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

Arto Saari shooting Peter Ramondetta in Copenhagen Collected Thoughts 050

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

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 our local guides and he told me that the government here calls the skateboarders in the community when they put in any new infrastructure to make sure it has “skate-friendly” features. And from what we can gather, skaters and business men and tourists and the beautiful girls who blanket the city, all coexist peacefully in a well-balanced ecosystem of appreciation and understanding. And a lot of that amazing vibe can be attributed to the crew of hard working, rad people who put on the event we’re here covering: The Copenhagen Pro.

The Copenhagen Pro is hardly a “contest” in a traditional senses — it’s more a gathering of like-minded people who like to skate and do rad shit, all going down in a location that seems to be the epicenter for appreciating a variety of cultures and subcultures who are more or less allowed to flourish as opposed to being shut down for being illegal. Beers, fires, skating, families, groms, pros, locals, babes and tourists all mingle together enjoying the never-ending daylight however they please. And it’s all good.

Arto is a unique photographer. If he points his camera at you, it feels like an honor and you don’t want to let him down. Every skater from Pierre-Luc Gagnon to Peter Ramondetta (seen above) gladly give it their all for Arto to snap a few. And he does it all with the sickest style. He’s friendly and exciteable, and when he shoots, he points his camera at everyone and everything — still managing to make it feel like an honor. It’s really all just beautiful here. From concrete to the sea to architecture to women. And we just heard there may be waves tomorrow. Yes, waves. Dion Agius and Brendon Gibbens are psyching. There must be something in the tap water here — which I’ve actually heard there is. Like it’s good for you and makes the women beautiful. I’m not kidding. It’s as pure as tap water gets.

Tonight the festivities really begin here in Copenhagen, starting with the infamous rings of fire in a few hours. Which reminds me that we have to get going. It’s nearly 10PM and still daylight. We back at it. —Travis

Dillon Perillo poetry What Youth

Dillon’s Travelogue, Continued Collected Thoughts 027

PHOTO: Neville By Dillon Perillo, from Portugal (see Dillon’s first European journal entry here) I’m shoveling my feet along the Portuguese pavilion looking for food. With my blood sugar bottoming out I become exasperated with life. Everything about it, the girls, money, status, even the art of digesting frustrates me like a spoiled little boy…

Courtney Jadke Napkin Apocalypse shooting photos for What Youth Issue 2

Napkin Apocalypse for What Youth Issue Two Collected Thoughts 026

Courtney Jaedke is Dane Reynolds’s girlfriend. She creates and styles under the name Napkin Apocalypse. We call her Qwertini sometimes. We recently asked her to creative-direct and shoot an entire fashion feature for our second issue. Her response: “How big is this? How many photos? When’s the due date and where can I find some…

Dillon Perillo in France

Journal entry numero who gives a fuck Collected Thoughts 025

(Photo: Alex Laurel) By Dillon Perillo (Short easy not the end more to come prose #needsimprovement. —Dillon, sent from on the road in Europe) A whole life. I wait for my flight. I wait for it to land. I wait for my ride that hopefully picks me up. What the fuck am I doing writing…

Dane Reynolds and Kolohe Andino at What Youth HQ

Dane and Kolohe behind What Youth Collected Thoughts 024

The day before these two left for France to compete in the Quiksilver Pro they came by What Youth and hung out. Kolohe dropped off some film and Dane was here to work on art direction for Issue Two, and they both ended up staying for the day. Dane brought all his dogs — Boogie,…

Curren Caples and Jay Adams at Arto Saari's house What Youth

Tuesday at Arto’s Collected Thoughts 023

Last week something unusual happened and we were there. Arto Saari had an idea for this skate session he wanted to shoot. He invited Jay Adams, who’s now 51, and Curren Caples, 16, to his backyard pool in Hollywood to trade runs and kind of rap out. We got to go film it for What…

Kelly Slater What Youth Kustom Air strike

Kelly Slater wasn’t scared Collected Thoughts 022

We learned that this flag’s a liar. When that Kustom Airstrike trip happened a while back, every surfer got one of these with his name on it. You see them in the intro to each Airstrike episode. This one was for Kelly in case he showed up on the boat. Kelly was actually invited on…

Kai Neville, Dane Reynolds, Yadin Nichol and Dillon Perillo at Channel Islands Surfbaoards in Santa barbara for the Dear Suburbia Premiere What Youth

Shop Kids: Still a thing Collected Thoughts 021

We were just in Santa Barbara for a nighttime film premiere, and before it got started we went into the Channel Islands shop to touch surfboards. Inside were surf shop things: new boards to look at, used boards to buy, accessories, T-shirts, wall photos, and shop kids. Real, loitering shop kids like you read about…

Danny Fuller at the What Youth HQ

How Danny won Chanel Collected Thoughts 020

The other day we were at RVCA with Danny Fuller, and I asked him about Chanel. Danny is a model with the Ford agency and he’s the face of Chanel Homme Sport right now, which you know if you’ve flown international and walked past a Duty Free, or gone into Saks Fifth Avenue, or basically…

Dillon Perillo at home eating cereal What Youth

At the Perillo Home Collected Thoughts 019

Last Friday afternoon, peak summer, clear and sunny, 65-degree water with a south swell in it — everything right about California wrapped into a single perfect day just like the ones before and after it — I drove to Malibu, to Dillon’s house. It was the best possible moment not to do that. Every car…

Taj Burrow photographed by Nate Lawrence What Youth

Taj Burrow at the Hyatt Collected Thoughts 018

I wanted to see Taj before he left California, so on his last day here we met at the Hyatt in Huntington Beach. He told me to find him in the hotel gym. When I walked in Taj was flat on a weight bench, with his trainer bent over him pushing on his hip flexor….

Craig Anderson Dane Reynolds What Youth

This is Collected Thoughts Collected Thoughts 017

This place, whatyouth.com, is three months old now, but people who’ve been here since the start might remember that this section used to be called Field Candy. No longer, and here’s why: It turns out Field Candy is already a company. They make camping tents, for sleeping in, that are decorated with artwork. They took…

Kolohe Andino Bowling

Kolohe, Drinking Juice Collected Thoughts 016

Kolohe picked us up in his rusty ghetto truck today and we went to eat lunch, though he didn’t actually eat lunch. He drank it, because he’s doing another juice fast, which may be the only thing more feminine than doing a juice fast. Doing another juice fast. The last one sort of landed him…

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