SAN DIEGO — Back when I was a young kid, SURFER magazine was what it was all about. Working at South Coast when it showed up at the shop, everyone was excited, but back in 2020 the publication ceased to exist.
However, all of that changed on August 23 when SURFER magazine printed a limited production.
SURFER magazine was founded by John Severson in 1960 and has been on newsstands for six decades. So, the relaunch had to be special. Jake Howard is the new Editor-in-Chief at SURFER magazine and has helped rebuild SURFER.
"We have Kelly Slater on the cover. 52 years old, The GOAT at Backdoor Pipeline on the North Shore of Oahu. In the last year there were new owners, new ownership has come in, they're really excited about the opportunity and the tradition of SURFER," Howard said.
Howard credits the new ownership excitement to the publication that led to resuscitating SURFER back to the print format.
"So, in the last year we really started ramping things up. We've rebuilt the website; we've got over 2 million following us on Instagram," he said.
Two million Instagram followers, the Olympics and more people surfing than ever before.
"And so now it's kind of the perfect storm to serve those people with good stories and good content," he said.
In the new SURFER, you find San Diegans.
"The opening spread for Caitlin Simmers interview, she's smiling, looking great, but then you turn the page and she's dropping into a wave with an immense amount of determination. When she goes surfing, she's not messing around man! This is a great one, this is another one with a San Diego connection. Micheal Takayama, he's talking about Donald Takayama and the surfboards he's building today," he said.
There's also Kai Lenny and his attack on Big Wave riding.
"Kai is definitely at the forefront of the new high-performance big wave surfing. He thinks of it like big mountain snowboarding," he said.
Howard said to think of the magazine like the comeback of vinyl records.
"The reaction has been crazy how many people are stoked. You can flip through the pages and hold it in your hand," he said.
And when I say limited, only 50,000 will be issued. Will they print? SURFER is going to wait until next year to decide.
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