“The name? Ahhh, brah, I’m not even sure how it ended up there,” says Oakland-based
skate photographer Tadashi Yamaoda
when asked about the origin of his ‘zine’s namesake. “I first wanted to call it Cobra but that name was already in use
along with the domain. Then I was thinking Rambo,
‘cause he’s so tough. Then a friend suggested I put them together as Cobrah Rambro, which was genius but too
long. So I changed it to Kobrah soon
after.”
On Oct. 28th I ran a
post about Kobrah magazine and
its latest issue. As promised, here’s a Part 2 follow-up featuring Tadashi’s 3
favourite Kobrah articles:
1. “Jowlers” from Issue #2
“This article was originally supposed to be in a
major US publication – I had even sent in the high-rez images and text, but
I think they had to cancel because of finances. Good news was, I was able to
put it out the way I saw fit.”
“My friend
Trevor Morgan even put together the “Jowler” images in this super funny video
edit.”
2. “Shooting Shadows”
from Issue #3
“This too was lined up for publication, but it
didn't work out! I really like the fact that you can tell who a skater is
just by style and form, without seeing their face. It was also a challenging
task, and I really had to think outside the box. How do you make a shadow look
good?”
3. “Tryin’
To Cop” from Issue #4
“Saskatchewan’s Dan Watson, from youwillsoon.com, wrote the Tampa Pro 2010
article. You know him, he’s a total hater and didn't even go to the event –
just trash talked on everyone. It was great how the images matched up with his
story.”
*Bonus:
Favourite Canadians in Kobrah
“Paul
Trep, Spencer
Hamilton, and Ian
Twa (whose switch 50-50 photo can be
seen above) have been in there. Glad to of gotten them in the mix. But my
fave is getting that Sluggo
indy photo for Issue 5 (also seen above); I’d have to say it’s
for nostalgic reasons. I watched his RDS FSU 2002 part a bunch while making that issue.
So funny. Yeah, Backstreet Boys!”
kobrahmagazine.com