Vans Shoes Book Release Jammy Jam down in the OC

After E3 we headed down to the Vans book launch party. Warren, Piers and I met up with new client, pro skater, Geoff Rowley and did the damn thing. Van's sure does know how to throw a party. They held it outside in the parking lot with a bunch of food vendors (burgers, bbq, tacos, ice cream truck) and full bars. It was a solid OC crew and reminded me of the days when I worked in the surf industry. Anyways, they also had a skate jam in their insane bowl/pipe and an art show filled with art by marquee names in the art, surf and skate worlds. Geoff Rowley even did a piece that included a bunch of gun shots, metal and a machined up board.


Before the sun sets, the amazing photographer from Plop captures the essence of the Vans party (translation - the fricking Blackberry camera is so bad all it takes pictures of is shadows and spots of light)


Piers, Ewan (Flip Skateboards filmer), Geoff Rowley and Warren Geezy eatin' and drinkin' on the free grub. Good thing I decided to take Piers to dinner before a party filled with more food than you can eat.


If you put this ramp in front of me when I was 13 I would have jizzed my pants. I think I still did a little last night. Damn I wish I were young again.


I particularly liked this Neckface piece that was done for the artshow.



So toward the end of the night, Warren and I were having one last Pabst and Warren noticed an old guy in a Hawaiian shirt and asked me if he were the head cheese...and yeah I confirmed it was Steve Van Doren. Within minutes, Steve came over to graciously thank Warren for coming to their party and told us some cool stories about the company. He was so excited he went and got each of us a copy of the new book so Warren can read about the history of the brand (I was going to buy one on my way out anyways). We spent about 10 minutes talking story with Steve and it was really cool how down to earth he is considering the empire he built. Shit I grew up so much with Vans that when I was young and played soccer and baseball my mom bought us Vans cleats (I was the only poor bastard without Nikes).

Anyways Warren made a mad scramble after Steve left to find a sharpie and surprised Steve by asking him to sign the book...as did I (but who cares about me). Can't wait to read this.

A few Warren G photo opps later I managed to sneak out at a reasonable hour and got home to sleep. The minute I fell asleep (The Plop doesn't sleep very well and rarely falls right asleep), Warren called to make sure I got home o.k. (I only had two beers). I was wide awake after that and got about 3 hours total...I am totally exhausted now and will not make it through the day...my couch is calling. FML