“It feels a little bit like we’re running down the beach to get to the surf while trying to put our boardshorts on at the same time.”
Now, the last thing any surfer wanted or needed was the exhumation of Surfer Magazine’s rotting corpse. Once proud and true, Surfer had fallen into various odd hands before David Pecker stuck it in the heart with a gilded knife and buried it in a shallow unmarked grave.
A short handful of years later, the Arena Group, a “tech powered media company,” marched into the wood with shovels, found it and shocked it back to life. Being “tech powered,” the easy go was to plug artificial intelligence into Surfer’s brain hole et voila.
Except investors weren’t happy with non-humans writing, editing etc. and so the powers that remained tapped one Jake Howard. A dominant figure in surf editorship, having held positions at the World Surf League, Red Bull, etc., Howard wasting no time, in changing directions entirely from Surfer’s old cloistered and mean, often racist generally misogynistic reputation to… well, to a bold progressive future.
Howard was, officially, finally introduced via a Shop-Eat-Surf interview moments ago and let us read his words without spin.
“It feels a little bit like we’re running down the beach to get to the surf while trying to put our boardshorts on at the same time.”
“Surfers today are seeing the sport differently. They’re coming at it from different perspectives. There are more women and people of color in the water than ever before. And, for many surfers, surfing is just part of their outdoor interests.”
“We want to invite them all into the big tent. We all started surfing because it’s so fun. The world is seeing challenging times and surfing can be a beacon of hope. Let’s build on that.”
“Evergreen stories that will be meaningful and hold their value — that’s our guideline.”
Clearly a brutal slam on BeachGrit at the end.
But bright skies ahead
