lee crane

This action sports industry has always been a quick-changing, new kid on the up world that you don’t really notice when you’re the new kid on the up. So that’s why it’s always good to see some of the old guard getting a little love from the next wave.

Snowboard photographer Dano Pendygrasse was just interviewed by David Rouleau on Push.ca about the death of Future Snowboarding Magazine. Dano and I had a few conversations before the magazine launched and then one the day the news got out that it was being shut down. In his interview Dano mentioned a couple of those conversations. Here’s what he said:

But then at the same time, Lee Crane, who’s been in this industry forever and has a pretty long view of things, was like, “Dano, there’s a reason snowboard magazines look the way they look, because that’s how people want them to look,” and I totally disagreed with him and I was all up-in-arms. And you know, he was the first person I talked to after Future closed and I was like, “yeah, you’re right.” The people he was talking about were the snowboard industry and the people I was talking about were the consumers, and they’re just not the same. But I believed that the consumers would win out, but the consumers never win out.

It’s rare that anyone gives an honest, behind-the-scenes view of what it’s like walking the action sports media tightrope, and in this interview Dano breaks down some of the realities of publishing snowboard magazines very well. Because as much as we all want to be artists, in business the dollar always decides.

[Link: The Dano Portfolio]