She is alone and it is time to make her great again!
So I was vaguely aware that Surfing was, for all intensive purposes, finished a few weeks ago right? But I figured the death announcement would be quickly chased by a birth announcement. Something like, “Print is dead, long live the net!” and then everything would push to some sparkly new Surfing website feat. the best clips, amazing images, maybe a store. Maybe a softcore porn subsection. Girl in a Skirt. Etc.
The fact that the death got leaked and then… crickets confused me greatly. A leaked death then crickets then Surfing employees posting heartfelt eulogies on Instagram as the sun set while the website remained frozen on yesterday’s Pipeline summary.
There was no joy. No “Get ready for what’s next!” Only sadness.
Which leaves Surfer alone. And The Surfer’s Journal but the Journal is something wholly different, I think. The Journal is something quality and wonderfully good. Each issue like a curated book. Like an experience.
Surfer is not a book. It is a magazine and now alone with nothing left to cannibalize it and this should be a happy day for lovers of surf media. Right? One proud magazine where all the talent can congregate and contribute. Where Nick Carroll and Matt Warshaw and Derek Rielly and Derek Hynd and Steve Shearer and Lew Samuels and Ben Marcus… all the greats and all the great photographers come together and there is no more fear but only bravery. Only straight backs and clear visions. Right?
I so hope this happens but for this dream to become a reality Surfer would need a visionary editor-in-chief. A brave man not afraid to push out a unique vision. Not afraid to ruffle feathers. Not afraid to tell real stories but also fun stories. Not afraid to loose his writers and photographers onto the world and fight tooth and nail for them. Not afraid to present a glorious monthly (or bi-monthly or whatever it is now) picture of what surfing was, what it is, what it should be.
Not Todd Prodanovich. He is a clucking chicken with an inspirational palette as blandly vanilla as his skin. With an impotent temper as red hot as his hair. With a backbone made out of stroganoff noodles.
No…now that she is alone it is time to make Surfer great again and if we have learned anything over the past year it is that strongmen are in fashion. Who wants to be editor-in-chief? Matt? Nick? Steve?
Come on. Uncle Severson Wants You!
Commented on Disqus? Log out, tap the Disqus button, and your old name and comments come back. The box is ours.
Your comments are still here. Every one of them.
Twelve years of BeachGrit comments came across from Disqus. Connect and we will show you how many are yours. We get your username, nothing else.
Connect Disqus to reveal.
See here, this is the problem. men this. men that. This surfing man. That surfing male author. the blindness reveals a multi-decade neanderthal inbreeding.
look, the world is made up of more than white men. the surf mags couldnt handle this. “argh where is our market gones”!
diversify. And not just ‘special issues’, guest profiles, etc. get serious about it. incorporate it it into the very essence of the publication.
wow. is that a huge market and audience IN FRONT OF OUR FUCKING EYES.
audience? where 👀
Look I know this is pretty much heresy but when I really started to get into surfing for real, it seemed to me that Surfer was a mag being produced by a bunch of old Californians who thought they still had a handle on what was going on, when the whole thing had actually rocketed past ’em. In the recent past it has seemed to me as if it is actually a printed version of the Inertia. For much (not all) of the time in between, it has seemed to me to be the mag favoured mostly by slightly tubby kooks who imagine themselves as surfers. You know, the types who turn into board collectors and who treasure their one meeting with Laird and Rob Machado, and who happily spend four thousand dollars on the latest con-job volume from Taschen. If I was to edit such a publication, my whole urge would be to subvert its raison d’être, which given the current state of print media, might not be the wisest move.
But it fucken worked for Carson. God damn you Carson! Why did we never collaborate.
I stopped reading Surfing once I felt like I outgrew it at about age 21 or so. I like reading magazines because I like to read. There’s never been much to read in Surfing.
Oh yeah? I could send you hundreds of thousands of words-ful of excellent pieces of writing from Surfing magazine’s pages, just from the few years I edited it. Your feeling of outgrowing it is a great point here; your comment abut there never being much to read in the magazine is nonsense.
Edit: In the post-Nick Carroll years, I haven’t found much worth reading in ‘ING.
Agreed. I read so many good articles as a grom in the mid-late ‘90s from you and MANY others. It’s what I read, and loved.
A surf writer, with defend Hawaii on my chest — yes, you tick all the boxes.
For someone that constantly complains about the “bitchy” tone of Beachgrits editorial content, you come across pretty bitchy yourself.
i’m not sure why i’ve just realized that your screen name is Negatron, but your avatar is Optimus Prime. I realize there’s a play on words there, but wouldn’t Starscream make a better avatar for Negatron?
I’m nothing but a cheap Taiwanese knock off.
But thanks. I will look into this, as I know next to nothing of the franchise and I have been severely dressed down by Transformer fans over the years for my choice of avatar.
Starscream, in addition to having an unbelievably cool name, is Megatron’s whiny little second-in-command bitch, who constantly undermines his boss.
oh, that’s close to the bone…
Fucken oath I’m a bitch. I want to bitch slap Rory…does he surf – he must, he told us how margaret river was shit longboarder wave. Does Chas surf? He beats off about everyone who doesn’t “surf” Bitchslap him as well.
You know you don’t have to click on Chas or Rory’s articles…
i love malapropisms. once knew a guy who used to say things like “last night i drank myself into Bolivia”
A mag needs a viewpoint or it is The Inertia. Viewpoints by def polarize. Where’s the $ in that? Much as we would all love a good mag as an art installation, SJ already occupies that niche for the older crew, and I think the youngers have neither the $ nor the patience. But having Nick or Matt at the helm would sure be a lot of fun till it flamed out.
advertisers hate opinions unless they are “boardies we love”
But, and again, Shakespeare was all about co-opting grammatically incorrect phrases and turning them into art. Me n Shakespeare! A lot the same!
took 200 years for people to call it “genius” though
President George Bush #2 also said some fucked up shit that made it into the American lexicon like “I am the decider”. Chas you are among the greats.
He also called him and all his compatriots merkins. As in “My fellow merkins”.
Over all this magazine shit now – if people weren’t buying them meh!!!
1) Some stories on wavepools please !!!! We have been teased on all the new updates, cmon Chas what’s the scoop??
2) Some updates on tour 2017 – unless it is about to fall over now Speaker gone!!
3) At least an expose on which pro has gained the most weight in off season!! Actually I want a hard hitting piece where we get Longtom to rock up to Gold coast with a tape measure and set of scales so the truth can be told on their profiles. It will be like Jenny Craig at a boxing weigh in, giving them all tips on diet and calling bullshit on the fact they been saying they are all 72kg and under the last 10 years!!!
“Not afraid to loose his writers and photographers onto the world and fight tooth and nail for them. “
Hmm. Fight with who exactly? What is your conception of how magazines work?
Have you ever worked for a mag?
Why? Is there much biting and scratching?
Boy, have I. And in my experience, the only people who’ve needed to fight for stories were the people defending bad pitches. No publishers wielding a censor’s hammer.
You are a lucky man! And I wasn’t talking about fighting for stories. I was talking about the rare editor who is brave enough to let his staff wander and rabidly defend them when they cross the line.
My point exactly!
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The great joy of the English language is that there is no Academy. It is ours to do with what we will, for all intensive purposes. We create as we go!
this is not at all true
Freedom is Slavery
War is Peace
Advertising is Editorial
Ho! Give that man a cigar!
And down goes Surfing to the Memory Hole!
under the shade of the chestnut tree, i read surfing magazine and you read beach grit posts aloud to me…
Oh I can’t edit to save my life and if I was allowed to lead I would march the staff over a cliff as soon as I could just for a giggle. I know what I am. A surf writer. No more. Often less.