Beginnings
It all started at our parents’ houses back in 1997 on a dodgy PC. We were fuelled by sweets and cheap Malaysian food. In 2003, we started First Floor Publishing to have a home for all three magazines – MANUAL and the now-defunct Spoke and Staple.
MANUAL is now New Zealand’s leading skateboarding culture magazine and website, featuring national and international coverage of skateboarding, music and art, with an emphasis on quality photography, illustration and graphic design.
If you want to contribute to MANUAL or have any questions (or insults), drop us a line here.
Manual Magazine costs NZ$14.90 (plus courier) a copy and is published twice a year – April and November.
People
David Read, Creative Director
Wellingtonian David Read is an anomaly, somewhere between an AV club nerd and a bogan. He’s a self-disciplined perfectionist who prefers the company of Upper Hutt metal refugees to Welliwood glitterati, though his chameleonic charm ensures he can tete-a-tete happily with either. Over twenty-five years ago, David helped give birth to MANUAL on a wing and many prayers; he’s run it on fumes for 75 issues and counting, expects as much of his own work as his contributors and is consequently New Zealand’s most respected skateboard photographer.