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

Chippa Wilson on the stoop Collected Thoughts 008

Chippa Wilson photographed by Nate Lawrence What Youth
06.07.12 – TAGS: ,

Here’s Chippa outside the rental he shared with Mitch and Craig on their trip into the Australian desert, where their minds drifted into a pleasant psychosis commonly called “desert fever” and they began to see things. Like tubes. Tubes and ramps.

Chippa recalls the experience:

I didn’t even check if there were good waves there, I just heard there’s like huge sharks, and it’s cold, and I wasn’t too psyched. But I was just like, Fuck it, I’m going for sure.

That was at first, until we got there, and then there was these rights and just perfect lefts, definitely different then I anticipated. I’m calling, like, I don’t want to make it public or anything, but it has like the best waves in the world.

The first day we got there it was real windy. We got there the day of a storm, and we drove up the coast for two hours, to these cliffs up the point from the slab. It looked pretty perfect but I hadn’t surfed a pit in a long time, so I was kind of on my back foot.

Then we checked another slab and I was like, What am I doing? I went to bed that night, woke up, and it was all offshore in the morning, and just perfect pits. Then we had this lefthand that would go into a little closeout section. It was like as much fun as I’d ever had surfing.

It was only me, Mitch and Ando out there and they have these sets with two to three good ones probably every 10 minutes or something like that. You’ve got no people to worry about, like you’re not going on one and then having to wait 20 minutes for the next chance.

We’d go travel 40 minutes on a dirt road to the west, jet uphill and get to the IGA, the supermarket, just stock up on Nutribars and water, you know just chips and snacks. Then snack all day and make it to the pubs at 8:30. Like a full Groundhog Day but with perfect waves, every day.

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“Lucky Enough to be in the right place at the right time.” Collected Thoughts 099

If Nate Lawrence’s lens could talk…..Indonesia.   

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Be Like Mason Ho Collected Thoughts 098

“Why can’t everyone just be a little bit more like Mason Ho?” —Nate Lawrence

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Raph Bruhwiler, Canada 2011 Collected Thoughts 097

“Raph is amazing. Canada is amazing. This wave is amazing.  And drinking Iceburgs at Shelter is amazing” —Nate Lawrence

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Mikey Wright, Pipeline 2014 Collected Thoughts 096

“In 2014 I only knew Mikey Wright as Owen’s little brother. Even though he was doing stuff like you see in this photo pretty consistently. Now Mikey is his own brand. He’s not Owen’s little brother anymore. The surfing he is doing is unique. It’s fresh. And pretty soon we could be referring to Owen…

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Jordy Smith, Indonesia, 2013 Collected Thoughts 095

“Jordy Smith, Indonesia 2013. Everything about this photo makes me want to pack up a bag and get back to this wave. I just hope there’s still no one out.” —Nate Lawrence

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Kai Neville, Indonesia Collected Thoughts 094

“Kai Neville, Indonesia. The winds are light. The swell is picking up. The tank is full. It’s looking like a good time to be in Indonesia.” —Nate Lawrence

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Kelia Moniz, Laura Enever and Monyca Eleogram Collected Thoughts 093

“Kelia Moniz, Laura Enever and Monyca Eleogram. Sunset Elementary. I shot this photo on the basketball courts on the North Shore of Hawaii back in 2012. Each has a different style on land and in the water. But all of the them seem to have fun no matter what they are doing.” —Nate Lawrence

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Craig Anderson: “Cameo Mod” in Uluwatu April 2010 Collected Thoughts 092

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Earth to Jordy…We want more of this. Collected Thoughts 091

Jordy, where’d you go? We wanna see more of this this year. Find good waves. Book those last minute flights. Get back at it. With the boys. Love, What Youth

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Santa Cruz, localism, kooks and me. Collected Thoughts 090

I recently made a mistake. I took a photo at a spot in Santa Cruz and posted it on our WY Instagram account. I didn’t name the spot, but I did say it was a wave that rarely breaks in Santa Cruz. And the photo tells exactly where the wave is. Then came the comments……

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Taj Burrow always rules Collected Thoughts 089

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Flash with Nate Tyler in Santa Cruz Collected Thoughts 088

With all the gimmicks and stunts that have gone down this year it makes me think back to the early 2000’s in Santa Cruz. It was the epicenter of smoke and mirror surfing. We’d either go pull into closeout barrels or use jet skis to whip into 2 foot waves with many of the guys…

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