Today we are talking about 9 magazine covers that changed skateboarding.

As many of you may know, before the age of YouTube skateboarding and other media, the only source of news as a skateboarder was from major skateboarding magazines like Thrasher and Transworld. The window into these magazines is the cover, typically showing something amazing to excite skaters that see the mag. We are going to break down our favourites out of all these magazine covers so far.

Transworld Issue #1, 1983: Steve Caballero

Larry Balma and Peggy Cousins decided to start a competitor magazine to the established Thrasher Magazine. Thrasher was originally started by Fausto Vitello to advertise his truck brand called Independent, so Larry and Peggy started Transworld to advertise their brand called Tracker Trucks. The name of the mag came from Larrys fishing boat registration being under the name "Transworld Marine". This cover was shot by the father of Frank Hawk, who is the father of Tony Hawk. You may notice the small "Skate and Create" in the thrasher font on the cover; this was a dig at thrashers "Skate and Destroy" moniker. This cover was chosen because it shows the start of one of the biggest skateboarding magazines of all time.

Thrasher, August 1989: Cara-Beth Burnside

This Thrasher issue features the first ever female on the cover of a skateboarding magazine. Cara-Beth Burnside was a legendary skateboarder, known to be a blazing pioneer in the beginning of skateboarding, playing a huge role to its development like Tony Hawk or Steve Cab did. Cara-Beth was the first female to have a pro shoe with vans, won nearly every contest she entered, and played a huge part in breaking the glass ceiling of how women were paid in skateboarding.

Transworld, September 2000: Jamie Thomas

This mag was an interview issue, meaning there are tons of interviews in this mag. This cover features a front smith from Jamie Thomas, as well as tons of photographers and skateboarders on the stairs. This Cover is like a "Where's Waldo" of major characters in the skateboarding industry, comment below if some you recognize some people in the cover.

Skateboard Mag, November 2012: Jamie Thomas

Another notable Jamie Thomas Cover is his Skateboard Mag cover, showing a front board on a double kink shotgun rail. You may recognize this as it was immortalized by the TV show Family Guy in a skateboarding scene. 

 Big Brother Issue #6: Cereal Box

Big Brother is known to have some of the most wild and offensive magazine covers of all time. Not only was this cover a play on the corn pops brand, it was extremely costly for the brand as they manufactured actual cereal boxes for these magazines to come in, leading to Big Brother hemorrhaging money for this issue. Big Brothers marketing tactics tended to los them a lot of money, but this marketing would cause the mag to become extremely memorable.

Transworld, December 1997: Danny Way

This Transworld cover features Danny Way dropping out of a helicopter into a quarter pipe. This trick was planned and paid for by DC for Transworld magazine, however, another photographer heard the news of this and took a photo from really far away and selling it to thrasher, so this is actually the second magazine to show this iconic trick. Regardless of the photo shenanigans, this helped to solidify Danny Way as the record setting stuntman we know him as today.

Thrasher, December 2021: T-Funk

Through the years tricks in skateboarding have been getting much crazier, leading to magazine covers displaying gnarlier tricks. This T-Funk cover shows I gigantic ollie at the iconic "China Banks" in san Fransisco, when this photo dropped there was a lot of speculation on how the hell he was able to do this, with many people who have been to the spot claiming it was impossible.

Thrasher, December 2022: Tyshawn Jones

Two time Skater Of The Year (So Far) Tyshawn Jones does not disappoint with his insane pop and flat ground skill. Tyshawn blew everyone away with this kick flip over subway train tracks in NYC, with him winning skater of the year shortly after this cover.

Closer Mag Issue #3: Louie Lopez

This is one of our favourite cover shots, featuring a switch backside flip over a garbage can shot from inside the garbage can, this perspective looks super sick and shows the unity between skateboarding and art. The photographer Matt Price placed his camera in the can and poked it with a stick to get this beautiful image; a very effective and low budget method.

Are there any covers you can think of? let us know In the comments!