OR Blog

Rebuilding the ‘Mexican Riviera’ in Sayulita

PROLOGUE: Sayulita is a quaint fishing/surfing village located 45 minutes north of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. It lies in the state of Nayarit and is part of the 'Mexican Riviera' (a Mexican government initiative aptly named to attract more tourists to this part of the country). Many local shops and restaurants are scattered about the tiny town of cobblestone streets, casitas and bungalows. This little hippie village has become my home-away-from home and you need to experience it for yourself one day...

Rebuilding the ‘Mexican Riviera’ by Ginger Conrad, Outdoor Retailer Marketing Manager, Oct 1, 2010

(image: let's get 'er done!)

I made a conscious decision not to cancel my impending trip to Sayulita when I learned of the horrible devastation caused by heavy rainfall and flooding 10 days before my departure date. After all, I had visited Sayulita around the time the Mexican drug wars surfaced, and then again during the H1N1 virus scare. Nothing would stop me from being there. From my experience, Sayulita was a safe haven, despite all of the harmful rumors and the decline in visitors over the past two years. AS soon as I learned of their troubles, I became intent on trying to make a difference and helping to rebuild the town and the morale of its people.  But I could never have fully understood what I would experience this time around.

The reality of circumstances started to set in the day after I arrived into town. I met an adorable young couple from Portland Oregon, Santina and Ben, at Chocobanana: the favorite local restaurant/hangout spot in the town square. Santina and Ben recounted that they had been robbed the day before, while Ben was out tackling the brown surf, and Santina was having a leisurely breakfast at Chocobanana. The thieves looted the couple’s most costly possessions – computers, iPods, a new Sony digital camera, Nike running shoes, high-end make-up and much more. A week prior, they had sold their car and packed their bags for an adventure of a lifetime – to live in Sayulita for 6 months, maybe more if they could figure out how to make a living there. Needless to say, this incident started to tarnish their view of Mexico in general and weakened their dreams of making Sayulita a temporary residence. 

Later that same day, I learned of several more break-ins that happened to both gringo & local Mexican households in town – I got the feeling that thieves were omni-present and not prejudice against any particular stereotype. They were raiding the rich and the poor. Was it out of desperation for survival? Or were they simply taking advantage of the situation at hand – the total mayhem throughout Sayulita that the flooding had caused.

I have traveled to Sayulita so many times that I am now considered a local. I was staying in my preferred casita, which is about a 20 minute walk from the center of town, and I hadn’t let the power outages on the first night at my little Hansel & Gretel hideaway bother me too much, until I started putting two and two together – reported break-ins all over town, my immediate neighbors gone for the season, frequent power outages combined with the fact that I was all alone in what was now feeling like the middle of nowhere. It hit me all at once– the harsh reality that if I wanted to stay safe I had to be in a more secure place close to town immediately. At first it was discouraging to admit that I was at any more of a risk during this trip than any of the previous tumultuous times I had come to Sayulita, but later I learned about the broken window and door jam at my casita that very night I moved out. Out in the nick of time I’d say…

I felt very secure at my new rental - a bungalow that came with round-the-clock security. I was able to focus my attention away from fear for my own safety and on to rebuilding the tarnished Sayulita landscape that had been carefully crafted over the years to attract new visitors. 

I worked with the locals for many hours on cleaning up the beaches that were filled with broken glass, plastic and the plethora of ‘basura’ brought in by the river and the mudslides onto the shore. Hundreds of Sayulita residents joined in the cleaning efforts and the progress we made was both astounding and gratifying. I now have a better understanding for the saying, “many hands make light work”.

As for rebuilding the tarnished image of Sayulita and the Mexican Riviera in general, I will do what I can (in an honest and open way) to promote the oasis I’ve come to love and call home. I’ve been helping out two of the local hangouts in town by creating Facebook pages and taking and uploading pictures of their establishments and the people that come to enjoy their ambiances. I hope that these small efforts can help raise the hopes of the local Sayulita businesses toward positive futures and success for their establishments.

It may not have been the week of escape in Paradise that I had originally expected months before when I booked the flight, but all said and done, I remain content with my decision to travel to Mexico during yet another rather chaotic period of time. Let’s face it; we in the outdoor industry crave this kind of adventure accompanied with a sense of accomplishment, no?

- Ben and Santina haven't left Sayulita and are willing to stick it out for another couple of months to see their new surroundings in a better light during the ‘good’ season (November - February).

- I am going back to Sayulita in December and will stay in my original casita at the north end of town.  Times will be better, and my neighbors will have returned home!

- Please search ‘Chocobanana’ and ‘Burrito Revolution’ on Facebook and ‘like’ the fan pages!

- To follow the progress of the rebuilding of Sayulita, visit www.sayulitalife.com and sign up for the weekly newsletter. Also check out www.sayulitason.com for the latest news in the region.

- If you've already been to Sayulita, I know that you feel my pain and would have been on the beach with us for clean up!

(The Choco crew - Chocobanana closed 'shop' all morning to help in the efforts!)

(now there is only muddy river water where the sand used to lay peacefully)

(Alejandro leaves no trace...)

(playa de los meurtos after our hard work!)

(ready to call it a day!)

Interbike shifts to launch window and out of Vegas, avoids OR Summer overlap

What a whirlwind week (again). Planning for 2011 is in full swing, especially Winter Market, but all the strategic partnerships and new elements I want to bring to the market take fairly huge time commitments per each. Then an upwelling of surprise due to the premature announcement of Interbike dates that overlap Summer Market 2011 put the icing on the whirlwind cake! Today's announcement (official) that Interbike dates will not overlap but begin 3 days after OR has me sighing in relief, and I'm grateful for the thoughtful discussions had in the past few weeks of dealing with the move of Ibike dates and venues; although that is still going to be tight for brands who are in both camps, at least it's not impossible to get a booth down, over to Anaheim and back up. AND it puts Interbike in the better buy/sell window for brands and dealers both... As much as retailers think they want familiar fall dates, the reality of getting maximum intel earlier in the season on next year product will be a benefit to the specialty dealer. At least they have the chance to compete with the bigger boxes.

This is a contentious issue, dates and venues. Sound off on what you believe... we must acknowledge that the markets are closely aligned, and the buy/sell cycle inherent to Outdoor and Cycling aren't that radically different. It makes some sense for them to need similar dates, if not venues, to get the specialty dealers on board while they have strong customer interest and business remaining in summer.

So what do you think?

And the Show goes on

Well the whirlwind of the OR Summer show 2010 has subsided, except for those of you road-tripping on to points N/S/E/W.  I didn't find any road trippers from the South, but certainly from every other direction and I bet there were a few willing to take highway and byway to SLC last week.
I know it's important to say, so I'll say it now that attendance at the show was up in all measured categories of buyers, stores, exhibitors, media, advocacy groups and overall attendance.  This bucks the trend in the trade show industry for sure... But is that really important, or just a sound byte for the data-starved b2b media market?   Is the show, after all, a quality play, or quantity play?  Is it a numbers game at the end of it all?

I'll let you answer that... likely a different answer depending on what your goals were going into the show.  Those numbers are important enough that I will be engaged in show stat analysis like never before in the next month (while planning Winter 11) to test Nielsen's new audience development technology called Alterian (who comes up with these names anyway?).  Store demographics, geographic profiles, attendance history patterns, success/failure with prospecting, and detailed survey results will all be part of the wrap up effort on the show.  As video, images, stories, reviews and commentary on the show stream onto YouTube/Facebook/Wordpress/Blogger/Twitter/LinkedIn over the coming weeks, can we really even say the show is over?

So instead of a post-mortem on SM10, I'll post up some of the highlights in pic form (pictures worth 1000 words each), and keep adding to it as the pieces of the overall puzzle flow into the public domain.

Kayak Polo at OAD!

Laird Hamilton at OAD mixing it up with the kayaks and canoes

Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar (in cap), White House Lead Counsel on Environment Nancy Sutley along with the entourage...

Wayne Gregory!   
 
 

Park n' Pedal program providing propulsion to purveyors who paddle and peddle proactively, previewing products for procurement

  

GUEST BLOG: Flying low to Outdoor Retailer - Motorcycling to the Show - Day 3

Day 3--July 31, 2010
240 miles - Arco, ID to Salt Lake City, UT

It's three in the morning. I am sitting on a concrete step outside the room of a motel that could have been in the movie "No Country for Old Men." The thunder woke me up. I moved outside to see the lightening now tearing across the sky every five seconds in long white branches. It's a huge storm. The wind is rising and now pushing over the small poplar trees across the parking lot. Thunder is continuous, rolling in like an artillery barrage on a nearby front.

We have to ride south later this morning - south, where the storm is now.  We will ride into the lava flows of the Craters of the Moon National Monument. The volcano that made these craters sounds like it's erupting. A four-inch vole appears from under my motorcycle, can't stand the tension, and makes a run for it to the promised safety of an E-350 van parked to the left. Rain is coming down in big, hard, spaced drops.

The motel lights flicker and go out, and I return to bed, hoping this thunderstorm has the good sense to do likewise.

At sunrise we pack the bikes and head out to the lava.  The storm has moved a little to the west, but it's still throwing bolts against the desert floor not far from the road out of town.  We get wet as we skirt the flanks of the visible downpour, but the storm, like a farm dog, can only bark at us as we speed by.

Tim Rosenhan
President of Innova Kayak
Twitter: @innovakayak

GUEST BLOG #4 - Southbound off the Interstate to OR

"Thanks to the Interstate Highway system, it is now possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing anything." - Charles Kuralt.

 

Every two or three years I like to drive the 1305 miles from my home in Wisconsin to Outdoor Retailer. I haven't taken the long Ribbon of Boredom (a.k.a. Interstate 80) for years.

Son 1.0 is 17, and this is probably the last summer I'll have him at home.  We did the Epic Guy Trip five years ago, and it was time for another.  Instead of taking the northern route, we decided to go south.  Two days of driving, and we're halfway through Kansas. We have two more days to get to Salt Lake.  I really hope we make it.

I'm writing from a clean but cheap motel, greedily sucking down WiFi and charging every cell phone and camera battery I have.  The boy is still asleep: it's 5:45 AM somewhere, I'm not sure what time zone I'm in, not that it matters much.

We've seen a lot already on this trip.  We've managed to eat only at locally-owned, owner-operated restaurants, another benefit of not taking Flatline Highway.  We've seen the world's largest ball of twine, random English phone booths in front of a hardware store, and a swarm of dragonflies bird-dogging mosquitoes above a prairie cemetery.  We've eaten huge meals that cost $13.00 for two hungry adults and left $7.00 tips, always much appreciated.  We've seen the Barbed Wire Museum, the original American Gothic house Grant Wood used as his model (modern version attached), the Golden Dome of Pure Knowledge, and the Johnson County Fair.  All because we took the roads less traveled; sometimes the roads not traveled at all.  I've found fuel without ethanol, which means I'm getting really good gas mileage.

The time in the truck with Son 1.0 is precious.  He still likes to be around me, for which I am unspeakably grateful.  Even better, he likes to sing Gilbert and Sullivan at the top of his lungs.  Yesterday we got through Mikado, especially enjoying the duets.  Dang, the kid has good pitch, and can do patter songs.  Impressive.  We listened to the music from Star Trek.  We sang Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (he sang Dr. Horrible, I sang Captain Hammer - you do need to see this if you haven't).  When we got tired of singing, we listened to old radio shows of Gunsmoke on my iPod.

I have no idea where we're going today.  Son 1.0 expressed interest in Canyon de Chelly. I'm thinking that's a great idea, but it would be a tough stretch to get there without violating the No Interstate Rule, so we may settle for some southern Utah stuff instead.

Did I mention I have no idea where we're going today?

Starting this Monday morning at 7:00 AM, my schedule is booked solid until Friday at 9:00 PM.  I'm not exaggerating.  My life, once I hit the quarter mile radius around the Salt Palace, is planned for a week.  The contrast to my life today couldn't be more striking to me.  It comes home easily when I look at my Google calendar for next week and it looks like a Piet Mondrian painting.  This week, it looks like a template for a calendar...nothing on it but the automatic weekly appointments I didn't erase but could have.

It's a nice way to start a work week.  The freedom of driving around such beautiful places at 55 mph is addicting -- but the opposite of an epic adrenelin rush.  I'm becoming addicted to slow.  Not sloth, just slow, methodical semi-directional movement.  The only rule of navigation is to make sure we're sorta heading west-ish.  Ironically, my brain has been more active as a by-product of slowwwwwwww.

The closer I get to Utah, the more I anticipate the family reunion that is Outdoor Retailer.  I am a blessed man today.  I get to sing Pirates of Penzance (I am the Pirate King) with my boy while driving to see my family.

Respectfully submitted,

@Canoelover
Darren Bush
Madison, Wisconsin
Follow Darren's travel notes on Twitter

 

 

GUEST BLOG #3 - Flying Low to Outdoor Retailer

Day 1--July 29, 2010

421 miles

Burlington, WA to Sandpoint , ID

Yeah, they burn fossil fuel—about as much as a Prius, but unlike that battery-powered soup can, I am outdoors. I can smell it. I get cold, I get wet, I get hot, and sometimes I get scared. The sensations are remakably like the zen of a good climb or a stretch of whitewater paddling.

You have to be in the moment. If you are not—you get dead.

Maybe that’s why the smells are what you remember—the wet hay, the burnt forest, the roadkill deer, the fresh pitch from cut fir on the log truck in front. Your limbic brain, your reptilian brain, is fully awake, and that knows smells.

I cannot daydream, at least not about the coming show--the numbers, the business, the politics. All is suppressed while I am in the moment of boring a small hole in the air close to the ground, on a road that flows into the desert.

Tim Rosenhan

Introducing OR2010, our new Mobile App for Smartphones

Well after much research, many meetings, passaround sessions, and revising and refining, the OR2010 Mobile App is now a reality... Whew!

Get this on your phone now, and use it in planning, navigating, and getting the most out of your show experience.  This is the base version, usable on Droid, iPhone and Blackberry, and we will be upgrading the elements each show from here on out.

It's ready to download! Go to this page http://www.outdoorretailer.com/summer-market/show/mobile to download the OR 2010 smartphone app for web-based phones.

See the full press release here http://bit.ly/a7NomK

the OR 40+ Legacy Partner ... what does it mean?

At the upcoming Summer Market show, you are going to see something new.... well, actually a lot of things new, so don't let that 'same airport, same cab, same hotel, same street walk, same restaurant' thing fool you.  But ONE of the cool things you'll see is a new program rollout called '40+ Legacy Partners'. Is that a Subaru ad, or what?

No, not Subaru.

At this OR Summer we are honoring those brands who have been with us for 40 shows or more, a landmark that only 54 companies can claim rights to.  The highest possible number of OR shows is 42.  Sorry if you're at 39 shows, but we had to make the cutoff somewhere and you can look forward to next year.  If your brand is in the 40+, that means you have been exhibiting at OR since a time when feathered hair and parachute pants were de rigeur. 

  
You'll see floor graphics in front of their booths, and highlights in the listings in the show directory and floorplan.  We'll be honoring this group that represents today less than 5% of the 1030 brands on the show floor of OR Summer... but represents the core business that, according to the most recent OIA market research, is surging in Q1 2010 sales and participation among consumers.  

These companies represent the origins of OR from the Reno days and further back, and all still serve the core active outdoor recreation market as we know it today.  Please feel free to Hoist something frosty in honor of the following brands:

3M

5.10 Five Ten Footwear

Adventure 16

Adventure Medical Kits Inc

Alpenbooks

Alpineaire & Richmoor/TyRy

Aventura Clothing/Sportif USA

Backpacker Magazine Active Interest Medi

Black Diamond Equipment

Cascade Designs Mountain Safety Research

Chums/Beyond Coastal

Columbia Sportswear Co

Crazy Creek Products Inc

Eagle Creek

EK EKcessories

Ellington Handbags

Fox River Mills Inc

Grabber Performance

Gramicci

Granite Gear

Gregory Mountain Products/Bianchi Intl

Heat Factory Inc

Hi-Tec Sports Usa, Inc

Jansport

Kelty

Kenyon Consumer Products Leki

Liberty Mountain Lowa Boots

Mammut Sports Group / Climb High

Marmot Mountain LLC

Merrell

Metolius Mountain Products

Montrail Inc

Mountaineers Books, The

Mountainsmith

Ojai Intl

Osprey Packs

Patagonia

Petzl

Pigeon Mountain Ind Inc

Polartec, LLC

Royal Robbins Phoenix Footwear Groupinc

Sierra Designs

Suunto

Tecnica

Terramar Sports Inc

Teva

The North Face

Thorlo

Timberland Company

Vasque

Western Mountaineering

Wigwam Mills

WL Gore & Associates

Woolrich

Considering our collective obsession with shiny and new, it's worth taking pause to consider the tried and true.  The concept of character gained through age and experience ('Sabi ga tsuiteru' in Japanese) comes to life when you visit with some of the above original brands of OR.  They are the survivors, the original gangsters of outdoor gear. 

KH

Are You Listening? ROI for Social Media

Ever feel like you are sending out the messages via your facebook or twitter accounts, but aren't getting a clear response?  Reminds one of print ads and other hard to measure promotional media (er, say Trade Shows, for instance). 

Success in Social Media means emphasizing the S.... SOCIAL.  How many of you step into a party and jump on a table to start shouting your brand story to the (astonished) crowd?  How many of you enter that same party and sit down interviewing people and taking notes feverishly?  Two wildly different approaches to the party... and equally different results from it.  Social and Listening are almost synonymous, or at least the trend positively together ("that guy is antisocial!" = "that guy didn't hear a word I said!").

As you implement or contemplate your Social Media strategy, how you process the information coming back to you will determine how hard you are listening to customers. 

Interested to hear more?  Check out this podcast I discovered... good reminder for those of you that do, and definite spur to action for those that want to.

http://www.closingbigger.net/2009/10/social-media-listening-strategy/

What's that you say?

KH

Paddlesports gets lift at OR Summer

At the recent Canoecopia consumer show in Madison, WI, I witnessed some amazing firsts.  First ever backpack mounted advertising (cardboard and sharpie style), mid-city ice fishing, canoeing over ice, and a real throng of people in a buying frenzy over boats and all the accoutrements.  Maybe it was the cabin fever, but what I saw really pointed towards a resurgence in outdoor rec business on the water and on the trail.    

That sentiment pre-empted the actual show at an open meeting hosted by the Paddle Advisory Council, made up of retailers and brand leaders in the paddlesports business.  Folks flew in from around the country to attend Canoecopia and this important meeting, which established some new benchmark goals and partnerships for the industry looking forward.  OIA, OR, TAPS, PIA, ACA and other regional advocates were all at the table.

Two main topics were addressed; the first, moderated by Sutton Bacon of Nantahala Outdoor Center in North Carolina, was an update on paddlesports at Outdoor Retailer Summer Market 2010.  We at OR had made some bold commitments (thanks to the advice of the Council and the creativity and cooperation of Nielsen management) and progress has been made on many fronts, and time had come to share that progress with thousands of stakeholders in paddle.    The second topic was growing participation... arguably the more critical element of long term health in paddlesports.  Darren Bush, Rutabaga's owner and self-described 'paddling evangelist', shared the intention to use funding both from OR and from the industry at large to fuel particiption programs (buoyed by a $30k initial contribution and OR's significant $200k+ aggregated boat space discount for this summer show).  One key partner is Outdoor Nation, introduced by Chris Fanning, who runs this youth-focused program under the OIA banner.  OIA's mission is consistent with the direction of Paddlesports, Fly Fishing, Climbing, Backpacking and all the human-powered activities on open land and wilderness; to increase participation and thereby the health of the overall industry.  

OR's contribution isn't stopping with funds and discounts though.  The Paddlers Zone at show, specialized business seminars for Paddle, the Demo activities and location, particular recommendations and services (like boat trailer parking) and more active target messaging to dealers in Paddlesports are part of the overall program to increase exposure and focus on this core activity in the outdoor recreation space.  As part of this overhaul in paddle, we'll be communicating updates via email and social media (er, like this) to the industry to spread the word.  In the end, the idea is to bolster the value of the show for paddlesports dealers while working to fuel participation increases at the consumer level.  

So among the firsts I saw in Madison, the most outstanding was the spirit felt in the room of business leaders in the paddle world - sometimes with very different ideas of how/why/when/where and whom change should happen - that spirit of cooperation, of willingness to be part of something moving forward together.  

That is the equation that works to the benefit of every stakeholder in Outdoor.  Nuff said, and stay tuned.  More to come!

KH