I was dismayed to see the article where Scott Manson cast his
“Expert Eye” over the UK’s surfing publications (Press Gazette, 1
July). I appreciate that this is a subjective opinion page and of
course people are entitled to their views, but I must bring up a few
points.
1) He states that our focus is less on lifestyle and more
on competitions and images of Brits out on their boards in our cold and
murky waters. As we clearly state on the cover, this is a British surf
mag and our focus is on featuring British surfers, surfing in Britain –
thus we feature images of British surfers.
As for our competition
coverage, we never run more than 12 pages on competitions in an issue.
I’m not sure what he means about lifestyle but I feel we reflect the
surfing lifestyle as it is in this country, encompassing surfers from
all walks of life and all parts of the UK.
2) Scott mentions the quality of our pictures and our questionable repro.
Quite
what this means I am unsure, but our photos and the quality of our
images are second to none and our two main photographers (Tim Nunn and
Roger Sharp) are among the best regarded in Europe. Maybe Scott’s
implication is on printing quality, which again I would contest.
3)
His final point about the body copy is a subjective opinion. We have
changed the point size on our body copy in response to feedback and I
certainly feel it is entirely legible. In fact, bar the font, the size,
tracking and leading are very similar to Carve’s and the image spread
you used of Carve and Pit Pilot certainly didn’t justify Scott’s
negative comments.
4) Finally, I have no idea where Scott got the
figure for our circulation as he appears to have not been in touch with
anyone at our company.
Steve Bough editor, Wavelength
(Editor’s note: The circulation figure was obtained by Press Gazette. Apologies if it was wrong.)
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