In a surprising move, Concrete Wave has made a version of it’s photography retrospective book, “The Legacy of Warren Bolster” available as a free download on Silverfish Longboarding. Warren Bolster was a pioneering skate and surf photographer. The Concrete Wave Edition book had some production and layout issues that mostly disappear as a PDF. Of course, viewing them onscreen is not close to the tactile experience you get when flipping through a heavy book in your hands, but it’s free, and you can’t beat that. I’m not sure what the contractual ramifications were for releasing the book electronically for free. You may want to get it while you can. It’s a curious move to be sure, but one I can appreciate, and you should too. Check out this Steve Cathey photo from 1975. Look at his foot placement and body language. No matter what your age/discipline, you have to be able to respect that. Still available online is an interesting video interview with Warren shot shortly before the publication of his book.
Also available are the last two issues of Concrete Wave Magazine, which is nice, but they really should take a page out of Thrasher’s book and release the very first issues as a PDF. While I’m telling people what to do, Thrasher really should keep releasing more old issues as PDF’s. Someone start that petition to get the first 10 years of Thrasher online. I might even be tempted to pay a reasonable fee for that if they were done right.
Update: There are some great photos and words in this book. Definitely worth the download. They are hoping it will spark interest in print version.
2 comments
Kilwag
I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that Dan Gesmer was the editor of this book!
houseofneil
Randy, you are spot on here. Props to Concrete Wave for doing this. And that photo of Steve Cathey is ridiculous. Total style, but how the hell is he staying on?
The first issues as PDF? Maybe not. They were thin and not that great. Maybe they should PDF all of the issues of International Longboarder, the precursor to Concrete Wave.