Beginners? Want to get more serious about snowboarding or skiing? Well, I have a treat for you my friends in the NorCal region! Add this to your calendar for the following year, it is a big event called SNOWBOMB. They host in three different locations: San Francisco (Fort Mason), San Jose (San Jose Convention), and Sacramento (Cal Expo) where they have different vendors and snow resorts display and sell all types of new/used snowboarding and ski gear for usually a discounted price. I’m sure they have variations between the locations, i.e. Sacramento had a local shop, GroundZero, selling their old and new season stuff. I’ve been going for 2 years now to the one in Sacramento. They all open a long weekend (Friday-Sunday) sometime mid-November.
MY STORY play-by-play: BF and I went to Cal Expo in Sacramento on Sunday at 1PM. Paid $10 for parking. Walked to the entrance and check-in with my discounted/free general admission. We didn’t upgrade to the powder pass for 5 free lift tickets because of the restrictions and we knew it would not work for us. In hind sight, it might’ve been worth it just to get it for $15 and worry about going later. Check out the different resort booths to enter ourselves into their raffles. Most of them were in the Lake Tahoe regions since that’s the central snowboarding/skiing location in Northern California. There was a smaller crowd than last year, but it was the last day. If you have the intention of buying gears, go on the first day, like on Friday, or else you’ll just be left with limitation choices, if any. BF was only free on Sunday, sigh.
At the Sierra-At-Tahoe booth they have a raffle drawing every hour that you must be present to obtain the prizes and the grand prize was a weekday free lift ticket! We went 3 times with no luck. We did get to catch some free giveaway koozies..
We saw a crowd at a gear vendors booth so we went to check it out. That was where I bought my ThirtyTwo snowboarding boots ($149.99+tax) from this season for $30 off the original price. I know that I don’t want to invest too much aside from a pair of boots yet. My BF got his boots ($120), bindings ($109), and then later went to the store and got a last season’s board ($200). He’s also a beginner so we both didn’t want to get high end expensive items until we get further interested. If he were to gotten a board at the show, he would get a free weekday lift ticket to Sierra At Tahoe.
I got a pair of pink snow pants for $99 at the main vendors shop. Those people were the main show with abundance selection of new and used shoes, goggles, gloves, beanies, jackets, pants, socks, boards, etc. Pretty much everything you need, they have.
All in all, it’s worth checking out if you’re interested in snowboarding or skiing during the winter season.
Good luck, have fun and stay safe!
Admission Fee
$10 General Admission
$25 Powder Pass (includes up to 5 lift passes to different locations in CA)
$50 VIP (includes what’s above + entrance for beer fest)
[You can easily find a code for a $10 discount for any of the above pricing, thus you can always go for free with general admission]
$10 Parking fee/day (Unless you park elsewhere
Tips on getting swag
Go to each resort’s booth to sign up for their raffle drawing which might include a day/season lift pass and/or goodies.
Get the Powder Pass for free lift tickets (with restrictions on days)
If you get a board, you get a free lift ticket
Find a bundle deal, like $399 for board, bindings, boots
http://www.tactics.com/info/how-to-set-up-a-snowboard
You can always find videos on Youtube for more detail and information how what to buy and how to ride.
Winnie 