How To Choose A Skate Magazine For Kids
While summer is just barely coming to a close, the holiday season is soon to be upon us! If you skate or happen to be a friend/parent/grandparent/super-cool gift-buyer to a skater, then this is just the right place for you. Skate magazine subscriptions are a fantastic way for skaters to stay up with current trends, gear, and pro-ams (professionals and amateurs, as you’ll hear them called at the skate parks or in skate shops). Plus skate magazines often feature trendy music, festivals, and even guides for road trips and popular places to eat. They’re portable, visually enticing and easy to read – what’s not to love?! Below we will profile our top 4 skater mags and help guide you toward which one is perfect for you or your skater.
Thrasher
The first and most well-known skating magazine is without a doubt, Thrasher. It’s rad covers, bright colors, grungy photography and interviews with undoubtedly the world’s best skaters make it the Time Magazine of the skating world. Its content is direct and unashamed, and while skaters LOVE this (super legit!), it can be mature for some audiences. Let’s be clear, in no way does it promote drug usage and alcohol consumption, but there are semi-frequent mentions of these activities. If the skater in your life is younger, you may want to wait until they’re a bit more mature before subscribing here. Thrasher does a killer job at featuring skaters of all levels, interests, and styles. Bonus points as it features a mostly-even split of male and female skaters, which seems difficult to find in other skating periodicals.
The Skateboard Mag
Perhaps the second best-known skating magazine is The Skateboard Mag. This read is more down to earth and applicable for the average skater. While other skate magazines often show glossy pics of skaters performing truly death-defying stunts, and interviews with longtime pros, The Skateboard Mag manages to produce equally visibly engaging content (sick pics!), but with a more realistic spin. The skater in your life is more likely to see moves and tricks here that would be reasonable for them to learn and master. The interviews inside will range from beginners describing how getting into skating is changing to pros who are currently on tour. If you don’t know much about what your skater is capable of, or which type of skating they prefer, a subscription to The Skateboard Mag will be a very safe choice. While the content isn’t as mature as Thrasher, there are still occasional references to illicit behavior, so we recommend screening it for content if your skater is 13 or younger.
Transworld
When it comes to creative yet age-appropriate content, Transworld is the clear winner. Lest it turn off all of you hardcore skaters, let’s be clear: age-appropriate does not mean light on skating content. Transworld has some of the best skate photography in existence, and its articles are engaging and timely. It has been criticized for being heavier on ads than the two previously mentioned periodicals, but the magazine itself is longer, which means it delivers the same amount of good content. This magazine is a killer pick for any skater in your life, regardless of age. A bonus here is that they have an easy-to-download digital magazine if you’d like to save a tree and gift a digital subscription. Do be aware that this mag mails bimonthly, meaning your yearly subscription will buy you six issues.
Low Card Mag
The last skater magazine we’ll feature in this article is slightly less well known than the previous three, but like most underdogs in any industry, they’re fighting hard for a spot with great photography, design, and truly engaging content. Low Card Mag markets themselves as a magazine for only hardcore skaters. They even encourage their subscribers to review the magazine “terrible” and “lame” to keep their readership to only true skateboarders and not posers. It’s a killer periodical in that it’s book sized (very portable), easy to read in one sitting, and features similar content to the other magazines but with an “only for true believers” tilt. It occasionally comes with skate stickers, which is an awesome bonus whether you’re buying it for yourself or giving it as a gift! “Stay lame!” as Low Card Mag subscribers say and snag this for your ultra-legit skater. This magazine is also printed bimonthly (6 issue).
BOTTOM LINE: Low Card Mag is a great up-and-coming magazine with perks (skate stickers!) and loyal following. $18/year (includes 6 issues). Click here to subscribe!
We hope you’ve enjoyed our tour through our favorite 4 skate mags, and hopefully this has made your choice just a bit easier! Stay tuned for more helpful holiday shopping tips for the skater in your life! And as always, if you have feedback, or think we’ve missed a killer magazine, reach out to us via Instagram @BoardBlazers. We’d love to hear about your favorite skate mags!
Image sources: Image 1, Image 2, Image 3, Image 4.