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And so this is the end. As many have said before, I can’t believe this things is already over. It seems like I just started. I’m sure I’m a better workers because of my experiences in the internship. I’m stoked that I got to meet and connect with so many amazing people, and I certainly hope to continue those relationships.

Thanks to everyone for helping me out, for staying positive, and for showing me the right way to do things. Piece, I’m out.

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.

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.

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.

I had one heck of a crazy night last night. It started off innocently enough, Just work (I work at an Italian restaurant) and we were dead slow because of the holiday. My friends came in after indulging in a few beverages at the Irish pub next door. Once I got off work I met up with them and seeing as it was my best friends birthday(his name is Patrick, no joke), we got some drinks in.

I was having a good time, seeing random people I hadn’t seen in ages, then a fight broke out. I know the owners of the pub and being the good person that I am, I decided to break it up. This fight happened to between 2 rather large ladies. When I was separating them, one

of them turned on me and started kicking and screaming that I punched her or something. Someone else was holding her back, but then the chick started pulling my hair! Maybe its an omen to cut my hair, I dunno. I got them kicked out and the owner bought be a beer and I figured everything would be all good. Then I went to use the restroom and outside the back door the same chick is yelling that she is “going to F*** me up”. It was pretty comical.

The rest of the night was full of bar hopping and good times. Hoping the clash will be the same!

It’s interesting how the internship has evolved for me. I continue to learn new things every day that prepares me for the real world. I’m learning what my strengths and weaknesses are and how to improve upon them. I’m especially looking forward to the Clash at Claremont even on March 19. This will be our first big event since I’ve been here and I’m stoked to meet a bunch of new skaters. It will be an awesome event and it goes to a great cause.

This past week we updated a lot of documents and me realize how fast these 8 weeks have flown by. It’s great to reflect on where you were when the internship started and where you can be if you make the most of it. It makes you realize that you have to put in a lot of effort to see results.

On the surf front, its been pretty bleak. There hasn’t been much swell lately so you gotta be on it when its on. Got a little surf sesh in this morning and hopefully there will be more to come.

In case you live under a rock, St. Patty’s day is in a couple weeks. Get ready for green beverages and tons of debauchery

In the past few weeks I’ve taken over the Europe project. Hopefully soon kids all around the world will be skating bamboo. I hope they all speak English cause I certainly don’t “englisch sprechen”!

I just started doing some things in photoshop and damn, it’s a whole other world. I really don’t know what I’m doing but I’m learning quickly. Gerard is a pro at it and he makes some BA stuff, if I can be half as good I’ll be happy. I’ll make sure to throw up my final product when it’s done.

I’ve been surfing often which is great because all work and no play makes Ryan a dull boy. It has been crap lately but you never know what next week may hold!

-Ryan

Hola,

It’s already week 4 in the enchanted bamboo forests. Things are going well here and I feel like I’m actually making some progress on things. Although planning is very important, I feel much better when I have something to show for my work. I’ve been learning a lot (always BCC the shops that you email) and just trying to learn from my mistakes. I’m learning that there is always something to be done. Whether it’s researching a technique that can streamline our website, or looking into new potential markets or just going and reppin’ the BambooSk8 eco philosophy around town, there is always work to be done.

I was bummed that I couldn’t make it to the Crossroads event this past weekend. From all accounts it was a ton of fun and the contest was awesome. I’m looking forward to our next event, which should be the Clash at Claremont on March 19th.

In case ya’ll didn’t know, the waves have been firing lately. Big NW swells have been slamming down on us and there have been some smaller SW swells mixing in. Combine that with stellar conditions and you have a bunch of surfers with tired arms. It has been barrel country up in the OC and I even scored a few down here in Oceanside at the harbor. When there are waves, life is good. The forecast is for good waves, and so…
life is good. ☺

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