In what feels like a reaction to the sad demise of some print based skateboarding publications, the zine and small publication scene has blown up. Check out the publications section of Palomino and you will find a wealth of niche publications. Go to the Owl Skateboards video premiere and griptape show in Bristol, and you are met by a table of zines and art for sale. Online magazines are needed to cover the rapid and changeable nature of skateboarding in 2016, whereas tangible publications provide a more focused and dedicated look at the specifics of our culture.
The following zines and small publications are really great, and cost a lot less than a misspent evening down the local pub. Sure you can link an article to a friend, but there is nothing better than receiving a well-thumbed copy of a zine, complete with tea stains and annotations.
Words: Mersom, Kliewer, Jones | Pics: Miscellaneous
Push Periodical
Push Periodical is edited by Richard Hart and features contributors such as Ben Gore, Aymeric Nocus, Zach Chamberlin, as well as many others. In the first three issues Push has covered London, Bordeaux, San Francisco, Taipei, and has captured the Magenta and GX crew in action. One of the advantages of printed publications over online writing is that there are often places to hide little interesting details, for example, on the contents page. Push features a ‘Sanity greatly helped by’ list in each issue, detailing songs and comedy programmes that presumably keep everyone from losing it. There are also nice bits of handwriting and scribbled lines all over the pages – which remind the reader that this is a tactile and interactive object.
The features include ‘Vaults’, which delves into Hart’s photographic archive, and ‘In a sentence’, a feature which takes a picture of a skater and captions it with a quotation from another skater. But this is a publication focused on photography, and there is plenty of double page room allowed for pictures – everything is shot on film – and the adverts blend in well.
Number 3 is my favourite so far: it takes its cue from the Of series of books, and meditates on San Francisco and the nature of “raw” street skateboarding. Check Push out here.
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