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

what youth surfing california swell

When California gets good It’s not always like this, but it sure is nice when it is. Tom Carey documents.

If you’re not in Florida like some of us are, then you’ve probably been scoring sick waves. California’s been getting blasted by rain and swell all week, and then yesterday: the rain stopped, the water turned blue again and the boys been getting piped. Tom Carey tried his luck in a few fickle zones and had…

what youth surfing magazine

SURFING Magazine is gone An institution is extinct. Now what?

Yesterday, after 53 years of publishing SURFING Magazine closed down. This is strange and sad for a few reasons. My first being personal: I worked there for 8 years. Hell, I was practically raised there. Learned to be a pro and a punk at the same time and am proud that somehow when every title…

what youth womens march photography by Darren Ankenman

The prettiest day in America Darren Ankenman photographs from Saturday’s Women’s March in Los Angeles

After the day that was Friday, there was Saturday: The most beautiful day in American History. All over America people joined together to celebrate women’s equal rights and I found myself, for the moment anyway, a proud American. I watched as the streets filled with women from all over and supporters of women from all walks of life stood…

what youth craig anderson indonesia surfing

A good looking cutting room floor Issue 17 is ready for ink, here’s a peek

Full disclosure: We didn’t plan it like this. But as we’ve learned along the way, that’s so very OK. Hell, that’s what we’ve been doing in here since day 1: not sticking to the plan. Being spontaneous and open minded. And that’s the story with Issue 17. It’s got a bunch of chipped teeth, backfires…

what youth travis ferre scott chenoweth 2017

Memo from the Editor’s Desk Day 4 of 2017…

I chugged my pint of 2016 a few days ago but I’m still looking for 2017’s heartbeat. Even the ocean is still on break. But we’re not. We’re currently putting the final touches on a new issue (holy shit it’s number 17!) and have inched ourselves even closer to announcing some very exciting new projects,…

what youth hawaii rvca house kelly slater alex knost

A North Shore gathering for Dylan RVCA and Mark Oblow create a Hawaiian night that can only happen on the North Shore

Things happen on the North Shore that don’t and can’t happen anywhere else. I’m now thoroughly convinced of that. The other night at the RVCA Pipeline house we held a small bbq along with Mark Oblow and RVCA and a very limited number of our Dylan Rieder issues. The waves had fired all day long…

what youth gavin beschen

A Day With Uncle Gavin Beschen On location in Hawaii for a new episode of “4 Cities”

We met up with Gavin Beschen at Sunset Beach. He was checking the surf in his truck and we had just pounded Haupia pies from Ted’s Bakery. We walked up and found him on the boardwalk checking the waves. He told us to follow him up the hill and said he had some boards we…

Waikiki

What Youth on the North Shore “We are not Subway”

We land in Honolulu before midnight and immediately make our way to the Thrifty Car Rental place to grab our car. Everything was sorted we thought. And were told. I know because I told everyone and sorted it. What Youth is back on the North Shore finally. Been a few years and we’re pretty excited. That’s when the aloha…

what youth office fire

What Youth Fire Update: We’re good Can’t say the same for some of our neighbors

Early Friday morning we got word that the units behind our building had caught fire. Assuming it was merely a dumpster fire, I thought nothing of it for about 15 minutes. A little research proved otherwise: This was BIG. A real fire. Explosions. It was all over the news. And our building was definitely in…

what youth dear youth fuck trump

The Shape of Art To Come Let’s make sure we take advantage of this

Yesterday I stood inside a church and looked at a ballot with measures on porn and weed and a presidential battle between a woman and a rich guy with traits I usually label as “asshole.” It was a bizarre 20 minutes. But I did my part. I voted, put my sticker on my shirt and walked…

what youth magazine dylan rieder issue coming soon

The Dylan Rieder Issue: On Sale 11-22-2016 We teamed up with Mark Oblow to create our 16th issue and devoted it entirely in loving memory of Dylan Rieder.

This one means a lot. And it’s off to print today. After learning that we lost Dylan to his fight with leukemia last month, we immediately shelved all in-progress plans for Issue 16, got with Mark Oblow and discussed creating something special and memorable for one of the most influential people we’ve ever met.  Thanks…

John John Florence, Surfing, World Champ

John John Florence is the World Champ And we’re backing that big time

While we were sleeping, John John Florence became the World Champ. He sliced and diced his way through Portugal, and in making the final, and with Jordy’s semifinal loss, we got us a John John crown. And this is nice news to wake up to. Because John John deserves this. We all deserve this. It’s…

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