Surf Magazine Ash

"And now you want me to say, 'Let's start with an intro ... '"

Inherent Bummer’s proof of life after a night out with Joe Guglielmino.

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Walk with me for a second.

I’ve been digging through those ancient relics known as surf magazines today. The ones that have died infinite deaths — reduced to digital surf ash on our bookshelves — and despite our collective nostalgia for them, will never return to their former glory.

The part of those magazines I miss most (besides the photography), and was hoping to honor, not resuscitate necessarily, but just remember, were magazine profiles and essays. I want to read ‘em or reprint ‘em for the Substack. The ones worthy at least. Like Chas Smith’s nearly 100 percent fiction profile of Craig Anderson that might be more accurate and telling than any profile ever penned. Or the first interview I ever did with Dane Reynolds. Or, perhaps, which is where I ended up dwelling today, some of the introductions in surf magazines.

teve Hawk was the editor of Surfer magazine when I was at my most influential, and his intros — which influenced my future boss, Evan Slater — were my favorite. I would instantly run from the mailbox to my bedroom to read Steve’s surf anecdote of the month. As Matt Warshaw — Steve’s predecessor at Surfer, by the way — wrote in his excellent reference and surf entertainment tool, The Encyclopedia of Surfing, about Steve

[Steve]Hawk was perhaps best known for his warm and often self-effacing monthly "Intro" column, where he used personal experience as a gateway into a more general surf world topic. A description in 1997 of how he scraped his forehead on a rock at his local surf break—"It didn't hurt too much, but for once in my life I looked kind of gnarly"—became an essay on how surfers generally injure themselves in small waves, not big ones. Not convinced by his own logic, Hawk finishes by saying that before his next venture out into big surf, he intends to "find a piece of driftwood and knock on it till my knuckles bleed."

I’ve written nearly 50 print magazine intros myself now — heavily influenced by the boys above — but the ones that just got my heart beating for two very different reasons are the first and last intros I wrote for What Youth. I never signed my name on them as I felt I was speaking for everyone at the time, but I wanted to share some digital ash to see if they move your digital heart.

What Youth Issue 1, 2012