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

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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.

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Thurston Moore made our ears bleed Live from the LA Art Book Fair

Thurston Moore continues his reign as the king of dissonance at the LAABF

I still haven’t seen Cluster either And it’s being made in the room next to me

I didn’t think I’d have to write that. But there it is. The morning of the premiere and I still haven’t seen the damn thing. After a week in the desert, followed by an even more dehydrated stint in the lizard den known as the What Youth editing bay, Kai and Blake are still the…

Seven missions, 16 sessions A dispatch from your guide to good waves

Hints from a good-wave magnet

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Dear Youth What Youth HQ during the making of Cluster

This is us on deadline.

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A rookie’s year on the run Dear Youth with Quinn Matthews

Quinn Matthews recaps his 2014 year on the road as a rookie.

dear youth quinn matthews what youth hawaii

Dear Youth One more Aloha from Hawaii (with Quinn Matthews)

We just had to say aloha one more time. This time Quinn Matthews says farewell to the island. It’s been exactly a year now since Quinn Matthews caught our eye with his photos from Hawaii, and this year was a stellar sophomore campaign. Always fresh, and always rad angles.

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Dear Youth: See Ya Hawaii 12 Photos from the North Shore

Nate Lawrence photos from the North Shore.

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Dear Youth Swimming at Pipe: Quinn Matthews

Editor’s Note: Every time Quinn does something (anything), it’s probably his first time. And while I think he’d swam and shot at Pipe before, these were definitely the biggest waves he’d ever swam in. Which lends for good reading, especially when you line it up with the results you see below. Quinn wrote this and…

dear youth quinn matthews what youth surfing

Dear Youth 15 photos from North Shore: Quinn Matthews

Last year it was his fresh approach in Hawaii that caught our eye. And throughout the year he’s continued to amaze and baffle us simultaneously with his awe of the world around him and ability to get the wildest shots at the least likely of times. Quinn Matthews is a shy, unassuming, extremely green but…

dear youth hawaii kenny hurtado what youth surfing

Dear Youth 15 Photos from Hawaii: Kenny Hurtado

Kenny Hurtado has always been one of our favorite photographers. Both for the purity of his photography and for his humble demeanor. He’s been over on the North Shore the past few weeks and took a very unique approach to his coverage of the most photographed place in the surf world.

dear youth hawii nate lawrence what youth

Dear Youth 15 Photos from the North Shore: Nate Lawrence

Photographing the North Shore is an interesting skill if you wanna do it right. Nate Lawrence has been on the North Shore for a few weeks now, and prior to that he’s logged well over a decade of pilgrimages each year. And somehow, each trip back he manages to surprise us with the unique and…

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Dear Youth Right Place, Right Time.

I just had the best month of my life.

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