Regular readers will be aware that Alex Wade is currently unavailable, having been locked up for the foreseeable future. In his stead, I, Professor Pangloss, will maintain his surf blog as best I can.
Here, for starters, is news of the bankruptcy of Surfer and Surfing magazines. That sounds pretty drastic, but all is not lost: Source Interlink, the magazines' publisher, has filed for Chapter 11 "prepackaged" bankruptcy. In other words, it's business as usual as the company restructures its capital and pays off creditors an agreed sum.
But for how long? According to this story on Surfers Village, Source Interlink has assets ranging from $1 million to $10 million, but it also has liabilities in excess of $1 billion, with some 50,000 - 100,000 creditors. As a professor of psychiatry, I am no mathematician, but I cannot but fear that even the most radical 30-day prepackaged restructuring may not be enough to preserve Surfer and Surfing.
Moreover, what happens in America soon happens on our shores. Here's hoping that the UK surf industry weathers this rather immense, but less-than-perfect storm.
PS: Alex Wade's condition has worsened. He now blames the world recession on elephants. "They're big, and they trample over everything, and they just don't care," he says. The image is a snapshot of his room, and shows the extent of his decline. Who, in their right mind, positions an old copy of Surfer next to a 4KG medicine ball and a 6"11'? With a Swiss ball in the background?
that there copy of Surfer dates from 1990, or 91
i think?
Posted by: Surfer Stat Man | April 30, 2009 at 03:14 PM