It was mentioned last week that The South Seas book was entering its last phase, that soon all the stock in the warehouse would be sold out. Well it happened a bit faster than thought. Last Thursday two big orders came in, and that's that, done, gone, no more. Well, of course there are books in stores, but that's it from a wholesale and web sale point of view. The eight year odyssey looks to be over.
The 2012 image used the the South Seas book birth party/launch
The OG, sold through in 18 months, then the reprint did the same. We thought after 4 years it was a bit cheeky to just keep reprinting, and there had been some significant swell events. We decided to revise the book for 2017... it was s'possed to be a pretty mellow update, well that didn't happen. About 80% of the images were changed, new photographers included, and probably most notably we changed the cover. We, that's Brent Courtney and I, stand by that decision, but it created some confusion. Some of the mainstream retailers didn't recognise it as the same bestselling title, it took a while to win them over, there was even suggestion that the book should have been titled something completely new. Surf Stores, on the other hand, saw it as continuing the momentum.
One of the aforementioned swell events
Another of the swap outs/ revisions. One of the best formations of sand this salty photog has swum on the west coast.
It's a strange thing when a long term project ends. The South Seas was always more than a commercial enterprise, Brent and I wanted to make a NZ Surf book that was luxurious, that celebrated NZ surf and surf culture. We were/are heavily emotionally invested and passionate about making the best NZ Surf book we could. There was a hail Mary aspect to the project. But it worked, you guys liked it, in fact 7,000 of you have over the last eight years. With the publisher/distributor cap on, there's a 'pheewww, that's sold through and gone...success!'. With the author/photog cap on there's a 'wait, you mean it's over? But who else will see it or want it?'.
There is no current plan to do a reprint. To be honest, that's not a firm, no, not gonna happen bro. Never say never.
And over on Recreational Society, things are ticking along quite nicely thank you. Mark Nickolls feature went crazy good for the website...
How sick is his beasty Valda the Venture Van! You can check it out HERE
From the Bookstore
The South Seas is out and NZ Surf The Collection Volume 2 ain't too far behind! I think there's less than 200 left...maybe more, but either way it's not gonna last summer. If you want a copy or just a window shop, check it out HERE