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DEAR SUBURBIA, PREQUEL II CRAIG, CHIPPA & MITCH IN THE DESERT
Sun
29
Apr
The desert could have killed us easily but it didn’t. It was good to us mostly. We stayed at a cool little house in a tiny fishing town, owned by a lady who discovered whale vomit on the beach ten years ago, just a big clump of it, like a basketball, but a rank and odorous basketball because it was still whale vomit. It’s called ambergris and it’s worth loads of money because it is, or at least it once [...]
INTRODUCING DAZE AT SEA A NEW FILM COLLABORATION FROM BILLABONG & WHAT YOUTH. COMING JULY
Mon
30
Apr
For eight months Billabong has had its best saplings in the field, surfing France and South America and Hawaii and Indonesia and all over Australia east to west. That stretch of sessions is documented in a new film project, Daze At Sea, shot and directed by What Youth contributor Victor Pakpour. It’s youth on the run captured raw and cut to good sounds and due for July 15 delivery. The main faces belong to Jack Freestone, Ryan Callinan, Peterson Crisanto [...]
  • don't talk about your new fred rubble if kolohe's around. [in a raspy santa cruz voice] “oh my god, i swear, guys that ride merricks, all they talk about is surfboards.”
  • kolohe is generally a good kid, he's smart and focused, has a healthy competitive desire, he wears middle age beach wear and he's charming and handsome, but here he's doing bad kid things, lighting fireworks and drinking beer.
  • kolohe channeling gavin beschen with the classic shirtless rain shot.
  • i've been vibing with the album “space is the only noise” by nicolas jaar. craig anderson says it’s psychedelic techno. this photo reminds me of it.
  • i like this photo, yadin looks like a classic american movie star.
  • there's millions of vending machines in japan. this one got placed in a lonely location.
  • yadin broke his leg
  • yakiniku yakiniku yakiniku!!! that's korean barbeque. they bring out weird meats and normal meats and you cook it and eat it. mostly we were living off 7-11 or sunkus cause we were always driving #youthontherun so when we ate yakiniku, spirits lifted and everyone smiled.
  • kolohe and conner, different snacks, different shirts. representing in front of sunkus.
  • this was the second day in japan. a typhoon came ashore and the weather was bad and the rivers roared so we drove to the beach and watched nature at work.
  • yadin, in this photo, doesn't know he's going to get second place to kelly slater at us open, qualify for the wct, come back to japan, get rad waves but break his leg, subsequently give up his spot on the wct before he even gets to compete, get surgery, have a baby and name it corona, and ummm, surely there's a ton more shit he didn't know was gonna happen, but i could have told you he would handle it with poise. he's the grown up of our crew.
  • high spirits at yakiniku even though yadin had just broken his leg. the next day is one i remember. the swell went from 4 foot to 10 foot and the ocean smoothed out and john john danced on foamballs gracefully and dillon and i did what we could and had some success. then i got my last wave of the trip. it was a nice set but when i got down the face i could see i was too deep. i don't know how to fall on waves of consequence, so when i saw john john looking in from the shoulder i put my arms up
  • dillon and john john showing me a magazine that they're excited about at 7-11.
  • dillon bought a drink out of a vending machine and i asked him what he got and he showed me so i took a photo. i think we're both socially awkward but it works. the drink selection in japan is rad.
  • dillon and i flew from indonesia for the swell. this is in one of the airports and he's probably bothering a lot of people by playing the ukulele.
JAPAN BY DANE ONE ROLL OF FILM. PHOTOS AND WORDS BY DANE REYNOLDS
Wed
02
May
Dane takes neat photos and he shared these with us. This is a roll of film he shot during the Dear Suburbia, Japan trips. Photos, words and punctuation are Dane’s.

Hover for captions and full-screen.
BACK TO OSAKA MINUS CONNER AND KOLOHE, PLUS JOHN JOHN AND DILLON
Thu
03
May
Portraits by U-ske

Japan with Dane, Yadin, Conner, Kolohe and Courtney was the best trip ever, and then it was over. Everyone went back to California for the US Open and Yadin made the final. Then the contest people all went to Europe to earn points, and Dane wanted to do airs like the airs John John does in Lost Atlas, so he took off for the place in Indonesia where John John filmed those Lost Atlas sessions. Dillon Perillo [...]
YOI SHASHIN A SLIDESHOW FROM ALL THE DAYS BEFORE "THE DAY"
Thu
03
May
Photos by U-ske and Kai Neville | Hover for captions and full-screen

The front half of our trip had fun waves, punt waves, good for ripping, sure to please. These photos are from all those sessions.

Magazines ran long stories about the trip afterward so we’ve kept our captions here to just five words each.

But then at the end of our trip there was the one day, with tall wide empty warehouse rights and glassy and John John yawning [...]
LINKING YOUR TURNS A CANDID CONVERSATION ABOUT SURF CONTESTS
Thu
03
May
This is Mitch and Kai during one of those bleak desert drives when truth just gets liberated. We removed the names of real people to protect relations, which may seem lame, but stirring up trouble is lame too. Instead we replaced those names with members of the Wu Tang Clan, which was the least lame thing we could think of.

Kai: Yeah but it's always like that.

Mitch: I did like five backhand snaps as hard as I could do [...]
JAPAN BY JOHN JOHN ONE ROLL OF FILM. PHOTOS AND WORDS BY JOHN JOHN FLORENCE
Fri
04
May
This selection was shot and captioned by John John during the second Japan trip. Film only, no digital. Hover for full-screen.

See Dane's photos from Japan HERE.
THEN YADIN’S ANKLE BROKE RIGHT BEFORE THE SWELL OF THE DECADE
Fri
04
May
Partway through our second consecutive Japan trip — which was partway through Yadin Nicol’s best year ever — his ankle came apart while trying the frontside air at 1:15. Then the waves got really, really good. We reminisce.

 

What Youth: So you were on such a roll. The first Japan trip was fun, the comps were going well, you qualified, you made the final at the US Open. You were just having a good little run…

Yadin: Fuck, then [...]
CONVERSATIONS WITH DILLON, VOL. I THE KEROUAC. FIRST IN A SERIES
Mon
07
May
We’ve been hanging with Dillon Perillo a bunch lately to film some pieces and he’s such a surreal conversationalist. Sometimes his lips move and you think, “This person belongs at MIT,” and other times you think, “This person belongs somewhere safe where there’s nothing hot or sharp.” But we always have a nice time with Dillon. We grabbed some bits of conversation off the floor leftover from filming. This is what it’s like to talk with him.

Here he [...]
  • John John's phone. That's not Nias.
  • Kolohe's trip got fun waves but John John's trip got good waves, and there's a difference. This is a good wave, with John John on it.
  • This is another good wave from the second trip, with Dillon on it. In the fifth photo he leans back and starts fisting his wake to slow down. Real moxie.
  • There's a person in there. If Kolohe had gone back for the second Japan trip, it might be him.
  • The airline got rich on ticket-change fees from this trip, about six per person, but that was alright.
  • John John's phone again. Haha.
  • Ahahahahahahahaha!
  • To see these sessions in motion, and a lot of others from youth on the run around the world, see Dear Suburbia when it comes out this summer. Thanks, Japan.
John John's phone. That's not Nias.
ROOM 203 IS CRYING WITH KOLOHE ANDINO. INTERVIEW BY KAI NEVILLE
Mon
07
May
We made two trips to Japan for Dear Suburbia, almost back to back. Kai was on both and Kolohe was not. He was only on the first trip, and this became a sore subject.

Kai interviews Kolohe | Hover for captions

 
Kai Neville: Would you go back to Japan, Brother?

Kolohe Andino: Are you serious? Can you take me there?

Kai: Yeah, so would you go back?

Kolohe: Shitchyeah!

Kai: Do you reckon you could top our trip?

Kolohe: [...]