140 – Inspiring Communities with New Zealand Mountain Biker Magazine

Todays Guest:

Cam Baker – Creative Director, Production + Sales at New Zealand Mountain Biker Magazine

On episode #140 we are chatting with Cam Baker about the New Zealand bike scene, how it has grown over the last number of years, seeing the opening of new trails, better infrastructure and how NZ Mountain Biker Magazine is playing a large part in making this happen, with practical and informative features, spreading the stoke and bringing MTB communities together.

NZ Mountain Biker is a magazine written by mountain bikers for mountain bikers and is based out of Auckland on the north island of New Zealand. I have been following them on Instagram for some time but after I had Monika Mixova on the show in episode #137 (listen here) and she talked about how much she loved the island, it got me thinking about the number of people I know who have visited the New Zealand (mainly for surfing) and fell in love with the place. Was this the same for mountain biking? Surely it couldn’t also have awesome mountain bike trails? It has great ski resorts and mountains so why not great mountain biking?

So I decided to reach out and ask the crew at NZ Mountain Biker if they would like to come on the podcast and share their knowledge on the MTB scene, what their trails are like, why we should visit, how their magazine got started, what it includes for the MTB rider, how to get their free online copy (click here) and why nobody wants to leave that place once they visit!

Enjoy the show!

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Right click here and ‘Save as’ to download to your computer.

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Find Out:

What New Zealand has to offer the visiting mountain biker
Why we all should put it on our MTB bucket list
How the scene has been growing over the last few years
Why new infrastructure and trails have helped this happen
Why most of the trails are free to ride
What the trails are like
How NZ Mountain Biker Magazine got started
What Cam’s daily routine looks like (it seems pretty sweet)
What role he plays at the magazine
What articles and features the magazine covers
How they plan their content
How contributors help with content
Cool places Cam gets to visit with work
The cool photo shoot the Cam did with Casey Brown
How Cam is building and inspiring the MTB community through the magazine
Future plans for NZ Mountain Biker
How to get your free issue
How to follow and get in contact

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The print magazine industry is a hard one, digital has killed off a load of great magazines but I think times are changing, especially for quarterly magazines like NZ Mountain Biker. This is not your flimsy weekly publication packed with advertisements, promotions and articles you forget about as soon as you have read them. This is a magazine with great in-depth features, awesome imagery and stories that you will return to again and again. Think Misspent Summers or Cranked Magazine and you will get the idea. These are more coffee books than magazines, you keep them, look after them, file them away and dive in and out of them when you feel the urge. These are magazines you return to again and again, to remind yourself about that awesome trail that for some reason has just popped into your mind, these are a lifetime investment.

Cam has been mountain biking for a long time (even though he is still only in his mid twenties) and knew since a young age that he wanted to have some form of career involving two wheels, specially revolving around the mountain bike variety. So after leaving high school he decided to head to the south island and work the seasons, mountain biking in the summer and skiing in the winter. But after an email from Liam the editor of NZ Mountain Biker who Cam knew from a past connection, he decided to head back to Auckland and jump into the media and magazine industry and start a new career writing about mountain biking and everything else that entails.

Cam enjoys his work, he gets to write about what he loves and is heavily involved in a scene he loves, but it has it’s stresses, as any publication works does, but Cam seems to take it all in his stride and never forgets to spend plenty of time on his bike hitting the trails. And at the end of the day that is what it is all about, enjoying and having a passion for what you do, helping others and sharing the adventure. So tune in, and find out what New Zealand has to offer us MTBers and how NZ Mountain Biker can help us all find out more about it.

GRAB YOUR FREE COPY OF NZ MOUNTAIN BIKER. CLICK HERE TO GET YOURS NOW!

Thanks for tuning in. Enjoy the show!

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To Connect with Cam and NZ Mountain Biker:

Website: www.nzmountainbiker.com

Instagram: nzmountainbikermagazine

Facebook: nzmountainbikermagazine

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Resources in this Episode: