Brettsplitter - mitten ins Hirn - Skateboard Zeugs: Concussion

Concussion

20. March 2008, 20:25 - Autor: Manuel Dietz

Hi Davoud, you’re the head of the concussion-Mag, who else is involved ?

I’m the editor, publisher, etc. Jonathan Hay is my partner and the guy I started this with 12 or 13 years ago. He does the website and handles a lot of the merchandise, subscribers and business end of the magazine. Lee Charron was our art director for many years but he recently resigned his duties, he runs Creature skateboards full time and was too busy/over it.

“Concussion is made on apple computers. Email us a Virus, SF cocksuckers!” I love that … can you explain, who exactly do you mean with the SF cocksuckers and why ? Where’s the concussion headquarter ?

The SF cocksuckers joke is a line from the HBO show Deadwood. Just an inside joke between me, myself, and anybody who likes Deadwood. I guess Concussion headquarters are the corner of my living room where my computer sits, but we dont really have one. We have never had a real office, just a few computers here and there, a storage locker and a post office box. It’s funny when people think we’re a real magazine and have real offices with paid staff.

Concussion is printed in black / white … ever thought about a colour-print ?

Yes but color is expensive and we are always broke.

While reading your mag I noticed that most of the ads are from small companies like bacon, pocket pistols, creature and hades … what about the BIG guys like deluxe and the other big distributions like dwindle ?

We get big ads now and again, a lot of clothing companies that advertise with us are huge corporations. Deluxe advertised for years but they never paid us more than a box of decks per ad, and recently pulled out because they thought they could get more bang for their advertising buck with Lowcard, who are also good friends with a lot of their riders. Whatever, I’m not bitter.

Your mag is the only one i know, that features slams on 1-2 pages per issue, why ?

I love slams. I don’t slam as much as I used to but slamming has always been one of my favorite parts of skateboarding. Without the risks there is no fun in doing half the stuff people do on skateboards. We had a slam cover once too which was rad.

What about your salary… Is making concussion your main-job ?

Salary? Ha ha. Out of all the years that we’ve been doing this, we only had one profitable year. It’s perpetually a tax write off and we have regular full time jobs. These days Concussion is essentially a side project that at best hopes to break even. We do get a lot of free stuff which is nice.

The mag is a lot about pools and ditches … how’s your personal setup ? 60mm wheels ? 8,5 inch board ?

My setup tends to be 8-8.25 width board, Indys, and hard 58mm wheels.

Here in germany we are allowed to read a lot news and stuff from the US, but how’s it the other way round ? What do you know about the european skate-scene ? is there a presence in the US ?

I only know about the European skate scene from the magazines I get sent and the UK skate mags I see now and then. If I didn’t do Concussion I’m sure I’d me much less aware of it than I am.

Who would be the next president of the US, when the concussion staff could ellect anyone on earth ?

Politically, the USA is such a horrible country, with an evil power structure, and I doubt anybody would be able to change it. I’m almost ready to move to Sweden.

Where’s concussion in about 10 years , what do you think ?

In 10 years I doubt Concussion will exist, but if it does a different editor will be running it.

Thx … keep on doing that Zine !!!

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