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

Dear Youth The fun that leads to sleep paralysis

Surfing road-trip dear youth what youth

“Never trust a thought that didn’t come from walking.” That’s a quote by an old madman by the name of Friedrich Nietzsche. He’s an existential pioneer and had one hell of a dark passenger throughout his life. But the man sure did drop some wisdom while he was here.

I bring this up as a bit of a postmortem from a pretty serious “walk” we’ve just returned from. A car was driven from our current location in Orange County up to an island off British Columbia. Along the way we skated, surfed, forgot, remembered, danced, drove, brooded, exclaimed, drank and moved ridiculous distances without sleep just to see what it would feel like to not know which side of consciousness we were on.

While nature bloomed and whizzed by outside the window, our brains swelled with too much alcohol and no computer screens to save us. But now we know what it feels like to skate Burnside and Orcas. Surf frozen Canada and wash it down with Lucky beer served by friendly small town granola girls.

At times we must have looked like miserable bum fights, at other times we were wetsuit clad with big stoke grins, alive and leaving frozen tracks on frozen waves we’d never knew existed. And we found all moods that exist between those two extremes along the way.

And now we’re back from the north and we’ve mopped up all the blood from our elbows, thawed our frozen toes and faces enough to remember what happened…somewhat. And just to be sure we did it right, upon return, your current scribe was stricken with two instances of sleep paralysis (which is very much a thing) on night number one in his own bed after two weeks without it, and can report with certainty that it feels not unlike a demon pulling a sheet over your face while you watch, unable to do anything about it. But stay tuned for issue 3! The creative juices flow. Kai is rolling film, Victor is rolling film, Nate is snapping stills and a variety of surprises are brewing. Let’s just say we had a good “walk.” The new magazine will be out in early February. —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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