Skating off the page

>>Montreal skateboarding magazine Exposé
marks its fifth year of publication

COVERING QUEBEC: Dan Mathieu

by LUCAS WISENTHAL

For the past 14 years, Dan Mathieu has been a professional skateboard photographer in a city that is largely ignored by the skate media. But despite selling shots of Montreal skaters to Canadian magazines like SBC Skateboard and American ones like Thrasher, he always wanted to do his own thing. And in 2003, he did. That spring, he launched Exposé, Quebec’s first skate magazine. This week, Exposé’s 16th issue, a 100-page glossy, hits over 800 newsstands, deps, stores and skate shops across the province, marking five years of publication.

Mathieu had long mused over the idea of founding a magazine with local skaters like Eric Mercier and Max Dufour of Premium Skateboards, a Longueuil-based manufacturer. “We always felt that the Quebec industry was not getting the coverage it deserved,” he says.

Without a vehicle to promote themselves and their scene, the province’s shops shared the trio’s sentiment. At the same time, Canadian skateboard distributors were looking to tap into Quebec, which represents 30 per cent of their market. So when Mathieu pitched the magazine to them as an advertising venue, he found that “everyone was waiting for someone to do it, and they pretty much said yes. The whole industry pretty much fronted me the money to start [Exposé].” The mag sells on stands for $3.95.

REACHING THE FRENCH MARKET: Issues # 14, 15, 16

But if getting started was easy, filling three issues a year wasn’t. “Five years ago, there were not many photographers here, so that was hard for a little bit, to get the content,” says Mathieu.

Now, though, Mathieu has more contributors from Montreal, as well as Europe and the States—Exposé is primarily French, but runs occasional English features. He welcomes unsolicited work, especially from locals. “If the photo’s good, the trick is legit, that’s the goal of the magazine, to promote the Quebec scene,” he says.

Mercier, who was among the first Montrealers to appear in American mags, appreciates Mathieu’s willingness to cover “riders that are pushing and working hard to get the coverage, and not just being there at the right time, with the right photographer, and just ended up having a great picture.” That exposure, he says, can be parlayed into international coverage.

Especially since the magazine’s readership extends beyond Canada. “Every issue we put out,” says Mathieu, “I put a couple of thousand magazines with boards that Max ships to Europe, and if you look at our blog, we get so many comments from France and from all over Europe.”

And not just about the dudes, either. “I’m really stoked on the response we get when we do an article with girls skateboarding…That’s one thing—we were the first magazine to do it [as a column], and we’re still, like, the only magazine that really does it in almost every issue,” says Mathieu.

Mathieu hopes to eventually print five issues a year, and to pay a full-time staff to put the magazine together. Right now, he, art director Guy Lévesque and assistant Yanick Nolet do most of the work, all while holding other jobs. He’s also open to courting the mainstream advertisers that buy spots in other skate magazines to sustain his own in a dwindling skate market.

“People think that we make mad money off of [Exposé], and that’s so far from being the case,” he says. “I don’t know how people see the skateboard industry, but it’s not tennis or golf.”