First Issue Review – Adrenalin

The weakest article in Adrenalin is the one which adorns the front cover whilst the rest are obscured by a competition flap (have a look). Why? Because this article is about Angelica, “Baywatch’s hottest new babe”. The tenuous link between adventure sports and Angelica is that she is very likely to make your heart beat faster – the magazine’s slogan. This is very true for all hot-blooded males no doubt and, don’t get me wrong, our Angelica does have a very impressive chest; it just seems a shame that every magazine about anything feels compelled to rely on voluptuous girls particularly when it is actually pretty good at its chosen subject area as Adrenalin is. Inside Sport is guilty of much the same thing (subscribers see the Inside Sport First Issue Review – Inside Sport).

Following the recent closure of a number of sports titles (Sky Sports Magazine and Xtreme Lifestyle) the extreme sports arena wouldn’t seem like a particularly safe bet at the moment. This was highlighted by Emap recently which postponed the launch of its No Limits World title until next year due to ‘lack of shelf space’.

Considering that Adrenalin bears more than a passing resemblance to Xtreme Lifestyle this may be cause for concern. Not to be too pessimistic, however, Adrenalin can take heart in the fact that it is a decent magazine. Even for someone like myself who discovered, only last night, that I couldn’t get anywhere near touching my toes let alone do anything more strenuous, the active and adventurous undertakings in the magazine do look exciting and the articles read well. The photography is suitably dramatic and is impressive in its own right. As well as dealing with all the common or garden death-defying sports such as sky surfing and skateboarding off ramps into lakes, the magazine also tips its hat to some more unlikely pursuits: exploring the cult-ridden labyrinthine tunnels under Moscow, ‘skeeting’ in a jet engine across a frozen North American lake and going to space in an air balloon. There is also an accessories and fashion section complete with the obligatory rugged outdoor-type models.

Adrenalin is a glossy and well presented perfect-bound and could probably scramble through without much help from Angelica, particularly as she is the editorial’s only concession to lad-culture. The question is: can it survive? The magazine has an ad:ed ratio of 15:85 and features ads from Swatch, Burton, MTV and EuroSport.