"Starting a magazine was always an early thought of mine," says Kevin Harris, the owner of Ultimate Distribution and publisher of Concrete Skateboarding. Harris began Ultimate in his hometown of Richmond, BC in 1985 as a freestyle Pro on the illustrious Powell-Peralta Bones Brigade. As Ultimate grew, Harris took advantage of the cash-flow and reinvested in the local skate community by first opening the famed Richmond Skate Ranch in 1986, and later started Concrete Powder magazine in 1990, which showcased Canadian skateboarding and snowboarding. June 2009 marked the 100th issue release of Concrete—Canada's first and longest running skate mag.

Retrospective issues are never an easy task, especially when they span nearly 2 decades and have a large content archive to draw from. There's pressure to do the magazine's history proper justice, and it has to appeal and be relevant to both the younger and older skate-generations. A fine line, really. Brian Caissie (Concrete photo editor), Kelly Litzenberger (editor/art director), and myself (associate editor) have been involved with Canadian skateboard media for many years collectively, but have never undertaken such a large and intricate print project until this particular issue.

"The sasquatch on the cover of the magazine really became a representation of what an evil monster this issue was to work on. That wasn't the case when we thought it up, but after the fact, it's definitely true," explains Litzenberger with great accuracy. "We wanted to approach Issue 100 as a true retrospective of where we've been, where we are, and where the next generation of skateboarders are going to take us. Concrete's been around for a long time now. For a lot of people, it's been around since before they started skating. For the most part, every Canadian skateboarder who's broken through to the American side of the industry has some form of documentation of their progression in the pages of Concrete. That's what we wanted to capture: the stories behind the photos, and how it was possible for them to gain the recognition of being some of the most talented skaters in the world."

The Content
"Most skaters who read Concrete these days are young, and don't necessarily know the history of the magazine," says Caissie. "This issue explains it all and show readers how Concrete Skateboarding got to where it is today. It also shows how most of the big Canadian Pros got started, coming from small towns and blowing up on the scene—most got their first photo and interview with us."

The idea was to make Issue 100 into a "guest book" and divide it into sections. To add to the overall challenge, this process definitely changed and evolved during the process. The text is largely quote-based and consists of skaters recalling their first published photos in the mag, content that influenced them over the years, and how Concrete has impacted and contributed to Canadian skateboarding. Another huge challenge was sourcing this reference material in the archives, and scanning/correcting a lot of it. The issues previous to #49 (2000) were not burned to disc because the efficient and widely used personal computer equipment of today was still in the early stages of affordable mass deployment.

The "Scene Builders" section in #100 consists of 8 past-and-present Canadian Pros (including Rob "Sluggo" Boyce, Alex Chalmers, Colin McKay, Paul Machnau, Gailea Momolu, PLG, Rick McCrank, and Chris Haslam) who've made an impact on the scene in this country, and internationally.

The "Industry" section showcases an extended list of people who've appeared in the magazine as sponsored skaters early on, and are now helping to grow and shape the Canadian skate industry as owners of skate companies, distribution houses, etc.

"The Next Generation" includes both up-and-coming and established young Canadian Ams and Pros (including Sascha Daley, Ryan and Scott Decenzo, Jordan Hoffart, Spencer Hamilton and more) who are skate media regulars. The planned premise behind all these sections was to draw from as much retro content as possible, while creating balance with new photos whenever possible.

"Focus Point" is a feature that showcases favourite published photo from a who's who list of past-and-present contributing Concrete photographers (like Scott Pommier and Rich Odam) along with the entertaining stories behind the images.

#100 also features sections on the 15 special newsstand editions Concrete has done over the years, such as "The Canadian Skateboard Annuals" ('98-'04), "The Canadian Skatepark Guides" ('05-'07), "Photo Annuals" ('05-present) / "Interview Issue ('08), and a section chronicling the first 13 years that snowboarding appeared in the magazine (Push.ca's own Matt Houghton contributed some text for that cause).

The issue also tackles Concrete's early print roots by featuring the popular 32-page newsprint "magazine within the magazine" that is completely retro in nature, and showcases reproduced early ads, photo feature content, early "Knok Knoks" (Check Outs) from notable Canadians, and more.

Click here to view some sample spreads of Issue 100 content.

The Numbers
#100 actually covers the 119 issues Concrete has published since 1990. The magazine is currently in its second extended volume, which in itself accounts for 100 issues. Also, the first 13 special bi-annual newsstand issues weren't included in the overall volume 2 count until 2008. Volume 1 first appeared in 1990-'91 and consisted of 6 glossy newsstand issues. The second volume began in 1992 as a "re-launch" and a free magazine, and the first 9 issues were full format newsprint. Starting in 1994, the magazine shrunk to a more standard size, but was still featured in newsprint, and by #26, 1997 the issues became glossy and staple-bound. By #65, 2003 the magazine no longer featured snowboard content, and by #85, 2006 it became perfect bound. What was called Concrete Powder up until #86, 2007 became Concrete Skateboarding as it stands today.

"One of my favourite aspects of Issue 100 was the cover logo. Today we are called Concrete Skateboarding, yet many people still recognize us as Concrete Powder," explains Litzenberger. "In order to pay homage to where the magazine came from, I decided to develop our logo to be a close representation of the original Concrete Powder logo. Being around for 20 years is a long time, so why not look the part? Also, I've got to give a lot of respect to Kevin Harris for having the foresight to start a magazine in Canada that showcases the talent coming out of our great nation."

Concrete Skateboarding is published 7 times annually, and #100 can be found on newsstands and in skateshops across Canada.

---------------------
Related:
Making The Mag Part 1: Concrete Skateboarding #100 - The Cover
Media Relations w/Sandro Grison of Color Magazine (part 1, part 2)
The King of King Shit Speaks