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Oh yeah, im a complete nerd.  On Thursday, June 4, 2009 i got in the car with evo Snowboard Buyer Gorio Bustamante, Team Manager Chris Shalbot and friend Chris Dickerson and headed to PDX for a GroupY Panel Discussion on Social Web & Social Media, titled “Who Killed Social Media”.  Being from the area, i was excited to head to my stomping grounds, maybe make a pitstop at the Salomon/Bonfire offices and if we’re lucky run into Mae and George from US Outdoor.  In the end we managed to pull it all off… it was a nice Thursday.

We stopped by Cals Pharmacy and then made our way over to Bonfire’s Portland Office and hung out with Amy, Rian and Java. We talked shop a bit, looked at some new product, Java showed us some footage from their team trip to Japan, good times… thanks for letting us derail you from progress for a few minutes!  Did i mention that their offices are right next to one of Franz Bread’s factories… they really pump delicious “enriched white bread” smell into the air deliberately….after leaving Bonfire i really needed food in my mouth.

So we dined w/ George and Mae at a Thai restaurant in the Hawthorne district…it was okay, not quite like Fremont’s generous selection of thai restaurants however.  After din we were schooled by an interesting group of panelist. To further perpetuate my nerdiness i have included some links below and a few of the major takeaways that stuck out to me. Some of them are captain obvious but are good reminders, others might spark some new thoughts, enjoy:

Main takeaways:

• We can begin to think of investing in and engaging within the social web arena as an “insurance policy” and as “reputation management” – People are going to be out there (on the web) talking us, our services, the products that we carry…this all effects our search results
• SEO and SEM are changing drastically sooner than most people think (kind of tied in to above thought)
• We need to get better at “engaging” rather than just shouting AT our customers through our social web tools.
  
• authenticity is still key, and frequency and consistency is a must
• There is a way to utilize these tools such as twitter as a sales tool, but if you are going to do that, call it out.  Ex. evo_deals could be a twitter account
• “You MUST have an opinion and a voice. If you are going to even attempt to blog, you must stand for something”

Links:

• Review/Summary (Blog post) 
• Panel Discussion Webcast

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Its THAT time of year again… when the world as I know it converges on Whistler for a week long celebration of snowsports, music arts and culture…and debauchery of course.

This year Orage sent a grip of evo employees and 2 lucky contest winners from Seattle up to the Orage Masters event… managers across the company nominated their hardest working employees and they were rewarded with an (almost) all expenses paid trip to Whistler as VIP’s.

Rollin’ deep at about 15 people including our contest winner Hans and his girlfriend Jennifer…we loaded up our caravan and crossed our fingers that everyone would make it across the border!  It was a pretty standard road trip..  traffic getting out of the city, gas station stops for cheap coffee and a rearview mirror dreamcatcher (see photo), Casa Que Pasa in Bham for lunch and one last potty break in Squampton before rolling in to Whistler.

After minor confusion and some tweaks w/ the lodging we got almost everyone in a bed and enough time to chill before heading to Sushi Village.  We had a reservation for 18 and managed to squeeze 23 bodies into the backroom… was cozy, but i think everyone knew eachother, and if they didn’t they do now!  evo team rider Anthony Boronowski and his rad lady friend Spencer O’brien and a couple friends dropped in to help us enjoy our feast!  it was obscene the amount of food that landed on the table.. SO good, thanks sushi village!

That night we cruised around and had a couple drinks before, during and after the big air finals and eventually called it a night.

The next day we went on the hill to ride and watch the Orage Masters “Anti Comp”.  Visibility was kind of..no wait, pretty poopy, but the comp was pretty sick.  I hadn’t seen it first hand before… good vibe, incredible talent and hillarious costumes and contributions put forth by each of the teams.

After the Masters we tried to take it easy… $5 burgers at Merlin’s and a powernap before the after party.  Mmmmmmk, next stop Amsterdam where we Ameoba’d as many people as possible.. Sophia, Schmies, Wibby, Jeff, Joey, Tyler, Cheryl, Timmers…  all my favorites.. anyhow,  eventually we made it to the Savage Beagle.  Recap = dance party + photobooth + free drinks + good times.

By the time Monday rolled around i was sad to see everyone heading out the door.  Ill be sticking around through the week to check out the Filmmaker Showdown, the Photo Showdown and all the music arts and culture Telus has to offer…. more to come….

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Its crazy how easy it is to wake up early when you are in a place like this I swear every morning we’ve been up by 7a! Aside from adjusting to the time warping from time zones, there is so much relaxing to do, so many things I want to see.

This morning, as with most mornings started with a dip in the pool…slowly transitioning to a little stint next to the pool, coffee in hand with a good book. Eventually breakfast becomes part of the morning routine and somehow we eventually make it out for some adventures.

We started with the Medicine Man and figured eventually we would make our way towards the market. Who is this famous Medicine Man? Ketut Leyur is somewhat of an international superstar thanks to Oprah’s Book Club feature “Eat, Pray, Love”. I was pretty excited… I’d bought into the hype of “Eat, Pray, Love” and basically preach that thing like it’s a bible. A colorful writer with a story that parallels a path that I think we all head down at some point in our lives… the Medicine Man was part of her personal journey, which I think in some ways becomes part of each of her readers personal journey in the end.

Anyhow, we were all skeptical but excited at the same time. He had a pretty solid formula that he tailored to each of us. Basically he’s a fortuneteller for us tourists and a spiritual healer to the locals if understood correctly. He told me that I’m a good girl, and when I’m 30 I can marry a good boy and I will have 3 kids. I will live till im 105 years old, which I’m not so sure im excited about, but I will also have success. There was more, things he touched on that I kind of already know but there was something special when he said it, something mysterious about his delivery. This man is just as you’d imagine. Large cloth coiled atop his head, dry cracking skin, and a smile that could steal any show. He really only had 1 tooth poking out and the rest appeared to be rotted out. He tried not to smile with his teeth but it was special when he did..it was almost a game for me to try and get him to smile.

So we all tipped our $200,000 Rupia ($20US) for his wisdom and in most cases I think I’d feel pretty duped but it felt auspiciously right that we went to see him.

Next it was food time again! Tim and Claire from Bukit had told us about this incredible restaurant Sari Organic that’s nestled in the middle of some rice fields right outside of Ubud. You have to either hike in by foot for about 30 mins, or scooter in on a narrow slightly paved but mostly dirt trail.

We scootered in and found ourselves standing in front of a 2 story hut basically, surrounded by organic gardens and nothing but rice fields. As we waited for a table we enjoyed a local brew called “Storm”, recommended by our Aussie friends, as well as a couple rounds of Organic -Vanilla, Banana Milkshakes. Yum. The crowd dining there was eclectic, but what I expected I’d say. There were no more than maybe 30’ish seats in the open air café, a couple groups of uber hippies, a family or two, quite a few of what appeared to be ex-patriots carrying on intense conversations, and then there was us.

The food was incredible…haha, surprise surprise! Everything we’ve had so far has been nothing less…im wondering if a bad meal is in our future? So yeah, we enjoyed more Mie Gorang, handpicked salads, pumpkin soup, banana pancakes, and more local beers and shakes…and it was all organic and I didn’t feel guilty about my over consumption in the slightest!

In the midst of our feast a torrential downpour decided to join us! It was beautiful and terrifying at the same time! Thunder literally rocked the patchwork hut and run drops were so large you could see single droplets pool in your hand. So needless to say it wasn’t that hard to convince us to stick around awhile longer.

Finally we figured it was time to make our way to the heart of Ubud and check out the market. The rain had subsided however the roads were pretty slippery and one of the scooters went down and sent Ira’s shoe and Courtney flying! Neither were seriously injured in the incident but it was definitely a wake up call…scootering and Balinese, Organic, Vanilla Bean milkshakes = danger!

Next the market place! It was perfect, hungry peddlers ready to make a friend, haha, a sale I mean! Everyone was my new best friend, “friend, I make good deal for you!” I spent a couple bucks and brought back some souvenirs for myself and the family but didn’t have enough cash to do too much damage. There were interesting things at the market. I saw vendors with all kinds of fresh spices, silver jewelry on every corner, a ton of wood carvings, locally crafted apparel, farm tools, and all kinds of crazy chotchkies that you could never imagine needing or wanting!

We topped the day off with an almost sunset scooter ride back from the heart of Ubud back towards our Villa in Sebali (also called Villa Sebali). The landscape was SO lush and rich with GREENS, and YELLOWS and LIFE you almost felt it creeping on your skin…in that good way…you know like when you know someone is right behind you, or SO close to you that you can almost feel them?? Yeah, just like that!

evoTrip | Day 12 – The Medicine Man, the Market and a storm! from evo on Vimeo.

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Man its certainly difficult, torturous even to leave our coastal nest that we’ve grown accustomed to life in Bukit. Im really only going off of Bryce’s contagious rants and what I’ve read in books but I am pretty excited to drop in on Indonesia’s artistic and cultural center.

The drive in gave us the opportunity to see the countryside and a new side of Bali… well, it wasn’t so different actually. The new landscape offered a consistent peppering of beautiful temples that seemed only to increase as we grew closer to Ubud.

The hour and a half drive was a kaleidoscope filled with Balinese culture, a visual feast if you will as described by Bryce. I could enjoy that drive many times over.

Next we find ourselves at yet another incredible spot. Villa Sebali is this incredibly crafted, outdoor style villa with all the bells and whistles. Its situated a couple kilometers outside of the actual town of Ubud amongst the rice fields. The main common area and kitchen is basically an outdoor villa with a large master suite above it, 1 built off to the side and 2 branching out from the sides….all centered around an incredible infinity pool that looks out on the rice fields.

After downing our “welcome drinks” and dropping our bags Made (our dedicated Villa Sebali Staff Lead) drove us into town for some food and to check things out. Our first meal in Ubud, amazing… sight seeing, awe inspiring… getting lost in a rice field on the walk home, priceless…and actually pretty enjoyable!

evoTrip | Day 11 – Off to ubud from evo on Vimeo.

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At some point we decided to spice up the afternoon and hopped on the scooters again and we scooted down the street and found ourselves at Padang Padang to scope out the surf and then eventually ended up at a sweet little café that overlooked Uluwatu for lunch.

Ira enjoyed another round of Mie Goreng of course while the rest of us dabbled a bit and explore some of the other delights that Bali had to offer. During lunch we were paid a visit by Danny DVD. He was selling $1 DVD’s… and he was a convincing little guy. At first we tried swatting him away but he just kept laying down some incredible titles… i think we all gave in a got a couple for the flight home. I ended up with Slumdog Millionaire, Zack and Miri Make a Porno, and The Holiday (i know i know). I can’t remember exactly how the rest of the day went down but I believe it went something like “nap, swim, reading, eating!” I’m growing quite fond of long afternoons spent in the sun next to the pool, book in hand, dozing in and out of sleep.

This evening we dined at Mu Bali together and Tim and Claire joined us again. I believe there was tempeh, fish, vegetable trays…and a delicious sundae… and of course as with all meals the sambal kept coming. Not much more to report…it was an ultimate day of relaxation.  Sorry, no video this day!

For more info on evoTrip go here!

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We kicked the day off with some Yoga over at Temple Lodge…. the setting couldn’t have been more perfect. It was just our group and Claire our new friend who is staying with us over at Mu Bali lodge. It was really the first time I’d ever done yoga… it was so incredible. I am going to try and keep doing this when I get back home.

To ice the cake I signed up for a massage following my yoga and breakfast. An adorable Balinese woman touched me in ways that I can not begin to describe…it was the most amazing thing I’ve experienced to date…both spiritual and physical ecstasy I only paid $100,000 Rupia for it, which equals less than $10 US dollars.

So the one thing that I remember people advising was, “I wouldn’t get scooters when you’re in Bali,” apparently its super sketchy to drive on Balinese roads. So what did we do? Of course we got scooters, are ya kidding?! Ive always toyed with the idea of getting a motorcycle and taking it to the open road like to the coast or Eastern, Washington…somewhere you could just cruise with incredible scenery all around you. That was my old fantasy. After meandering the coastline of Bali from surf spot to surf spot my new fantasy is and was riding scooters (or a motorcycle) amongst the rice fields and coastline of Bali. Sweet, check another one off the list!

We rented some super sketchy, almost literally held together by duct tape scooters from a little shop down the street and Mu Bali arranged to have them delivered to the lodge. After figuring out how to keep them started, sorting out helmets and figuring out where we were going we made our way towards the world famous surf spot Uluwatu. I was a little weirded out by driving on the left hand side of the road but its pretty easy not to mess that one up if you just follow other people. So I did.

The landscape was absolutely breath taking. One side was lined with the most lush, vibrant terrain id ever seen, and on the other nothing but blue skies, crashing waves and magnificent rock formations greeting the sand at the base of the cliffs.

After leaving our little villa we basically cruised around all day. We stopped at a petrol stand on the side of the road, they’re all over. Its basically a stand with about a dozen of liter bottles on a shelf, sold for $50,000 Rupia ($5 US Dollars). It was interesting to see how they do it out there. There was one older man (or at least weathered looking) and about 5 children chilling under a small hut. As our 5 bikes rolled up the kids were all smiles and jumped on the opportunity to service us. I think all of the kids even helped, or at least looked on as each of us filled our tanks.

After we were all juiced up we continued to head towards Uluwatu. The roadside was lined with petrol stands every so often, magnificent temples every couple minutes and pharrel dogs here and there. In the area that we were staying of Bukit, and really most of Indonesia, things appears to be poverty stricken maybe… that’s not the word im looking for though. Primitive is more fitting, but as I gain more perspective and understanding of the culture I’d like to swap out primitive for simple or minimalist. …anyhow I digress, back to the scooter journey.

We made it to Uluwatu after taking our time zipping down side roads, nearly evading a scooter accident and taking in the smells and sites of this place that fairy tales are made of. At the parking area some locals tending their souvenir shop greeted us. Now let me preface this by saying that so far ive decided that Balinese people are about the most kind, considerate wonderful people (as a whole) that I’ve met to date…. however these vendors were brutal and in some of the more touristy areas ive seen it a bit. We ended up springing on some tees, a hat or two, some bottled waters and I looked at some jewelry, but for some reason I think they still thirsted for blood! Haha, not really but I felt like they’d never be satisfied no matter how much money we spent!

After passing yet another super cool temple and dropping in on a short flight of stairs we descended upon an interesting collection of shops that were kind of resting in the cliffside. There were a few cafes, and one hell of a viewpoint.

The water was this slightly milky but a radiant blue in some spots, then green towards the shore. The waves pounded up against the rocky shoreline, and it was pretty windy where we were at… from what the guys were saying, the surf looked somewhat tame and I guess it is the off season, but all I know is that this place looked huge to me. We hung out there for a bit, drooled, and headed out for more wandering on our scooters.

At some point I think after the surf spot we ended up randomly at this huge temple that we decided to check out. As we were coming in there was a couple just leaving and they said it was amazing, and also that there are some devious little monkeys in there. At the gate we paid a couple thousand Rupia per person, purchased some fruit to feed the monkeys and they put these purple wraps around our waists with yellow sashes…they were quite lovely… it was some kind of tradition, respecting the temple or something to that effect. Venturing in the monkeys weren’t too far off. These guys were way cooler than the monkeys in japan that’s for sure. They had these little mohawks, and almost looked like gremlins! They were way more tactile and aggressive not to mention. They would run right up to you, start tugging on your purple skirt thing and just look at you with these adorable eyes. If you didn’t feed them and they saw the fruit in your hand, some times they would even jump or start climbing up your leg. It was comical and adorable…until you tried to pet them! It was like Outbreak, these guys had some chompers on them. One guy let me touch him and actually pet him for awhile, but all the others were super sassy about touching.

This temple was like in the movies… cliff walls, walk ways, sculptures, and temples were adorned with elaborate stone work… you could look down the way at the sea wall and it was so breath taking to see the stone work that had gone in to this structure.

At one point we came to this monkey pool… these guys were just diving in head first, swimming and playing with each other. We the stupid tourist stood around and watched them in the pool while their mischievous friends would frolic all over us, trying to steal sunglasses, jewelry, and pretty much anything they could get their hands on. One of them scored my hair tie and we tried to barter with him using some fruit we had purchased but the little guy was totally messing with us. Finally we threw in the towel. So yeah, needless to say we took a million and a half pictures of monkeys, Japanese tourists and the temple… with no monkey bites or serious monkey theft to report we called it a day and headed back to the villa.

That night we did dinner with Cristiana, the owner of the neighboring villa, Temple Lodge. She prepared a mahi mahi dish that was prepared in a fried banana leaf, we enjoyed wine, and our new Australian friends Tim and Claire joined us. Cristiana shared with us her story of how she arrived in Bali. An Italian native who’d spent the better half of the past decade with her husband and children in Cape Town. Both retired from a bustling life and were drawn to the area on a holiday and decided to stay. Again on a holiday they landed in Bali on a holiday and were determined to call this place home. Stories from all ends of the table were shared… bellies were filled….it was a perfect way to cap off the night.

For more info on evoTrip go here!

evoTrip | Day 9 – Scootering, more monkeys and temples! from evo on Vimeo.

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I kicked off the day with an incredible banana crepe and a morning dip in the pool. The next couple hours were filled with reading in the morning sun, conversation and sheer relaxing. After a week of a fairly regimented schedule it was nice to have no schedule and really nothing to do whatsoever. I think I’m going to like this place.

Later in the afternoon we called a cab and it took us kind of into town to hit up an ATM for some cash. I withdrew 1 million Rupia to get me by for the next couple days. $1 US dollar is equivalent to about $12,000 Indonesian Rupia. We got paid out in $50,000 Rupia bills… ballin.

So for the next couple days we are in this beach area called Bingin, a coastal town a few minutes from Padang Padang and world famous surf zone Iluwatu. The ocean out here is incredible, pristine blue water, magnificent rock formations lining the cliff side and super friendly locals. We hardly get internet service here and barely have power, unless of course we would’ve been prepared with power converters. In Indonesia they are on I think a 220v power supply where as back home we are on a 110v supply. I think if I were to try and plug something in it would just blow up. Not really sure but I don’t want to find out the hard way.

After scaling the cliffs right below our lodge a couple times and being met with crashing waves right at our feet, the tide was finally low enough to peruse the beach side. We ventured left from our beach entrance about a mile or 2 to Padang Padang. We buried our toes deep into the slightly rust colored sand. Everything around us was a sight to see, picturesque. There were fisherman out there tossing their nets to the sea. Aussie’s out on the surf and lounging topless on the beach. Locals out and about enjoying family outings.

The rest of the day consisted of more swimming in the infinity pool of course, an amazing sunset, and an incredible dinner. We had this tempeh and nut concoction, chicken satay with peanut sauce, salad and a fruity ice cream sundae to top it off. I think everynight so far on this trip I end the night by pinching myself…yup, I’m really here.

For more info on evoTrip go here!

evoTrip | Day 8 – First full day in Bali from evo on Vimeo.

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We were up with the roosters and off to the airport. At this point we were parting ways with four of our group, 2 being our Canadian counter parts, Bryn Hughes and Austin Ross as they got “the shot” and were heading back to the Great White North to continue to chase some virgin powder lines. They will both be missed as we are sipping mai tai’s from our infinity pool along the coast of Bali! Thanks for killin’ it you guys, can’t wait to see all your shots Bryn!

So we nearly missed our bus from Tokyo to Narita International Airport where we were to embark on a couple hour flight to Seoul, then to Bali… despite lugging around our now unnecessary baggage with skis and all of our gear, backed up elevators, and locking ourselves out of our room we caught the bus…close call!

The jaunt from Tokyo to South Korea was quick and dirty. A few winks, a light snack and we were there.
Once in Seoul we rolled right up to the Prestige and Hub Lounges, KAL’s special VIP zones where we enjoyed an open bar, flat screen TVs, open buffet, velour furniture, and ICE CREAM. Was the easiest 4hr layover every. Enough said.

In the airport we enjoyed the locals, in particular there were a massive amount of couples sporting matching outfits…. Gosh maybe a couple dozen couples apparently all got married and were heading out to Bali on our flight to do some massive honeymoon. It was hilarious and disgusting at the same time. We shared our 7hr flight with them, Twilight, and some food that I couldn’t identify.

We landed in Bali at the Densapar Airport around 2:30am and once thru customs we met our welcoming crew out front. As we exited the building we were hit like a ton of bricks by the evening warmth and humidity. It was refreshing and after a long week of being in the cold I was ready for it.

We packed up our ski and snowboard bags into one van and it headed one way, and our group loaded the other vans and we headed to our lodge. Talk about sketchy roads and drivers…not sure if the lines on the road have much meaning but the locals don’t seem to use them much.

By the time we made it to our lodge the evening was starting to resemble morning. Though pitch black for the most part the lodging appeared to be dream like. Just like in the movies. All of the rooms are open and exposed to the elements. The infinity pool faces the coast and sits no more than 30 feet away from the cliffs that drop straight down to incredible surf. At this point we are wired and decide to take a dip in the pool and recap the past week of adventures. Not bad.

evoTrip | Day 7 – Travel Day from evo on Vimeo.

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