The Surfer's Journal

Complete 26-year first-edition collection of the magazine The Surfer's Journal.

• Sold as a set of 135 volumes.
• San Clemente, CA: Journal Concepts, Inc, 1992–2017.
• Various paginations.
• Bound in original color photographic wrappers.
• Housed in Surfer's Journal issued slipcases.

Twenty-six volume run of the highbrow surfer's bimonthly magazine, founded in 1992 as a quarterly publication following publishers Debbee and Steve Pezman's departure from Surfer Magazine. Incorporating beautifully photographed travel features, profiles on such surfers, and technical articles on surfboard design, "opening an issue of the Journal was like stepping into a quiet, well-appointed library" (Warshaw). Conceived and produced as a collectible physical object and navigating an age of pivots to digital and print media crises, the Journal has survived for just short of 30 years while maintaining uncompromising quality standards and providing a home for long-form specialty journalism. Relying from the beginning on reader support over traditional advertising revenue (then an experimental concept), the Pezmans chose the risky but rewarding path of idealistic perfectionism over conventional publishing wisdom: giving themselves spaces to "dally," to "take an idea and inflate it instead of contracting it," and always erring on the side of excess over concision — even if it "took a week to read the damn thing" (Steve Pezman). While OCLC shows just over 30 holdings, the vast majority of these are either in California or scattered public libraries (presumably subscriber's copies). An uncommon run of this stunning record of the sport, handsomely housed in 22 uniform black cloth SJ slipcases.