Viva Las Vegas.

Sorry to any loyal readers for my absence but it's been a busy week cathching up on school and riding after an epic adventure to Las Vegas, Nevada with Rome Snowboard Design Syndicate.  In addition to that, I just got back from another week spent in Keystone, CO for an on-snow demo with Rome SDS which I will write about soon.

One the greatest things about the Ski and Snowboard Business Program here at Colorado Mountain College Alpine Campus is the incredible opportunities they provide. Through this program, they give you the chance to apply for internships with any company in the snowsports industry to work for them at various tradeshows throughout the year. I was incredibly lucky to hear back from Rome SDS and they offered me this chance to go to Vegas with them for the Snowsports Industires of America (SIA) tradeshow, which is the biggest one in the U.S.

The whole adventure actually started out pretty poorly, with my flight from Hayden to Denver getting delayed, followed by my flight from Denver to Vegas being delayed, until I finally arrived at my hotel, The Excalibur, at around 1:30am. Even after that rough day, my first taste of Vegas was awesome. The drive from the airport to the hotel had an awesome view of the strip. I had seen it in movies and such but actually seeing the lights and feeling the energy of the city was pretty incredible. On top of that, the view from our room was epic. It looked out over the New York New York hotel and down the strip towards the Belagio. So after soaking in the city for a bit, I passed right out, ready to wake up early tomorrow to head to the convention center in Mandalay Bay to help Rome finish setting up their booth.

By the way, before I continue, I have to apologize for the lack of pictures. My friend Chelsy had a camera there and was taking a ton of pictures, but unfortunetly, on the 4th of 5th day, she lost it at the tradeshow, so sorry for no visuals.

Anywho, the nest day started nice and early (for me anyway) when we had to be at the convention center by 9am. The day started by meeting a bunch of Rome employees including Ron, who was the one who contacted me about the internship.  Most of the work day was spent getting all the boots and bindings out of their boxes and on display, as well as behind the boots and bindings bar where the sales reps give their presentations to the buyers about, of course, next years boots and bindings line. As a side note, an awesome thing about the tradeshow was that I was able to see a ton of product that's not coming out til next snow season. Also, I found out that they are also pretty much done with the entire 2010/11 product line so I thought that was cool. After the day of work, I even got to contribute to a session where the showed all the ideas for the 2010/11 outerwear line and all the sales reps and even us interns got to write our opinions about each idea. It was awesome.  Being not 21, the nightlife for me in Vegas was nothing to brag about, but after the show, some friends and I would usually wander the strip, checking out all the cool hotels and casinos.

The next day the tradeshow started.  My time at the show was spent, once again, with the boots and bindings.  My main job at the show, besides any tasks Ron or anybody had for me, was to keep the boots and bindings in order and to help the reps during their presentations by grabbing product for them.  Besides that, the next three days of the show are a crazy blur of new product, crazy snowboarders, and free shwag.  A ton of companies were giving out free t-shirts and necklaces and such, so I made sure to load up before the show was over.  On top of that, I got a hat and a pair of gloves from Rome, so that was sick.

My final full day in Vegas was spent again in the convention center, breaking down the booth with the remaining people there from Rome.  Afterwards was the best site seeing night I had in Vegas.  After getting cleaned up from the breakdown, the Rome guys and I decided to celebrate the last night in Vegas, especially since the tradeshow will be in Denver next year, by going to the buffet at the Belagio.  Best... meal... ever.  We walked down the strip from the Excalibur to the Belagio and were able to see the fountain show out front, which was awesome and kind of surreal.  After the meal, we decided to see the sites the best way possible, go up the Eiffel Tower.  I have to admit, I'm fairly scared of heights, so being up there was a little scary but still epic and awesome.  From there we headed back down the strip, played a couple games in the Midway at Excalibur and called it a night.  I said goodbye to everyone, thanked them for giving me the opportunity to go with them, and went to bed to get up at 5:30 for my flight back to the Boat.

I couldn't be happier with how things went in Vegas and am super grateful for the opportunity.  Also, Rome is hooking me up with discounts and hard to get gear, as well as a free board and bindings, so I'm pretty stoked how things worked out.  But now I'm back in Steamboat once again, and again am needing to catch up on homework.  Overall though, interning with companies is by far the best way to get into the industry, and if you're looking at coming out to Colorado Mountain College to do just that, I highly recommend it.  Also, check back soon for how things went in Keystone this past week.  Peace.