''Whitelines'' is an
English language
English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...
magazine covering snowboarding culture published by Factory Media.
History
Founded in 1995, ''Whitelines'' began publishing under Jim Peskett, owner of Permanent Publishing, with former British professional snowboarder Tudor ‘Chod’ Thomas as editor. Its sister skateboarding magazine, ''Sidewalk Surfer'' (now ''
Sidewalk
A sidewalk (North American English),
pavement (British English, South African English), or footpath (Hiberno-English, Irish English, Indian English, Australian English, New Zealand English) is a path along the side of a road. Usually constr ...
'') shared the same office in
Abingdon, Oxfordshire
Abingdon-on-Thames ( ), commonly known as Abingdon, is a historic market town and civil parish on the River Thames in the Vale of the White Horse district of Oxfordshire, England. The historic county town of Berkshire, the area was occupied f ...
. They were later joined by ''
The Surfer's Path'' and ''Dig BMX''.
The magazine's name, which plays on freeride
snowboarding
Snowboarding is a recreational and competitive activity that involves descending a snow-covered surface while standing on a snowboard that is almost always attached to a rider's feet. It features in the Winter Olympic Games and Winter Paralym ...
and drugs culture, was originally spelt out as two words (White Lines). Over the years - for the sake of a simpler logo and the website URL - it has merged to become ''Whitelines''.
At the time of its launch, the only other British snowboard magazine on the shelves was Snowboard UK. Initially something of a fanzine, ''Whitelines'' targeted a core readership, differentiating itself from the competition through its forthright opinions and an irreverent sense of humour. Early articles included ‘Freak Speak’ (in which the editor interviewed Oxford's local tramps), a tour of the UK's best rollercoasters and an in depth tutorial on ‘How to drive like
The Sweeney’. Tudor ‘Chod’ Thomas now admits that these were partly included for lack of actual snowboarding photos.
The first issue of ''Whitelines'' was published in October 1995 and featured Burton-sponsored British snowboarder
Chris Moran
Air Chief Marshal Sir Christopher Hugh Moran, (28 April 1956 – 26 May 2010) was a fast jet pilot and later a senior commander in the Royal Air Force. He was Commander-in-Chief of RAF Air Command, Air Command at the time of his unexpected death ...
on the cover. Moran later went on to become one of the magazine's editors, alongside Matt Barr, before the two of them left to found the ACM writing group, which still contributes regular articles to the magazine.
The current editor, Ed Blomfield, joined in 2005, and is assisted by Andrew Duthie. Chod, who by this time focused solely on graphic design, left the magazine in 2007. Other members of the ''Whitelines'' editorial team have included the
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
’s
Ski Sunday
''Ski Sunday'' is a weekly magazine-style television show covering winter sports, broadcast on BBC Two in the United Kingdom on Sundays in a late afternoon or an early evening timeslot. It began in 1978 and is currently presented by Ed Leigh an ...
presenter
Ed Leigh and photographer James McPhail. ''Whitelines'' is also credited with kick-starting the photographic career of Nick Hamilton, who worked as a staffer at Permanent Publishing alongside skate lensman Wig Worland before leaving ''Whitelines'' to become photo editor at ''
Transworld Snowboarding
''Transworld Snowboarding'' was an American magazine and website dedicated to snowboarding culture. When it closed, the magazine had most recently been published four times a year (for many years, ''Transworld Snowboarding'' published 10 issue ...
''.
Over the years ''Whitelines'' has developed from its early fanzine style to a respected snowboard journal, and regularly features the work of some of the best international snowboard photographers, including Jeff Curtes, Blotto, Andy Wright and Scott Serfas. Regular columnists have included pro snowboarders Devun Walsh and
David Benedek. In 2005, Benedek chose a cover-mounted DVD on Whitelines as the means to distribute his acclaimed film, ‘91 Words for Snow’, in the UK.
''Whitelines'' has helped spawn the careers of many of Britain's professional snowboarders, such as Danny Wheeler, Tyler Chorlton, Jenny Jones, Dan Wakeham, Scott McMorris, Dom Harington, Ben Kilner and Jamie Nicholls. It has also taken riders to many unusual snowboarding destinations, including
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...
, the
Lebanon
Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...
,
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
,
Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
,
Uzbekistan
, image_flag = Flag of Uzbekistan.svg
, image_coat = Emblem of Uzbekistan.svg
, symbol_type = Emblem of Uzbekistan, Emblem
, national_anthem = "State Anthem of Uzbekistan, State Anthem of the Republ ...
, and
Kashmir
Kashmir ( or ) is the Northwestern Indian subcontinent, northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term ''Kashmir'' denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir P ...
.
In 2007, the magazine joined Factory Media as part of the merger of three leading specialist sports publishers: Action Sports Media (ASM), Permanent Publishing and 4130 Publishing. It was based in
Farringdon, London.
Final Issue*
The final issue of ''Whitelines'' was the March 2015 version (#120). At the time of Ed Blomfield leaving the magazine it was expected to continue in print, however the owners Factory Media announced in the summer of 2015 that print production would cease and they would live on in digital format via the whitelines.com website. *Under the new management of Any Day Media print publication resumed, again under Ed's direction, resulting in the annual issues; 121 & 122.
Awards
In 2007 Ed Blomfield was named New Editor of the Year at the PTC New Journalist Awards.
In 2010 ''Whitelines'' won ‘Best Cover’ in the sports category of the Maggies Awards. The winning cover, from issue 82, was shot in Iceland and featured British snowboarder Colum Mytton. It was designed by former WL art director Nick Butterfield.
New Media
''Whitelines'' magazine's website, whitelines.com, is a growing as a part of the ''Whitelines'' brand and focuses on snowboarding news, videos and competitions. Whitelines.com is part of the Mpora network, which is shared between all of the Factory Media titles. Whitelines also sends out a popular and much imitated newsletter, the Friday Fix, to subscribers. The weekly
email
Electronic mail (usually shortened to email; alternatively hyphenated e-mail) is a method of transmitting and receiving Digital media, digital messages using electronics, electronic devices over a computer network. It was conceived in the ...
includes snowboarding news, video links and a desktop wallpaper.
References
{{Reflist
External links
Whitelines Magazine
1995 establishments in the United Kingdom
2015 disestablishments in the United Kingdom
Defunct magazines published in the United Kingdom
Magazines established in 1995
Magazines disestablished in 2015
Magazines published in London
Online magazines published in the United Kingdom
Online magazines with defunct print editions
Snowboarding magazines
Sports magazines published in the United Kingdom