The magic of video

This first paragraph is for all of you who are asking where is the new subscription page. It will debut the same day as the new issue. Some people have suggested that we put a subscription page up for holidays. They said that people would love to give and recive a SJ subscription as a gift. Although I won’t argue with that you also know me by now. I start to twitch if there is a bill on my desk unpaid for more than a day. And to me, to have a subscription option out there when there is no product yet available would just be wrong in my eyes. Just like some advertisers offered us money before the publication is published. I can’t take it. How can I take someone money for a product I have not delivered? What if it’s the end of the world tomorrow? Do I go to hell then?  Haha…just busting, but yes, the subscription page and new issue and new blog, and new instagram, and new twitter ,and new videos and new articles, and new flip viewer and new layout……all coming on a same day. Kids, this is how you write a run-on sentence in Cringlish. 🙂

I know I am a bit weird. I won’t deny that I stare at the ceiling at night thinking if I do enough. For our readers, for our sponsors. I always think we should do more, more. Some have said, hey dude, why are you killing yourself, just repackage the same thing, slap a password protected site and  people will love it. Yes, I am a surfcaster and I understand what they are saying. If I was the one on the other side of this PC, the one reading this blog, I would love anything and everything associated with the sport I love. Let’s be honest. I don’t care what publication you read or subscribe to, free or paid, weekly or monthly. If you get a dozen surf fishing features a year, you are a happy camper. SJ gives you that each issue, never mind the blog. But part of me always sees things that we could be doing. How we could be broadening your horizons by bringing far always places closer to you. By giving you strategies or techniques you did not explore yet. By giving you are in-depth interviews with people you might never met but you have always admired. By showing you how to do things like we are standing in your living room, right there next to you.

And that is where the magic of film or video really shines. To be able to read a story like you will read in this issue of SJ. A story from John Skinner fishing the Keys for the first time and then, just about when you think you “got it” ,when you feel you standing right next to him tossing to barracudas a video pops up embedded in the story to put you right there in person! To actually SEE John land this fish he is writing about. I think this is way too cool . And I am trilled we are able to bring you this.

When you’ve seen an ad for StormR jacket in other publications, it probably made you curios. But you wanted to learn more about the features of the jacket. What is it made from, how does it fit? What does it look like on a real person. Well now when you look at StormR ad in SJ you will see the video within the ad that will show you all the features the jacket has.

How about plugs? We all love plugs. In fact, most of us have enough wood in the basement to burn in fireplace for a week in case the world really comes to an end! (Why would you otherwise burn your plugs, you knucklehead). So you see a guy that makes a nice plug but you never seen his plugs in any shops. You know how this sport is. NJ guys sell to NJ shops, RI to New England and so on. Very few have managed to get their name out there and become well known like Choopy, RM Smith, Afterhours. There is a guy like Big Rock who is a regular contributor in the pages of SJ. Dude makes some mean swimmers but unless you live in NJ or attend some NJ shows in winter, you probably won’t find them in your shop. Maybe you wondered how his plugs swim. We’ll now you can see it on the video in his ad.

Maybe you wondered about or buddy Steve Adams aka Pap Bear. He makes these wonderful metal lures under the AOK Tackle brand. He might not be as well known as Hopkins of Charlie Graves tackle but as you will see in his video, his stuff catches a lot of fish, and not only small ones either.

Did you ever had a rod that had a reel seat you wanted replaced? You either got sick of it, maybe it broke. Maybe you bought a St Croix Legend like I did and loved the rod but the positioning of the reel seat was not optimal for your gigantic Frankenstein hands? You wanted it gone, cut, replaced. But most people told you , that you have to place the reel seat before you build a rod. Or they told you this can be done but its really hard. Our Rod Guru Lou Caruso will show you in less than 7 minute how to do this, safely, effectively and easy, depending on how many thumbs you have. 🙂

If you dabble in lure making, one of the most frustrating thing you probably encountered is drilling a trough hole for a metal lip swimmer. You might say what’s the big deal, but it is a big deal. Because the lip slots in many metal lip swimmers is placed right in the middle of the lure. Which means that your trough hole will be positioned somewhere on the bottom of your lure in the front. Yet the same trough wire must (or should) exit in the center, on the back of your lure. Kind a tricky to drill from two sides but different locations and meet in the middle, wouldn’t you say? Lordship Lures Ron DiCostanzo will show you how it’s done and in 5 minutes you will have an “aha” moment. And that is just one of the plug building secrets he will share with you in this series on lure making.

As you see, where others see headaches or are not willing to make an extra step without getting compensated in some way, we continue on. We never think, geez, if we make a rod building video maybe we can call XYZ Rod Building Tackle co and sell them an ad right next to it. We do it because we know you will appreciate it. Not that we wouldnt talk to them if ythey call ..haha

I am not patting myself or SJ team on the back. I am just trying to show you how my brain works when it comes to SJ and our readers. This is a big reason Dave Anderson will be handling writers, it gives me more time to immerse myself in the maddening world of film, bad takes, lousy lighting and awful sounds. Why? Because you don’t care if our videos are not made by Hollywood standards, all you want is a video that is made just for you. And that is what you want in magazine, a one made just for you.And we are here to bring it to you.

So hang with us until we have the new website tested and I hope many of you will support us in this exciting new chapter of Surfcaster’s Journal Magazine. I never been more proud of what our team has accomplished and I have never been more excited about what we can do for our readers in the future. In there ever comes a day when we are only fulfilling your expectations then that will mean that we stopped trying giving you our all. At that time, it might be the right time to move on other things but right now, from where I am looking the future never looked brighter.

And in closing, just a note of thanks to Richard Hedenberg, the owner of CTS Custom rods and USA distributor of CTS rods. Thanks to his generosity, each subscriber to SJ will be eligible to win a CTS rod of his choice, built by Rich. One winner announced in the November issue.

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