Bumping elbows with the pros — that’s what Sea Otter is about. Subaru-Gary Fisher professional racer Sam Schultz knows the feeling. The young racer was at Laguna Seca raceway on Friday for SRAM’s launch of its new Monarch air shock platform. He recounted a time not so long ago when he would come to the big events looking around to see what the fast guys were riding. Now we’re checking out what he’s riding, whether he knows it or not.

Tara Llanes dials in her Giant Trance Advanced (carbon) for the Super D.

But Sea Otter is about more than just who's using the stuff. The cycling festival gives tech geeks a chance to check in with a host of industry engineers, product managers and marketers just waiting to share the news about their products, no matter who you are. You could talk to Jeremiah Boobar, SRAM’s "Black Box" manager, about tuning your Boxxer, or to Team Maxxis manager Gary Wolfe about how Geoff Kabush likes his new Litespeed.

Even if you’re not into hobnobbing with the pros or industry people, there’s a ton of cool stuff to see. This year’s exposition is larger than ever, with something for anyone into bikes, skinny tires or fat. And for folks who prefer four wheels to two, Subaru of America rally champion Travis Pastrana was decorating the Subaru-Gary Fisher booth, a hit with young and old kids. And nearby, the Trek-Volkswagen crew had built an entire two-car garage, in which they were custom silk-screening T-shirts for the crowds.

3) Niki Gudex designed her own graphics for her race bike. She rode the Ransom in the Super D.

Even the pros can be found ogling new gear. The Giant bicycle cross-country team had a custom shoe-fitting session at the Shimano trailer, and Trek’s Travis Brown was spotted eyeballing 2008 tires from Schwalbe.