Welcome to the new Flatland Magazine. My name is Matt McDonald and I have taken over the reigns of the magazine from the former editor Bryce Caselman.

I live in Bellingham, Washington, work for a newspaper, take photos and build websites. I also have been skimboarding since 1996. Flatland Magazine is a good fit for me right now and I would like to thank Bryce for starting the magazine and passing it on to me.

Now that we got that out of the way. For this magazine to be successful I need people to send me content. New photos, videos and stories of you and your friends skimboarding. Quality content will go along way to push the sport. If companies buy ads that's great, but what really matters is that we put out an online skimboard magazine full of content on a regular basis.

That being said please send your photos, stories and videos to info@flatlandmag.com. I hope everyone is stoked on the magazine.

- Matt McDonald | Flatland Magazine Editor

Owner of OXS Skimboards Sam Price made the trip from New Zealand to the USA to check out the skim scenes in Sacramento, British Columbia and Washington.

One of Sam's stops was Bellingham, Washington where I live. I picked him up from the bus station, Riley Davis drove up from Everett, and from there we went out on the town. The next day after a mellow skim session I had to go to the hospital with kidney stones. These small razor like stones are not fun. Easily the most painful thing I have ever experienced.

Regardless, due to the advancements of modern medicine (pain killers) I was able to take Sam skimboarding again. Here are the photos and video from one of Sam's sessions in Bellingham (I blame the giant specs of dirt in the video on the fact I was dealing with kidney stones).

Sam was hands down one of the most passionate skimboarders I have ever met. And it shows in his riding and craftsmanship of his OXS Skimboards.

I wish the kidney stones would have waited to appear until after Sam left. Including taking into consideration Brian Kniveton got sick in Sacramento the week before while Sam was there. I think Sam enjoyed his stay and I know he had a great time with Kyle Lynch in British Columbia across the border the following week.

Bellingham is a great place to visit for more than the skim. If you wanna make the trip let me know. I am 100 percent kidney stone free now and constantly hydrated.

So, Matt McDonald asked me to write something about what we (the crew at Kyda Skimboards) are planning for the 2012 season and that's what I am about to do.

Although we are the new kids on the block (insert epic 90's pop song from the band of the same name, actually on second thought don't) many of you readers know we have been highly active in the industry for many years. We love skimboarding and that isn't going to change now that we are making boards. So what are we planning in the near future...I say this because we have been prototyping a ton over the winter to improve our products for the summer, so our skim season started in early January this year. This summer we are extra hungry. We have received a lot of positive feedback from our customers and at this point have a demand that we are trying our best to supply (which is a great problem), but you guys don't care about business talk so I am going to highlight a few things that we have penciled in for this summer.

Trips We love exploring new places, meeting new people and documenting our antics, all in the name of skimboarding, and hopefully a few board sales. This summer will be staying fairly close to home with plans to visit Vancouver Island, Kelowna, Squamish, Seattle/Tacoma and hopefully, if we are lucky Utah and Sacramento. Believe me the crew would love to go to every spot, scene and comp, but at this point a penny in the pocket can only be spread so thin. Also I think a few of us at Kyda will go crazy if we have to weather another full winter in Vancouver, so saving some money for an epic offseason trip is high on the priority list.

Events We have one big event planned for the summer, which is going to take place on July 21st at Eastbeach, White Rock. We don't have a name for it yet, but if you have any suggestions we would love to hear them (email: contact@kydacreations.com). None of us are huge fans of the way most contests are run so we can promise you that our event will offer tons of skim, sick rails, tons of fun for Ams/Pros for a very reasonable entry fee around 10 bucks or something. Other then our big event, we will continue to do informal events at different locations throughout the summer giving away prizes, and chilling with locals much like our event in Parksville earlier this month. So, if you have a scene or crew and want to hang with kyda let us know and we might just roll your way.

Filming We are doing a team series of videos, which focuses on each one of our riders and what inspires them to skim. Lynch's dropped not too long ago along with Ladner's video, so be on the lookout for more of those and trip videos to be dropping throughout the summer. We are also working on some sort of video that will be released just after the summer season in September or October. As of right now it we have are calling it PIPE DREAMS as a loose title and it should be pretty sick being filmed in high quality HD.

Skim Camps This will be our first year of running our own skim camps and we are super excited to do so. We have a beginners camp in White Rock with Ladner and Lynch acting as skim gurus running 4 weeks of the summer. Also we have advanced skim camps for those who want to learn the hidden knowledge from us the pros (hahaha, or I should say practiced). These are taking place at Spanish Banks and promise to be a ton of fun.

I could go rambling on forever about all the glorious plans we have for this summer but in the end of the day we are skimboarders at heart and a lot of the trips/sessions will be spur of the moment type stuff and that's the way we like it.

The official NWS Tour edit above of the 2011 Chambers Creek Throwdown is officially being debuted in Flatland Magazine.

Pro Results: 1. Isaac Thomas / 2. Arthur Murray / 3. Blake Zimmerman / 4. Richard Doctor / 5. Bryce S.

Summer is around the corner and the Northwest Skim Tour has finalized some of the dates for the tour. Here is the event roundup:

June 23rd - DB Pro/AM - Federal Way, Washington

July 3rd - Jack'd SkimMuiscFest - Whidbey Island

July 7th - Parksville Pro - Parksville, Vancouver Island

July 21st - KYDA Skimboards Pro - White Rock, British Columbia

Aug 11th - Chambers Creek Throwdown - Tacoma, Washington

And although it is not in the northwest you cannot forget about the grand daddy of them all on Aug 25th, the Sacramento Skimfest.

The NWS Tour may be adding a few more dates to the lineup, so make sure to check NWSTour.com for updates.