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

 

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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