Everyone gets their fair share
It’s just too bad that not everyone thinks their fair share is fair enough...
Have you ever wondered what it takes to turn out a glossy dirt bike magazine, month in and month out? It’s probably a lot more computer time and a lot less riding time than you would expect. Let me explain.
Firstly there are the bike tests, undoubtedly the best part of the job – no questions there. But let’s say we test three bikes in an issue. That’s three days gone already doing the photo shoot for each – sometimes you are lucky enough to have two bikes in one hit, so sometimes you will save a day. Then you need another whole day to actually test the bike. Why wasn’t I doing that during the photo session you ask? Well I’m too busy thinking about getting stella shots and angles of the bike and body positioning and lighting to even start thinking about how the bike is feeling. We would much prefer to spend a bit more time getting quality, sharp images for you to look at than do a rush job just to save time. Then there is actually going to pick the bikes up from Auckland and that can be two days worth of driving back and forth if you can’t get them in one hit.
Boom! there goes a week straight away, and I’m being modest now as that would be a clockwork week. In this game, nothing is ever clockwork.
Then we move onto events that DRD attends. First off, you actually have to wait for an event to happen, and then get yourself to it wherever it may be. It could be in Wellington, Napier, Auckland, Northland, Taranaki and some are even in the South Island. Not to mention these are all on weekends so it’s not technically on the clock time. The team (dunno if 2-3 people make up a team) here have to sit down each month and plan out where we are going to be, so we don’t end up with all the same kind of stories going into the magazine.
Plus our variety of disciplines that we cover is endless. Take the last three months for instance – we have given a fair share of pages to the likes of, Motocross, Supercross, Mini motocross, FMX, Enduro, Cross Country, Trail Rides, Quads, Dakar, Extreme Events – probably everything bar Trials (sorry guys, not much been going on your end that we have been told about). In fact, MX has been the single biggest discipline covered, probably getting more than their fair share actually – after all it was the MX season. We only have a set amount of pages that can be used, so unlike web articles that can be as long as a Giraffe’s neck, we are limited to how much we can actually fit in.
But I guess some people still expect more. But hey, can you blame them? They are just passionate about their particular sport and I say ‘good on them’. It’s great to see people passionate about the same things I am – it has to be good for the sport right? You just have to remember we are not a pure MX/SX magazine – we cover it all and that’s why I think DRD is read by such a diverse range of readers.
But back to making a mag – then there’s all the other little things that you need to get out and do, like interview people, follow up contributors that are running late and compiling everything to make sure you have a full mag that hopefully has a touch of everything.
Then it’s the not so fun part – the bit I’m doing right now – typing it all out! Sometimes it gets so busy that you end up writing a story you dealt with about two weeks earlier and you have to try and remember all the details. Usually the last two weeks are full-on in the office to get the magazine out to the printers. If you think my job is all about riding bikes and posing for the camera – think again. Ride time during work hours would probably see me tally up anywhere between three to five days a month. Not the rock-star lifestyle most expect, but I’ll straight out admit it sure is the best job I’ve ever had.
Though there are the dangers of the job like my popped shoulder for example (ouch!) and almost getting landed on during a photo shoot at Digger McEwen. I didn’t get the popped shoulder crash on film but we did get me trying to be as small as possible while also trying to get the hell out of the way! Things we do for the job aye…
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