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IST 605: Art, Culture & History of Skateboarding

Magazines and Zines

Historically, Magazines have been number one way to disseminate the latest news and visuals throughout the broader culture of skateboarding. In the pre-digital world, magazines like Thrasher and Transworld were the primary ways in which people interatcted with skateboarding at the national level. At the local perhaps more subversive level, smaller zines documented the whats-happenings in localized skate scenes. Zine making was especially important to communities such as woman skaters who felt marginalized by the lack of female skateboarding documented in the larger skate media landscape. To a degree, with the proliferation of the internet today, the subversive nature of zine making continues within skateboarding. 

Below is a list of skate magazine and zine resources. 

Note: Thrasher is widely accessible over the internet. Additionally, articles of Thrasher are available through the Gale General OneFile database. A simple search for "thrasher" will bring up results. 

Thrasher Magazine

Colloquially known as "The Bible", Thrasher is the most widely known piece of skate media. Based out of San Francisco, Thrasher has been the skate media standard for over 40 years. Under longtime editor, Jake Phelps who held a sort of cult-like status in skateboarding, Thrasher was known for its somewhat edgy and borderline problematic styling. Under editor Michael Burnett, who assumed the editor's position after Phelps' death in 2019, the tone of the mag has calmed down and features have become more inclusive. 

 

Thrasher. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/pub/0JSE/ITOF?u=albanyu&sid=bookmark-ITOF. Accessed 7 Dec. 2025.
https://www.thrashermagazine.com/

Skate Jawn

Skate Jawn is an independent skate magazine based out of New York with roots in Philadelphia and New Jersey. Skate Jawn is heavily embossed in the DIY ethos and therefore highlights many smaller smaller scenes around the country, with a particular focus on the East Coast. Each issue usually consists of several interviews and local scene specific highlights including videos and demonstration recaps. Skate Jawn also archives each issue on its webpage so the mage is easily accessible online. 
 

 

Papercut Zine's Girlz+ Skate Library

This resource is a growing collection of queer and non-bianry skateboarding zines hosted by the paper cut zine library. As mentioned above, the culture of zine making remained alive and well within the context of skateboarding, especially in the communities of female-identifying, queer, and non-binary skaters. Most of these zines are examples of the DIY ethos and are thus hosted over dropbox or wordpress sites. the LibraryThing platform serves as a digital repository for this collection.