Print Matters - PERMASUMMER - Vision Kingdom

"getting sideways, grinning and getting it - all things pure and free"

10 Feb 2016

Our Wild Abandon

Intro by DIG Words by Chester Jones Intro photo by Our Wild Abandon

One of the good things (and maybe the only good thing) about the demise of regular, publisher backed BMX print media, has been the rise in independent publications produced for no other reasons than the desire to still see something on paper. One such publication that caught our attention recently is Permasummer, created by Chester Jones with inspiration from long term DIG contributor Kyle Emery-Peck. With a loose flowing style and wide ranging contributions from many, including a healthy dose of other DIG family members, this one looked right up our street. We asked Chester to tell us more about the project and how it all came about.

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The Permasummer idea came about back in the summer of 2010. It spawned from a plane ticket to the east coast of America with no plans and a bike. It was a short enchanting story in Holeshot (RIP) about Cubby going on a trip. No worries and no egos.

“Realizing that I’m not going to be around forever helped me decide that hitting the unknown during the best time of year is a sweet idea. If not now, never. Fuck it, I wasn’t going to let anything negative get in my head. Nothing but swimming, riding, girls and partying ahead of me. It was going to be a PERMASUMMER. I want to urge you readers that if you really want something to happen, you can make it happen. All that daydreaming of perfect sunny days riding trails till you can’t stand up can become reality if you dare. “ - Kyle Emery Peck from Holeshot Issue 8 - October 2010.

This article was the driving concept for the zine for the past 5 years.

Hard copies. Permasummer - Vision Kingdom. Photo by Kyle Emery -Peck

Theres this thing that goes on when you’re a certain age, your thoughts run amok, you go on trips, trips take you, eternal leisure, and all things good take over and you make sure you get ‘it’. The essence of this whole Permasummer thing is just that, getting sideways, grinning and getting it - all things pure and free. 5 years down the line you look back and have to laugh, you’re still living Permasummers however free or locked down you are - when you joke about something for so long it becomes an actuality, an alternate reality of some sort where you know you need to be. The zine is a direct representation of seeking the permanent season in the skies and in our heads. Its a celebration of the people enchanted by the vessels & places that take them away from the aches of mankind. Its freestyle and its for the true.

A year has gone by since the vision bureau sat down to catalog images from far and wide. Many words worked by the word bureau, many pixels pushed and many decisions drank down, months meandered down the calendar year without any abounding thoughts towards the book with Permasummer itself getting in the way. The zine is an anthology of visions, wild ways and tall tales. - Chester Jones

Permasummer Layout Spreads: