Outside the Kayo warehouse, August 28

Saturday, August 29, was like Black Friday to the San Diego skateboarding world, as hundreds of teenagers lined up for hours for the annual Kayo sale.

Kayo is the distributor of some of the industry’s most popular skater brands — Organika, DGK, Expedition One, and Gold Wheels. Once a year, the Carlsbad-based company sells thousands of pieces of sample merchandise — stuff that’s mostly new but can’t be sold as new — at low prices.

Sterling Southerland and Noah Balfour waited in line for over 22 hours.

Sterling Southerland, 16, and Noah Balfour, 18, both of Carlsbad, were first in line. It was Southerland’s fifth Kayo sale, Balfour’s first. They started camping out two nights before, on Thursday, at 10:15 p.m. The next person in line didn’t arrive until 10:00 a.m. Friday. The crowd started to swell after school let out.

Even though the warehouse wasn’t to open until 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, by the midnight before, over 100 teens were camping out. Some sat on the ground, some slept in chairs, and others brought tents. During the evening, some pro skaters showed up to lead casual games of S-K-A-T-E (similar to basketball’s H-O-R-S-E.)

The constant sound of flipping boards hitting the pavement offered the few parents who elected to stay the night an unrestful sleep in their cars.

“The police only showed up once,” said a Kayo employee. “And he was only here to see if his son needed anything.” A security guard was on duty throughout the night and there was no trouble reported.

By sunrise, the group had swollen to about 300, lined up in the warehouse’s parking lot, off Palomar Airport Road.

“I want the first pick of clothes, decks, and hats,” said Southerland. He planned to spend around $130. The sale also included branded hoodies, pants, belts, socks, and wallets. Most of the skaters in my 14-year-old’s group were using the sale for back-to-school clothes shopping, as well as adding to their quiver of skate decks.

“We offer 20- to 30-dollar shirts and hats for five bucks; 60-dollar decks for $20,” said Troy Morgan, owner of the 18-year old business, as he looked out his office window on Friday afternoon.

The company allows in only 20 shoppers at a time, another reason to camp out. Southerland said he finally got to sleep at around 4:00 a.m. Saturday morning; Balfour said he conked out around midnight.

A big cheer went up when the warehouse’s huge loading-dock door opened up. The crowd, by then having discarded boards, chairs, and sleeping bags to the side, was wrapped around the neighboring building.

During the wait, an employee selected a few kids in the line and asked them to help pick up trash around the parking lot in exchange for free decks. The trash-strewn lot was cleaned within a few minutes.

After walking out with his bag of new stuff, Balfour said next year he’ll be more prepared — “I’ll bring more money,” he said.