The average Bohemian 20-something surfer who subscribes to Surfing magazine may be totally stoked with its edgy content, but the endless summer lifestyle it depicts is less relevant to those in their 30s and 40s.
So, just two months after launching Surfing Girl magazine, Surfing magazine publisher and legendary surfer Pete “PT” Townend is gearing up his new Surfing Guide, a men’s magazine about surfing. Surfing Guide will debut with its May issue, and the initial production run will be 100,000 copies.
While Surfing is geared toward the teenage-to-mid-20s surfer, Surfing Guide is more sophisticated.
“It’s aimed at the mature surfer who’s got a little more going on with his life, more than chasing girls and riding waves,” said Townend, who returned to head up the magazine group a year ago after several years as marketing director at Rusty Apparel in Irvine. “Now his life is a little more complicated. He’s a short-board rider who still has a passion for performance surfing,he still gets out there and thinks he can be (professional surfer) Kelly Slater.”
The magazine may strike a chord in Orange County, which is home to the $2 billion-plus surfwear industry and scores of its executives, like Quiksilver Inc. CEO Robert McKnight, can be found riding the local waves with those from other industries, like C.J. Segerstrom & Sons’ Anton Segerstrom and Laguna Art Museum director Bolton Colburn.
But the national publication may be a tougher sell in other areas.
The new publications are plunging into crowded waters that includes other industry leaders such as Surfer magazine, along with San Clemente-based Surfer’s Journal, Costa Mesa-based Surf News and Oceanside-based Transworld Surf.
The Surfing Guide will sell for $3.95 and be smaller and less expensive than the upscale quarterly Surfer’s Journal, which targets surfers older than 25 and sells for $12.95.
Surfing has a monthly paid circulation of 110,000. With the addition of Surfing Guide, the Surfing division of publisher McMullen Argus will have five products, including Bodyboarding magazine and a new quarterly video news magazine that sells for $19.95 and was released Jan. 1.
“We now have more opportunity with all of our titles to reach and influence more people who are surfing than anybody else,” Townend said. n
