Okay, here’s a review you don’t want or need but are getting anyway.
Skateboarders fresh to freestyle might not know of Broken Fingers. It was a niche magazine that focused on a niche discipline in skateboarding during the the mid 2010s, when Tony Abbott was the latest face in a revolving door of Australian prime ministers.
Fortunately, I had access to copies of earlier issues. It was strange reading Bob Loftin’s interview with a young Mike Osterman and about 2015’s Paderborn contest. The disconnect I experienced must be like what gen Zs experience while diving into their parents’ Dawson’s Creek DVD collection: not quite understanding what it was like to live through the time when the thing was released originally, tentatively feeling like they’re missing out on something.
This time round, I received a copy of Issue 11/Summer 2025 at the most recent World Freestyle Skateboarding Championships in Germany. Fellow Aussie Josh Dunstone tapped me on the shoulder and asked me if I wanted one for five Euro. I can’t remember what my exact response was, but it was something along the lines of ‘shut up and take my money…oh…I don’t have any actually money on me’.
He got me a copy anyway and it sat on the coffee table looking pretty for two months. The other day, I finally sat down and read it cover to cover. Thank the freestyle gods that there are only thirty-something pages, half of them being full-page photos of pros like Ikkei Nagao (Japan), Rhiana Grigore (Romania), and Guenter Mokulys (Germany), but also of up-and-coming freestyle skateboarders like Mariah Marksman (USA) and Julia Kienscherf (Germany).
Issue 11 is the inaugural quarterly of the resurrected magazine. Jeremy Elder no longer sits at the helm; instead, the new editorial team comprises of Lukasz Ciszak, Marius Constantin, and Tony Gale.
Unlike the skate magazines of old, Broken Fingers does not try to break down tricks or give advice on gear (sorry people, that’s the internet’s job). Instead, it takes snapshots of freestyle’s comings and goings: the growth of contests around the globe (eighteen in total in 2024), of new faces, of how it’s like to be a ‘pasty British ham’/Denham attending an off-season freestyle contest in Tucson, Arizona.
It focuses on scenes, specifically Frenchstyle, giving readers a quick history lesson and an interview with Putain founder Stéphane Lagorce-Zimberlin.
Tony Gale offers some opinions as well: thoughts on the silo effect of social media, and how social media (namely the gram) has shaped (ruined) freestyle.
Overall, the issue is a ‘labour of love’ carefully tucked inside a blanket of self-depreciating British humour.
There is one negative that I must mention in regards to the latest issue however. Just like certain freestyle parts, it’s almost impossible to get a physical copy of Broken Fingers in Australia. Stockists listed include Offset, Putain, Again Freestyle, and Nose & Tail Skateshop, all overseas suppliers, and runs are limited to a hundred copies.
We asked the Broken Fingers team if a downloadable copy (or even a print-on-demand version) existed for us geographically-challenged folk. They had no plans for such. The editors wanted to create something beautiful and tactile, where the quality of the print could be controlled. Some articles would eventually end up on the WFSA website, but not at the moment.
And so, while the magazine is not as personal a WFSC souvenir as a jar of pasta sauce from Paolo Virgilio Demurtas (Italy) or an iron-on patch from Cornely Krijnen (Netherlands), I still feel incredibly privileged to own this A5-sized ode to freestyle skateboarding.
Tony tells me that there are still a couple of Issue 11 copies left at Offset if you want a gander. And Issue 12 is coming soon. Follow Broken Fingers on Instagram if you want one I guess.