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

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

what youth office fire

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 harms way. I was watching fire department video of the parking lot where we fuck around on a fun-box skating completely torched with a massive fire. Video of cars exploding. An area where occasionally one of us will leave our car overnight was full of the charred remains of our neighbor’s cars and trucks. I left mine overnight the night before after a few beers at a Morrissey show. Missed it by one day. The entire area was on lockdown all weekend, and only this morning were we allowed inside to assess the damage. So far it looks like we escaped any wild damage. Our dumpster in the back melted like butter. The entire office has little power, no Internet and smells like smoke and char. And all the back doors are melted and broken. Can’t really spend an extended amount of time inside right now. But we didn’t lose any equipment or product or magazines that we can tell. And thank god the ramp is all good. So this morning, we’re all breathing a sigh of relief — but not too deeply for fear of what might have been burning in those units and end up in our lungs. But we are definitely feeling for a few of our neighbors who had a lot of equipment in those storage units. And would now be out of work.

Thanks to everyone who reached out to us. It was scary, still is a little scary. Behind our office looks like a war zone. And its all still under investigation. Never assume, back up your hard drives, be safe, watch out for the super moon.

Everything in our world should be as usual. We have new shirts going on sale this week, The Dylan Rieder Issue will be on sale Tuesday November 22. And we’re off to Hawaii tomorrow. Mahalo and happy Monday. —Travis

img_1322 img_1323 img_1324 img_1327 img_1329 img_1333 img_1339

For the article and photos of the fire, click here. Or to watch the footage, click here.

what-youth-fire

Taylor Steele, Joe Curren, Tim Curran

I’ll never surf the wave pool Even if Kelly Slater invites me, no strings attached, I will very politely decline. Here’s why:

I have the worst taste in music because of surfing. And yeah, I suppose music is entirely subjective, but I spent my formative years listening to a melodic and generic emo version of punk rock that is now married to my obsession with surfing. And I don’t blame Taylor Steele. I thank him. It has been…

what youth kelly slater wave pool caddyshack

Country Club Surf Culture Why I want nothing to do with the WSL and Kelly Slater Wave Co.

All day today there’s been a lot of hype, speculation and excitement around the WSL’s specialty event at Kelly Slater’s wave pool. I’ve spoken to people at the wave and people who rode the wave and people who attended the event — some invited and some not invited. We’ve texted with Kelly (who I must say has…

what youth dear youth discontent travis ferre

Fan the flames of Discontent The Dream Tour is changing and it’s starting at a wave pool

I’ve made it more than apparent that I hate the word content. I hate all of it’s definitions. Content. Content. And content. Fuck ’em all. It’s a bad word. It’s a vanilla plain oatmeal crappy word that encourages status quo and general well being and I’ve never gotten along with it no matter how you’re…

what youth florida hurricane irma

When you’re in the radar of Irma I’ve learned a lot about hurricane culture today

In Florida, everywhere you look there is a television screen bigger than the previous “biggest TV screen you’ve ever seen” and they are all shouting and displaying a massive radar depiction of Hurricane Irma — who deserves to be capitalized and probably deserves an even bigger TV. And I’d be lying if I said I…

what youth thomas campbell movie craig anderson surfing

Thomas Campbell’s Fever Dreams In a world of gimmicks, it’s nice to know there’s a new Thomas Campbell film in the works

“This isn’t going to be like any of my other films.” That was the first thing Thomas Campbell told me about this new project. He then went on to describe his vision a bit — which is always a fascinating journey, listening to an artist describe what they see in their mind over the phone….

what youth julian k

Who is Julian Klincewicz? Well, he’s an underground and prolific part of many things and the subject of an upcoming WY Artist Series

Julian Klincewicz has the kind of name you hope you don’t have to type out too often. There are letters in it that don’t spend a lot of time next to each other and sounding it out just aint gonna work. But it’s one I nail every time now. Without looking. Written and spoken. And…

Leo Romero, Brostyle

Brostyle Pacific Northwest trip We went to Seattle and back with Leo Romero, Dakota Servold, Corey Glick, Dylan Witkin and Aaron Homoki

Well over the past few years we’ve been lucky enough to get to know Leo Romero pretty well. He owns a griptape company called “Brostyle.” And the thing that makes a grip company special and different from a board company or shoe company is the fact that you aren’t necessarily in it to make money…

The guys still going in the US Open Stories behind Kanoa Igarashi, Tanner Gudauskas and Soli Bailey

The early days of the US Open are interesting. It’s a mixed plate of up and comers, some familiar faces and a bunch of dudes you probably just straight up haven’t heard of. Sometimes it’s hard to keep up with who’s who in those early days, but now that things have thinned out, we looked at who’s still surfing…

what youth happy hour mitch coleborn us open of surfing summer

When Mitch and Yago stop by “Don’t you wanna fly above the water like a pelican?”

Hi there. Yep, back. Nothing like a nice couple of “Happy Hours” with Mitch Coleborn and Yago Dora to ignite the spirit. Yesterday, both popped in for the afternoon to kick off the completely unofficial and totally unregulated or sponsored “What Youth Happy Hours.” If you don’t know, we have a little store front at…

what youth recommends rip chester bennington

RIP Chester Bennington The Linkin Park frontman apparently had a bigger impact on all of us than we thought

Editor’s note: This a weird one. Linkin Park might not be a band you’d anticipate seeing us report on after learning about lead singer Chester Bennington taking his own life today. But Linkin Park is interesting.  They are probably the first band that somehow has had a weird impact on every single person and age demographic…

what youth issue 18 lauch party

Come Spread the Gospel with us “Join, or die” with us, Former, Need Essentials and Vans at the Ace Hotel in LA

In 1754 Benjamin Franklin made the political cartoon you see on our flyer and he published it in the Pennsylvania Gazette, an editorial piece about a “disunited state” that existed between the founding colonies of America. And before I get too deep on that — because the fact of the matter is we’re all just gonna check…

what youth ryan burch issue 18

New issue is at the printer, now what? Well, hit the road. And have a party of course.

“Do you know how many times I clicked my fucking mouse to make this thing?” We’ll chalk this up to “shit art director’s say,” but it’s true, ours, Scott Chenoweth, did probably click his mouse a lot of times. And it was all for you, because we made another issue. Number 18! Hot damn. While…

Sign up for letters from What Youth


By enabling this page, you are acknowledging and accepting our privacy terms and conditions.