Last night we went out in LA to support our good friend Riley Blakeway and magazine buddies Monster Children for the premiere of their Team Average project: A trip featuring surfers and skaters shredding together across a foreign land. This time it was New Zealand with Chippa Wilson, Dylan Rieder, Greyson Fletcher, Alex Grey, Jack Fardell, Ryan Wilson and Natas Kaupas. You’ll remember filmmaker Riley Blakeway from his contribution to The Auteur’s Series: The Devil’s Teeth with us last week.
There was a healthy turnout of surfers, skaters, babes and beer last night. Tucked into a sketchy alley, the venue opeend up into a sexy gallery with indoor and outdoor mingling. But the real beauty was the coexistence of surfers and skaters and the hoots going down for each camp during the premiere. Chippa was spinning. Greyson was blasting through the bowl. Rieder was steezily flipping over everything. It was pretty sick. It’s rad to see the two cultures inspiring each other once again. Hasn’t been since the late ’70s and early ’80s when skating and surfing cultures have been able to mingle like this. We even managed to peacefully support a fellow magazine’s project, and despite Ben Nordberg’s attempts at instigating rival warfare between us and Monster Children, all was peaceful and rad. We’re big fans.
Check out MonsterChildren to watch the film yourself. And congrats to Riley Blakeway and everyone involved, film was sick, and we hope you all got laid.
Greyson Fletcher and Riley Blakeway at the premiere of Team Average 2.0 Collected Thoughts 063
“Lucky Enough to be in the right place at the right time.” Collected Thoughts 099
If Nate Lawrence’s lens could talk…..Indonesia.
Be Like Mason Ho Collected Thoughts 098
“Why can’t everyone just be a little bit more like Mason Ho?” —Nate Lawrence
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
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…
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
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
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
Craig Anderson: “Cameo Mod” in Uluwatu April 2010 Collected Thoughts 092
“April, 2010. Craig had just debuted to the world for the first time in Modern Collective. He blew minds with his backside rotations in shark waters as the “Cameo Mod.” But we still had no idea who Craig was. Chas Smith and I hung with Craig for 2 weeks in Oz a few months after the…
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
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……
Taj Burrow always rules Collected Thoughts 089
Taj just released a rad little video online. It has waves in it that remind me of why I fell in love with Taj’s surfing. I can remember being a teenager and watching Sabotaj on VHS with my buddies. None of us had ever been to Australia. We had never even left Santa Cruz really….
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…