Hello there,
it’s been a bit since we last hung out. Truth is Leanne the ASR mother hen of  mktg etc taught me the ropes of word press.. It took me a while needless to say.
So, lots and lots have been going on so I’ll do my best to give the quick and easy. That is if this even works and goes up on the site.. ha!

Just got back from SIMA’s PR Bootcamp today at the Camp. We all met upstairs in SEED. That store is great. Do go check it out when you get the chance. I have a few events to catch you up on but for now lets just talk for a bit, and maybe throw in a giggle or two. You know since its been a couple weeks lets just get reaquainted.  Coffee and a little danish. Or perhaps a tuna sangwich on rye with a medium orange soda. thats right, I said SANGWICH. sandwich but with a G. it sounds better.. Anyways now that where both on speaking terms and are holding hands again I’ll bust a move. xo XO. ah crap mom just told me we’re cousins. sorry.

Hey, ASR / CLASS at ASR February 3rd and 4th in San Diego. Just saw a nice ad this morn in Transworld Business. yaaaa. Contracts are coming in. People are happy.  I’ll keep you informed. Over @ Transworld Rob Campbell got moved up to Big MR Ed of all the Pubs. Ya Rob! Over @ Skateboarder Billy Deans got the Ass Pub job. yes. Mr Irons got in his car, left Surfer and drove straight over to Dragon while Tony “the sexican” Perez will now be the Publisher of both ER and ING. ahhh ..

There was some neg news that came up today on my news radar. I hope things all smooth out. I’m sure it will. Now I can’t take this anymore. I have to see if this will work.. More very soon..

PS. The title has nothing to do with this blog post. I just liked the sound of it..

Love, Jim Shubin
ASRBIZ.com
CLASSatASR.com

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SIMA PR Boot Camp. @ Seed in Costa Mesa

CLASS@ASR is on the other end of this Space Mountain looking tube in Feb. Pretty neato! its just above the spot we had in Sept.

RANDOM-I took this pic a few years back in Miami. the front was jacked up a bit so i focused on the neat part only. FYI I want one of these!

This blog is a long one so saddle up. Lots of stuff going on.  Summer has been non-stop action. Today we’ll touch a couple of things that have gone down the past couple weeks. So a quick snapshot of July.  Right after the 4th of July weekend I grabbed a flight to Salt Lake City, Utah for the weekend. A few friends we’re getting together for the weekend at Andy Bells house.  We gathered a few bikes from OGIO, and a few of his Nitro Circus & Thrill Billies friends. Andy works with OGIO as well as busting himself for Nitro Circus. Check the shows out on MTV and Thrill Billies on Fuel TV. It was a great weekend and I really enjoyed meeting some new friends Andy is surrounded by. Thanks Andy for a great weekend.   HB was getting geared up for the US Open of Surfing. Nike /Hurley did a solid job branding and with a solid NW swell do to hit it was going to be quite a show at the pier.  Another thing that sticks out in July was an event at Motel No tell in San Clemente. I met Adam Warren from Surfing at Lowers to grab a “few” waves. an a few was all I got so I got out and on my walk back decided to grab a couple at Upper Trestles. I had fun and couldn’t wait to see what this swell was going to do for us for the weekend. Anyhow once dark I ran over to Motel No Tell on El Camino Real. The reason for the event was to launch a shoe that Madsteez did for Nike 6.0. The place was amazing. Steez did an incredible job dialing in the place and the event went well.. Nice job guys.. Can’t wait to go back.   Then a little surf to ease the pain of not having solid surf for a while. Everyone scored and it felt so good to recharge the batteries. Felt like a week long surf trip even though most of us would have to hit HB for events, meetings, and or just to network at the contest site. The final was fun watching local schralper Brett Simpson take the top off anything pulsing from the south.. Thank You to Braden from New Era and Transworld for the food and shade. New Era VIP Gold Club provided plenty of room to chill, eat, drink and watch some of the best contest action in HB in a lonnnng time.   Last week was a busy one as well. With X-Games 15 in town and a few things to attend people we’re again buzzing around getting it done. Prior to the X-Games craze La Jolla Group had a nice grand opening of their new facility. Really solid turnout of people coming to wish them a house-warming hello. Metal Mulisha did a jump demo just behind their enormous warehouse to get people fired up.Then it was back inside to meet, greet, and tour the incredible new home of O’Neill, Lost, Metal Mulisha, and Rusty.   Woke up got some work done and headed to Home Depot Center for the Group Y / Action Sports Conference. With over 250 people in attendance people came from all walks to talk shop. From core participants in Action Sports to Non-endemic industry leaders blending for the day to grow the pond. They had an amazing line up and hit home with the food. Thx ASR for paying my entry..  I love you.. Mark Sperling and Liz Randall founders of Group Y should be proud. high-five guys. Then went to meet up with a few friends at Staples for the X-Games. DC had a couple suites to watch the action. Once we left there we all met up at Standard Hotel for the DC Gold Standard in LA. In a nutshell DC takes over the Standard in Downtown LA for the weekend of X-Games 15 to hold events, house staff, athletes in town to compete, a couple celebs and key industry folks. We met up with Mike and Jen West and hung with them for a bit. Jens a blast. her husband Mike is big man at 686. We wet up to the rooftop to catch up with a few friends. Thank You DC. Really nice job. Oh ya, I went to see Pastrana attempt a 720 at best trick. It was incredible. just before the moto best-trick kicked off BMX i witnessed a Double Front-Flip on the Mega Ramp and somehow he didn’t win the gold. Check it on you tube. His name is Anthony Napolitan. it was insane.. PRod took gold in street, and Rune took another gold as well. X-Games was neato. Good job Tim and Caroline good job. Didn’t see you this weekend but your hard work paid off.   My wife is back in town so I’m going home. Maybe she can explain to me why that kid Anthony didn’t win the gold on the double front flip.   also look at the exhibitor list for both ASR and Class at ASR , for more on the events I touched on. Rob Campbell Transworld Business Publisher was at EVERYTHING. Get some rest Rob.  have a nice week!!
Thank you,
Jim Shubin
ASRbiz.com
Classatasr.com

This is from my Utah trip to visit Andy Bell. It is a pic from the Thrill Billies Compound. pretty cool place. DANGER.

The OGIO headquarters. Amazing spot. I checked out their skatepark and we picked up a few dirt bikes so we can ride that day.

This was Andy showing Kurt Nichol’s (KTM Manager / Super Moto) wife and Mark Fiore (Transworld Moto Mag Publisher) the bike stand made from OGIO. its insane. you don’t have to lift a 250 lb bike anymore.

We rinsed ourselves off with a 3 hour river tube ride. Andy has a great group of friends. about 50 people came out from the area to join us for the body scaring white-trash fest.

this is Motel No Tell. Madsteez themed it up for the event. this was the candy room. The Motel looked insane. Not to mention there was a Delorean right in the middle of the event punching me in the vision. loved it.

Here’s Mark - Madsteez. he was giving me the tour and had to show me the kitchen. check the “Do the Urkel” board game on the fridge. I will take you down in that game. check Mark link for a good time.  http://www.madsteez.com . also buy a pair of his kicks.

My favorite swell of silly ole 09. Carlsbad getting zippy on July 24th.

New Era / Transworld Surf VIP Gold Club at the contest.

La Jolla house warming. from L to R. Erin Barajas (California Apparel News Editor) , Jessica Rush (Ezekiel Girl’s Brand Manager) , Lindsay Henkles (Lost Girl’s head of Sales)

La Jolla Group board of director / Lakers Assistant Coach and my girl Sofia. I wanted her to kiss him for locking Odom for next season.. yaaaaa!

This pic is from the Group Y meeting at Home Depot Center. his name is Ron Semiao. if you see him hug him. because this mister is not only Senior VP of ESPN Films he also created the X-Games. Thank you sir!!!!

At Gold Standard LA. DC had their Rally cars displayed in front of the hotel. This is Travis Pastrana’s rig.  You can see Ken Blocks car in the pic as well. Next year I want these two in the Rally final battling for the Gold..

Random Pic- I love this shot of Dan Moylan (Director of ASR Tradeshow) I surf with him now and then. This pic was one he showed me from a few years back. He was a boatman on Namotu Island in Fiji. Dan and I heckle each other pretty bad. balls in my court now. This is Dan Moylan on a right off Namotu Island. Girl in the photo is looking at him saying “man I haven’t seen Bud Llamas in a while” but I find myself looking at the photo saying “man Dan, this photo doesn’t quite show the clear Hula Hoop you’re whipping about on this little turn”. Once you all are done with ASR and need a little water time. hit up Scotty and Mandy for a week in paradise. the link.   Just make sure to look out for Danimal the one armed animal and his clear Wonder Woman Jet hula hoop in the line up.

Just got to the Ocean Institute in South Orange County. We were there for SIMA’s “Sales & Marketing”Boot Camp.  It was a pretty day out, so parking my pirate ship was tough but I squeezed into a spot. Hope I don’t get a ticket.   Anyhow Doug Palladini from Vans and now pres. of SIMA delivered the opening address.

Next up, Michael Wood from TRU. TRU is a market research and consulting firm for the youth. He did a great job and reading the little bio on him I saw he has been quoted in NY Times, Business Week, CNN, Wall Street Journal and much more.. Now he made this busted blog… Nice one Michael and thank you for the solid info… Check them out at tru-insight.com.

Then Transworld Biz boss, Rob Campbell came up to moderate our four panelists. Tom Holbrook from Quiksilver, Jeff Moore from Vans, Greg “GO” Osthus of Atwater, and some handsome youngbuck from Hurley by the name of Mark Weber. All to talk about navigating our current changing climate. I would say this was a very inspiring panel. These guys have a wide array of industry knowledge. A couple tidbits I’ll share are as follows:

• You’re reps are feeling isolated out there so provide them with support and motivation to keep momentum.
• Build and or focus on product that best represents the DNA of the brand and sell items to retailers that will properly follow suit.
• Retailers are focusing on margin more than ever.

Mark mentioned the consumer’s mindset is to look for a deal out there right now. So true.  We can all agree we are in the same game. I have never looked at the price of eggs and milk until end of last year. EL Prez Palladini came back up for a bit to share the 2008 SIMA Retail Distribution Study Results. If you are not yet a SIMA member sign up. Then email http://www.jennifer@SIMA.com for some solid info.

Some good news from this though. There are 4900 Surf / Skate shops. Of the shops surveyed footwear is up from 06 to 08 and softgoods are just about flat. Not bad!! Another thing that stuck out for me was the importance of Skateboards within these shops. food for thought…

One thing I want to get off my chest. The new dates are locked for SIMA in Cabo. Send/ fax or drive your registrations to SIMA like today. I want us all to come off the tradeshow craze and just shy of the holidays, we go down and celebrate the good life of Baker and just posse up for a good end of the year goodbye to a silly 09. DO IT!! Lets surf…  See you at ASR then Cabo.  Thank you ASR for getting me there.  Thank you SIMA for a great job and solid insight to chew on for a bit.  Thank you Flanny for your duck-tail.

-Jim Shubin
ASRbiz.com
ClassAtASR.com

Check out live tweets from boot camp via ASR’s Leanne Milliken aka @HurricaneLeezy

The Posse. Love, live, learning.

During the break. Is this where they filmed night at the museum?

Flanny’s new thong ishh. love it.

The Panelists killing it..

SIMA’s Executive Director Sean Smith (wow what a year he’s had) and Leanne Milliken, Nielsen Group / ASR’s retail group marketing manager post Boot Camp. Hey guys this girl is rad. FYI.

Shit.. i got a parking ticket! sticking out from the curb again..

random pic- This is a pic from 5 or 6 years ago at the ooolllld SIMA offices. I was at Ezekiel at the time and for Cinco De Mayo I paid for a 6 person Mariachi Band to roll with me around town. A few mags, and few companies , etc. Well, this is when we blasted through the doors of SIMA. I was never reimbursed for these expenses.. ha.