Morgan Campell hat sich in den 90er einen Namen als talentierter Australischer Skater gemacht. Mittlerweile gehört er zu jener Sorte Skater, die ihre Passion erweitern und zur treibenden Kraft hinter ihren Szenen werden. Als wir vor kurzem auf sein neustes Projekt gestossen sind wollten wir von ihm wissen wie es dazu kam das erste Skatemag für West Australien zu machen. Eine Plattform, die bis anhin abseits des Rampenlicht stand, wie die Bilder im Mag aber beweisen, locker auf dem obersten Trittchen mithalten kann. Die Antwort, die wir bekommen haben ist, wie es sich für einen Redakteur gehört, informativ und auf den Punkt gebracht.
So, last year Lance Dawes was in Perth to show some international pros around the West Australian hotspots. In the wee bit of downtime out at a school in Roleystone, he asked me if we had a local mag? I said “No” without really knowing a reason why. He replied: “With this crazy isolation, so many talented skaters and amazing spots, it seems like it should.” The conversation haunted me, and I guess that was the moment of conception for ‘staple’. Later last year I visited Berlin and saw their local skate mag ‘anzeigeberlin’ which was free, pocket-sized and full of artistically inspirational imagery, not just skate stunts. I spoke to the editor Adam Sello and told him that his mag was inspiring and that I dreamt of doing something similar one day. He seemed very happy! When I returned to Oz I met Jack Pam who agreed that WA needed something, and also that ‘anzeigberlin’ was the bomb and simply said “lets do it.” His confidence made me think it was possible! We soon spoke to Perth photographer Luke Thompson who was also down. All we needed was advertisers, and after some e-mails we had the ads locked down. Content came next and the West Coast is full of uncovered creative brilliance, so material was no coming in worries…
Fast forward 12 months, and the first issue of the first ever West Australian skate and photography mag is now available online at the freshly launched staplemag.com. Staple is first and foremost about being a free print mag, and the only way to make it available to the whole world was to put it online. So we have presented it to the masses in the exact form that it was printed. Over at Staple’s site you will find WA video pieces, news, and a month or so after each issue is launched in print you will see it online. In the first issue you will see an interview with the 64mm rolling street wizard Frodo, an 80’s Americans Cup photo essay, Mars exposed, Josh Roberts interviewed about the new Perth video and plenty of juicy west coast imagery. Really stoked on how it has all turned out thanks so much to the ’staple’ comrades, contributors and supporters for making this happen and major props to Darren Richmond esquire for designing such a banging website.
©Maag