WHAT YOUTH » Contributors

BEREN HALL

What Youth — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 23:48:08 +0000

“Yeah, yeah, Dubai was sick. No, I’m home in Australia now, but we fly into LA tomorrow. Then we’ll get a flight and meet you in Milan.” Those words came out of Beren’s mouth the other day. We heard them. But he’s not an oil tycoon or a trust funder, he’s a motherfucking hustler with a camera. Beren learned to film just a few years ago basically as a ploy to travel full-time with his best friend Dion Agius. Since then he’s contributed to most of the best projects in surf cinema. Beren is also a manager, lover and friend, polite and pleasant at all times, and he looks a lot like Russell Crowe if Russel Crowe were more perfect. What Youth is excited to work closely with Beren. He’s a rare man. He is youth on the run.

Photo: Scott Chenoweth

BLAKE MYERS

What Youth — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 23:47:08 +0000

Blake has developed oddly deep and tender relationships with some of the world’s best surfers — so much so that Dillon Perillo asked if he could write Blake’s contributor profile for us. We said maybe. This is what Dillon turned in.

A Short Biography of Blake Myers by Dillon G. Perillo

There’s something about Blake that makes you wonder: Where the fuck is this human from? He lives in a psychedelic world, but without the LSD. Or maybe he’s constantly on mescaline all day but nobody notices. Whatever the case is, there’s something about Blake that’s just a little off. But I find that beautiful. He’s a gracious lunatic, admirable maniac, courteous psychopath. He’s got an eye for film and an ear for indie music. He’s a detached Kiwi from an island on New Zealand that’s not really an island at all, but a peninsula, that at high tide becomes its own enclave of wild people. I know this because his friends share the same traits: quirky, weird, awkward, eccentric.

He now lives in a town called Coolangatta. Not many people know about his existence there, at least not the common folk. His posse consists mostly of creative, influential and intelligent youth, totally underground. They normally only wander around at night when Coolangatta is truly alive, occasionally humping trash cans screaming, “Make it, make it, don’t fake it!” while highly influenced by Harmony Korine’s early pieces of questionable art.

Blake’s commander is Kai Neville, who orchestrates oversea voyages on which Blake is responsible for documenting the actions and candid voices of the assigned “professional surfers” (whatever that means). When Blake’s not somewhere across the world, he’s slaving away for the men of What Youth in his rectangular shaped bed/office/laboratory of visual arts, conducting, creating and transforming — turning surfers into stars.

He’s doing the right thing. He’s being the right person. He does a lot for this world of surf, which sometimes goes unnoticed. But not for long. The era of Blake is coming. Beware and don’t be ignorant. I think Blake deserves more than just a high-five or a common fist bump — maybe something along the lines of a gentle hug or firm shake. Thank you Blake. The beautiful mind.

Photo: Nate Lawrence

JAMES LUGO

What Youth — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 23:46:08 +0000

Only two kinds of people call James Lugo by his first name: loved ones and people telling him he’s had too much whiskey. We love him — and maybe he has had too much whiskey, but who the hell are you anyway? — but we still call him Lugo. We also love that Lugo rolls with the dudes at Analog and gets along with What Youth hero Nathan Fletcher. We asked Lugo for a good Nathan story and he told us, “One time I was with him in France at like 4 a.m. in a rental car when we got pulled into a surprise checkpoint in the middle of nowhere. When asked for his license and registration Nathan handed over the car’s owner’s manual.” We love Nathan.

And Lugo. And James. We’re happy to have him filming, editing, and running wild in the streets of Newport Beach for What Youth.

Photo: Scott Chenoweth

MINI BLANCHARD

What Youth — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 23:45:08 +0000

Behind many of the edits on Marine Layer is a mad genius/former boogie-boarder who loves Coca-Cola. He goes by “Mini,” which is a cool name, and he mostly films Ventura-area hacks like Dane Reynolds, Bobby Martinez and Yadin Nicol. Mini has a rad voice and should probably do radio. What Youth is excited to be one of the few places to house his work.

Photo: U-ske

NATE LAWRENCE

What Youth — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 23:44:08 +0000

Nate is from Santa Cruz, California, and he still lives part of the year there, but Nate doesn’t surf in California at all anymore because he doesn’t have to. He surfs in waters that are warm and sharkless. He gets barreled before he even paddles out and if he sees another person it’s either a friend or his own reflection. This is because Nate relocated to Bali, married a goddess, and now splits time between Indonesia and jetting around the world much like Richard Branson would if Sir Richard had a camera instead of a job.

Nate is What Youth’s chief executive of imagery. He captures youth on the run through his photography, surfs well between shoots, and is the world’s single biggest consumer of passport stamp ink. Nate’s work has appeared in Stab, Surfing Magazine, Tracks, ASL, and many other good publications. Now it appears on What Youth.

Photo: U-ske

KAI NEVILLE

What Youth — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 23:43:08 +0000

Aside from being a culture hound who feeds his mind with plates of obscure films and magazines, often in languages he doesn’t speak, Kai is a human treasure. A delight to be around. His merry charm can’t be touched by flat seas or flat tires and nothing ever seems to turn down the corners of his mouth. He’s on java in the morning and red wine at night. He owns his home on the Gold Coast, doesn’t rent. Stellar backhand. He’s a What Youth founder and creative director and we’re pleased to be producing his film work, including Dear Suburbia, the new 2012 follow-up to Modern Collective and Lost Atlas.

Photo: Blake Myers

VICTOR PAKPOUR

What Youth — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 23:42:08 +0000

Victor leapt from high school straight into the arms of Billabong, where they’ve been buying him international plane tickets for the last two years. He’s filmed in Indonesia, Australia, Hawaii — pretty much anywhere the Billabong team hangs a fin out. Now Victor is 20. He lives in Laguna Beach, California, surfs a lot, doesn’t surf enough, and is keeping busy on a handful of projects with What Youth.

Photo: Scott Chenoweth

MATT PAYNE

What Youth — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 23:41:08 +0000

Matt’s 21 and technically still in film school, but we talked him into joining What Youth anyway as an artist in residence. He makes films and keeps the speakers here stocked with fresh music. Matt was groomed in Globe’s lauded creative department, which has turned out some of the hottest surf films shot to date [Year Zero, Secret Machine]. He’s definitely cut from auteur cloth. His ideas are strange and wonderful and only appearing on What Youth.

Photo: Scott Chenoweth