Issue link: https://bluemagazine.uberflip.com/i/25240
BEST OF BLUE This 5th year anniversary issue pays tribute to the writers, photographers and creative collaborators who have made blue what it is today. Without their vision, words, photographs and, yes, trust and patience, there would have been no past five years. In their honor, we have created, and present here for the first time, the BEST OF BLUE AWARDS, recognizing the best blue coverage to date. During the past five years, blue's writers and photographers have produced an amazing array of content. They have explored far and wide to show us the world in a new way-blue's mission since day one. Photographer Laurel Axen surfed the seas of Sri Lanka, with camera in tow, and taught us that surf travel can mean more than good waves. Writer Brad Wieners climbed the bridges of New York City and discovered an urban adventure cul- ture not many meet on the city streets. blue writer-at-Iarge Bruce Northam taught frisbee to a group ofIrian Jaya locals and brought his experiences back to blue's pages to make us smile over the wonders of cross-cultural communication. Photojournalist Gary Fabiano traveled to Kosovo to report back firsthand, through the eye of his camera and his powerful words. Tim Parr's essay argues convincingly that riding a bike through city streets-rather than being stuck in car traffic- goes far beyond being environmentally friendly; it is the coolest thing to do. Our list of award winners includes mountaineer and blue author Hans Saari, who died tragically on May 7,2001 , on Mont Blanc, and whose collaboration with friend, pho- tographer and fellow mountaineer Kris Erickson won our best snow feature first place award. Our range of award categories includes the best features we've run on surfing, snow exploration, biking, climbing and diving, as well as special awards for travel, humor, short pieces, essays and photography. Editor-at-large Robert Young Pelron even got his own category: Best RYP. In all cases, a blue story is a solid marriage of writing, photography and art . direction, and every award took all three of these components into consideration. We have discarded the predictable hierarchy of goid/silveribronze-we'lileave the so-called precious metals down there where they belong. In more appropriate blue style, we've named our awards after our planet's natural resources, which are truly valuable and deserving of the high regard for which these awards are given. Our first place winners earn the AIR award, for without air we could not survive more than minutes. Second placers win the WATER award, for without water we could not endure more than a few days; and honorable mentions take the EARTH awards. In reflecting on these past five years and all that we have created, I am reminded of a book about barns, which I read this past winter. It said: "Our of their adversity, American immigrants built barns. Unlike Europeans, the Americans' homes were humble, but their barns were as big as their dreams. Their barns were built to last, and we see the res ult of their effort every day, along the roadside in Vermont-where huge barns still stand after hundreds of years." Today's barns are the companies we create, and blue magazine is our barn. The spirit the book describes is the same in which blue magazine began five years ago, and which sustains it today. We look forward to the next 95 years. Amy Schrier amy@bluemagazine.com P.S. We wish we could fit all of the BEST OF BLUE into one issue, but there's so much, the pages of one magazine won't accommodate it. If you want to find more, check out blue.com, where in celebration of our anniversary, you'll find five years of blue content online.