Drawing on research from the Skateboarding Media Demographics Survey, Skate Bylines will shine on a ‘Prose Spotlight’ on the skateboarding media industry at this year’s Slow Impact.
by Skate Bylines Press Desk
Skate Bylines is excited to present our recent study on skateboarding’s media landscape as part of this year’s Slow Impact.
Organised by professional skateboarder Ryan Lay, Slow Impact is a multi-day event which brings together skateboarders from around the world for talks, panel discussions, street sessions, art shows, film premieres, workshops, live music, and more. Presenters across its programme include media figures, academics, artists, community organisers and everyday skateboarders. This year, Skate Bylines will partake in ‘Paper Sessions’, presented by the College Skateboarding Educational Foundation (CSEF).
A yearly staple of Slow Impact, Paper Sessions gives platform to varied perspectives. Skate Bylines will discuss our research into the working conditions and demographic of skateboarding journalism, photography, videography and other creative disciplines in a reading titled ‘Prose Spotlight: Who Makes Skateboarding Media?’ Other papers will explore architecture, philosophy, gender, and more, through a skateboarding lens.
“This year’s Paper Sessions represent a diverse sampling of today’s most compelling research, theorising, and interrogations of the broad set of practices and activities we call skateboarding,” says Kyle Beachy, writer, educator and a presenter of Slow Impact’s Paper Sessions.
Courtesy of Slow Impact
“Our presenters are journalists, organisers, social workers, and more, and the work they’ll share runs the gamut from academic, to political, archival, linguistic, and data analytics. 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.”
The Skate Bylines paper stems from the Skateboarding Media Demographics Survey, which took place throughout the late 2025 (the findings of which we aim to publish in Spring 2026). Founding editor, Farran Golding, will deliver the talk and also take part in ‘The Great Skate Debate’, hosted by Sam Korman of PLANK magazine, on Slow Impact’s opening night.
Slow Impact takes place from Thursday February 26th to Sunday March 1st 2026 across various locations in Tempe, Arizona. Skate Bylines will present at the second of two Paper Sessions on Saturday February 28th, from 10am onwards at the Arizona Bouldering Project. Tickets which include access to all events across the duration of the weekend are available through the Slow Impact website.
