Today we take a look at Absolutely Radical, the World’s
first snowboard magazine. Here are a few things we learned.
- Snowboarding magazines today are 328% more expensive but on the plus side you do get 820% more pages.
- The first edition of Absolutely Radical featured 61% of all the people who have ever received a Transworld Snowboarding Legend Award.
- Modern snowboards are 2.5 times more expensive and yet they are also about $9,500 cheaper.
- Halfpipes are 2.7 times higher, but they are also approximately 2.7 times softer as they are considerably less covered in shit loads of moguls
Come with us now on a journey of historical discovery…
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| Here's the full list of Transworld Snowboarding Legend Award winners, which includes a brief description of their contributions to the sport. |
Absolutely Radical was first published in March 1985 and in
October 1986 it became the International Snowboard Magazine. It sadly
went out of business in 1991 as it was squeezed out by the bigger publishing companies.
It was edited and published by Tom Hsieh Jr. who now plys his trade as a consultant
in the world of San Francisco politics. There’s a short interview with him in this very old article
on Yobeat.
So there’s the story of the World’s first snowboarding
magazine. The World's just a little less radical without it.
The first edition of Absolutely Radical magazine can be
found online here thanks to Bud Fawcett. It’s been up there for a year, but
only had 194 views so far, go ahead and show it some love. It’s worth having a read in its original form, to
enjoy anything else from that period you’d need to pay over $10,000 for a
snowboard or alternatively get an old man very, very drunk.
There are a few other editions of Absolutely Radical and International
Snowboard Magazine on the same site, where you can look forward to reading the
first ever snowboard test and some of the earliest and most basic the trickology
articles, including:
- How to do a toe edge turn in the January 1987 edition.
- And you had to wait until the Spring 1987 edition to learn how to do a heel edge turn.
Fuck knows how people coped in between those two editions.
You
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My favourite article ever!
ReplyDelete"It’s worth having a read in its original form, to
ReplyDeleteenjoy anything else from that period you’d need to pay over $10,000 for a
snowboard or alternatively get an old man very, very drunk." It's late, I'm tired, I'm that old man. I was the marketing and advertising director for International Snowboard Magazine for the 87/88, and 88/89 seasons. I have one of the only known complete collections of Absolutely Radical / International Snowboarding Magazine and was researching what to do with it when I came across your site. I'm off to the Caribbean to pursue sailing, and free diving a la the movie "Big Blue". All the best. I'm at gildelaroza@yahoo.com.
You have your facts wrong the first snowboard magazine was produced by Michael George of San Jose, owner of Gremic skate store. I think it was called Snowboarder, the first edition had Steve Cab in Tahoe on the cover!
ReplyDeleteMore than happy to be proved wrong. If you find a copy I'd be interested in seeing it.
ReplyDelete