BoardSport Source, Issue 96, April / May 2019

On the cover: Pukas’ Adur Letamendia surfing the Pukas Pegaso by Chris Christenson. Photo by Carles Medina.

Welcome to the new-look BoardSport SOURCE Magazine. We’ve been working hard on our sexy new magazine design to make sure we’re beach-bod ready for summer 2019 and we have some 5 star content to celebrate with. Christening our new look Big Wig interviewee spot is Johnny Cabianca, the man who’s made surfboards for the current world champ, Gabriel Medina for a decade. Dig in to page 36 to hear Johnny’s thoughts on robots in surfboard shaping, find out why the Brazilian decided to set up shop in the Basque Country nearly 20 years ago and we hear his story of growing up with Medina’s step-dad, Charles.

Staying in the Basque Country we speak to a company synonymous with surfboard manufacturing and retail. PUKAS are one of the true greats of our industry and we catch up with the team nearly two years after the horrific fire that ripped through their factory, leaving them with no choice but to roll up their sleeves and start from scratch (p.20).

Just as PUKAS started a new chapter in their history, our media landscape has also ushered in a new dawn with the rise of the action sports podcast. The medium has filled a time of day where we are alone and hungry for content – commuting, driving, dog walking, gym etc – but without the ability to fully engage in our smart phone. We speak with three of our industry’s finest podcasters to explore the hype (p.26).

Like our target audience, the retailer, here at SOURCE we’re constantly looking to diversify our product offering as we strive to make hay while the sun shines. A new category for this issue is the inclusion of softboards (p.23), a former sub category of our surfboards trend report, this product group has exploded in the past 18 months with OG brands such as Catch Surf and Softech now joined by a raft of new players in the game. Our Surf Editor, SW France-based David Bianic took charge of this new article for us and also penned our surfboard (p.15) and SUP (p.45) Retail Buyer’s Guides for our first surf issue of 2019.

Also new for this issue, we debut our first ever Portuguese Market Insight, where we look at a surf market that’s booming; having a direct impact on tourism and therefore the economy of this wave rich nation.

Here’s to a prosperous summer with good waves, good weather and plenty of surf and skate.

Always Sideways
Harry Mitchell Thompson
Editor