Hell, time passes quickly. Two years have already passed since I joined BOARDS, yet I feel like I’m only just about getting started. That said, so much has changed. I’d love to say it was all my doing but as there’s no “I” in ‘team’ - that wouldn't be telling it as it is - and as the team know, sometimes I’m a little too honest for my own good.
Okay, so the first few issues weren’t even under our current publisher, Factory Media, and I never did see any pay for them, which wasn’t a great fact to take to my first interview with the new boss. Thankfully Fred (Willis) was in that one, though I mention it not so much for what he said but what he witnessed, which was my smooth interviewee style: “I’ve got no idea what I’m doing or how a mag really works, and considering I’m as about as dyslexic as you can get, in your shoes I’d give the job to someone else”.
So I’m not really sure how I ended up in this position. I guess it was something Fred said after all, but then that’s how this team is. Duncan and Gary pulled me in at the beginning, and despite my warnings have put up with my excessive behaviour ever since.
Just like the rest of my family I treat life as a competition, and at our first editorial meeting I said as much: “We not only have to be the best we can be, but the best there is. No.1”. Okay, without a finish line that’s kind of hard to quantify, but we had to start somewhere.
That somewhere for me was everywhere. Last year alone I spent 32 weekends away and many of those were weeks. If you count each time I stood in an airport a month soon disappears, but hell I’m not complaining, as it was a great year for my record books.
While it felt like I was out of the country most of the time it’s actually far from reality, though I took some ribbing from the team. I don’t think I’ve travelled the UK as much in the last ten years as I have since joining BOARDS, and sure, you can’t do it all, but having been to nearly event in all windsurfing disciplines it feels like I’ve had a good go, and where I haven’t been able to reach the team have flown the BOARDS flag.
Like I said this feels like the beginning, but thanks to the support from our readers and the trade we’re able to report that the half-time score is looking pretty good.
Obviously Windsurf is our competition, and having had an interesting conversation with Mark Krapovich I figure this is a good time to share the official results with everyone.
When I joined there was only an 89 point gap between the two in the WH Smith magazine rankings, but right now we’re 296 points above the competition in a very competitive market where many mags are suffering. We’ve stood our ground and maintained a steady position while the competition let it slide but are still happy to take the advertisers money on the premise that each mag is brilliant (doesn’t matter if no one is reading it). Our key strength is our readers and the online community. Here Google are the king makers, and at this time we’re hitting 48,000 unique users over a 31 day period, but unless Windsurf are open to this one we’ll have to let the date on their last news item tell the story.
Sorry if I’m having a dig, but Mark was allowed to say it as it is when he called me a fat c**t, then insulted all dyslexics on his website, so guess it’s my turn.
