This is an update on an earlier post. The surf magazines have finally been analyzed, dissected and filed away into neat little yellow envelopes for later perusal. 20 or so mags pared down to a handful of interesting articles and about an issue’s worth of photos that might make it on to the office/guestroom wall (if the wife allows such a teenagerly thing). This was a personal lesson in letting go and trimming my collected life away. Hoarding less crap is a virtue, even when it comes to surfing mags.
Here’s the rundown: It turns out that 95% of the issues were ads or parts I didn’t even feel the slightest need to keep. Most of the complete articles that I did keep were from features on traveling. Articles on The Maldives, Indonesia, South Africa, The Philippines, Mexico, California, Guatemala etc… It turns out that I basically only care about the earth-roaming parts of surf mags and the occasional special features written by the old schoolers like Herbie Fletcher. There are some killer articles in my pile and I definitely overlooked a few the first time around. Interestingly enough, most of the photos that I wanted to clip, all seemed to belong to those same ‘travel report’ articles. You know the ones I’m talking about, photos of empty waves, abstract, environmental, relaxed and lush. All the gnarly wave-lip destroying action? in to the garbage.
One universal truth: surf mags do not cover longboarding enough.
I feel pretty liberated by this experience and I totally recommend it to anyone wanting to feel a little ‘lighter’ in this world. Next up? When I get them out of storage, I’m gonna attack my nearly complete, meticulously kept sets of Emigre and Raygun as well as large swathes of Eye, Print and Communication Arts. just kidding.
One Comment
Hahah well said!