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

Dear Surfing, Anyone out there? What I’d do to watch a surf vid that mattered right now

what youth chippa wilson surfing

I’m still awake, watching music videos, trying to recreate the nostalgia that late night MTV2 once provided. Right now it’s Radiohead’s “Karma Police” music vid on YouTube.

This is what you’ll get when you mess with us.

I’ve had enough wine and a long enough day not to care anymore. I’ve just finished a perusal of the Internet’s modern surf landscape and I must say it is desolate. A barren wasteland of odds and ends and poorly executed web clips. And yes, it is the “the offseason” for the surfer “athlete,” — and maybe I should just chill and recharge and wait for the new surf season to kick off. Interview a skater or something, I know, I know. But I can’t get that excited for this WSL rookie class, the waves have been good at home and I wanna be hyped! But not even a peep from Joe G is on the horizon at the moment. Help!

There’s kind of some stories. Dane’s in an airport in Lisbon without a passport, there was another shark attack in Reunion (not good news at all) and Owen Wright surfed a heat (good news), but other than those headlines there’s just a surplus of subpar, rushed out videos. Nothing with any moxie! No sick shit! Straws are being grasped at. And hell yes, maybe we are to blame too, the landscape of the surf entertainment culture is in a strange place, and sure, by the end of this we’ll have to go ahead and pick up the slack and vow to fix it, but until then, let’s’ take a look at the latest online offering:

Surfing Magazine: Gone. Although still serving the same banner ads as Surfer Magazine…worth the CPM?

Surfer Magazine: Voiceless. Literally an SUV ad with pictures of waves. Now a quarterly magazine I think, with more pictures of waves. Bible of the Sport, very Old Testament.

Stab Magazine: PSA’s and product reviews, couple cool vids. Have more shark stories written than Peter Benchley.

Beachgrit: So fun! But it is such a slow time of year!

Surfline: Great surf check cameras…

Kook Slams: I literally just wiped tears out of my eyes because their captions are so good. Finally, someone has the good enough sense to use an internet platform properly. God love you Kook Slams. We’re hiring.

Surfing Magazine’s Facebook page: Just turned into Surfer Mag Films Facebook and POOF! All is well! I think…:/ (and yes we clicked that link that says this page is offensive).

Other than that, you’re either a surf brand, caught between a rock and e-commerce hard place. Or us! But fear not. We’re here.

We’ll make something worthy of throwing a party for you. Let’s start with a new short film starring Craig, Chippa, Yago, Lee Wilson, Eric Geiselman and Dillon Perillo called Hello, Sea. Let’s put it out a week from today. After that we’ll give you said party, a new magazine and once we wake up from that, we’ll give you what you really want: A new full-length movie announcement. And we’ll promise that it’s only the beginning. Fuck this boredom. We’re here. —Travis

Indonesia Boat Trip Cluster Filming Yoyo Island Creed McTaggart Brendon Gibbens Craig Anderson Thom Pringle Surfing Dear Youth What Youth

Dear Youth Field notes from the outer islands

A five-day trip to get the fuck outta Bali and film for ClusterTM with Craig Anderson, Brendon Gibbens, Creed McTaggart & Thom Pringle. We slept in dungeon style cell rooms with a shitty fan, all of us. Tucked tight together with mattresses on the floor. This was Indo at it’s best. A real surf trip….

Indonesia, mitch coleborn chippa wilson what youth

Dear Youth Noa Deane and Mitch Coleborn getting it done

This is just one of those photos that makes you want to drop everything and max out your credit card and book a boat trip with your buddies. Mitch Coleborn is paddling out and Noa Deane is about to get really barreled. What more needs to be said? It’s all happening. —Nate Lawrence

Karate Zen Dear Youth What Youth Filming Kai Neville

Dear Youth Can you hear me? Where has my zen gone?

Time’s spinning by at a wild pace. I need to reflect on what went down over the last…the last month. West oz road tripping, a boat trip, Maccas camp post up, back to back. I think we may need to just chill. I love the hustle, but… Don’t get me wrong, this shit is sick. I…

Quinn Matthews Dillon Perillo Salina Cruz Surfing What Youth Dear Youth

Dear Youth Quinn Matthews in Training

Editor’s Note: Quinn Matthews is a talented young photographer. And we like him a lot. He brought creative angles to the North Shore. And hung with the boys in West OZ. That’s step one and two of success in this game. But there are more steps which are a bit trickier to explain. Last week, Quinn…

dion Agius dane reynolds craig anderson what youth

Dear Youth Craig Anderson, Dion Agius, Dane Reynolds in New Zealand, filming for Dear Suburbia, 2012

Editor’s Note: Blake Myers is Kai Neville and What Youth’s mascot/employee/filmmaker/creative Kiwi. He’s been making Lego videos and films for years now, and he’s also pretty good at snapping interesting photos along the way. The moments that usually go unoticed — which we thrive on. He’ll be contributing to Photo Credit and unearthing his archive…

Kai Neville Creed McTaggart Noa Deane Dear Youth What Youth Music

Dear Youth Click happy

“Popular is not the same as important, or often, not the same as good.” — Seth Godin Yesterday, sitting in the boiling cauldron that is Los Angeles traffic, I tuned the radio dial to 88.9, which is KXLU, a tiny independent radio station broadcasting from the campus at Loyola Marymount. It’s not world famous and…

Chippa Wilson getting barreled for cluster what youth

Dear Youth Chippa Wilson, Indonesia, Last week

Nate Lawrence: “Chippa Wilson is more known for his airs than his barrel riding skills, but damn can he ride the barrel well. We just finished a good ol’ fashioned Mentawai boat trip and it did not disappoint. There’s something about bobbing on a boat for 12 days with your friends that will never get…

Noa Deane Surfing Cluster What Youth Dear Youth

Dear Youth Noa Deane’s washed up traveler kit

A lot of people like to snap photos of their ultra-curated travel kits: vintage camera, neat bag, perfectly-folded shirt, passport, funny hat, postcards, Moleskin, etc. You know the shot. Well, over the past few years the travel kits we’ve seen don’t exactly look like that. They’re more like this. So here’s the first in a…

Noa Deana Indonesia Cluster Kai Neville Surfing Dear Youth What Youth

Dear Youth Noa Deane’s Indo stitch up

The ramps were good and the crowd was super mellow with the stiff breeze. 30 minutes into the surf Noa boned a pretty big Stalefish. Off target, his fin caught his arm and left him with a nice open gash. He bellied in and I started wondering why the hell he was coming in —…

mitch coleborn jack freestone noa deane what youth cluster

Dear Youth Nate on the Run

Editor’s note: Nate Lawrence is a good employee. Fills our hard drives with photographic gold all year long and is just one of the best dudes you’ll find. However, occasionally, he disappears. Doesn’t usually take us long to see that it often coincides with an active Indian Ocean, which just so happens to be firing…

Craig anderson surfing what youth

Dear Youth Boy to Man: Quinn Mathews returns from Western Australia

Photographer Quinn Matthews just walked in the door here at What Youth. Quinn is 18. Super talented. And up until now hadn’t been on too many surf trips. He was a green grom and we sent him into the wild. He went to Western Australia for 8 weeks to take photos and prove his worth…

Jordy smith what youth

Dear Youth Jordy Smith’s Indonesian Salon

Jordy Smith and Rob Bain, Indonesia 2013 “This here is a photo of Jordy just starting to dive into a fresh haircut for his boss, Rob Bain. It was the last night of the trip and Jordy had a line of people ready to get haircuts. What Youth photographer Hamish Humphreys had just got his…

Sign up for letters from What Youth


By enabling this page, you are acknowledging and accepting our privacy terms and conditions.