A recent Shotwell series follows professional skateboarder and filmmaker Alex Klein. With a crew of three friends, Klein spent 2 months shooting in war-torn Israel and Gaza to explore surfing as a means of peacemaking in the region. Klein’s finished project has been made into the film God Went Surfing With The Devil and has been featured in film festivals around the globe including the 2010 Israeli-Palestine Film Festival. Klein’s film is unlike most surf films which are often a travel-log of the world’s most sought after waves and epic rides. Take a look at Say Mayday’s behind the scenes coverage below.

Shotwell: Alex Klein – Part 1

Shotwell: Alex Klein – Part 2

Best of luck to Say Mayday. Looking forward to more great pieces. Interested contributors can hit the submit button here.

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The 6th Annual Pro-tec Pool Party is TOMORROW at the Vans Skatepark in Orange. Catch a live HD webcast of the entire event at www.fuel.tv/poolparty from 3:00 pm – 9:30 pm Saturday May 22nd. The event is also streaming live through the Fuel TV iPhone App for the first time.

The Heats were just announced on Friday.

Masters Heat 1:
Chris Miller – defending 2009 champ and 5x winner
Steve Steadham
Christian Hosoi – 2nd place 2009
Tony Mag
Mike Smith
Mike Barnes
Mark Partain

Masters Heat 2:
Lance Mountain
Mike McGill
Jeff Grosso
Lester Kasai
Dave Reul
Lonnie Hiramoto

Masters Heat 3:
Steve Alba
Josh Nelson
Nicky Guerrero – 3rd place 2009
Ken Fillion
Mike Rogers
Eric Nash
Dave Duncan

Masters Heat 4:
Pat Ngoho
Duane Peters
Ben Schroeder
Mark “Red” Scott
Brian Pennington
Eddie Reategui
Cara-Beth Burnside

Pro Heat 1:
Bruno Passos
Tim Johnson
Lincoln Ueda
Josh Rodriguez
Pedro Barros
Zack Miller
Bob Burnquist

Pro Heat 2:
Jimmy the Greek
Rob Lorifice
Matt Boyster
Evandro Menezes
Ben Raybourne
Nolan Munroe
Grant Taylor

Pro Heat 3:
Nathan Beck
Tyler Mumma
Bucky Lasek – defending champ from 2009
Rune Glifberg – 3rd place 2009
Jackson Pilz
Bennett Harada
Omar Hassan (2nd place 2009)

Pro Heat 4:
Darren Navarette
Darin Jenkins
Alex Perelson
Sky Siljeg
Josh Borden
Sergie Ventura
Michael Brookman

Event Schedule (pacific time)
3pm-5pm: Masters Pool Jam Prelims
5pm-7pm: Pro Mens Prelims
7pm-7:45pm: Blocks for Bucks
7:45pm: Live Performance by OFF! (time subject to change)
8pm-8:40pm: Masters Finals
8:40pm-9:10pm: Pro Finals
9:20pm: Awards Ceremony

Highlights from last years contest.

More videos and interviews: http://www.fuel.tv/poolparty

Drift Surfing published “Incoming,” an account of the Mavericks surf contest with 28 full screen size images here. The piece is not a commentary on contests or corporate sponsors. It is about my personal experience of what it was like shooting near 50 foot waves from the media boat.

“The entire Mavericks experience was both awesome and horrible at the same time. On the 13th of February 2010, there was no place I would rather have been. Conditions were good. I heard thunder all day long and fans hooted even when waves went unridden. It was also the most physically demanding thing I have ever done with a camera. With all of that power tossing and turning the boat, my body wondered early on, “what did you get yourself into?”

Since the article was posted this week, I wrote a second piece on my blog about the build-up and aftermath of covering the contest which can be viewed here.

above: Skatepark builder Zach Wormhoudt lives large.

Grant Brittain lives in Encinitas, CA and is the chief photographer and part owner of The Skateboard Mag. He is also an editorial legend, spanning 3 decades of skateboarding history for numerous magazines, yet his work is not tied to just the skate genre. Grant shows his work often in gallery shows, guest lectures, shoots personal work, landscapes, and is a strong portrait photographer.

The Untold True Story once asked Grant “What’s the difference between shooting the Bones Brigade Chin Ramp and say, Gonz during the early nineties or Kerry Getz in this decade? Grant answered by saying:

“The photos are basically the same, back then, you could shoot just about anything and it could get in the mag. Now, it’s the Trick of the Week, acceptability of the trick is a bigger factor. Stuff gets old fast. It’s a One Up contest and now a video part can pretty much out date a sequence in a mag. Timing in the mag is everything, gotta get it in the mag before it’s on video, TV or the Internet. Magazines are up against those other media sources now.”

I grew up with Grant’s images so naturally he was an influence on my my desire to become a photographer. Last year I interviewed Grant for a post on my website and was able to visit him at “The Mag” in December for a portrait shoot. Since Grant is both a photographer and a magazine publisher, I asked for some words on today’s publishing biz with the Q&A below.

• • •

How is The Skateboarding Mag dealing with the changes in the economy and changes in the publishing industry?

“I think we are able to cope with the whole downturn in the economy a little better than the corporate magazines. We can make snap decisions and tailor the magazine to our economic needs. Corporate entities usually cut staff, we can’t do that, we already run on minimal staff and we would have to lay ourselves off, we’re the owners, so I guess we aren’t going to do that. We run everything pretty lean and smart.”

Many publishers are feeling the pressure to shift their printed media over to an online format? How are you balancing the two mediums right now?

“It’s (the internet) great for publishing and documenting news. That’s one of the reasons we decided not to run that many contests in the mag. By the time we run them in the mag, they are old news. We try to use our internet site to show events, video clips, links to our advertisers and non-advertisers, press releases and other time sensitive overflow from the magazine. There are some things that the printed mag can do and can’t do and the same with the web. Used correctly, I think that our site can only serve to enhance the printed side of the magazine…We are not a news outlet as far as the print side goes. The Skateboard Mag in printed form is more about entertainment and the lifestyle, the content we run can be looked at and enjoyed and collected for years to come.”

Layback Air by Allen Losi, 1984. Del Mar Skate Ranch. photo by Grant Brittain

If magazines do evolve to a strictly online format, how do you foresee revenue to be generated? Online subscriptions? Online advertisers?

“As far as advertising and selling subscriptions to the Internet site, that’s a hard one. Selling ads on a website can be a hard sell. Some advertisers are not all that web savvy, so they don’t see the value of running an ad on a website. Web users are used to getting everything for free and are hyper web savvy, if they have to pay for the information, they’ll just move on to a free venue. If a magazine wants to try to sell extra online features, archived material, poster downloads, etc., that might be a way to bring in extra revenue. As it stands now, advertising on the site (www.theskateboardmag.com) pays for the site, otherwise it’s being subsidized by the Printed Pub. It’s all open out there and a big gamble.”

Considering the pressure on printed magazines and newspapers, how are you able to keep your magazine relevant in today’s market?

“We will continue to publish our magazine. Magazines are and have always been a large part of skateboarding. It’s still a big deal for skaters to have their interviews and photos in a magazine. Anyone can be on the internet, good or bad. Magazines are usually better quality than the internet and you plaster your walls with the mag photos.”

• • •

Another short interview of GB was posted at Skate Infusion here. Thanks for the words Grant. Much appreciated friend.  – JW

Participation also involves sharing which is why I am here. Lately I have been able to meet and photograph some inspiring and influential people in my life and in the industry. Pro riders, pro builders, manufacturers, shapers, and artists. They are the real experts. I am just here to share some of what has rubbed off on me.

Someone once said, if you do what you love for a living then it is not work at all. It is not always true, but we need to remember this core message. If you are working too hard right now and feeling burnt, then go get recharged! Get back in the water, get back on your board, or back on two wheels. Get back to the thing that got you here in the first place. For me, it was important to bring my personal life into my work, but maybe some insiders need to put their work back into their personal life. Go ride! Even if it is just a few hours of freedom, you deserve it.

Taken while at play and while at work. San Onofre, CA