Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something ... Green.

After LBM locked its shutters, a new magazine sprung up to fill the void. A number of the main people involved are LBM castoffs, looking for a new outlet to be a voice in surfing and maybe put into action a few ideas that were dismissed within the halls of our former employer.

The "Preview" issue for morSURF Magazine will be unveiled at Surf Expo in Florida next weekend, to be followed up with distribution at ASR in San Diego the following weekend. The concept behind the project is to provide a publication that caters to the "modern day" surfer, one who adopts the ride-everything approach as opposed to categorizing themselves as a longboarder, shortboarder, etc. MorSURF will be on a bi-monthly calendar, with the first issue scheduled to come out in late February.

Being a start-up, we're facing the rigors of publishing adolescence — growing a reputation, working with little/no budget, finding distribution outlets, building/maintaining a website. It's a rather tall order for a staff of (+/-) four. But we're hoping that through our already established network of friends/contacts in and out of the industry that we will have a few advantages over the typical new magazine.

An added bonus to this magazine is that it is following the trend of "Going Green," which is never a bad thing. It will be printed on 'sustainable forestry' paper (plant a tree for every tree cut down for paper purposes) and uses soy inks. Not entirely eco-friendly, but a step in the right direction, which is more than most magazines are doing. For the record, I refuse grocery bags, using a linen bag I bought, and don't drink water out of plastic bottles, I used a Nalgene, which is also a green practice. So there, even the Editor is partly green. I've even started talking to trees, which either makes me ultra-nature-friendly, or it may be a result of the chemicals in the composition of the Nalgene bottle seeping into my water.

If you're interested in doing some writing or photography for little or no pay (you must have previous experiences and be able to provide samples), or know someone who may be interested, feel free to contact me. As I've been telling a few people, if the magazine grows, the stable of contributors can only benefit; there's ample opportunity for exposure and experience. If it dies, not much harm done. Let's hope for the former.