skater and knows the local scene like no one else and has no bachelor thesis to write
Guys, I’ll hit you up again pretty soon but I gotta bounce
I have a couple of pics as well but right now my mac and y Canon don’t like each other. She often does that, she’s kinda bitchy.
I’ll post you the pics asap
Cheers

Uli

Even though the journey to get where you're going in life might be tough and you might take a wrong turn, the view at the end is worth it. Always be stoked about life.

I do believe this is the first post for class 9 interns at BambooSk8 in January 2011. My name is Collin Stephens and I currently reside in Carlsbad, California. I’ve spent my whole life in north San Diego county, graduating from Rancho Buena Vista High School in 2006. Following that I got my bachelors degree in Geology from California State University, Chico in 2010 and I promptly moved back to San Diego. After graduation I spent a lot of time sending job applications and resumes, hundreds of them, to every geo-tech company that had an opening. After a few hundred rejections and realizing that geology might not be what I want to do in life, I started soul searching. I looked at what I enjoyed doing and surfing, rock climbing, kayaking, hiking, backpacking, camping and skateboarding came to mind. The next logical step seemed to be action sports. One day I came across BambooSk8, I got hired as an intern and I’ve been stoked ever since. Just because you have a plan for what you want your life to be doesn’t mean you have to stick to it. In life it’s okay to live many different lives, giving you the ability to gain so many experiences. This is truly what life is all about; the experience. I encourage everyone to live life to the fullest and enjoy every new thing you learn. That is what this internship is for me. Learning business and marketing with a degree in geology is fantastic and only two weeks in I already feel like I’ve been working in the industry for some time now. These new and exciting experiences are what make us and a continuous movement forward in life is essential. This is a new year with new expectations and I am part of a new class of interns who will hopefully help bring BambooSk8 to the next level. A ton of work lay before us, accompanied by a ton of learning experiences and new endeavors to take part in. As so eloquently put by Timbuk 3, “the future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades.” Looking forward to working with everyone!!

Skate hard and always ride bamboo

Collin