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

Dear Youth: Kelly Slater’s 540 sequence Processing Kelly’s air at the Cluster House in France

Kelly slater 540 surfing air photographed by quinn matthews for what youth

Kai, Blake and myself went down to Bayonne to pick up some film from a French lab. We had moules and frites on the river (just like Chas suggested) and were enjoying a warm Fall day in France when Mitch Coleborn texted us and said the waves were firing and to hurry the fuck up home to go shoot. He also said:”P.S. Kelly just landed a frontside 540 — the boys are tripping.”
We raced back to Hossegor to find Mitch, Dion, Noa and Chippa sitting on the couch still watching the video on Instagram. On repeat. Holy shit. Fucked up. What can’t he do? Why? Fuck! We’re some of the words used while watching it.
We grabbed our gear and went to the beach. The boys were still tripping. The winds were south and the ramps were big. Huge straight airs were traded for 540 attempts. Chippa came really close to a backside 540. Noa’s attempt looked more like a 720.
Back at the house a little later the boys hovered around the phone again. This time it was a different video angle:
Noa: “Ahhh, it’s a Parko grab.”
Dion: “Fark, that’s crazy but I thought it was a frontside grab…”
Mitch: “Only thing worse than a double grab, is a [Continued After the Jump]double grab on the same rail, that’s the worse grab you can do on a board. But that was one of the sickest airs ever done!!!’
The boys were still baffled. The house quieted. There was a sigh of relief that there is room to move with 540’s…But fuck me.


And then breaking the silence, Kai said: Fuck boys, we got some work to do…” —Nate Lawrence
Editor’s Note: So like a good “journalist” I used my resources to find out what the fuck kind of grab this is because no one I polled at first had a clue. Jimmicane at Surfing Magazine is who I’d consider the authority in surfing on how to translate grabs from other disciplines, so I hit him up and he informed me that some snowboarders often fuck around and do that grab. It’s called a “Stiffy” or “Gorilla Grab” and it’s done in “fuck around” situations only. No skateboarder would ever comment or be associated with this grab, so they were no help. “If a skateboarder had done this he would have died from embarrassment,” Jimmicane told me. “But what he [Kelly] did was fucked up.” And we agree. Kelly aint a skater and stiffy grab or not, that was fucking sick. Bravo. We back at it. —Travis

Creation curation dear youth what youth surfing

Dear Youth Creation > Curation

“It’s easy to attack and destroy an act of creation. It’s a lot more difficult to perform one.” ―Chuck Palahniuk

Adolescents Surfing Dear Youth What Youth

Dear Youth The adolescents are coming

Tomorrow we’ll be unveiling a new series we’ve been working on called The Adolescents. The idea behind the series is to illuminate and introduce you to some of the younger surfers we’ve been watching and getting psyched on. Kai Neville has been grooming and documenting the elite in surfing through his filmmaking for a while…

Dani Loureiro CS Louis Dear Youth What Youth Surfing Traveling

Dear Youth: The Wishkah Bridge A pilgrimage to find Nirvana by C.S. Louis

There are probably several fanatical accounts citing the significance of the Wishkah bridge on the Internet. And hopefully this will inspire you to check them out over a can of beer alongside some righteous tunes. I am not capable of delivering as thorough a report because I have not yet done such research, and arrived…

Nate Lawrence Surfing Dear Youth What Youth Indonesia

Dear Youth We back at it

“Well, I’m out of here on Saturday,” Nate Lawrence just told me. Another round of trips are leaving and waves of new projects are hitting the road. 2013 was incredible. And if you want you can see for yourself here, but we can’t stay idle for long. Kai and Nate have plane tickets, rental cars…

Panther Vision Ozzie Wright Jamie Heinrich Volcom Surfing Music What Youth Dear Youth

Dear Youth: Prepare for Panther Vision

I’d say that’s all we can do. Attempt to prepare you. Although there’s not really any way to do that. But this is your warning shot for our new monthly series of celluloid called Panther Vision presented by Volcom. The series was created exclusively for What Youth by Jamie Heinrich — who’s a creative freaking…

Kai Neville Copenhagen Project Arto Saari Dear Youth surfing Skating What Youth

Dear Youth The Copenhagen project today at noon

This is a photo snapped by Blake Myers of Kai Neville shooting film of Arto Saari, who is shooting a photo of Kai, while a tourist takes a photo of all of them. Rad. The Copenhagen Project will begin streaming right here today at 12:00 noon PST.  Tonight we’ll be premiering the film, releasing What…

Caffeine Nicotine Travel Surfing What Youth Dear Youth

Dear Youth From the terminal

These artifacts detail a long-winded sitting. With an interesting man. Who had a lot to say. The setting was perfect. The lighting signifies that it was conducted in a place where the mind runs more freely, spurred on by caffeine and nicotine. The latter not something we condone, but something we realize is a necessary…

West Australia Creed McTaggart Jay Davies Taj Burrow Dear Youth Surfing What Youth

Dear Youth: Taj Burrow, Creed McTaggart and Jay Davies farewell session in the West

We made our beds at Taj’s house this morning. Packed up and toasted the forever legendary one himself for his hospitality, gracious pours of red and for sharing his home break this week. Taj, Creed, and Jay spent most of the morning trading pits in the cerulean blue that you’ll only find in the western…

Jeremy Asher Lynch Remind me to forget Dear Youth What Youth

Dear Youth Be present

“A creator needs only one enthusiast to justify him.” The surrealist sexual painter/photographer Man Ray said this. And we think it’s important to remember today especially. As we all drown in our own inboxes, gasping for validation and appreciation amongst the swarms of hornets online and in social media, it’s nice to remember that a…

Jeremy Lynch Alex Knost Surfing Advice Dear Youth What Youth

Dear Youth More friendly advice for a lot of young men (and women and iPhone users)

“We spend our time searching for security and hate it when we get it.” John Steinbeck wrote that line in his essay “Paradox and Dream”. I’m sure you’ve read it.  Anyway, we like that line. It relates to our lives in the water. In America. On the Internet. In this industry. We’re all searching, battling…

Pinnytown Surfing Road-trip Dear Youth What Youth

Dear Youth: Take us back to Pinnytown

Last month we went to Copenhagen, Denmark to film The Copenhagen Project. The boys at Monster put us up at The Tivoli hotel (which is pretty much like the Disneyland Hotel) and let Arto Saari be our guide. We spent 8 days traveling like a wolf pack on bikes to all the known and unknown spots…

Noa Deane Surfing This is Us France Dear Youth What Youth

Dear Youth: Noa Deane in the French flats

This day got away from us a bit. It was the last smidge of swell during our trip to France and we had to milk it for everything we could. Only problem was that we dipped into the wine a bit early. 16 hours of daylight leaves one a bit discombobulated with regards to things…

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