Damaged Goods- The Change Will Do You Good
The big 20, five years in the making
There is a recurring theme in these posts, my love and observations of Surf Media. It's an occupational hazard of a working life spent making some of it. New Zealand actually has a pretty awesome history of surf media.
In April 1965 New Zealand entered the surfing mag game with “New Zealand Surfer” . Only five issues were made, until July 1966. It started a movement; since 1965 there has been a succession of NZ surf magazines. There have been some really crappy magazines made along the way, I'm allowed to write that, it was me that edited them. But through it all there were nuggets of goodness and some pretty cool heights achieved. One of the highlights was creating NZ's largest surf mag, in the early 2000's my team at the mag created a 128 page issue, with a sticker sheet on the cover and two A1 posters. At the time it matched the page count of our Aussie counterparts. It was the biggest seller too. We were always striving to make the biggest issue we could, to give the reader as much bang for their buck as possible.
With the acknowledged down trend of surf print as in this post earlier this year it was very much looking like that would never be achieved again.
This week a true milestone was meet, actually a series of them. Damaged Goods Zine produced their 20th Issue and it's 144 pages thick.
Founders and creators Jereme Aubertin and James 'Skip' Skivington quite rightly celebrating a mammoth achievement
They have bucked the trend. Here at the bottom of the world is a surf mag thriving. Last Saturday the lads put on a shindig to mark their 5 years and 20th issue.
Part of the shindig was an exhibition of images from past issues that also feature in #20, the proceeds of which go to Kasm, over $1700 was raised.
And what of issue #20, should you get it? Yes, yes you should. It's a great issue, course, I'm biased, I wrote the lead feature Print Is Dead and interviewed the lads.
Relax, the issue improves from there. Issue 20 delves into some of the best moments that have made up the subsequent 19. Their interview with Al Byrne, which sadly would turn out to be one of Al's last, that alone is a must read.
Issue 20 highlights the maturity and the depth these two creatives have gone to to make great print. It's not just 'Good for a Enzend mag, I s'pose' . They are leading the way in what surf print media needs to be to not only survive but do jolly well. Adapt, evolve and entertain the reader so they'll come back for more.
Every image in this post links back to the DGZ site where you can view more samplings and of course order your very own copy. Do it, be entertained, support local creatives, celebrate the NZ Surfing Community.
From The Bookstore
Under 1000 of this little bewties left! That's pretty good for under a year. Will there be a reprint, probably not. You can check out more detail, LIKE it [pleeeease] and of course buy it by clicking through on the image to it's web page.