Cynthia - please turn out the lights...

"After approximately 14 years, Cynthia’s last day at Northwave is Tuesday, June 1^st. This is Northwave North America’s last day also, as they are moving to a distributor. Please join us at Dad Watsons in Fremont on Tuesday June 1^st 5pm for a going away/turn out the lights party. Feel free to forward this to anyone you think might have fun."

Damn, last girl standing. Gonna hit this up to pay my last respects to the brand and all it once was. Good times back then with some good people, that is till the evil stepped in. Here's a little photo tribute to the 6 and a half years of good times we had while at the brand. Thanks Northwave.

Bakoda Kev doing a little Jimmy Driver testing in Salzburg Austria. We drove from Montebelluna Italy for this trip. It took us 11 hours when it was suppossed to take 4. We drank 61 beers along the way between the 4 of us. Great trip from what I remember.
The Sanchez. This was the start of the downfall. The fit was changed from incredible to sucks for no reason at all.
Well this is the reason. This donkey came from Nike and he said the fit needed to be changed to make the boots look more sleek. "Well they don't fit!" "Yes, but they look sexy."
First China boot called the Vintage. Copy of the Kerry Getz DVS. Sold a shitload of them too. SAR's was going on in China so we couldn't go over to quality check em and when we got ours, ALL the laces were too short. We had 8 Hispanics in the warehouse changing 14,000 laces.

Round two of the most successful pro model boot EVER. The KJ.

And the photo we sent back to Italy after the sample arrived. They didn't think it was too funny. I still do.
St. Anton Austria. This was a side trip Hor-Hey and I took after one of the 30 or so meetings we went over there for. 2 feet of new, blue bird, Rad Air Long Board contest and the introduction to Hefeweizen brew. Avy conditions were a 5 out of 5 then and the whole valley avy'd while we were coming down on our last run. It was like watching the Discovery Channel.
George, Harry Gunz and Danni Sappa on that trip. Easy style at the bar. Sappa was on the creep.
The factory in Italy. It was pretty incredible to watch these ladys sew shit up.
Mirka and Anais were two of the cool chicks that worked over there. Mirka spoke broken english and relied on us to teach her new words. When searching for the word that meant the thing you clean your ears out with, we told her the word was "dildo." So she walked around asking for a dildo to stick in her ear.
Anais was a Frenchie that drove us to the mountain after every meeting to shred. She MADE Europe for us.
This is the hotel we always stayed at. Geno is the miserable fuck in all white. "Mista, Mista you want capachino?" was what he'd always say to us. He had good beers and olives at his place.
For the first 4 years or so, the Italians would always schedule a sales meeting during Thanksgiving, so we'd celebrate it over there at this ladys place. She was always drunk as fuck but fried up a mean turkey for us.
Gums would always tear up the rental cars over there. He loved driving in Europe. I liked being a passenger and handing him beers.
The wine bar where Gums spent a grip of $. Vic always got us loaded on Grappa.

Factory steez again.

This was one of the mountain bike chicks that rode for the bike shoes. Paolo something or other.

Reto Lamm, Stephan Grenete and Anais.

Young Hor-Hey and I.

Gums and I outside of Prague. Sooo good.

Thanks Mr. and Mrs. Piva for the good times. Good luck in Oklahoma, I hear it's the capital of snowboarding.