Baby Scumbag and Ishod Wair Join Forces to Take Down Thrasher

Instagram is killing off the significance of skateboard magazines.

It became apparent a few days ago while I was taking a poop. There I was in my bathroom—which should look like your bathroom with a pile of skate mags next to the toilet—scrolling away on Instagram.

I was on my normal "double-tap" killing spree, "Liking" pictures of Nuge camping in Sammy Baca's backyard, Theotis going to Snoop Dogg's birthday party and Heath Kirchart's beautiful younger sister getting a new job at EA Sports. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a shiny new issue of The Skateboard Mag.

This month's issue of the Mag had not yet been opened, despite Curren Caples feebling a 22-stair death rail on the cover. Unreal.

I had sub-consciously chosen to scroll through the intimacies of my favorite skateboarders (and their younger sisters), rather than enjoy the pastime of cracking open a new magazine on the crapper. Surely this was ABD by hundreds, maybe even thousands, of skaters who chose smart phone over the skate mag in the bathroom. Maybe this is what shut the doors over at Skateboarder Magazine.

It's rumored that Thrasher Magazine has a circulation of about 250,000 readers, which sounds impressive. Imagine a readership of skateboarders reached by one publication that could fill most NFL stadiums, twice.

However, this readership is pitiful when compared to the Followers of your favorite skateboarders. For a moment, let's indulge in numbers:

• Street artist NeckFace had 15,000 followers within one week of making an Instagram account.
• Ishod Wair currently has 77,000 followers.
• 13-year old Baby Scumbag has 264,000 followers (4,000 more followers than Eric Koston.)
• Andrew Reynolds has only 105,000 followers
• PRod boasts a respectable 368,000.
• Ryan Sheckler has 978,000 followers
• Tony Hawk has more than a million followers.
• Thrasher Magazine has 329,000 followers
• The Skateboard Mag has 199,000 followers
• Digital-Only Skateboarder Magazine has 88,000 followers
• I have 60 followers.

By this account, it could be said that Baby Scumbag has a bigger influence than Thrasher Mag's circulation, and if he teamed up with Ishod they would have a digital presence that would surpass both Thrasher's Instagram and magazine subscriptions. It's unclear what the two would collaborate on since Ishod usually posts skateboard videos and Baby Scumbag makes Memes of himself or SpongeBob SquarePants.

It's a mystery why Instagram is becoming more appealing to skateboarders than magazines. One may argue that it's due to your phone always being in your pocket and the convenience to get stoked on skating is sitting right next to your car keys, but maybe it's something else entirely, something cool that I don't even know about...