Bolts 2

BOLTS: Issue Two continues the zine’s raw, DIY ethos with another gloriously unpolished portrait of skateboarding in Australia. Its tone swings between chaos and clarity, blending visceral storytelling, personality-driven features, and a love for the grit beneath skateboarding’s surface.

The Departments strike again with dry wit and bite—Top Notch dreams of skating again after setbacks, Terra Firma waxes poetic about mysterious corners and what they hide, while Gnarlore compares skate consequences to a “wet fart in a wind storm.” Form Guide explores the tension between polished comp airs and the untamed instinct of raw street skating. The shops, depots, and scenes are presented as microcosms of risk, humour, and heart—just as likely to offer inspiration as they are to confuse or offend.

In the Features, competition meets character. The 2011 SbA Pro/Am Final gets celebratory coverage, while Reece Warren remains defiantly unkempt and unbothered by maintenance, both in life and skating. Skid Row recounts an overnight descent into madness, while Dane Burman’s focus on skateboarding to the exclusion of everything else is framed as both menace and purity. Marc “Snappa” Holland warns against hostel pub crawls with hard-won wisdom, while Bloodline and Blitz introduce new names and old tricks, all filtered through the BOLTS lens of full-commitment, full-speed, no-safety-net skating.

With a Dane Burman switch flip on the cover and Bugs Fardell defying expectations inside, BOLTS 2 is fearless, funny, and fully immersed in the undercurrent of Australian skateboarding culture.