When all the other magazine's coverage of BMX racing fell off, in came a new publication promising coverage. I spent a few moments with the new Twenty Magazine's editor/photographer Justin Kosman to find out what is at the root of the new publication.

The Offices of H3 Publications are located in Valencia, California. Basically you have a combination of pretty much every biking discipline included in one office building. H3 provides publications on road biking, mountain biking, BMX and even their newest Mini-MX publication focusing on the 50cc craze. The wealth of bike information is incredible and all the people in the office were great to talk to. I only wish I had a little more time to spend before continuing on to Roseville.
I've known Justin for a while now. I first met him at the Nellis national a couple years ago. All I knew is that he had a 70-200L and I WANTED IT! Actually, I was introduced to Justin by Tim Dinger and we became quick friends. Justin is a true photographer in every sense of the word. He has formal training in his background but what is even more important has one of the more creative eyes than I've ever seen in BMX photography. He's worked with ESPN, Bike magazine, provided coverage for BT and had his work displayed in many other publications.
Before I was hired by ISTV, I was trying to get contact information for this hot, new publication that was supposed to be coming out. Through a couple pro friends of mine I was told to get in touch with Robbie Miranda as he probably had good contact info. Well, I knew my buddy Justin was staying with Robbie so I called him up. When I asked for Robbie's number Justin asked me why. I told him it was to get ahold of the guy heading up the new Twenty mag. Justin paused and said "Jack, um I got that job". Well, I was disappointed obviously. However, the fact that Justin got the job also made me glad that's who I'd lost out to.
Well, there have been some interesting opening comments around about the first few issues of Twenty. I've read some negative comments on the lack of racing coverage in the second issue. I tried to explain to some how most of the races that were to be in that issue had been rained out. Also, somehow, the word got out that Twenty was going to be a "Race only" coverage magazine. That never was and is not the focus of the magazine. To get some information on exactly what Twenty is all about I stopped by the offices to talk to Justin a little.
Here's what Mr. Kosman had to say:
 
* Give some information on the parent company - other pubs, how long have they been around, etc.
H3 Publications has been around for almost two years. To make a long story short, two guys (Dave House and Ralf Hauser) started two mountain biking magazines(Decline & 26) and one road biking magazine(Road)- Hence the H3 publications. Right now H3 is only doing Decline, Road, Twenty BMX, and Mini MX (a mini motocross magazine that is bi-monthly). They've all grown very quickly and I feel like the freedom that we are allowed by the publisher is a reason why.

-Justin with owner Dave House-


* What are the backgrounds of yourself, Kevin and others involved
in Twenty.
Lets see, I'll give you the story on Kevin McAvoy.  He's single, likes long weekends at the race track and enjoys pinky squeeks on the weekends. Nah, just kidding Kevin. Kevin used to work at Transworld BMX as the managing editor until the magazine was dropped by the publisher. At Transworld Kevin did everything from writing to shooting photos. Before that Kevin worked for 2-Hip bikes doing things from being the 2-Hip tour manager, designing frames, etc. He was Ron Wilkerson's right hadn man for a while. He's originally from Ohio, has ridden all his life - mostly freestyle and flatland - and has a gnarly mustach going right now.

And then there's Justin Kosman. I started out racing Illinois NBL in 1991and ABA when I was in college in Chicago. I'd race in the summer and ride skate-parks in the winter. I started taking photos in high school and got an 3-yr internship with a photgrapher in Chi-town. After school I took a job with ESPN's X Games working with the BMX athletes and that leads us up to the present when I took the Photo Editor position at Twenty in January 2005 and I still do work for ESPN. There's a lot more to the story than what I wrote here but it really is a long, complicated story. Kevin and I have worked surprisingly well together and I think that right now we are a great team with his freestyle knowledge and staus within the BMX freestyle industry and my willingness to do everything he says.

All styles of bikes in the Twenty offices

* Other publications have completely dropped their race coverage. What does Twenty plan to do to not follow that same path?
Well, our goal is to make a magazine much like Transworld BMX was, but to take more of a lifestyle approach to each of the BMX disciplines (Race, dirt, street, ramp flatland). Against popular belief, Tansworld BMX did not drop their race coverage. There was, in fact, quite a bit of race coverage in TWBMX but it doesn't seem like it when there aren't racers on the cover. I think that racing is hard to cover because the talent pool is significantly smaller in racing than in freestyle.

Old Schoolers will love this one

* What are the plans, goals, thoughts for future race coverage.
Oh man. Well you can plan on seeing me (Justin) at a lot of the national races and the Grands shooting photos. Like I said before we are trying to
take more of a lifestyle approach to race coverage and right now that has meant focussing on one rider at one national and following them around that weekend to see what makes them tick and give our readers something interesting to read for a change.

* What angle do you look at when providing coverage. For instance race results, lifestyle, pros, ams, etc.
I feel like that unless we are doing a special concept article that we wil stick to covering the pros and top amateurs.  The ABA and NBL magazines can cover all the younger riders. We want to spotlight the guys who are making BMX their life and their career. It's hard because there are so many races to get to and so little time since we are a monthly publication we spend and entire week putting the magazine together - that means I sleep in my office for a week- it's awesome.

* Feel free to add anything else you'd like people to know.
If anyone has any letters they want to write to the either Kevin or I please feel free. Email is great too! justin@h3publications and kevin@h3publications.
Peel yourself away from the message boards and myspace and go ride your bike.