Our
magazine offers in depth articles about all things skimboarding: contest
coverage, interviews with aspiring amateur riders and professional
household names, and historical articles as well. Photo heavy, we are
proud to showcase the work of Joe Bailey, Ryon Graf, Sean Ward, Tad Mask,
Hank Snapp, Aaron Peluso and many, many more.
ForeverSkim is the collective brainchild of
Derek Makekau and Travis Zimmerman; back when it was simply a website for
skimboarders in the Fort Walton Beach, Florida area. It featured photos, a
creative layout, and profiles for what was then known as the "ForeverSkim
Team". Derek and Travis took the time to carefully select friends and
local skimboarders with good attitudes and likeable personalities, instead
of focusing on skimboarding talent. The result was an extremely close
group of friends, notably Adam Zimmerman and David Fazekas, who would help
to nurture the growing scene in Fort Walton Beach.
Eventually, gaining some ground via a link from
SkimOnline and the
support of a local surf shop (Fluid), Derek Makekau and Travis Zimmerman
discussed at length the future of the website and it's collective purpose.
Both Travis and Derek had a strong desire to have a hand in the growth of
skimboarding, and in doing so, expose what they felt was a healthy and
productive skim scene locally. They decided that instead of hoping to
compete with information powerhouses like SkimOnline and other established
websites, it was far more reasonable to tap into a different market. Using
their combined knowledge of web and graphic design, they created the first
version of ForeverSkim the Magazine: a light, flash-intensive predecessor
to the content heavy magazine readers enjoy today.
Neither of them expected it to ever leave Fort Walton Beach, but with help
from a large number of people already established in skimboarding, it
slowly garnered a following. Celebrating a few hundred visitors a month,
Derek and Travis, now with the added support of people like Chad Martel
and Aaron Peluso, continued to create new issues. They featured interviews
with the likes of Paulo Prietto, Jus Martel, Jed Currington and more.
Without sending a single issue to print, the online magazine grew
exponentially, and by the release of the fifth issue and new format, was
set to explode.
Now, with the support of advertisers (SkimShop
and Exile
Skimboards were some of the first to take the plunge) coupled with
Derek and the first ForeverSkim staff photographer, Hank Snapp making
their first pilgrimage to California, issue 0205 was loaded with firsts.
It was the first issue to feature simple, click to turn pages (unlike the
processor-taxing slide featured in issues 1-4), a clean, new design and
logo, easy to read pixel fonts, and sections mimicking a print magazine
(table of contents, letter from the editor, things of that nature) and
much, much more.
Here's to a hundred issues.
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