Time For Change: Bryce Kanights

For the November 2004 issue of The Skateboard Mag, longtime photographer (he started working at Thrasher in 1983) Bryce Kanights wrote a short piece about his experience with skate photographers actively resisting the change from film to digital cameras, and how this well-intentioned notion of "preserving the art form" is limiting and harmful for skateboarding in the long-term. Change may not always be fun or even completely good (based on your perception), but it is inevitable and necessary and we must always embrace it if we want to continue to grow and exist.

Photo by Regis Leon

The Four Horsemen of the Trans Siberian Railroad - April 2008 Skateboarder

According to Jonathan Mehring (the author and photographer for this article), this trip was a large undertaking that took roughly two years to put together. The general premise was to take the Trans-Siberian Railway "from Europe to Moscow, across Siberia, through Mongolia [and] finally ending in Beijing" with a few travel buddies to find spots and explore the region. Not a place you'd immediately expect to find a bunch of things to skate, but as you can see from the photos, that was not the case. This was also the same trip that Keegan Sauder got his dirt-track kickflip on, which got on the cover of this issue and was one of his last tricks in his Strange World part. 

TWS Pro Spotlight: Chris Pfanner

Pfan Man's Pro Spotlight interview appeared in the December 2012 International Issue of Transworld, which he also was on the cover of. Unfortunately by this time the magazine had been pared down quite a bit, and the interview was only 10 pages long. Still great, though.

Words by Kevin Duffel and all photos by Mike O'Meally.

20 Questions: Dylan Rieder

This is one of the best 20 Questions articles ever put together. Dylan Rieder, post-dylan, pre-getting on Fucking Awesome but just getting on Huf, and filming for cherry. Every photo is incredible and everything he has to say is great, including talking about his initial thoughts about Dill & AVE leaving Alien Workshop, the process of him and Austyn Gillette getting on Huf at the same time, and how it felt to be a member of the 9-Club, years before it was a podcast. 

Words by Mackenzie Eisenhour and photos by Jonathan Mehring.

The Leo Life: August 2004 TWS interview

Amongst other things, in this interview, Leo Romero talks about what its like to be a pro skater at 17 years old after only 6 years of skateboarding, why he loves skating handrails so much,  and the one thing that scares him more than a huge rail. It's incredible to me how long he has maintained such a high level of skating for so long, as he's still going strong 18 years later.

Words by the late Eric Stricker.

Photo: Sean Cronan

Photo: Seu Trinh

Photo: Trinh

Photo: Trinh

Photo: Trinh

Photo: Sean Peterson

Photo: Peterson

Heads: March 2001 Thrasher

Below are the three Heads interviews from the March 2001 issue of Thrasher.

Photos: Nik Freitas

Photos: Mike Burnett

Photos: Lee Dupont

Dylan Rieder - January 2014 HUF ad

Half-cab heelflip over a picnic table. No photo credit given. 

A brief statement about some of the problematic content used in past skateboarding magazines

The cool part of going through all of these old magazines is seeing the growth and evolution of skateboarding and skaters. The not-so-cool part is seeing how common homophobic, sexist & other offensive language was in the recent past and how casually it was used. Media as a whole from the same era is just as guilty of this, it isn't solely skateboarding. I've said homophobic and sexist things in the past as well, thinking it was innocuous humor and "all in good fun", but it wasn't and isn't.

As I continue to post from past magazines, it's important to me that I acknowledge this aspect of skate culture while I highlight the awesome parts of it. I don't want to bum people out, but I also don't want to look at the past through rose-colored glasses. I'm not here to "gotcha" anybody, but I also want to be clear that I have no intention of glorifying that stuff. If you don't agree with me or think I could be doing this more effectively, I'm open to any feedback you may have.

Alright, back to the sweet, sweet scans.

-Skate Media Nerd

Corey Duffel interview - July 2004 TSM

Dave Carnie interviews Corey Duffel for the 4th-ever issue of The Skateboard Mag. I want to acknowledge that there is a lot of homophobic language in this one, so if you don't want to read that stuff, you may want to skip this one.

Photos by Ed Dominick.

Diego Bucchieri interview - August 2004 TSM

In his feature interview in the August 2004 issue of The Skateboard Mag, The Butcher talks about things such as what it was like growing up in Argentina, how backside 180ing Wallenberg got him noticed in the industry, and how he'd like to be able to do McTwists on vert someday. Words by Paul Zitzer and photos by Jon Humphries.