SURFING’S VIVID TIME CAPSULE

THE world’s longest running surfing publication, Surfing World Magazine, is celebrating sixty years of keeping surf culture alive in their 60th anniversary feature.

In its 60th anniversary edition, Surfing World 60 Years, showcases the most memorable stories from the past six decades and includes reflection on each of the iconic moments from Jan Juc local editor Sean Doherty and photographer Jon Frank.

The 60-year anniversary feature documents it all for readers to reminisce and revisit from the early days of the magazine in the 1960s, the artistic 1970s, the golden era of Hugh McLeod and Bruce Channon in the 1980s and the expansion of surfing as a whole in the 2000s, 2010s and 2020s to today.

Sean and his close friend Jon took on Surfing World Magazine in October 2020 and have produced it out of Sean’s spare room ever since.

 

The pair took it on as somewhat a “labour of love” and have dedicated their spare time outside of their day jobs to continue to provide a visual and high concept journey to readers across the world.

The anniversary edition was complied with the assistance of local surf historian Bob Smith, who gave Sean and Jon access to his archive of old magazines to scan and redesign for the ‘Surfing World 60 Years’ issue.

While his three-year journey of being in the chair has come with “blood, sweat and tears”, Sean said he was incredibly proud the lifestyle, culture, sport and magic of riding waves still lived on through Surfing World Magazine’s pages 60 years on.

“We are stoked to be the oldest surf magazine in the world, we think it’s pretty cool,” he said.

“When we took over the magazine, the following week Surfer Magazine in America went under meaning we took over that oldest magazine title.

“It just made sense for Jon and I as Surfing World Magazine lovers, to buy it.

“Obviously taking it over came with a bit of weight and expectation. We’ve done it as a cottage industry and it’s really a hobby on the side of my day job.

“It’s going great to be honest. Almost too great, it’s threatening to become a full-time job again!

Sean said over the course of its lifespan, Surfing World has found a special spot in many people’s hearts, including his own, for its raw storytelling, excitement and colourful collection of images.

 

 

“It’s been so nice to put this magazine together, particularly the 60-year celebration edition where people of all ages have reached back out to us to recount some terrific old stories.

“I was one of those kids that always loved picking up Surfing World Magazine.

“When I first picked it up in the 80’s I just idolised it and Jon was the exact same.

“A couple of those photo annuals they did, I can remember every detail of them.

“I’m constantly taken straight back to when I was 11 or 12 years old when I think about it.

“Magazines are just fantastic time capsules.

“To be delivering that is what makes Surfing World Magazine incredibly special to us.”

 

Even after all his years in the industry, Sean says there is something special about holding a magazine and flicking through it, something that he hopes others feel when they pick up the anniversary edition.

“There’s something about that tactile nature and the behaviour aspects associated with it.

“You make time and you’ve got to sit down with it to take it in.

“Picking up a magazine stops time in one sense and it’s a very different way of engaging with things as opposed to digital.

“Magazines have no pace, and we try to create magazines that are timeless.

“It’s a nice anecdote to the modern world.”

 

Sean said one of his favourite aspects of keeping Surfing World alive as a “cottage industry” out of his spare room, is the fact that it has never ended up in a big publishing house in the city like a series of other surf and sports magazines.

“It’s really nice that it’s found it’s place where it has.

“The past two decades many magazines have ended up in the city and big buildings.

“It’s really cool that we’ve gone back to the roots of where it all started in the spare rooms of houses by the beach.

“That’s where most of the Australian surf magazines were born and it’s great it’s gone full circle to the ’60s and ’70s.”

Sean said that “slow burn storytelling” and “beautiful photos” is all of what Surfing World is about and will continue to be.

“We figured we wanted to do the opposite of that immediacy on the internet.

“We write 20,000-word stories, that’s unheard of in this day of the Instagram caption.

“But people still reasonate with it and it’s something that we think still says something about the world and has a voice.”

For more on Surfing World Magazine and to get your hands on the newest edition, head to surfingworld.com.au/

The ‘Surfing World 60 Years’ magazine hit the shelves just after Easter 2023.