TheBuzz
TheBuzz
Board Stories shreds
into publishing"Board Stories" has grown from a segment on Tiny Tadani's "Hawaii Sports People" show on Oceanic Cable to its own show and now into the pages of a magazine.
The print version may be hard to find, however.
"It flew out the door at all the surf shops," said former pro surfer turned publisher Mike Latronic. He had 12,000 copies of the inaugural edition printed for May distribution.
"I'm going to bump it to a glossy and do 15,000 the next time," he said. Some 11,000 copies will be distributed here. The other 4,000 will be distributed along the West Coast.
The next edition of the free quarterly magazine will be published at the end of August.
The giants of the surf magazine genre, Surfer and Surfing, are also glossy and advertiser-supported, cost actual money and are long-established. Why even try to compete?
"If Duke Kahanamoku is the father of surfing, if Hawaii is the birthplace of surfing, why is every single solitary publication in the world devoted to surfing based out of Southern California?" Latronic said. "I believe Hawaii should have a stronger voice in the international surf scene from its print media. We were almost there with H30."
H3O Hawaiian Heavywater Magazine ceased publication several years ago.
Board Stories magazine is to be an extension of the TV show which airs on Oceanic at 8 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.
It will mostly be about surfing but Latronic will also mine what he called the "rich field of body boarders, skateboarders and snowboarders," to give board sports the credibility he feels they deserve.
Latronic started out dog-paddling in the rip current, looking for advertising dollars in January when media budgets were largely set in October and November. A lesson learned, but he was not dissuaded.
"I made a few key phone calls and alliances, got a couple nods here and there and went for it," he said. "I am proud to say that every person who contributed got paid and we're in the black."
Freelancers such as Ben Marcus and Flynn Novak, who have written for Surfing and Surfer magazines, headline a team of local writers who Latronic described as knowledgeable about the local boardriding lifestyle and industry, including luminaries such as Randy Rarick.
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin.
Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached
at: eengle@starbulletin.com