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DEAR SUBURBIA, OFFICIAL TRAILER AN EXCURSION INTO THE ABSURD
Mon
23
Jul

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE TRAILER

The first visions are here. This is the official trailer for Kai Neville and What Youth’s new full-length feature film: Dear Suburbia,. It was shot primarily on RED cameras all over the globe and features Dane, John John, Kolohe, Jack, Yadin, Craig, Dion, Conner, [...]

COLLECTED THOUGHTS 015 CRAIG ANDERSON, SHARK VS. COW
Wed
25
Jul
This is Craig on all fours kind of barrel-rolling down the beach.

Why does he roll? For a frank lack of things to do, really. For diversion when diversion was scarce.

Why was it scarce? This was after five days straight of no surf on a trip that, at the moment of Craig's roll, was looking like  a write-off, not the bacchanalia everyone planned on, with tube rides.

Why share this picture? Here's a story: Down this beach there was [...]
  • The night of self-sacrifice with New Zealand's future.
  • Soon after, things changed, and it was time to come out of barrels with the spit. Craig did that.
  • “Those are like scary to watch. You think he’s going to break his leg, or break his board. It’s pretty ridiculous to see. That’s like my favorite move in surfing, to watch. Dane is super easy to watch.” —Craig
  • Dion, when he wasn't taking pictures, took outlandish little flights off the left.
  • “When we showed up it was offshore and really good once the tide came up. That was the turning point right there. It was all uphill from there. Wedgy barrels and just really fun.” —Conner
  • “His back foot must be like a rubber band. But yeah, him and Conner were surfing really good on those rights. They’ve got kind of the same approaches. It was rad to see.” —Craig
  • Stab Magazine had a cover blurb that said, "That Shit Craig!" It was awesome, and we use it here with humble acknowledgement.
  • Carve.
  • This is really hard in an offshore wind. It's really hard anyway, but especially so. Dion spins regardless.
  • Conner.
  • Dane.
  • Craig.
  • Dion.
  • And Dane, one last time. Bang.
THE PENGUIN CULT, CHAPTER 3 GOOD GOD, THIS IS MUCH BETTER
Thu
26
Jul

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Conner: “We thought we were going to get the best waves. Everybody was talking it up, and we would drive all day. We would check one end of this place, then drive all the beach breaks. None of them had much potential. Everyone was burnt out and wanted to surf. We were like, ‘Fuck, it’s little waves, it’s freezing cold, and we’ve been here for a week already.’ Then it turned around and went a full 180."

[...]
COLLECTED THOUGHTS 016 KOLOHE, DRINKING JUICE
Fri
27
Jul
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 in the hospital. It was supposed to go for 10 days and on the first day he got the worst headache he’d ever had, and [...]
DEAR SUBURBIA, NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE TOUR DATES, LOCATIONS & INFORMATION
Fri
27
Jul

We're showing Dear Sububrbia across the USA all through the month of August. Road tour supreme.

Fifteen stops up both coasts and through the middle, in parking lots and back alleys, riding waves along the way, filming, skating, and bringing this joyful mess to a town near you. Blood may be spilled but our drinks never will be.

It's Kai, surfers from the film, and What Youth — plus Hurley and Nike handing off closets of product to whoever's around. Come on tour. Here's how.

THE DAZE AT SEA WORLD PREMIERE EVENING HERE AT THE WHAT YOUTH DRIVE-IN THEATER
Mon
30
Jul
Around 3 p.m. Kona Brewing Company, who was sponsoring the event, dropped off cases of beer for the evening. Around 6 p.m. we skated to the corner store to buy more beer.

By sunset a young crowd was here enjoying two food trucks, one DJ, tequila distilled by Peligroso, corner store beer and each other's company. Billabong premiered its new film Daze At Sea on a giant outdoor screen at 9 and somehow the cops never came to hassle. Jack Freestone, [...]
  • Taj Burrow came to Indonesia with Dane, who grew up watching his videos, and with Kolohe, Evan and Jack Freestone, who grew up watching Dane's videos. The thing is, Taj isn't even that old. He was just rad early. Photos in Issue Two of What Youth Quarterly (Fall 2012).
  • John John did nothing wrong over the past year. One of the biggest things he didn't do wrong was to step off a boat in the Mentawais straight into a Japanese river mouth cyclone trip where the waves were like Backdoor without the reef and anger.
  • Craig Anderson did a few trips for the film, including this desert excursion with Chippa and Mitch. Plenty of tube rides and a ramp for Chippa.
  • Dillon and Dane sessioned this right in Indonesia that became a sick segment in the film. Kai almost cut it, too, which shows how sharp his knife is when editing footage. You could pretty much make the world's best online shorts with the stuff that didn't make it into Dear Suburbia. We probably will.
  • Dion came to New Zealand and it turns out he's an unbelievable surfer, on top of the nine other lives he's leading at any given time. Air reverse here in offshore winds. Might as well do it switch.
  • Jay Davies played host in Western Australia where sessions went down with Kolohe and little Jack Robinson. Another trip, another string of waves too good to be believed unless they were caught on RED camera from three angles, which they were.
  • Kolohe writes his name all over the first half of the film. It's an arrival, or another arrival. He's been arriving for like 10 years now. This time for real.
  • Mitch in Barbados on the only trip in the film where the waves didn't get perfect, just really fun. Otherwise it was a year of uninterrupted scoring. Even Barbados, nobody was mad at it. There was enough to twirl on.
  • Marine Layer sort of numbs the viewer to Dane and how good he is, so a year of concentrated filming for Dear Suburbia couldn't really be all that different, could it? Could it?
  • Yadin got hurt in Japan, when filming had just begun for Dear Suburbia, and it happened before the wildly good waves arrived as well. Bad luck for us all.
  • Jack Freestone was thrown in with Taj, Kolohe and Dane in Indonesia, three regular foots next to whom one could easily look really, hopelessly, confidence-shatteringly bad by comparison. Jack looked real good.
  • Evan G. was also on the Indo trip and was loving the beach break. Barrel-air combos over sand.
  • It's not bold to predict Chippa will be a lot of people's favorite surfer soon. In the desert and Barbados he put all his little tech subtleties on display and since the film is shot on RED at so many frames per second, everything shines.
Taj Burrow came to Indonesia with Dane, who grew up watching his videos, and with Kolohe, Evan and Jack Freestone, who grew up watching Dane's videos. The thing is, Taj isn't even that old. He was just rad early. Photos in Issue Two of What Youth Quarterly (Fall 2012).
STILLS FROM DEAR SUBURBIA A PHOTOGRAPHIC WALK THROUGH THE FILM
Mon
30
Jul

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Dear Suburbia is cut, scored and finalized for its first public screening this Thursday, August 2 in Huntington Beach. Everyone is sincerely encouraged to rack up debt, ruin friendships and end careers to do what it takes and get there Thursday night. That other stuff will sort itself out.

This slideshow is a table of contents for the surfers, waves and locations that appear in the film — which, to reiterate, premieres this Thursday and is more important than your night shift/AA meeting/daughter's recital.

Photography by Nate Lawrence, Stu Gibson and Hamish Humphreys

See you Thursday or soon after on the Dear Suburbia North American premiere tour all this month. (International friends, your moment is coming.)

Au revoir.

CHRISTIAN HOSOI ONE AFTERNOON A CONVERSATION WITH THE GUY YOUR DAD USED TO WISH HE WAS
Tue
31
Jul
Christian Hosoi was the man, and Christian Hosoi is the man, and both these statements are true but for different reasons. Let's examine each independently.

In the 1980s, Christian was the man because it was so difficult to get a fuck from him, as generally he didn't give a fuck. He flew out of half pipes and partied in LA and did radical dangerous stuff like you'd expect from your average young Christian Hosoi.

Today he's the man because he's [...]
TONIGHT: DEAR SUBURBIA WORLD PREMIERE FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC | 5TH STREET, HUNTINGTON BEACH | 7:30 P.M.
Thu
02
Aug

What: World premiere of Dear Suburbia, the new film from director Kai Neville produced by What Youth. No tickets, no passes, just you and us and everyone we know.

Where: The Strand (5th Street) in Huntington Beach, California. Look for the enormous screen closing off a downtown block and a pooling congregation of young pretty someones.

When: White Fence takes the stage at 7:30 p.m. and the film will screen shortly after their set.

Then: Drinks?

[...]
KUSTOM AIRSTRIKE: EPISODE 1 5 SURFERS — 1 AIR — 4 EPISODES — $50K
Thu
02
Aug
This is the first piece of a four-part video series documenting flights, crashes and landings from the 2012 Kustom Airstrike. Come back August 9 for Episode 2.

What Youth appreciates the aerial. We're happy to show all its modern up-fuckedness through extended coverage of this year's Airstrike — its photography, stories and personalities.

On August 30, all video entries from the Airstrike trip will be posted at the now-live kustomairstrike.com where you can vote on which flight deserves $50k in [...]