Aww man, I can’t believe this is my last blog! Looking back on the past four months at BambooSK8, I can truthfully say that I am incredibly thankful for the opportunity. It’s funny to think how I almost didn’t apply for the internship thinking I was perfectly qualified to start my career; maybe I was, but I’m way more qualified now. Although interning for a skate company may not have any sort of prestigious ring to it, I know all of the hard work and challenging expectations of the internship have really helped strengthen my work ethic. In fact, most of  the tasks I took on during the internship gave me the knowledge and experience to land a job as a Channel Marketing Director for Red Rock Products, Inc (a sporting good distributor out in Anaheim). There is no way I would have qualified for the position I have now without interning for BambooSK8.

Thank you Geoff, Wyatt, Mark, Andrew and Dana for pushing me to reach my potential and giving me the opportunity to work with you guys. Thank you to Andrew, Cat, Geoff, Gerard, Lindsay, and Ryan for always being positive, helpful, and inspiring. Much love – see you guys soon, yeah don’t think I’m not going to track you all down for a reunion of some sort. ha

A special note to the future interns:

Just for the record, Wyatt did say Class 9 was his favorite, so all you other future classes out there… don’t even think about being his favorite… but if you want to try make sure to drink all of his Dr. Pepper, don’t clean up the spilled beer, and DON’T laugh at his jokes! Good luck and take lots of pictures!

CONGRATS CLASS NINE!!

This ultimate post is being made at the base of the Ruby Mtns, last night I watched the sunset over the ocean in O-side before starting my journey back, at sunrise I was surprised by fields covered in freshly fallen snow. I’m going to be taking a step back and analize the internship and how well I used it. It’ll be interesting to reflect on what I did well and where I missed the boat. I want to publicly thank Geoff, Wyatt, Mark and AG for all they did over the course of the last 4 months, I really appreciate it. It’ll be strange not seeing them and all the other intern friends on a weekly basis. Stay in touch.

If anyone reading this wants an honest opinion of the internship feel free to hit me up on Linkedin or FB or whatever and I’ll lay it on you.

Bless.

It’s over.  After four months of: Hook It, research, events, TV time, blogging, planning, editing, excel spreadsheets and hanging out with some of the coolest people EVER, it’s all over…SAD  =  (  It wasn’t an easy four months, but I I have amazing work to show for it and even better, some great new friends!  In my past blogs I’ve talked about how the time was flying by, but it’s still a different feeling knowing it’s actually over.  I’d like to say thank you to BambooSK8 for letting me be a part of their internship and for all of the time and effort they put in to the program.  I’d also like to say thanks to Wyatt for letting me adopt Parker (the most amazing dog) as my own for the time I was there.  Good luck to all my fellow interns!  I hope we all find amazing jobs ASAP!

Wrapped up the OSF project this week. The designs were great, and I had a lot of fun working on it.  Nice job everyone! Thanks to Craig Morrison for letting us be a part of the project and the great program he’s got going on up there in Toronto.

It’s pretty crazy that this internship has already come to an end. I feel like it was just getting started. Thanks to everyone at BambooSK8 for the opportunity to work with and learn from you. Thank you also to all the other interns for their input and teamwork. Every one of the interns that I worked with during class 9 will be a valuable asset to any company looking to hire intelligent and hardworking indivuduals. I look forward to working with all of them again in the future. I know that the knowledge that I have gained during the last 16 weeks of this program will be very valuable in my venture.

So the awesome party that is Coachella happened this past weekend and as promised I’m going to give you a full rundown of the weekend.

Don’t get off work till super late so therefore I don’t leave till super late. Get to the festival at around 330 AM. My car was driven down there for me during the day so I just had to walk in and meet up w/ my friends. Unfortunately I had a giant handle of Jack in my backpack (found out that we couldn’t have glass or hard A on the drive there) so I had to sweet talk the old lady checking bags into not actually checking my bag. After a very long and crappy walk ( I was carrying a backpack, suitcase, and 36pk of rocky mountain piss water) I finally meet up w/ Blender. He is predictably drunk as a skunk. We decide we need to celebrate my arrival by partying till around 630am or so.

2 things of note: Tuxedo shirt, carpoolchellazilla bird in the background

Wake up early cause its too damn hot. Start to indulge in frosty beverages. Time is flying by, then out of the blue look who decides to meet up and become our adopted children at our camp.

The BambooSK8 crew!

So we party all day and some go a little harder than others (i didn’t put on shoes and used a porta-potty so yeah I think I may have been a little drunk). We watched a bunch of awesome bands then it was time to pass out….at 5 pm… guess I cant party that hard after all. After I napped near the trash cans I woke up and rallied back at camp. Got back out there to see the black keys and kings of leon (right before kings, andrew had a incident, ask him about it). Met up w/ everyone for some Boys Noize then I headed over to watch Flogging Molly. After a good little dance party we went back to camp to hang and party some more.

Next morning is more of the same. Good times. We had a rule that no one could eat at our camp w/out doing a beer bong first. And we enforced it. So after beer bongs and burgers the party was on.

Beer bongs and Burgers

Mark and I stomped blender and krista at some soft bochie. There was flip cup, beer pong, and slip n slides. We went in to pick up some shirts and an epic rock, paper, scissors battle ensued. There was a free t-shirt up for grabs and of coarse I took everyone down to take the shirt and the glory! We eventually headed in for some Mumford and Sons epicness. They were predictably epic and we saw many more bands before the Arcade Fire came on. They blew me away and they place was going crazy.

Arcade Fire and giant glowing balls

We then went to some Paul van Dyk for some more dance party. Once that crazyness was over we came back to camp to explore. We found a big dance floor that we partied at till late then went to explore the roller rink. Once that got boring we checked out the strange carnival swings. Then there was a gnarly dude playing acoustic in this odd house thing w/ like 10 people in it.

strange

From there the drum circle started. Drum circle = bongo, crushed cans as extra percussion, platform to dance on, as many drunk people dancing and chanting as possible. Probably the greatest things known to man. “Wake up and dance” was the prevailing chant and it was all good times till it got broken up by the po po.

Sunday started slow but quickly picked up when we realized we couldn’t leave for home w/ any beer. So the drinking started, we partied w/ our neighbors from Liverpool and generally just had a good time. Then the Jack came out and things started to get blurry for a while.

Blurry Indeed

Mark hit the giant slip n slide, the gopro got attached to my chest, and general debauchery ensued.

mark hit this after all the eruos in speedos were done w/ it

We made it in for Jimmy Eat World who was playing at the same time as Damian Marley/NAS. We all split up and made the hard choice of one or the other. I went w/ Jimmy but apparently Damian was sick. After some more bands/ good times it was time to leave. But wait! We got talked into staying later, until the very end and it was certainly worth it. The Strokes were awesome as well as bloody beatroots, ratatat, and kanye. Andrew was incredibly stoked on The Presets and they certainly didn’t disappoint. Although I had never heard of them, I am now a fan.

Look close and there are people partying in the tape

We jammed back to the car to take off and it looked like we wouldn’t hit traffic, then while we were stopped for a minute, some security guy came up to tell us to turn off our car cause “were gunna be here for a while”. Shit. It was 1245 when we got in the car and we didn’t move again until 220. At least we had plenty of people to watch, including the girl wearing nothing but glow sticks, the crazy canadians dancing on their astro van, and the people trippin out on light shows. I eventually dropped Andrew and Mark off at their cars and got on the road around 330. Got home at 5, showered and PASSED OUT.

Good times for sure.

Check out the full blog complete with pictures at TheMusingsOfMattHayes.blogspot.com!

Arriving in Baños

After leaving Canoa I made a quick stop in Quito to drop off a bag and enjoy the most delicious Hare Krishna lunch before heading to catch a bus bound for Baños. I had heard that Baños was a cool adventure town in the mountains of Ecuador but I had no idea how awesome it would be.

Canoa is a very poor town. There’s one paved road, chickens and dogs run the streets, and a lot of the street vendors push their carts because they are too poor to afford a bike chain. After living in that environment for a month I was quite surprised to be walking the streets of Baños and see dune buggies cruising the streets, kids on brakeless BMX bikes, and several-thousand dollar mountain bikes leaning against the wall in restaurants. The town is nestled in a river valley with a volcano towering above its streets and majestic waterfalls throughout the neighboring mountains. The name comes from the hot springs, or “baths,” along the edge of town.

The Bike Ride

Baños is a great place to meet people because everyone is about to go do something cool. The first night I ran into Manuela and Carmen, two Swiss girls I had met in Quito. We rented bikes Sunday morning and rode along the river checking out the numerous waterfalls along the way. After seeing about 6 waterfalls and rain starting to fall on us the girls hopped a bus and I started riding back. The sprinkling rain felt great so I explored a side road that wound up a valley. It was beautiful and green and secluded – just what I was looking for. I know I’m not in the kind of race shape I used to be, but the road was so steep I spent an hour and a half in the granny gear until three large dogs halted my progress. I rode back into town and returned the bike just as the rain picked up.

Getting lost

On Monday I rented a 250cc dirt bike for 3 hours and took off. First I tried to find a dirt road I had seen the day before but apparently it was private property w/ a gate and guards. I turned around and, crossing the bungee jump bridge, headed towards some radio antennas. The rental company had shown me a map and told me it should take 2 hours round trip but 25 minutes of wide open throttle and counter steered corners later I was parked at the top. I followed the road as it summited the mountain and entered an agricultural valley. Taking every side path possible, I splashed through puddles, reved out climbing jeep roads, and got lost in single track cow paths. I was completely alone in the back woods of the Andes. The bike wouldn’t shift into neutral if it was running and none of the gauges worked (including gas) but I figured that was just part of the adventure.

Hiking

There are a few miradors (lookouts) on the mountain that borders town so I decided to hike to them when I got back. The first and lowest of the lookouts is 698 concrete steps straight up. From there the path turns to dirt and climbs about another couple hundred meters of elevation to the Mirador del Volcan. The path winds along cliff sides, through tomato farms, and into back yards filled with chickens and laundry. The clouds broke just as I got to the top and offered a great view of the volcano while I was there. On the way down I took random paths, followed a few signs, and asked a little kid of about 8 for directions until I found the right trail.

The trail was so steep it was difficult to walk at times, yet there was a single Maxxis Holy Roller tire impression the whole way down. I couldn’t believe this awesome trail was just outside of town with the perfect road to shuttle and I couldn’t help but think maybe Mike W. should move to Baños. (Sorry to all the non cycling nerds, you probably don’t understand any of that.) The trail even finishes a block and a half from the hospital, how convenient is that?

A moto, a jeep, and a few crazy kids

Tuesday morning I went to find an Ecuadorian I had met the day before for a horse ride but instead rounded up a group of 6 people to rent a 4×4 Jeep and a moto. Our crew consisted of 2 Germans – Armin and Daniel – I met in the hostel, and 3 Brits I had met in Canoa – Mel, Vicky, and Jennie. We took a side road just outside town and after a short hike found a beautiful waterfall. A lot of the falls are commercialized with people and zip lines and vendors. This one involved hiking through an old man’s fish farm whom we asked for directions. After following a trail that was more an indentation in the grass, we let the sound of crashing water be our guide until a waterfall opened in front of us. It was beautiful with a 15 meter drop, a small pool at the bottom, and most importantly, no one around.

After a quick stop at the Runtun, we headed for the Refuge at 3800 meters. I drove the jeep for a bit trying to understand how a vehicle in such disrepair was still on the road. The brakes were terrifying, the suspension was rock solid, and the steering wheel had a full half rotation before it affected the wheels at all, but it ran and it got 4 of us up the mountain on cobble stones and dirt so that’s all the counts. For some reason, after I almost jumped the jeep over a speed bump, the girls decided they trusted me on a motorcycle. I had to keep the speeds a little lower than the day before as they all took a turn sitting on the back. The views at the lower elevations were incredible looking down onto the town and as we got higher everything was silenced as we rode into a cloud and the views were murky and serene. It was a great adventure with a great group of people.

That night involved enough alcohol for karaoke to seem like a good idea, and in the morning I decided I needed to leave before I spent all my money on bicycles, and kayaks, and motorcycles, and jeeps. I took a beautiful, although painful, 9 hour bus ride to Cuenca.

The end of the internship is rapidly approaching. It’s been awesome seeing everyone’s individual projects finally coming together. Andrew Jones’ skate park tour has been a blast and I’m looking forward to our participation at CSUF’s “Keeping it Green” Environmental Festival on Monday April 18th. We’ll be educating some college kids on our eco-friendly decks. Next week is Earth Week so make sure you’re doing your part to create some environmental awareness for all the dudes and dudettes out there. I’ve been riding my bike every day and although I’ve gotten two flats this past week, there isn’t anything that’s going to keep me down.

Skate hard. Skate green.

-Geoff C

Earth Day is right around the corner and BambooSK8 is getting ready to celebrate! Next week will be jam-packed with activities to spread the love and awareness for Mother Earth.  We start out the week with the “Keep it Green” festival at Cal State Fullerton and continue through the week with a couple of morning TV spots and another “Green Business” fair at San Diego State University.

I have always attend Earth Day and environmental celebrations, but never participated.  I am really excited to share what BambooSK8 is all about and offer sustainability tips for day-to-day living.  I think it is SO important for everyone to do their fair share in taking care of this planet.  I always try to think: reduce, reuse, recycle.  Do I need that many lights on around the house? No.  Am I using a specific appliance? No.  Turn off and unplug to reduce the amount of energy I’m using.  Does that plastic bag have any holes in it? No. Reuse it for another grocery trip or outing.  I shrunk my shirt in the wash, now what? I either donate it to Goodwill or use it as a cleaning rag.  Lastly, any paper, plastic or aluminum products that are recyclable are sorted into their appropriate bins and taken to the recycling center.  All of that may sound like a lot or an inconvenience, but it really doesn’t take that much time.  To be honest, there is probably a ton more I could be doing.  The point is every little bit helps.  Think about it, what do you do to help?

Have a good weekend everyone!!

We’re coming up on the home stretch of this internship, but things haven’t slowed down at all. Lots of events and news happening over here, as you can see from the updates by my fellow interns. The new Sutsu Graphics for 2011 have shown up, and I got to create a promotional design for them. Check out the shop page to pick one up.

Earth week is next week, it’s kind of a big deal around here, being that we’re a “green” company and all. So, stop by our booths at the Cal State Fullerton and San Diego State Earth Week events next week, and say “hi”!

Things have been picking up around here. HOLY CRAP it’s the end of week 14. Things are almost over and as I look back, its been such an amazing experience. Getting a chance to work with the president and owners of our companies has been great. I get to pick the brains of these guys that are obviously successful. My fellow interns are all incredibly awesome and have been so supportive of everything I’ve been doing. I’m just stoked to be a part of this great program.

Leaving for coachella tonight. Yes, its going to be crazy. I’ll be throwing up videos and posts on facebook and twitter so be on the lookout. I’ll have a full recap of the weekend next week.

B.A.M.F.

Hey there. The end is approaching quickly and we’re working diligently to get everything wrapped up so that the next class of interns can hit the ground running. You’re welcome. The Skatepark Tour was a ton of fun! Thanks to our sponsors (Gether Clothing, Rockstar, Mostic) and everyone that came out. It was super radical interacting with the kids and watching them up the ante for the contests. If you haven’t seen the video from the Laguna Niguel stop check it out! The one from Melba Bishop is still in the editing room but keep an eye out for it.

Other fun stuff going on is the rolling out of our new graphic decks, I for one am super stoked on them, espcially the Varsity Red, def gonna cop one of those. Also keep an eye on the morning news for some Earth Day/Week/Month specials on us. If Lindsay keeps it up Geoff and the crew are going to be TV stars and we’ll have more Twitter followers then we know what to do with!! Speaking of stars, how about my boy D Rose and the Bulls? Can’t wait to see another Championship Parade in the Chi in a few weeks.

This weekend should be pretty fun for all, some of the crew were fortunate enough to get Coachella tickets, so if you’re out there be sure to look out for them, there’s the Long Beach Grand Prix going down and I’m rolling up to Mammoth with some homies to do a little snowriding. Stoked. I’m going to do my best to at least surf, skate and snowboard in the same week!

Lastly, I’m definately enjoying the weather here, all warm and sunny while my peeps back east are freezing. Here’s a quick look at a snap I stole off a friend’s FB. Def makes me count my blessings!!

That’s it for my blog for this week. Bless.

Wuzzzzup Party People!

Here is a re-cap from the Laguna Niguel Skate Park Tour. It was a good time, lots of new BambooSK8 fans!

Here is a sneak-peak of some final designs for the OSF x BambooSK8 Project. We will be deciding on the prizes and winner this week. They all have done a great job! Check out their blog for more pictures: Oasis Skateboard Factory

This week I will be finalizing the Buy.com inventory so purchases can now be made at our website, Buy.com, Amazon, and Eco3P. We also have a bunch of new Sutsu decks up on our site with awesome graphics. Thursday, Dana and I will be meeting with Chris from RunningFish to go over the building of our website so that should be awesome to – should be launched by next blog – stay tuned! Next week is a busy week for us at BambooSK8, Monday we will be at Cal State Fullerton for Earth Day festivities and Lindsay was able to get us more air time on Fox 5 for April 20th. We are really coming down to the wire, with only 2.5 weeks left! Going through my personal reviews I have really seen an improvement and I am so thankful for the opportunity to have interned for BambooSK8 it’s been really fun and rewarding!

Recycled Skateboard decks used as kitchen tiles > check out more cool projects and how to get involved! Art of Board

What’s up people?

Everything seems to be going great these days. I took a little mini-trip up to California’s Bay Area to check out some colleges that my cousin was accepted to. I wish I had my skateboard because there were soooo many spots that would’ve been fun to ride around on! It’s all good. I’m actually sitting in a car across the street from stoner skate plaza in West Los Angeles typing this up. Nick Sauls and I are here warming up before we go shoot some street spots. On the business end of things, everything at BambooSK8 is continuing to go well. Everyone is working extremely hard and it’s finally starting to pay off. We’re reaching our individual and team goals, and we’re having fun while doing it. I’m still working on coming up with new content for Hookit as well as our website. Be on the lookout for all the great things to come.

Also, I left this office today and trekked 80 miles to Downey, CA to pick up this beautiful new road bike. I’ve been looking for months now and I finally found one to suit all my riding needs. With gas prices the way that they are, I’m going to be relying on pedal power to get me places. Check her out:

Tomorrow is also the first stop of our mini skate park tour. We’ll be educating skaters at Laguna Niguel skate park on the benefits of riding bamboo. It should be a great time.

Skate hard. Skate green.

- Geoff C

We are over half way through our internship and things are moving right along.  Every day I get closer and closer to completing my tasks and it feels great.  Nothin’ better than checking things off a list, done and done!  The pressure is definitely on though with only a month left at BambooSK8.

Now that the Clash is done, I am working on a handful of Earth Day events with local San Diego T.V. stations and on Southern California college campuses.  I really hope that I will be able to help BambooSK8 get their message of sustainability and the awesome decks out in the public eye and hopefully in their hands!  I really enjoy community and consumer relations so these upcoming events are going to be a blast for me.  I believe that a company needs the support of the community it’s located in, in addition to the support of their consumers and other entities.  When I say support I don’t necessarily mean monetary, but just that the community knows and is cool with you.

Speaking of community, this weekend Laguna Niguel Skate Park is the first stop on our skate park tour!  Another one of the top-notch interns (uh-hem, Andrew) organized the whole thing and I am stoked to see how it goes.  Watching the kids skate, ask questions, and be pumped on BambooSK8 is the best.  Their excitement makes all the hard work totally worth it!

Well people, it is Friday and I’m stoked! This weekend should be full of good times which I am hoping will provide me with good Twitter material.  In an effort to help our BambooSK8 Twitter status, I have been asked to tweet.  For me that is no easy feat.  It’s like I have some sort of Twitter-phobia. Lame, I know.  Thankfully my fellow interns, Andrew and Gerard, have been very encouraging and reassuring about my Twitter endeavors. So here is to a weekend full of friends, community, skating and Twitter! Cheers!

This week was awesome, Mark Gregson the father of Wyatt Gregson (CEO of BambooBuddy) came in to speak with us on Tuesday about his journey as an entrepreneur, investor, Navy pilot, and much more. He provided us with many resources and great advice for our step into the business world.

After visiting with Mark, Geoff Koboldt (President of BambooSK8) took Ryan, Andrew, and I out to lunch to a tasty burger joint in Encinitas. Following our luncheon we took a ride to one of Geoff’s favorite places (from looking at the pictures – you see why!) – The Golden Lotus Temple.

The smell of the colorful flowers and sea breeze with the quiet meditating grounds and the breath taking views created the most tranquil atmosphere- you couldn’t help but smile to yourself.

After our walk through the garden, we visited the little bookstore which had so many great art, music, and literary pieces. Following the bookstore, we ventured over to a local skate shop to try to meet with the buyer about our skateboards. It was a great learning experience.

The rest of the week I focused on many different tasks. The website is finally coming to a wrap, our Skate Park Tour will start tomorrow April 2, 2011 at Laguna Niguel Skate Park. I am working with a local high school’s Skateboard Club in helping us bring the Skate Park Tour to another location as well as arranging for Geoff to speak at to their students. Overall this week has been busy but very rewarding… I look forward to next week where I will be completing many more tasks and working closer to graduation of Class 9 at BambooSK8!

So while I’m sure you think BambooSK8 is just one big party, we do occasionally work. I went to the office on Tuesday expecting just another normal day spent emailing and making phone calls. Instead we were greeted by one of our principle investors, Mark Gregson. He spoke with us for a few hours on his experiences in owning different companies. It was very insightful and inspiring to hear his stories. It was nice to see someone so successful yet so genuine and down to earth. It makes me think that you can make money the right way while not having to comprise your morals.

After our talk with “Papa” Gregson, Geoff took us out to Encinitas for some lunch and good times. We all sat around and discussed everything from the music industry and “Friday” to life in general and how to succeed. It was good times all around and the bbq pork sliders were bomby. Then we went to the Self Realization temple down the road and I was blown away. I must have driven by this place 50 times and I never new what it was and I never bothered to check it out. It was a really awesome place with beautiful ponds and flowers. The ponds were all filled with giant koi fish and were rad to look at. The scenery was so peaceful it blew me away that we were in the middle of a big city. Once up on the top of the bluffs, we were staring out at the surf break “Swami’s”. I could sit and start at the surf for literally hours on end, so the vantage point and surroundings only enhanced my experience. Geoff was giving us some information about the temple and mentioned certain “swami’s” and then it hit me, the surf spot was named after the temple! I’m an idiot for not putting the 2 names together, but it was cool to finally make the connection.

It was such a refreshing day. Although not the most productive day I’ve ever had in bambooland, it was certainly one of the best.

Skatepark Tour is going down this weekend, stop #1, should be pretty radical. We’re rollin a good crew of skaters and have quality sponsors onboard as well. Laguna Niguel here we come!! I’m still baffled at why cities don’t make it easier for companies to put on events like this. They really can only add to the quality atmosphere of the park and the enjoyment of the kids of the community. I think it’s ridiculous that it’s so difficult to do. My hats off to all the organizations that deal with the cities on behalf of skateboarders everywhere!

Outside of the Skatepark Tour, I’ve been getting my surf on and I went up to Bear Mtn last week, that was super fun. I’d like to do the ultimate boarder challenge and skate, surf and snowboard all in the same day. Might have to attempt that in the coming weeks before the season ends. If all else fails I’ll do it back in UT and throw in wakeboarding instead of surfing and make the most of Snowbird being open til June.

Lastly, we went on a cool field trip this last week to Encinitas and the Self-Realization Fellowship Meditation Gardens. It was super fun and the gardens were remarkable. If you’re in the area I highly recommend it, especially if you’re stressed out. Like I told the crew, I’m not a big flower guy, but the flowers there smelled amazing. The Koi ponds were super rad as was the great view of Swami’s. It was a fantastic experience. Thanks Geoff for taking us down there!