Surfing, Skateboarding, Music, Photography, Travel, Culture and general antics of the youth on the run.

Dane Reynolds is World Champ Why Sampler is so much more than a heat win

I don’t really care what the ratings of the WSL say. I’m not interested in which Whirley Bird Brazilian or Coolie Kid is currently tops right now in a jersey. We need to realize we’re sitting through a moment in time when the world’s best, most authentic, passionate, honest and freestyling surfer of all time is putting out edits, tattooing himself with his own words and letting us read them before they dry, all while breeding with everyone’s favorite mama, Napkin Apocalypse. And for some reason all we can muster for a response is to try to convince him to put a jersey on. And tell him his art “looks like b-sides.” And criticize his lack of competitive desire. And tell him to lay off the beer. Or ask what he’s done for us lately, when the reality is he spends most of his day trying to creatively remind us why we even like surfing. And that’s when he’s not actually surfing — in whatever conditions present. And while it’s nice to watch Dane surf in a jersey and out, if he doesn’t want to dawn a jersey every month, I’d like to be the first to say: great! Because if you think we set the bar too low for Kolohe to give a shit about us as a culture and industry (from This is the Last Thing I’ll Write About Kolohe Andino in What Youth Issue 11), well we sure as shit don’t register much of a pulse from Dane.

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Dane’s new short is called Sampler and it reminds me why I surf. Why I copied every airbrush Benji Weatherley had. Recited Kalani Robb quotes. And started a club called “New Borns” in middle school to follow up Tim Curran’s “Pre School” generation. From the grom footage to the off-beat editing to the high line and paddle-in inclusions to the no-makes to the kick-outs to the absolute hammers to the tunes I want playing in my car on the way there, there is not an edit of anyone that reminds you that “life is fucking strange but we all got this surfing thing going for us” more than Dane Reynolds. And while the world depletes our attention spans to little more than a flash of light and a socialite, giving us less and less bang for no bucks and we continue to devour it and ask for even less please, I fucking love that he continues to disregard us all.

Fuck us. Fuck it. Fuck you.

But thank you, Dane.

And while I’m not looking to make this a magnum opus any more than Dane Reynolds was trying to make Sampler one, we should really use Dane’s edits and words and honesty as a reminder that we’ve all lost our fucking minds. And we’re blowing it by not crowning Dane Reynolds World Champ right now. And since we know we can’t count on anyone else to do it, and we think some of you might agree, I think we’ll go ahead and do it ourselves:

Dane Reynolds, you are the new What Youth World Champ. Long live the king.—Travis 

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what youth dear youth

Forced Creativity In a Musty Place Or, the art of throwing empty pint glasses at a laptop and expecting results

“Writing is the flip side of sex — it’s only good when it’s over.” —Hunter S. Thompson  Editor’s note: Here’s something(one) new. James Royce is a young surfer/writer dude from California who’s been submitting and writing a few things here and there for us. Just another one of us trying to navigate all this shit we…

Do surfing a favor today Let’s all subscribe to the Encyclopedia of Surfing. What’s that? Well, let me tell you

Matt Warshaw writes really long, really well-researched books and articles about surfing and its history. He’s quite maniacal about it all and it tickles me that surfing has someone psycho enough to document its rich history so damn well. Matt has been the editor of Surfer Magazine and written for The New York Times, The…

Would you rather: Lowers or a Pool? The WSL released its 2018 schedule of events and it’s missing Fiji and Lowers but has a pool

There are 840 miles of coastline in California. And while there will be one stop on the 2018 WSL World Tour in California, it will not be happening along any of those 840 miles of coastline. It will be happening in Lemoore, CA. The WSL just released a press release this morning announcing the 2018 World…

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We’re giving Issue 19 Away Our next Issue is out next Tuesday and here’s how we’re gonna make sure you get it…for free

We lost another classic print publication last week (the regionally great ESM has halted its print edition). We also heard through the grapevine that another magazine in the surf space is on “temporary print hold.” Meaning: magazines are officially gasping for air as our anxiety levels rise with our digital media intake. And that’s fine….

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Globe’s Cult of Freedom is ready Joe G and his all-star cast of Noa, Creed, Dion, Taj, Nate, BG and EG are back with a new vid

We call our intern “neck tan Nick.” He’s the office shred turkey. And yesterday between watering the plants and taking out garbage and telling us about which local sandbar might yield a fun surf he said, ” I need to watch something sick to get amped. It’s been so small. What’s coming out?” I happily…

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Costumes from Growlers 6 Scott Chenoweth put these ghouls on film. Enjoy the costumes of this past weekend’s festivities

The annual Growler’s 6 festival is one of the best places to spend Halloween weekend. Music, freaks, geeks, costumes, surrealism and us, all brought together by every genre of music you’d ever need. We wandered around and captured some costumes and inhaled a significant amount of halloween spirit.

The Growlers Six Our wild weekend at the LA Waterfront with The Growlers, Modest Mouse, Juvenile, The Paranoyds, Bad Brains, Tinariwen and many more

What a weekend for some surrealism brought to you by The Growlers. We spent the last two days running through the freak show that was Growlers Six (formerly Beach Goth),  a two-day festival of music and circus-like fun. The pre-Halloween festival has become an annual tradition in Southern California and with a lineup as colorful, diverse…

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Southern comfort We’re in deep South Carolina with Cam Richards getting some culture shock

We are deep.  Motorcycles. Fishing. Bowling. Shooting. Beer drinking. And Boating. Facing and immersing in a unique brand of culture that — thanks to Cam Richards and his family — has found a way to brush up against the surf culture we’re all familiar with. Cam Richards has opened up his home and shown us…

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Today (and always) we think of Dylan One year on

It’s been one year since we lost Dylan Rieder. But there hasn’t been a single minute in a single day his influence hasn’t been all over us. In everything. From the way we walk. To the way we skate and surf. To how we treat each other. Every single thing. He’s made us better, I…

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How’d this happen? Issue 0019 is somehow a thing coming soon and we really need to surf again

Every single issue of What Youth comes with it’s own insane personality disorder. It walks and talks and fucks with us like the hot babe at the coffee shop who just can’t be bothered. We’re obsessed, but completely frustrated every minute of the day. The smallest details, the biggest details, the weather outside and the…

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Let’s be together When all goes numb, the numb need to get together

I spent the end of last week careening through the perfectly lit and temperate streets of early autumn New York. I ran around with beautiful Hawaiian princess Kelia Moniz and we drank rice wine margaritas, shopped for jewelry and watched golden hour illuminate over the bustling streets as we ate oysters and sipped Stellas. There…

what youth cluster surfing movie

We have Cluster Nostalgia Mitch Coleborn came over and fired us up for more of this

It’s no big secret that there’s still a scythe-toting grim reaper hovering over the formerly fun and care-free surfing industry. And it’s pretty easy to get caught up in that, as it does impact us all in some form or another (how we get our gear, watch our vids etc). But it isn’t as dire as…

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