With the world’s best racers descending upon Houffalize, Belgium, for the World Cup opener, the Sea Otter Classic needed to supplement this year’s world class downhill races with something extra to keep the event growing.

For the Sea Otter, now in its 18th year, the answer was to bolster the festival and promote the tradeshow aspect of the event.

It’s a trend that has been building for the last few years as more and more manufacturers are using the Sea Otter as a launching point for new product coming down the pike.

This year the expo has grown to a full-on tradeshow. A host of large and small manufacturers came to the an event fully open to the public. A keen-eyed consumer is sure to see brand new product at the same time as industry insiders.

Here’s a sample of what we saw on day one.