Putting together a magazine, especially one of this magnitude, is always an intricate and sometimes stressful process. The worker-to-number-of-editorial-pages-needed-to-be-produced ratio never seemed to be at its best, but with the additions of our two latest senior staff photographers Michael O'Meally and Oliver Barton over the last few months, things are getting a hell of a lot easier ... especially with this issue.
For his first editorial feature, Oliver jetted off to Eastern Europe with the Popwar guys, only having to ward off food poisoning and dodgy characters occasionally while finding those uncharted skate spots (see "Popwar Goes Pikey"). Mike's mission was a little more domestic, but still littered with just as many dodgy characters. He headed back to one of his many homes-New York City-to shoot the grimiest of the city's skaters on the harshest of terrain (see "Take A Walk On The East Side"). Of course, both brought back the bounty.
Knowing that our two esteemed photographers had half the features covered, we could "kick our feet up" so to speak. So we caravanned up to Santa Barbara on a Friday afternoon and talked about old Powell Peralta days with Frankie Hill (see Paycheck). We bolted down to Florida to trade our old buddy Clyde Singleton (how 'bout a skate photo, Clyde?) editorial coverage in return for fried chicken and orange soda (see Top Fives). We took four-hour lunches, perusing eBay and demanding skate-shop owners scour their basements for skate-shoe pro models of yesteryear (see Back In The Day). We endured male nudity (for obvious good reason) on France's topless beaches (see "Marseilles") and drank cocktails on the tab of the Jordan family as we raided their island vacation and bombarded their youngest son with questions (see "Todd Jordan 20 Questions").
With all this fun and skateboarding the past month, the only thing we forgot to bring you was Seu's skateboarders who live in his 'hood article. We know we promised you it was coming this issue, and for that we are truly sorry. You're just going to have to wait until next month for the cover to read "Maps To The Skaters' Homes."-Eric Stricker
