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.

Collected thoughts what youth andy irons nate lawrence photography

Andy Irons in Bali filming for Trilogy Collected Thoughts 075

Editor’s Note: Nate Lawrence is the youngest of us all. Maybe not in age, but it in life and youth, he wins. You should see his eyes light up around our mini ramp. Our when there’s a Desert Point swell. Or when Japan starts sucking in a Typhoon…he’s a full-on grommet. And while he’s still…

dane reynolds jamie obrein what youth canada surfing

Dane Reynolds and Jamie O’Brien, Canada 2006 Collected Thoughts 074

It was most obvious when we were driving in the car. The drive was long from the ferry to our remote and tucked away tree house. Unending wilderness buzzed by and Nelly Furtado blared. Jamie-O sat shotgun armed with an iPod and USB access in the rental. Dane was in the backseat, unfazed and smirking at the…

Ishod Wair copenhagen what youth arto saari skateboarding

Ishod Wair at Circus Circus in Copenhagen Collected Thoughts 073

Ishod Wair at Circus Circus in Copenhagen shot by Arto Saari

curren caples shot by arto saari in sweeden what youth skateboarding

Curren Caples kickflip in Sweeden Collected Thoughts 072

Arto Saari photographs Curren Caples in Sweden.

collected thoughts dane reynolds dion agius craig anderson what youth france

Dion, Dane and Craig check the Cluster tapes in France Collected Thoughts 071

This is a photo of Dion, Dane, Craig and Bez (Beren Hall) watching some clips after a long morning of shredding at a very fun French beachbreak. I sometimes forget how easy photographers have it these days. And by “these days” I mean the motion picture or video era. You see, not too long ago…

Michel Bourez in France shot by Quinn Matthews What Youth

Morning conversation with Michel Bourez Collected Thoughts 070

I pulled into the Quiksilver Pro Athlete parking lot just behind Michel. As we got close to the front, me and Brandon Guilmette watched him turn the corner hoping for front row parking. We decided not to test our luck and parked at the closest visible spot. Sure enough Michel reversed passed us, in his…

And then we went to France Collected Thoughts 069

Editor’s note: We bought Quinn a ticket to France Sunday, right in the face of an Air France strike, making our purchase more expensive than we’d like, but the show must go on and the youth must run and Quinn must experience. Since then he’s landed in France. He’s hanging with the Hurley crew, waiting…

Gabriel Medina 2014 Hurley Lowers Pro

Gabriel Medina in a Locker Room Collected Thoughts 068

Gabriel Medina…in a locker room?

Craig Anderson Joins Dylan Reider on the Huf Footwear Team Collected Thoughts 067

Surfers and skaters have had a pretty volatile relationship over the years. They’re too dirty and bloody. We’re too jocky and wear too much aloha. And vice versa and yadayadayada. And it wasn’t until recently, when we all started hanging out, that a lot of the same things they hated about surfing were the same…

Creed McTaggart Noa Deane dion agius on the cluster boat trip indonesia what youth surfing

Creed McTaggart, Dion Agius and Noa Deane, morning tea on the cluster boat trip Collected Thoughts 066

We were mostly looking for launch ramps, but sometimes the path to ramps leads you into empty pits and we’d be lying if looking at this bomb out the back didn’t excite us. Although, while most of the boys watched the top shop pit across the reef, Noa Deane couldn’t take his eyes off the…

Arto Saari Copenhagen what youth

Denmark is on the Itinerary Collected Thoughts 065

We write to you sitting next to a document. It is confidential as of now, but it looks cool and it’s filled with potential. Like a jelly donut. During the month of July, we’ll be on the move. A lot. Tackling an itinerary that even our roster of seasoned and experienced travelers outwardly say they…

Kolohe Andino Luke Davis Indonesia boat trip what youth

Kolohe Andino and Luke Davis, LAX Collected Thoughts 064

It was pretty funny to watch these two — along with Ian Crane and Tanner Rozunko — all realize that after all these years growing up together and surfing that they’d never done a big trip together like this. Let alone a trip with Taj Burrow, on a boat for a week. It hit them…

Sign up for letters from What Youth


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