Tuesday, June 26, 2012

What is The Adventure Bum

     
This is a project I started a few years back as a "cheeky" photo project for a calendar, people really liked the images but the calendar was a flop. It was right around this time I was starting to have issues with most adventure magazines, mainly the fact that you were lucky to maybe get one actual first person story the rest was advertising, how-to pieces and write ups on places to go or great towns to live in and while that stuff is good to know it gets repeated pretty regular. I decided to start this site as a place to share stories from my own adventures, the final straw came recently when Backpacker re-ran their Editors Choice gear issue without changing a thing other then slapping a new cover on it. Hell the interior pages still said April 2012 while the cover said July 2012. To me that is bullshit, people are out there everyday having cool adventures but they feel they don't need to tell those stories. 
     Now I want to start my own adventure magazine to tell those stories. I am of the opinion that everyone has some sort of story to tell but they don't have a good outlet to do so. THE ADVENTURE BUM will be an iPad magazine that is NOTHING but stories and photos, Gear reviews or How-To type stuff will be here on the blog but the magazine will just good stories that you might tell while having beers with friends around a campfire. Weekend warriors and seasoned pros are all welcome.
Stories that will be excepted will be just about anything that is some sort of adventure. One issue could have a wide range of stories from climbing and backpacking to road trips, international trips are more then welcome as well. Along with the wide range of subjects I also want people to know that they don't have to water their stories down for mass consumption. When I do find a first person type story in the major magazines it has been so watered down so as to not offend some one or even worse an advertiser the story suffers. So if your style is more Edward Abbey or Hunter S. Thompson you are welcome here.
Stories should average around 1,500+ words and will need to have a couple photos to go with it.  There will also be a gallery section for photographers that will feature 4-5 images from a different photographer each issue. Images should be no larger then 8x12" @ 300ppi. I will be paying for stories and photos on publication. 
Please send all submissions to

editor@theadventurebum.com

and if you have any questions you can send them in an email or if it is something other people might be wondering ask it in the comment section below.
Lets see what we can get going with this.