Preface: I'd like to preface this article with a disclaimer of sorts. I am not sucking up to the boss nor did he assign me this assignment. (Ha, ha, ha...assign me this assignment...) Anyway, Matt Houghton has earned this profile wholeheartedly. Not unlike the impact that professional athletes have had in the progression and growth of skateboarding and snowboarding alike, Matt's drive and dedication to action sports media has been an integral part of evolving our beloved communities to where they are today. I have known and worked with Matt for well over 10 years and am telling you that not only is this profile well deserved, but it is also well overdue. As humble as he is talented, he tried to talk me out of this article after pitching it to him. Read on and learn about the man that helped shape action sports media in Canada. Kudos, Matt. It's been a pleasure and I hope we have many more years at this party!

There is no doubt in my mind that Matt Houghton has been, and continues to be, one of the most influential people in Canadian action sports media. After spending 10 years at the helm of Snowboard Canada Magazine and eventually also as editorial director for all the magazines and sites under the SBC flag, Matt bid farewell and took on the daunting task of creating Push.ca from scratch in January of 2008. The move has been both exciting and terrifying but his unadulterated love of both skateboarding and snowboarding persists, pushing him to explore new opportunities that will grow and solidify these communities on a global scale.

Born and raised in Thunder Bay, in Northern Ontario, Matt realized at a young age that he wasn't cut out for mainstream sports. "I was just awful at sports," he remembers, "hockey, baseball, soccer, you name it I didn't have a knack for it at all." A self-proclaimed nerd, he was much more interested in using his creativity and imagination than taking part in team sports. His realization that all physical activity wasn't bad came when he tried skiing for the first time. Finally something he could sink his teeth into without the pressure of the team atmosphere! Along with high school came the opportunity to reinvent himself and he was inevitably drawn to the non-conformist crowd. "In grade nine I made friends with some skateboarders and started skateboarding and that was the beginning of everything that I like now," states Matt. "That's when I started to listen to punk rock music and figuring out there were different things to do other than the mainstream stuff."

By this point Matt and his family had moved to Newmarket, Ontario, and while at a local skate shop picking out one of his first skateboards he noticed the inaugural issue of Transworld Snowboard Magazine on the shelf. He'd been exposed to snowboarding a couple times through small articles in Thrasher Magazine but not to this extent and he was instantly hooked. He saved up for the next year and bought his first snowboard in the fall of 1988. "Once I started skateboarding and snowboarding that was pretty much my life, I didn't want to do anything else," he explains.

Early on, Transworld and ISM (International Snowboard Magazine), were the biggest influence in the snowboarding game but eventually Canada had a magazine to call it's own. "I remember seeing the first issue of Concrete Powder at a skatepark in Barrie I used to go too," Matt states matter of fact, "It had snowboarding and skateboarding. That was the first magazine to really blow my mind because everything else was out of the States. I remember reading interviews with Nix [Chris Nichols] and [Alex] Warburton and [Sean] Kearns, all the riders who were emerging from the scene in Canada at the time." Right around this time Matt unknowingly ran into his future boss and mentor, Steve Jarrett, founder and owner of SBC Media. Matt tells the story, "I was at the Toronto Ski and Snowboard show in 1992 when Steve was selling his first issue of Snowboard Canada. At the time I had a ‘zine, I guess nowadays people would start a website but back then there was a pretty solid ‘zine culture in snowboarding and skateboarding. They were just collections of photo-copied pictures and stories. Anyway, I had started to fancy myself as a budding writer and Steve was just this guy selling a magazine at a booth at the Ski Show; I didn't know who he was yet. I asked about submitting some of my stuff and he just straight up said no, they only worked with professional writers. I was pretty bummed but that was a pretty funny early encounter, considering what happened later on."

After graduating from a creative advertising program at a Toronto college, Matt moved to Lake Louise to live the proverbial dream. While in Lake Louise he got involved in a work visa exchange program with New Zealand and planned a trip to do back to back seasons in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Home in Ontario for a month between seasons, Matt ran into Perry Gladstone, owner of Limited Snowboards and Vehicle Magazine. After pitching Perry and his editor Dave Buchanan a story on his upcoming trip to New Zealand they agreed to meet up when Matt got back to go over the photos and possibly run the story. Incidentally, Perry had just taken on a new distributor in New Zealand and asked Matt to look into them for him in exchange for a new Limited Snowboard. Matt agreed and became what he describes as a, "quasi-team rider at a time when just about anyone could get sponsored." Perry was obviously also impressed by Matt's writing skills as he published the New Zealand story in Vehicle.

Another season in Lake Louise came and went as Matt continued his "quasi" pro career with Limited. That summer he returned to Ontario and helped around the Limited office for a few months before giving into his travel bug again and headed to Europe for a few months of backpacking.

Upon his return from Europe, Matt had a number of messages from Perry. Dave had left Vehicle and Perry was looking for a new editor. Matt describes this tipping point in his media career: "Perry just offered me a chance to edit the magazine. I was stunned. I had no real experience and had barely written anything professionally at that point. I was as green as green could be. I just learned how to do it by the seat of my pants basically. I edited it for a year and just loved it, but eventually Perry had to shut down the magazine due to financial challenges."

Matt then took on the job as team and promotions manager for Limited. At pretty much the exact same time, SBC called to see if Matt was interested in the managing editor job for Snowboard Canada Magazine. The stars hadn't quite aligned at this point and Matt declined. This decision, unbeknownst to Matt, would give him the knowledge and experience to more confidently step into the very same role a few years later. "As the Team Manager at Limited I was having fun traveling to shoots with the team and really getting entrenched in the scene, but the whole time I really wanted to be back working for a magazine so I just started picking up as many writing opportunities as I could. I started writing the music section for SBC. I got the Eastern Canada writing job for a Snowboarder Magazine column called Media Jihad. It was at the back of every issue and ran for at least 10 years. I also started freelancing for Transworld and submitted stuff to an old snowboard mag called Stick, which was published by a music magazine called Raygun that used to be around."

After two years as team manger, Limited was sold to Volant, a ski company, and Matt wasn't confident with the job security of the position he was offered under the new regime so he started looking around at other opportunities. When this went down SBC was looking bring on a new editor. This time Matt couldn't turn it down and stepped into the role. "I took the magazine on basically by myself for the first few years.'" Matt reminisces. "The first magazine I worked on was the 1998 buyers guide so that was 1997." Over the next ten years Matt was involved with, the growth and expansion of SBC as it went from about 6 or 7 employees to over 30. He helped launch SBC Skateboard as the founding senior editor, and was instrumental in running the editorial department, and improving and growing Snowboard Canada year after year, working with the likes of photo editor Colin Adair and the now current editor, Scott Birke.

In October of 2007 Matt was approached by Sympatico about launching an action sports website, Push.ca. He describes the encounter: "They were looking to create this new web property that would be separate from Sympatico-MSN. I met with them and it just sounded like something that came around at the right time that would be crazy to say no to. It was a chance to start something new and build something from scratch." From a professional stand point, the move was a no-brainer but he struggled with the decision on a personal level. He tries to explain: "It killed me a little bit to be honest, I was really excited to have a change and have something new, but it was really tough leaving the SBC environment. It was a big, happy-slash-dysfunctional family. The people that I worked with, in a lot of cases, were also my good friends. I would go into work every day and it was amazing to just be surrounded by friends all the time. It was great being in this really creative environment with people that just love skateboarding or snowboarding or one of the other sports that SBC publishes magazines for. My first few months away from it I missed it terribly, and I still do. Looking back I am very proud to have been a part of it for 10 years."

Stepping into this new role had its challenges. Matt humbly admits, "I went into the job thinking that I knew a lot about websites but quickly found out that I didn't! Especially in terms of how you run them as a business, how you make them successful and how they are different from putting out a magazine. I was much greener then I thought I would be. But I am learning more and more every day." Coming from the internationally known SBC media group he finds that he had to learn how to build a brand and not just a website. "SBC is such an established brand you don't have to explain it," Matt explains. "I was humbled early on by having to explain exactly what it was I was doing. There are certainly a lot of challenges ahead building the brand and bringing people to the site and ensuring we have the right content for them." While exposing the Push.ca brand, Matt inadvertently gets to support the communities that he grew up in. By sponsoring events like The Shakedown, the DC Nationals, and Showdown Over the City, Matt is able to give back and support these groups while spreading the word about Push.ca.

Matt's journey through the realm of action sports perhaps wasn't the most direct route, nor is it anywhere near complete, but he is excited about his present role and what the future has to offer. Matt describes his current mindset: "The great thing about Push.ca is I was able to bring in a lot of people that I wanted to continue to work with, to work with again or work with for the first time. I was able to sit back and create my own dream team. I have been able to do something in a world that is mine that I am really at home in, and have a lot of great relationships in, but I am learning so much because of the medium, because it's a website. I'm getting all these great new challenges both professionally and personally but at the end of the day it is wrapped around something that I genuinely love, snowboarding and skateboarding."

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Matt Houghton's Blog, Column
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