The Skateboarder's Companion
The Skateboarder's Companion
If you took up skateboarding over the past couple of years you'll be forgiven for not seeing too much value in the printed word. Thrasher may still have a circulation of a quarter of a million copies, whilst Free/Grey/Vague can all be found on the counters of select skate emporiums, but the move to digesting content through the intangible formats of social media means skateboard magazines essentially became a thing of the past.
But the thing is, magazines have so much more value than simple catalogues of pictures and as bastions of the scene they acted as the ultimate arbiters of quality. Sure, it's all well and good that user generated content means everybody can now share their worth with the world but when everyone can share their worth that worth drowns in obscurity and becomes utterly worthless. Magazines perform the roll of gate keepers, separating the wheat from the chaff. They also act as hubs that facilitate the growth of our culture and it's in this arena that the demise of Sidewalk and Document is still most heavily felt.
So we're thrilled to announce that this week sees the launch of a brand new quarterly periodical from two of the brains behind Sidewalk (National Skateboard Co founder Ryan Gray and master lensman Leo Sharpe), The Skateboarder's Companion. And make no mistake, this is no freebie bank rolled as a glorified advertorial or a niche scene-zine - this is a legitimate, sold in WHSmiths, welcome return to the days of UK skateboarding print media.
Officially launching on the 21st, it's safe to say you can expect big things from The Skateboarder's Companion. We'll see you in the newsagents queue first thing Thursday morning!