Investing in Surfing Magazines
I was brought up in a house surrounded by bushland. Wild eucalypts and banksias grew up to and over our back fence and, as a kid, I could hop that fence and walk for many miles through untouched wilderness. Before surfing took over my life this stretch of bushland was the place where I spent most of my time – jumping bikes, throwing rocks and getting creative with gunpowder.
A site of endless adventure for me, the bush was a source of eternal anxiety for my Mum. There were the mandatory snakes and spiders, containing enough poison to drop a horse and always on the move come summer. Her other fear – another summer occurrence – was bushfire. The old chook's mantra, drilled into my sister and I over eighteen long, hot summers, was always the same: If a bushfire comes, grab the photo albums. Everything else can be replaced.
I haven't lived in that house, or heard those words, for nigh on twenty years, but I recall them now after an incident in which I almost gave away my lifelong collection of surfing magazines.
*****
Six months back I was moving house and with eleven crates of magazines and a lack of new space it was time for a cull. I didn't give it any thought at first; they were going to whoever wanted them. However, before I could give them away I received several messages – all from older blokes – advising against such rash action. Each message came with its own tale of woe and regret, but the advice was always the same: Hold onto your surfing magazines. And so I did.
The weekends leading up to the move were spent packing, wrapping and strapping a house full of goods. Besides furniture and personal belongings, they were mostly incidental items without much value, either sentimental or monetary. Old Christmas gifts and the like, you know how it is. When I came to the crates containing my old magazines I downed tools and stopped to take a peek. By coincidence the first crate I looked in contained the first surfing magazine I ever bought – Tracks, May 1984, with Tom Carroll in his first world title year doing a frontside re-entry on the cover. I stared and was transported back 24 years. The effect was profound and beyond mere déjà vu. As I flicked through that magazine, light was cast onto forgotten memories and thoughts. Images and words that I'd read when I was a very different person to who I am now were flashed on and the result was to recall that person: myself 24 years ago.
Twenty-four years ago, when I'd stopped blowing things up in the bush behind our house and become a surf-obsessed grommet. When surfing meant everything because I was in the throes of teenage adolescence, and discovery and the need to belong were blending with the passions typical of those formative years. And I began reading surfing magazines earnestly – every mag, every month, every year. The concrete had yet to set in my teenage brain and I was stirring into the mix all the values, beliefs and ideas that the editors and authors (and even the bloody letter writers!) ventured.
So there I sat on the carpet picking through the magazines at random. With each one I could remember the clothes I used to wear and the way I used to think when I first read it. It sounds silly to say I was coming face to face with the old me, but it was, at least figuratively, something similar. The stirring of old memories caused me to think about how I'd changed. The feeling was akin to looking at pictures in an old photo album, though it wasn't more wrinkles and less hair that marked the differences. The process was internal. The memory of my thoughts was contained in these magazines. A timeline I hadn't realised was being recorded. I understood completely why the wise old fellas told me to hang onto my magazines and I'm grateful they warned me.
A few weeks later a work colleague heard about my revelation and gave me a whole lot of magazines that she'd ended up with but, being a non-surfer, had no use for. They were SURFER and Surfing mags from the '70s with shots of Lopez, Shaun, MR and Dane back when Hawaii was the epicentre of surfing and if it didn't have a lightning bolt it just wasn't cool. But as enjoyable as they were to read I didn't have the same attachment to them as I did to my magazines. After all, these weren't my memories. They were more like portals to all of surfing's past rather than touchstones to mine.
*****
I just moved into a new apartment and the first pieces of furniture I bought were bookshelves. Five of them. Floor to ceiling numbers that can hold all my magazines and I can be surrounded by all my memories. And if ever there is a need for sudden evacuation I know the drill by heart: Grab the photo albums and the surfing magazines. Everything else can be replaced.
This story first appeared in Kurungabaa, Vol 1, Issue 2.
Comments
Does anyone buy magazines anymore? It's not a rhetorical question, I'm keen to know. I'm well out of the target demographic these days, but with the internet and sites such as Swellnet and Surfline do surf magazines still have the same relevance to kids as they once did?
You might be the last of a generation Stu.
Sophie the answer to our question is yes. I still buy the magazines and have been doing so for my whole life, I guess it is a habbit for me, but a lot of other people are the same. The internet is great for filling in the gaps beetween the magazines hitting the news stands.
Nothing better than taking a glossy new magazine home and sitting down in a comfortable place and haing a good read and devour some of the photo's. You will find a lot of stuff in magazines that you wont find on the web.
I would just like to record that Stu asked the question on a surf forum whether he should keep them or chuck 'em.
Let it be known that I advised him to get rid of them, that what you think you possess actually possesses you, that somwehre out there was someone who was going to actively use them rather than just store them in the garage as a keepsake and some physical nostalgia, and that it was his karmic duty to find that person/those persons.
Of course there is no right or wrong answer to this question, but my point is still valid. There is a cost and a benefit in everything.
Stu studiously ignored me. Not for the last time either. :-)
Your advice was taken on board, Batfink...but, in the end it was ignored.
I've long been in a tug-of-war between the security of nostalgia and the freedom of non-attachment (Quick joke: Did you hear about the Buddhist vacuum cleaner? It comes with no attachments). On one level I'm convinced of the wisdom of non-attachment but I just don't have the conviction to see it through. So how wise does that make me...?
I should tell you though, after I rescinded the offer on Realsurf I got a very sweet email from Rae - a young girl who used to post on there - asking for some of my magazines. She was in Year 12, had only been surfing a few years, and wanted to know about surfing history. I couldn't say no so picked 15-20 old mags from my collection and sent them to her. I now have holes in the collection but the email I received from her was worth it.
Consider my karmic duty partly complete...
I've been ignored by better people than you Stu, :-)
I just wanted it known that I can take no credit in this story.
Cheers
Does anyone know of any sites where you can read/view full past issues of magazines?I've got a collection dating back to the 60's and would like to upload so that others may enjoy them as well.Would this breach copyright laws?Is it any different to buying a mag and lending it to someone else?
I'm positive that would be a breach of copyright, Della. There's laws against reproducing work, mostly stemming from the commercial intent (profiting from someone else's work). Even if you copied it and placed it on a free blog someone is profiting, however indirect it is (in that case, Wordpress or Blogspot or similar).
The laws of legal reproduction are a bit vague but generally it's OK to reproduce small passages/parts for reference. How much and in what context is where it all becomes a bit fuzzy.
That said, if you're looking for someone to enjoy your mags I'll send you my postal address. Hey, I'll even pay for shipping!
They'll be up for grabs the day after my funeral.My widow will post a notice.On a serious note,I have read archived newspapers online,why don't the surf mags offer the same service?It seems a shame that all those stories and photos are virtually unattainable once the mag is off the shelf.
The day after your funeral, eh? I can arrange that...
I'm with you on the archive matter though. I love looking through old mags and imagine others do too, but unless you own them there's just no way to see them.
Archives are awesome! Wow, if I owned Tracks or ASL or any other mag I would hire someone to scan all the old issues and make them available online to everyone! I'm thinking free in order to "give back to surfing", but I suppose if I owned a mag I would think differently and probably want to try make a buck out of it.
I have sent tracks,ASL,Waves and Stab a request for this service.I'm thinking free as well.I wonder if today's editors have a concept of sharing surf stories,photos etc. just for the joy of it.I'll let you know.
I'd be keen to hear their answers Della. Please keep us posted.
Sure today's editors have that concept! But sure none of them the boss neither.
i recently spend more than a considerable amount of money, shipping 4 years worth of Surfers Path magazines to Australia from the UK, to complete the now 5 year collection i have, its not quite the full history, but sitting down now, with an old mag, looking at the wide eyed exploratory articles about cortez bank and the like is just....great.
Im glad you kept those magazines, nothing better than a trip down memory lane, we are all our own private historians.
I would think that there are numerous questions of copyright involved. I was a regular contributor to SW in the 70s and would have no problem with my material being made available but I am reasonably sure that copyright reverts to the author/photographer after the initial publication so to republish material on the internet could breach their copyright.
Loved SW in the 70's and 80's.
Highwater mark for surfing publications world-wide.
Good news from Vaughan Blakey at SW,who very quickly responded to the archive request:
"Not only is your idea feasible mate, it's completely logical, as access to
historical archives is a great reference tool. The only problem is digitalising
all the back issues means scanning every single page of every single issue ever
made. We are currently in the process of doing so but it's a long and expensive
process. Rest assured, at some point within the next three years the entire SW
archive (50 years of worth) will be online and available complete with text
recognition ie:, you type "Tom Carroll" into a Search engine, every single
reference of Tom Carroll in SW should come up on a home page."
Answer from Tracks voiced a concern about the "big investment" required to scan all their past issues.
Still waiting to hear from ASL,Waves or Stab.
Surfing World leads the heat with an 8.5 ,the rest still to even start paddling for a wave at this stage.
Groms,
Think twice before applying for work experience at SW.
Good work by Blakey and I'm glad I found that info out now. I've begun digitising my old mags for reference use at Swellnet and had started with SW's. No real point continuing any further...
As I said in the previous post I think there are numerous copyright issues with putting back issues on line. No-one from SW has contacted me about it and I would certainly expect that to be done if only out of politeness.
I would suggest that Vaughan would be foolish to proceed without clearance from at least the major contributors and legal advice from a copyright specialist that he is within his rights. Personally, given the photos are low resolution and SW is not charging for access, I wouldn't care but I am not sure that other copyright holders would feel the same way given the work that was put in and the small returns obtained at the time. That's not in any way a complaint, just a statement of fact. Payments at the time were realistic but if the material is to have a second life copyright holders have a claim.
I think Stu knows who I am, so he knows I have a right to comment on this. I do however, expect him to respect my privacy.
^^ I'm fully aware who you are, I always enjoyed your writing, and I'll always respect your privacy (as I do everyone else on our forums).
It's gonna be interesting to see how this issue plays out.