Don't Waste Time is a skateboarding, and more recently a snowboarding photography magazine run out of Winnipeg, Manitoba by myself, Jackson Toone. It started in 2019 as a zine, with the purpose to showcase my favourite photos from the year. After I put out the first issue, I realized that I quite enjoyed the process. Over time, it became bigger and bigger, with the help of local shops, friends and skaters from across the globe, it evolved into the magazine it is today. The main goal of DWT is to spread skate and snow culture, and preserve our hard work in print. Finding skateboarding and snowboarding is the best thing that ever happened to me, and I want others to be able to discover and enjoy it as well. 

But what does "Don't Waste Time" mean?

The first time I came across the phrase was when I was shooting photos of graffiti under a bridge. A zine was not a concept that I was familiar with, and I was barely shooting skateboarding at this time. 

About six months passed and I decided to compile my favourite photos from the year, into a short booklet, which I later found out was called a zine. I worked on the project throughout December 2019. While looking through my photos, one caught my eye, a photo of graffiti under a bridge. At that time, these words were only starting to have meaning to me, and though I named the zine “Don’t Waste Time”, it didn’t start to represent something more until many months later. 

“You’re wasting your time”, and, “There’s a skatepark down the road”, are some common phrases voiced angrily at skateboarders, by security guards, apartment owners and random passers-by. We hear these things all the time and it seems like only those who are involved in the skateboarding world understand. It is cliché, but skateboarding is more than a sport, or a pastime, it is a way of life, happiness, and coping. I’m sure many of you will agree that we would all be lost without skateboarding, but so many people don’t get it. The words, “Don’t Waste Time”, are a fuck you in the faces of those who don’t try to understand. 

In March and April of 2020, when the lockdown was at its worst, I came to learn the second meaning of “Don’t Waste Time.” Like many, during these months I struggled with procrastination and motivation. I found myself becoming the exact thing that I was warning against. I accomplished almost nothing during these months, even though there was plenty of things to be working on. When I finally got out of my slump and got some work done, I knew that I wasn’t going to let myself get into that state of mind again. I decided that “Don’t Waste Time”, was a phrase I would use as a reminder. 

I’m sure that the meaning of, “Don’t Waste Time”, will evolve and change over the coming years but for now, this stands.