Growing up in Colorado, Boulder’s Mall Crawl was always the craziest bash of the year. Thousands of revelers would descend on the Pearl Street walking mall in the most whacked out costumes and mental states imaginable. The event morphed into more of an annual riot than a party and the cops put the brakes on, shutting all the roads into town and descending on the mall like Tiananmen Square. Fast forward to 2009 and the planets seemed to align as a Saturday Halloween, nearly full moon and new batch of college kids had cops and the media in a frenzy about the return of the Mall Crawl.

While the fears proved unfounded and every one remained relatively tame, the streets were once again packed with throngs of great costumes and thought I’d share a few gems.

Tired of getting hated on for strapping in to your board at your local nordic hill? Finally a group of flat grand warriors has banded together to take up the flag for the much aligned sport of cross country snowboarding:

It probably doesn’t have as good of a chance making it in to Sochi as Stand Up Paddleboarding, but it’s solid training:

As deadlines align our calendars with little activity other than carpal tunnel taxing typing, the bountiful supply of energy drinks in the office are a god send for keeping the fingers flying. But not necessarily for the kidney and the sanity as you struggle for sleep after 15 super juices.

So while there’s a time and place for hyper filled caffeine jump starts, it was with great interest that I cracked a new beverage that came across my desk. Mary Jane’s Relaxing Soda is a fresh on the scene soft drink company out of Denver that uses natural flavoring, packs a peaced out name, and comes with the added kick of kava, the South Pacific plant/beverage used in ceremonies to calm stress, anxiety, and insomnia, and is a large part of the island culture. And after getting down with Mary Jane I may have to make it a large part of mine. While not as soothing as a trip to the South Pacific, Mary Jane definitely lives up to the “relaxing” in her name.

While it’s still hard to find, Mary Jane’s is making in roads in California in 7-Eleven stores and Colorado, Oregon, and Kansas and can also be purchased online at www.relaxingsoda.com.

“In today’s environment, stress is a constant,” said Creator/CEO Matt Moody. “We created Mary Jane’s Relaxing Soda as an alternative to alcohol for people who want a healthy, natural and legal way to relax and unwind. The degree of relaxation is surprising, and we’re proud to be the first to deliver a Kava-based soda that masks the typically bad flavor of Kava naturally.”

Not that we’re opposed to alcohol, but MJ is definitely worth a try

Endeavor Snowboards Managing Director Max Jenke is on an Asian safari visiting factories and taking in all that’s new on the production front for their upcoming line. Look for interviews and profiles of the factories Jenke visits to follow on transworldbusiness.com and follow all his adventures on Endeavor’s blog.

Each year, well at least for the last 46, Colorado Ski Country USA hosts a shred season capping Annual Meeting to announce the season’s stats, reflect on the year that was, and bring the state’s industry heads together to discuss ways to get more people snowsliding next year.

This year’s meeting was held in our beautiful Boulder backyard. For more on this year’s rider (we’re using this term loosely and lumping our two plank counterparts in) numbers go HERE .

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Money.com has an interesting article posted on the Seven Deadly Sins of Small Business. Scary.
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Welcome to my inaugural blogular word emporium of the stories behind the stories, the workings of the industry, and the thoughts and rants running my brain at the moment.

The biggest issue beating around my thoughts today is competition and its many forms. As sad as it has made me the last few days, I’m a Nuggets fan with a number of friends in the (not so) greater LA area. Needless to say, much crap has been talked over the last several weeks, kicked off by a bet to run a ‘stache for the summer if your team lost.
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