R.I.P. SnoCon

This was a sad weekend here in Seattle, as a pillar of snowboarding retail went down.  After 24 years of servicing the Seattle and WA snowboarding community, the Snowboard Connection closed their doors.  There is a good story about the who, what, why and how it went down HERE.  Read it.  It answers all your questions. 

All I can say is that SnoCon was one of our top retailers. Period.  They carried all of our brands, from day 1.  They helped put us on the map.  We are forever grateful for that.

On a personal note, John, Lisa and Frank are great friends of ours.  John delivered chips, salsa and a Sapporo beer to us the day Milo was born.  Which was 6 weeks after his son Frank was born.  He and I drove back and forth to Snoqualimie and Stevens when the kids were 3 years old on and got them into the weekly ski lessons.  The kids have gone to school together since day one.  We've eaten and drank enough at their summer bbq's that if they didn't have them, they'd probably still be in business (kidding).  He and I did Minor Threat together for the last 5 years.  Two dopes that complimented each other.  Most importantly, he got me and I got him.  He went out like a champ.  With his head held high, doing the right thing.  Which is a hard thing to do when your in a situation like he was in and you have all these financial assholes telling you what to do, which would of been fucking over the hands that fed his store for the last 24 years.  I'm sad for the loss of the store, but happy for him to be ridden of the mental struggle that this has been for the last 5 years.  Constantly trying to right the ship that was under water.  He said that to me the other day when he broke the news "you know, a sunken ship still floats."

I'm not worried about what he's going to do next because good things happen to good people.  Karma bitch, and he's got a bunch coming his way.

Cheers to John, Lisa, Frank, Adam, Rich, Kahay, Kate, Alex, Davin, Buck, Sacks, Forrest and the rest of em that pedaled stoke for the last 24 years.