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

Let’s be together When all goes numb, the numb need to get together

what youth scott chenoweth ny illustration

I spent the end of last week careening through the perfectly lit and temperate streets of early autumn New York. I ran around with beautiful Hawaiian princess Kelia Moniz and we drank rice wine margaritas, shopped for jewelry and watched golden hour illuminate over the bustling streets as we ate oysters and sipped Stellas. There was a stranger at the bar who we helped with the New York Times crossword puzzle. We rode the subway across town. We eavesdropped on conversations. A day of human interaction and dancing together that only NYC can provide. Then the following day we climbed through elevator shafts in Brooklyn with artist and friend Jason Woodside as he showed us his studio and then where the world’s best sandwich is (spoiler alert: it contains anchovies). I was high. High on people. On diverse, radical, creative, friendly people. Three days surrounded by every single odd walk of life there is: creative, beautiful and diverse people. Something was restored inside my oft-confused little heart.

I returned home on early Saturday and immediately surfed in front of my house, got juiced from the buzz that that provides, then loaded my car with the same suitcase and drove to Los Angeles to watch the band that I like to think re-routed my potentially generic (college, corporate career, house, 2.5 cars and kids etc) life and truly showed me that music was deeper than the few punk bands I was into. It could be thoughtful, morose, uplifting and dark and light all at once. The band was Interpol. A group of art students from NYU who created the post-9/11 soundtrack to a generation of New Yorkers and young people. It provided sentiment and tempo for living in this new world. I don’t think they even meant it. But they did it perfectly.

I left that concert Saturday night the same way I’d imagine everyone in Las Vegas would have left their show: euphoric and inspired and truly happy. I had picked apart songs and tapped emotions from them I’d never felt even after listening to them no less than 5,000 times. That’s what live music does. I had “the new” in me. A new everything: new outlook. New depth. New thoughts.

And then Sunday night and Monday morning came.

And I’m really having a hard time with this one. I just don’t have words. Music, writing, crying, not crying, anger, yelling, surfing, drinking, running, hiding, creating, sleeping, panicking…none of it is having the usual impact or therapeutic effects they do for me. All I have are people around me. And It was a person who did this to people. And I think it’s gonna be people who will make this feel OK eventually. And I’ll tell you right now I’m going to need a lot of you to get through this one. Probably all of you. So let’s be together. That’s all. Let’s just be together in this fucking berserk new place that’s been created. —Travis

PS: RIP Tom.

Right, so the WSL starts again next week And hello, yes, we have some questions and concerns. Five exactly.

It is 6:30 am, picture the scene. It is 6:30 am and the crack of dawn in San Diego and I’m paying for a latte at the coffee shop I frequently go to. “And what,” the barista says as he takes my cash. “What do you think about the upcoming WSL season? What with the…

A quick ode to Uncle Gav Please buy this legend a cold beer. He is a surfing treasure.

Yesterday you heard we went to Samoa and got hit by a cyclone before finding blue tubes and cold beers in it’s wake at Salani Surf Resort. You also saw that Gavin Beschen was there. Well, Gavin flew in from Hawaii by himself, and in true Gavin fashion showed up to the camp solo, 8…

letters from what youth where ya been

“Where ya been?” A little update on our recent movements

Don’t you just love when people ask you that? Well, we do. And people been asking us – especially our mailman, cuz we haven’t been home in a while… so let’s see, where did we go… a little bit of everywhere really. We road tripped up the CA coast in a van thanks to you and…

Youth against the machine I’m so proud of you

Editor’s Note: Last Friday night I got emotional. I was watching recaps of what happened in the world that week and a lot had happened. Part of me was on the verge of tears watching young people, you, the youth, standing toe-to-toe with politicians and paid speakers and paid pros for the NRA, and I saw…

Outside the Comfort Zone San Francisco to Florida to the North Shore to “The Other Guys.”

It’s been one of those days. Weeks. Years. Hell, six years. I haven’t used my own soap in three weeks. My bag of clothes is soggy. I miss my bed and I’ve seen three time zones in a week, but I’ve surfed, talked, laughed, drank, filmed and even worn a headset and done commentary for…

Media Model Subsidy Line Noise Ordinances and surf video making with Mitch Coleborn, Harry Bryant, Nate Tyler, Colin Moran and more

This morning we received a note on our front door reminding us that this town operates under a noise ordinance and that we may have been in violation during our first night here. And I may know why. You see, we lucked into an AirBnb that’s equipped with a pool table in the sun room, and last…

what youth harry bryant surf trip

Well, you’re hired We reached out to you and you delivered. Now it’s time to go

Holy shit, it worked!  The idea hatched over a pitcher of margaritas the other night is a reality. And it’s all because of you. You have officially funded the What Youth California ramp hunt and now the boys are ready to send it. We’re starting tomorrow and making it official: The What Youth film project,…

dear youth david bowie has a book club

David Bowie Has A Book Club Maybe 2018 won’t be terrible after all

When history looks back at our bizarre little era, it will agree on one thing: Everything went to shit real quick right after David Bowie died. It’s baffling how quickly reality unraveled after David Robert Jones left us in early 2016. Muhammad Ali, Prince, Tom Petty and a whole bunch of people you really like passed…

Quiksilver has acquired rival Billabong In the least shocking headline you’ll read today

I know this headline isn’t as good as: “Iguanas are freezing and falling from trees.” Or “It’s so cold that sharks are dying.” But we’ll give it a shot. Quiksilver and Billabong are now owned by the same company. This was posted last night by our fabulous friends and drinking buddies and hard-hitting journalists at…

Hunter Martinez, San Francisco

2018: Fitter, Happier…still on antibiotics Here we go again

To be modern is to find ourselves in an environment that promises us adventure, power, joy, growth, transformation of ourselves and our world – and at the same time, that threatens to destroy everything we have, everything we know, everything we are…—Marshall Berman 2018 and I woke up strange. My FICO score changed (for the…

Blake Myers, Noa Deane

Save What Youth Dot Com And the rest of our little digital realm for that matter

I have loads of nasty habits. I drink six cups of coffee every morning, I let my wetsuit ferment in the back of my car because I’m too lazy to rinse it out, and I’ve caught myself watching the Oi Rio Pro un-ironically on several occasions. But there’s one stupid, habitual quirk I do every single…

what youth bruce brown rip

RIP Bruce Brown The man responsible for surfing’s greatest celluloid achievement is gone, but there’s no chance we’ll ever forget him

I was 12 years old and I remember leaving baseball practice of all things to go see the world premiere of Endless Summer II at the old Peirside Cinema in Huntington Beach. That night was the beginning of the end of my cleat-wearing years. Just me and my dad went and the electricity inside that…

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