Slow Impact: ‘Prose Spotlight: Who Makes Skateboarding Media?’

Slow Impact is supported by New Balance Numeric.
‘Paper Sessions’ is supported by the College Skateboarding Educational Foundation (CSEF)

Research paper presentation
Slow Impact
Arizona Bouldering Project, Tempe, Arizona, USA
February 28th 2026

A presentation of research into the demographics and working conditions of skateboarding’s media industry for Slow Impact’s ‘Paper Sessions’.

Slow Impact: ‘Paper Sessions’

Slow Impact is an annual symposium and cultural event which attracts skateboarders, media figures, writers, academics, civil engineers, and others for a series of presentations, discussions, panels, art shows, walking tours and community sports sessions. Each year, Slow Impact’s ‘Paper Sessions’ provides an opportunity to discuss an area of academic exploration of subject deserving of discussion.

At Slow Impact 2026, I presented research into the demographics and working conditions of skateboarding media, based on a survey sample of almost 200 individuals working in the industry that I conducted through Skate Bylines, my publication and media organisation .

I spoke to an audience that included journalists who cover skateboarding as well as working for news organisations such as the The New York Times and The Observer, the editors of leading skateboarding publications based in the USA and Europe, and journalists, photographers and others who work in skateboarding media across a wide range of experience levels.

Journalist Farran Golding presenting at the 'Paper Sessions' during Slow Impact 2026 in Tempe, Arizona. He is talking to audience sat in wooden chairs, stood in front of a slide showing a pie chart with data about skateboarding's media industry.

Photo courtesy of Greg Navarro

“Every year we’re flooded by applications that make very clear the fact that skateboarding is more interesting than ever. And across two morning sessions in Tempe, we get to see that proof unfold in person. It’s extremely heartening and completely rad.”

Kyle Beachy, co-host of ‘Paper Sessions’ and author of The Most Fun Thing: Dispatches From A Skateboard Life (Grand Central)

Journalist Farran Golding presenting at at the 'Paper Sessions' during Slow Impact 2026 in Tempe, Arizona. He is talking to audience sat in wooden chairs, stood in front of a slide showing a pie chart with data about skateboarding's media industry, as featured in an article on Thrasher Magazine's website.

Photo: Ted Schmitz for Thrasher Magazine‘s Slow Impact 2026 recap

Response, Connections and Going Forward

The research I presented was undertaken through Skate Bylines which, in addition to being a publisher of long-form journalism, is a vehicle for knowledge-sharing and improving accessibility to skateboarding’s industry. The talk was warmly received and prompted discussions across the weekend with people already working in skateboarding media and those interested in the field.

Lee Dubin, a researcher and documentary photographer also spoke on the ‘Paper Sessions’, and expressed an interest in contributing to to Skate Bylines. This lead to an ongoing correspondence and commissioning a photo-essay which was Dubin’s first published piece of journalism: ‘At the Social Skate Summit, the joy was the whole point’.

Later in 2026, I also spoke about presenting at Slow Impact on Mostly Skateboarding podcast (‘Magazine Covers and Skate Bylines with Farran Golding’).

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