Canadian surfing magazine launched

A company better known for snow- and skateboard-related publications is launching what is said to be Canada's first surfing magazine. SBC Media Inc. of Toronto is to launch SBC Surf at first as a 172-page biannual, nominally published in Tofino, B.C.

SBC, which has been around for 25 years, specializes in "action sports" and publishes Snowboard Canada, SBC Skateboard, SBC Wakeboard, Skier, SBC Kiteboard, Windsport, Snowboard Canada Women's Annual and SBC Ski & Snowboard Resort Guide. In other words, almost any way you can be propelled across or down various surfaces -- so surfing is a natural fit. It also publishes a trade magazine for people who make a living off these pasttimes and custom publishes a magazine for Whistler Blackcomb.

The magazine, which launches with 80 pages of advertising, will compete in a market dominated by big-circulation U.S. publications like Surfer, Surfing and Transworld Surf. (Curiously, its official launch party is April 17 in Whistler during the World Ski & Snowboard Festival -- nary a wave in sight.)

"We're Canadian through and through," said SBC Media Group publisher Steve Jarrett in a Canadian Press story. "We're not trying to be an American surf magazine. It's written and photographed by Canadians for Canadians."

"We tried to keep the content as balanced as possible," said Malcolm Johnson, editor who lives part-time in Tofino, BC, known as the surfing capital of Canada. "If we do it right, we can represent what surfing culture is all about."