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
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 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 at Circus Circus in Copenhagen Collected Thoughts 073
Ishod Wair at Circus Circus in Copenhagen shot by Arto Saari
Curren Caples kickflip in Sweeden Collected Thoughts 072
Arto Saari photographs Curren Caples in Sweden.
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…
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 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, 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…
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 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…