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

Nate Lawrence nearly robbed To get you this Collected Thought Number 107 lineup shot

what youth nate lawrence collected thoughts indonesia

I nearly got robbed trying to get a lineup shot.

I probably deserved it though. After all, I am exposing surf spots. And taking photos of a wave and making it look prettier than it is. The wind? It was onshore. The crowd? It was packed. But that’s the thing with us sketchy photographers, it’s all an illusion. A way for us to get paid to, well, surf. But let’s get back to the real story. The near robbery. Cause that’s why you’re still reading this.

Me and a few buddies went on a surf trip. Not to this crowded onshore wave you see in this photo. But to a beautiful offshore bay with no one around. Where’s the photos? C’mon, I’m not that stupid. So we surfed three times a day and after the second day we couldn’t paddle anymore so I decided to go and try and get my surf trip paid for. Take a few lineups and tell my boss (hey Travis!) that I was busy shooting this swell. The photo would look that good that he wouldn’t really notice the attached invoice for the rental car, hotel and gin and tonics.

We left in the evening on a Saturday night to drive to Desert Point (oops). A rental car guy from my last trip had warned me not to drive to this area at night. He didn’t even want to rent me the car once he heard where I was going. So I was telling this story to James and Scotty who were in the car with me. Not 10 minutes later I see a parked motorbike in the middle of the road. Then I see a person walking out trying to block the side of the road I was driving on. Already being warned about this area, I had planned in my mind what I was going to do if someone tried to block the road. So I sped up and drove directly at him.

My brights were on and as we got closer he started reaching around to his back with both hands like he was pulling a gun or knife out of his back pocket.

I sped up even more and at the last moment I swerved the car off the road and went around him. All of us ducked as we went by him as we thought there might be a bullet fired at the car.

I continued to drive super fast, not sure if he would follow on his motorbike. All of our hearts were beating fast. Was he behind us? Did he actually have a gun? 10 minutes later we reach our hotel and explained to the staff what just happened. They told us to hit him with the car next time.

I looked at them with confusion, then I looked at James…All this for an average lineup shot? —Nate Lawrence

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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