A LOOK BEHIND THE CURTAIN: VANCOUVER KNOWSHOW TRADESHOW VIDEO

As soon as you start entering the "snowboarding industry", be it as a media type or whatever, it will not be long before you inevitably hear about an upcoming trade-show. Now, this will seem like a great place to go shmooze it up and images of you nailing multi-million dollar deals will undoubtably start streaming through your head. There will be fantastic parties and you'll have a ball. Don't be fooled! Trade-shows are evil, evil places that will suck the fun right out of any industry, even snowboarding. The fact of the matter is trade-shows are for one thing and one thing only; for gear brands to sign deals with stores and distributors for the next year. If you're not on that program you'll basically just be in the way. There's also mostly filled with office-types who think this is a big escape from their, sigh, daily routines and they'll be all hopped up on energy drink and deal-making power. It's not pretty. 

Now, at some point you'll no doubt be told hard-to-believe stories about back when SIA (the biggest, evilest snowsports trade-show of them all) was still in Las Vegas. You'll be told about incredible all-night parties and Monster-paid trips to the tittie bars (true story, thanks Russell!). Well guess what? Although these tales are true, you've been fucked! SIA is now in Denver and sucks balls like all the rest of the tradeshows.

But you know what tradeshows are good for? Peeping next years gear. It's all on display – just don't touch the shit, it's all sample-quality and likely to fall apart at your touch!

This video from the Know Show in January in Vancouver is packed full of pretty people and tons of fresh looking gear. Check it out BUT DON'T BE FOOLED. You do not want to go to a trade-show! Trust me.