Jim and Nikki Wood are the first to say they “didn’t know what they didn’t know” when they started a little publication called The Coaster in 1991. Sure, they didn’t know anything about publishing; sure, it was in the middle of a recession, but the saying isn’t “ignorance is bliss” for nothing. As Nikki remembers, Jim was “Mr. Community” as a Corona del Mar resident for 30-some years, and the couple had both been in the local real estate business. Which is to say, these two knew the communities of Orange County’s coast like the backs of their hands, and they loved it here – loved the coastal lifestyle, loved the people. Jim also loved to write – he’d penned regular columns in the Daily Pilot and OC Metro – and had a lot of opinions. They created The Coaster with one goal in mind: Build up and celebrate life along the coast. “It was,” says Nikki, “our love letter to the community.”
They’d go on to hire Justine Amodeo as editor, and together with loyal and talented staffers – some of whom, like designer Lee Offenhauer and writers Terence Loose and Steve Irsay, are still with us – The Coaster evolved from a biweekly newspaper into what Jim called a “magapaper,” and then finally became the sophisticated, visually exciting glossy magazine you hold in your hands.
Over time, the name, the shape and the form of the publication have all changed. Changed too are the companies that publish the magazine, as well as many of the people who put it together. (Jim and Nikki sold Coast in the early ’00s and thought they would retire to Northern California but ended up starting a love letter to their new home, Marin Magazine.)
What’s always been constant is, well, you, Dear Reader. So many of you have read and supported us through every incarnation – people like gallery owner Peter Blake (you know, the guy who helped start Laguna Beach’s art walk), my friend Beth Kovacs Shields in Newport Beach, and even our books columnist Cynthia Romanowski, a Huntington Beach millennial who quite literally grew up reading Coast. And I’d be remiss not to give a nod to businesses who have helped us grow and stuck with us: California Closets, Newport Floor Covering, von Hemert Interiors, Roger’s Gardens and Traditional Jewelers are just a few of the many companies whose names you recognize from their advertisements in our pages.
I might be a relative newcomer, but I promise that our mission today is no different from what Jim and Nikki intended: to continue and deepen this love affair between Coast and you, Dear Reader.
