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.

Vans us open of surfing what youth scott chenoweth

What a difference a day makes Collected Thoughts 051

Today marks one of my favorite days of the year: the end of the Vans US Open. It’s the first sign of many things that I love as a newly transplanted Huntington Beach resident. The crowds will soon dissipate, vacationers will retreat back to their beloved homes, kids will soon again be scribbling waves in…

Arto Saari shooting perter ramondetta for what youth by scott chenoweth the copenhagen project

Arto Saari shooting Peter Ramondetta in Copenhagen Collected Thoughts 050

So you may be wondering: just what the hell are we doing in Copenhagen? And we’ll have you know that that is no longer something we ask ourselves. It’s more a question of: why haven’t we been here sooner — and more often? I was just talking to a new friend who is one of…

Arto Saari the copenhagen project what youth

Arto Saari and Dion Agius in Copenhagen, Denmark Collected Thoughts 049

You ride bikes in Copenhagen. It’s just what you do. And last night, not 20 minutes off the plane we were straight into it. Hugging the back tire of Arto Saari, our guide and photographer for the trip, our rapidly growing crew navigated the stunning and pictureque streets of downtown Copenhagen, trying to get a…

kolohe andino signing what youth issue 2

Win a signed copy of What Youth Issue 2 Featuring Kolohe Andino Collected Thoughts 048

Since today’s contest is over now, and we’re all out of signed copies, Kolohe requested that we shout him out and tell everyone that he systematically smoked those of us not in France at a game of S-K-A -T-E yesterday. He’s got a mean variel flip and big spin that is tough to beat. Kolohe…

Noa Deane in france for this is us france what youth surfing

Noa Deane in France filming for This is Us: France Collected Thoughts 047

Today was one of the weirdest days of filming ever. Fun. Sick vibes. But after a couple days of shredding we realized it’s going to get really flat later this week. We drove everywhere looking for waves this morning without much luck. Then the dice came out. The Doors. Pond. Iggy. A carton of Kronenberg,…

Kai Neville France what youth

Kai Neville in Paris, France, July 3, 2013 Collected Thoughts 046

We went to Paris a bit early to prepare for the upcoming This is Us: France trip and shop for camera gear. We spent all afternoon in several camera stores in the Canal District, on Le Republic Ave. Wild European camera stores here, stocked to the gills with film and antique cameras. We loaded up…

Austyn Gillette fairly normal collected thought what youth skateboarding

Austyn Gillette at home in Los Angeles, California Collected Thoughts 045

We went to Austyn Gillette’s house this week. And for those of you who haven’t met him, the two best places to start would be here, his section for Habitat, and then in what is probably one of our favorite short films of the year, a collab shot across and amongst the streets of Los…

Craig Anderson slow dance what youth

Slow Dance is a wrap and it has a new trailer Collected Thoughts 044

Dane Reynolds and Craig Anderson recently bolted on a surf trip after handing over the hard drive of Craig’s new surf film Slow Dance. They released a new trailer, which you can see here, and a page of wild imagery and vids here which should keep you occupied until the film premieres in Huntington Beach…

Warren smith collected thoughts what youth

Warren Smith describes what happens when Dion Agius is the boss Collected Thoughts 043

Dion Agius is a boss. Like really, he’s our boss. Like a really sexy, handsome boss. And bosses can really fuck shit up sometimes. He’s been punching his keyboard faster than Goro from Mortal Combat, planning every twist and turn of this trip for nine people, from villas and flights to dinners and motorbikes. But…

Shane Oneil what youth skateboarding

Shane O’Neill at Arto Saari’s house Collected Thoughts 042

Shane O’Neill has been on a surf trip before…sorta. “I went to Malaysia with Julian Wilson once,” he told us the other day at Arto Saari’s house. And for those who don’t know him, he’s considered to be one of the most technical street skaters in the world and recently competed against Paul Rodriguez in…

Craig Andersone Mark Occilupo Occy South Coast surfing what youth

Craig Anderson and Occy, filming for Slow Dance, South Coast Collected Thoughts 041

“Those boys have some epic tales…” said Craig of his recent trip to the South Coast of Australia with Occy and Matt Hoy. Later this week we’ll dig into some of those tales and begin chronicaling the final few months before Craig releases his new film, Slow Dance, which will be released this summer. Craig…

Sam Nolan for What Youth Issue 4

What Youth Issue 4 Is currently being finished Collected Thoughts 040

PHOTO: Sam Nolan During our stay in Australia this year, we linked up with photographer Sam Nolan from Byron Bay to shoot very fashionable photos with very sexy Australian girls. Amid the human mosh pit that takes residency on the Gold Coast during the Quiksilver Pro, we managed to slip into a dive of a…

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