An obituary of sorts.
In June of 2015 I went on a study abroad trip to Bali where Matt George introduced me to creative surf journalism. In December of 2015 I started interning for Surfing Magazine as a writer and web editor. Over time the internship developed into a part-time job and by July of 2016, nary three weeks after graduating from college, I became a salaried employee.
It couldn’t have worked out any better.
Surfing Magazine’s tone was youthful, tongue-in-cheek, and overtly positive. So much so that whenever I proposed an idea that hinted at negativity (i.e. stating that American pro surfing is extremely weak at the moment, mentioning the possibility of terroristic attacks at the US Open, dubiously approaching surfing’s inclusion to the Olympics), I was kindly shut down or steered in a more merry direction. I think that was mostly a good thing.
I’m not sure if this had always been the case, but since I started there the ethos of the Surfing brand centered around progression. I was always encouraged to seek out undiscovered talent or test revolutionary products and accessories. Our biennial Peer Poll was unique in that it allowed for kids to pick the best kids around the world. This stands in stark contrast to more antiquated forms of production, like Surfer’s Hot 100, where teens are ranked presumably by company ad dollars and Todd Whodatovich.
In that way, Surfing was great. In other ways, Surfing was a little bit… questionable.
I should preface this criticism by mentioning that I joined the team in a very precarious moment, wherein producing a fluid stream of income took precedence over all else. It seemed to me that we sacrificed certain production quality and moral standards in order to grow our numbers and become, in the eyes of The Enthusiast Network, not a liability. This led to atrocious practices like a wetsuit “Field Test” with only positive reviews (can’t upset the brands that buy into your projects!) and social media schemes that were intended to drive traffic through any means necessary (like following people so they’d follow us back, and then subsequently unfollowing them).
This isn’t what anybody wanted, but it’s what had to be done to preserve the brand and, most importantly, all of our jobs. Guys like Peter Taras (photographer, professional road-tripper and social media mastermind) and Chato Aganza (graphic designer, great-hair-haver and big-picture guy) have been with TEN for almost two decades apiece! I’m sure they’ll be fine, but the way the surf industry is looking, it’s unlikely they’ll soon capture another position in the game. Imagine working your whole life in a particular field, learning everything there is to know about the subject, and then being told the skills and knowledge you’ve acquired are no longer of any practical value. This is the ongoing struggle of priests and surf magazine employees everywhere. I pray the latter find a way to survive, myself included.
So how will Surfing Magazine be remembered? I’m honestly not sure. But I’d like to thank everyone there for the opportunity to share my voice and try my hand at this surf journalism gig.
I’d also like to thank them for laying me off in December, so I could watch today’s shipwreck from the relative safety of my little Beachgrit dinghy. Onwards and upward!
Here’s one for the nostalgic types.
I knew surfing was doomed the day I found a 5 year subscription on brads deals for a whopping 12$. When it finally ran out I wasn’t sad. The ad content had put a bad taste in my mouth.
I’ll try to add an only semi-snarky, hopefully constructive thought here.
Back when we started up surfermag.com at the old Capistrano airplane hanger back in ’95, I had the vague sense that this day would come. And even though most of my colleagues had no idea what to make of this Carolina cracker’s title as an ‘online editor,’ they sensed it too. This became especially true when digital shots began to replace our eagerly anticipated, and office unifying, old school slide shows and bandwidth allowed reportage of the Huntington Beach Hop Bro-Am on the fly. Even posting up video of Kelly Slater burning Shane Beschen the very next morning. Before that – if you lived in Garden City Beach, SC, you didn’t find out who won these earth-shaking events – nor learn of any of the drama until the Surfer/Surfing wordsmithing of wordsmiths like Nick C and Derek Hynd hit your mailbox a couple/few months later – or until Kelly Richards brought it to your attention during a shit-shooting session at Village Surf Shoppe.
And Mike, though the mediums have changed, I think Chas, Nick, Warshaw and Taylor Paul would agree. You’re young and clearly not too dumb. Screw ‘the industry.’ If you want to pursue a career in ‘journalism,’ then pursue a career in actual journalism. Get your foot in the door reporting for an actual newspaper or go to New York and pound on the doors of Esquire, The New Yorker, Harpers or The Atlantic, for a junior editor position, or a gig sweeping the NYT’s newsroom. You may think, ‘f that dinosaur realm,’ but you will learn more about writing and editing and storytelling from pasty editors in a few months than years at a surf publication. Or just f’ing find out who the editors are at the pubs/websites that interest you, write and submit story ideas. For every ten ideas you submit, you’ll actually get an assignment for one.
I bailed from Surfer’s office world in ’99 – in part because I didn’t get along with our new corpo management environment, and was completely disgusted at how Petersen Publishing’s “buy out” of Surfer went down. But mostly, I wanted to write about something in the world besides the narrow world ‘surf journalism’ promised and surf Trestles on my lunchbreak.
If you want a life as a journalist, then be a journalist. With all the new tech out there, there’s never been a better and worse time to do it. You won’t get rich, but you’ll have an interesting life. Plenty of outlets out there actually pay money, and will do plenty to bolster an actual career and reputation as someone whose truth-telling can actually make a difference in our modern world – as Bill Finnegan has proven.
http://www.newyorker.com/co…
Of course, you could also find yourself happily schlepping and promoting lycra and neoprene and “Alternative Facts” from a cubicle at a big box in Irvine.
Be the change dude.
he doesnt want to be a jounralist. didnt you read his bit a few atricles ago on how he just wants to surf and have no job?
Like most of us.
And dude, how hard is spelcheking one sentenc?
woah! thanks so much for that advice
No – thank you…
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
I guess your condescension checker is broken so. Dude.
Dude. What more do you want from me? I thanked him for the Ace of Spades. That song got me through high school.
Hey Chris, I appreciate the thought and sincerity that went into this.
As I’m sure you can imagine, my parents have shared similar thoughts. This industry appears to be falling at an unsustainable rate, so the way I see it is… do this for fun and a little cash while I still can, travel the world as much as possible, and hopefully achieve something meaningful that will propel me into whatever career I’ll do into my 60s.
Above all else, I just want to enjoy this time in my life as much as possible, and this gig gives me the flexibility to do just about anything. Plus I get to hear from guys like you, Nick, and Warshaw!
IF YOU WANT TO BE A JOURNALIST, JUST BE LIKE CHAS, START A BLOG, WRITE A BOOK, GET ON TWITTER.
JUST DONT BE ANOTHER CHRIS COTE FOR GODS SAKE. HE IS ONE OF THE SOLE REASONS MAGS LIKE THESE WENT UNDER.
HE WAS GETTING PAID 60K TO STICK HIS NOSE SO FAR UP PRO SURFERS ASSES IT WAS OBNOXIOUS
More like 75K w/ benefits.
Mikey was that kid who his parents brought a giant rolling cooler to all the contests and had his dad film him the entire day, free surfs, heats, in between sessions. He had all the coolest stickers on his boards..so to hear that his only pursuit in life was surfing is no surprise..settling for journalist was the next best thing, I guess.
Well on a lighter note if anybody is at surf expo and wants to watch me destroy a piece of styrofoam live, I’m shaping in that damn tribute. Yes T Ferg vs. pat rawson and a a bunch of gnarly guys, so saying your not cavvy come by.
Las Olas won’t be the same
You are getting a lot of criticism on here, personally I think you are doing a good job. For some reason Rory was loved by many of the commentators on here, so you are always get it in the neck when you replace somebody! I hope they keep you on!
agree. step one is writing competent copy about something the reader actually cares about. (unlike that dude who bragged about that one time he got to stand next to dane reynolds). the stylistic flair follows after.
Dear oh dear. I’ve just realised that you see yourself as a “career surf journo”. Whatever the fuck that may be. I hope it was worth all the $ to be “taught” how to write a-little-bit-like-other-people.
That little tidbit has moved the needle from “Nonentity” to “Active Dislike”.
Self loathing?
His, or mine?
“That little tidbit has moved the needle from “Nonentity” to “Active Dislike”.”
fucking hell, funniest thing I’ve read in days.
you paid to learn to be a ‘surf writer’ too!? and from the inimitable sam and matt George too!? and we both ended up being shit writers. and writing on the same surf blog! money well spent!
did you fall in love with them too!? i did. i even wrote about it here on beachgrit. sometime. someplace. i am not sure how to find it. but it is here in the beachgrit dungeons. they may have deleted it. i don’t have phone. much like rory. and beachgrit are not luddites if they are anything!
what a magical coincidence. peas in a pod. twins, even! maybe not twins because i am devilishly gorgeous. but twins from another mother! surfing sinks into the abyss but brings us together in perpetuity! the world works in mysterious ways.
we should go on a date. yes. yes! a date. martinis. a fireplace. a pile of surfing scattered over our GÅSER rug from ikea! we can instagram it. imagine the followers!
http://beachgrit.com/2016/0… !!
I’ve told this story before, but I once copied a piece out of a surf mag by Sam George for a creative writing class in college. I got a D+.
Damn lucky michael’s work wasnt around to copy. D+ would look awesome.
You write a good simile, not sure why everyone is being so mean to you..
There are no good similes Ben Collins. Only mediocre ones.
Explain?
The simile is the dimwitted half-brother of the metaphor.
Classic!
OK. Simile appears colourful but is really just a poor attempt at description. Here’s a simple way of seeing what I mean. If you say something is “like an orange”, you are not describing the something, you are describing the orange. Don’t describe the god damn orange, describe the something. Not what it is LIKE but what it IS, in that moment.
If that sounds hard, well, that’s why there are very good writers, good writers, and shit writers.
And to think its a surf blog! Thanks Nick
So when my father was describing me as ‘useless as tits on a bull’ he should have been describing my uselessness in absolute terms and left the bull’s tits in the paddock?
I gave up on Surfing mag when they started hiding the comments and then made you click on the box to see the comment section. (seriously). Is Stab next?
Michael can I come be your intern in Bali?
When I die I would prefer an intern not write my eulogy. But if an intern does write my eulogy, I pray he is a better writer than Michael Ciiamnetelliagulia.
When I was a grom I always read Surfer for the stories and perused Surfing for the tail while my mom shopped for groceries.
Surfer was always the better magazine….wait , isn’t a magazine part of a gun?? Or somewhere troops by stuff during war?? Never mind. .. I can’t remember
You seem like a good kid. Some unsolicited advise from someone you’d consider old: don’t singularly pursue a career in surfing. You were smart enough to get an education, use it. You won’t regret that.
Or if you do, marry smart.
I know I know but most other pursuits bore me interminably!
that could be a bad sign