If you make things, people are going to tell you they don’t like it. There will always be other agendas and they will attempt to strip your work down until it’s watered down into something easily digestible for mass audiences. And that’s’ fine, for most people. You end up with lots of average strip malls. Lots of average films. Average things. But nothing incredible. Nothing with any vibe. Average things, for average people. We spend a lot of time looking for things to inspire us to push ourselves further, so that we can be anything but average.

In this week’s What Youth Recommends we found videos that push things a bit further and no doubt felt resistance from people. And more than likely wouldn’t have been “approved” in many circles, but because of some seriously BBC dudes and dudettes, who refused to water their work down, they put out things that are truly unique.

After the jump, we hope you’ll join us in some full-strength BBC videos. Interpret them how you like. But this is punk.

About 3 years ago I saw Dane Reynolds wearing a Sonic Youth shirt he’d bought a while back. We were at Bells Beach in Australia. Dane had just been kicked out of the VIP because he didn’t have his “credentials.” He didn’t complain, just shrugged and went and sat in grandstands. I quizzed him about Sonic Youth. At the time, I didn’t have much of their stuff. I asked him, “What do they sound like?”

He said, “I have no idea. Every album, ever song is so different, I don’t think you label them.”

On that same trip, I bought a few albums in Melbourne at a record store. I played them in my rental car so much that Kolohe Andino told me I’d lost it. I couldn’t get enough because I couldn’t put my finger on any of it. I was amped one minute. Deep in thought another. Jumping around one minute, lost in reverie another. My ears were bleeding. Then they were hearing a pop song. All from the same band. They’re a contradiction in themselves — and anyone who isn’t seeing, hearing, experiencing or searching out enough would be the first to point out this contradiction. But for most of us, we celebrate that. And Sonic Youth helped me realize that.

Here are a bunch of very non-average guys on an average music tour, doing anything but being average. Sonic Youth and Kurt Cobain in the amazing opener to the documentary 1991: The Year Punk Broke.

If you’re familiar with Lost Atlas, you’ll recognize this song. But it’s the video that we want to highlight this week. This is a concept developed and executed, sparing no detail. We applaud that.

Three months ago we put Nathan Fletcher on the cover of our magazine. And we didn’t Photoshop out the cigarette he had. And people called us about that. And ask us about that a lot. And there’s a reason we didn’t get rid of it: Nathan smokes. We don’t think you should, but Nathan does. We’d prefer people talk to us about this (below), or just take our reminder of how much respect we have for Nathan and everything he has accomplished and done in this short life since he was a kid instead. Few people have done more than Nathan, and done it so authentically, asking for nothing in return, and done it all so humbly, which had way more to do with the cover of Nathan than a cigarette, but for some reason that has overshadowed the conversation. He is a huge inspiration. And is anything but average.

Just a birthday song for the birthday boy: Notorious BIG. This is one of our favorite videos he did, directed by Spike Jones.

We’ve talked about Ben Nordburg’s style before, and the Craig comparison. This is just a damn good clip and a pleasant reminder of what it might look like if some of your favorite surfers were skaters instead.

Hit full screen, put the headphones on and sit back. Thinking about illustrating this video makes our heads hurt, but watching it does the exact opposite. It’s hard not to appreciate someone that puts so much time and passion into any project, and this video is a shining example of just that.

Jonathan Toubin (aka DJ New York Night Train) is a DJ from New York that spins a style unlike anything we’ve heard in any bar or club. And he happens to be a DJ at our favorite bar in the city, Home Sweet Home. Not too long ago, he didn’t show up for his regular set on Friday night. We asked where he was and heard the incredibly disturbing story that he was playing a gig in Portland staying at the Jupiter Hotel when a cab driver lost control of the pedals and drove straight into a hotel room (oddly enough the exact same room we stayed in two months ago), through the wall and onto the bed where Jonathan was sleeping. It broke several bones, sent him to the hospital where he was in critical condition. He was able to recover but not without some serious injuries, including damage to his hearing. Thanks to the support of his friends and fans, he is back DJing and we couldn’t be happier. Check out his soundcloud for a few playlists that will get your night going. Below is one of the newer ones released, we’re sure you’ll see why we dig him so much.

Featuring Creed McTaggart, Dillon Perillo, artist/photographer Mark Oblow, Chippa Wilson, Nate Tyler, some beautiful girls, Ford Archbold, Nick Rozsa, Luke Davis and many more. Get into it already. And then, get out there. Anywhere. 

Victor Pakpour and Nate Tyler present: The End of the River. It has good music. And it is a lesson in attention to detail. And throwing out the rules. 

]]> http://www.whatyouth.com/2013/05/17/the-end-of-the-river/feed/ 0 http://www.whatyouth.com/2013/05/16/nate-tyler-photo-post/ http://www.whatyouth.com/2013/05/16/nate-tyler-photo-post/#comments Thu, 16 May 2013 15:56:25 +0000 What Youth http://www.whatyouth.com/?p=9274 PHOTOS: Victor Pakpour

Hopefully it’s come across that one of our goals at What Youth is championing creativity throughout a variety of mediums in surf culture — be it print, filmmaking, photography, painting, zines, art direction, music, online short films — anything really. We love it all. We like to create. And we want to inspire others to create.

This ideology of ours has led us to The Auteurs, a new series that begins by documenting the process happening behind the lens and follows it through to the final creation. We’ll detail the equipment used, the stitch-ups that occur, the moments of inspiration between filmmaker and subject, the circumstances, hardships, breakthroughs and breakdowns. Everything behind the curtain. After a bit of insight into the creation, we’ll be premiering the final product for you as well. Hopefully educating and motivating your own endeavors at the same time.

Our first installment features What Youth’s very own resident filmmaker Victor Pakpour with an interesting take on a few surfs in a remote part of California with Nate Tyler.

After the jump Nate and Victor take you through the thoughts behind the short, which will be premiering here on Friday, called: The End of the River.

SURFER: Nate Tyler

LOCATION: Central California

CAMERA: Sony FS700

LENSES: Canon L series 24- 105mm f/4,  Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L, Metabones Canon EF lens to Sony NEX Smart Adapter

EDITING SOFTWARE: Final Cut Pro 7

COLOR CORRECTION: Color

FRAME RATES: 60fps, 240fps

HARD DRIVE: LaCie Rugged 1TB External Hard Drive

CONCEPT: “This was an experimental piece for me. The song we chose and the angles we shot from inspired me to really play out the slow motion. They allow people to closely watch the technical airs and grabs that Nate is doing in the edit. A lot of filmmakers use ramping (altering a clips speed from slow to fast) when they shoot at these slow speeds, but I wanted every clip in the piece to play at one speed. I’m hoping the edit puts you into a trance.” —Victor Pakpour

We sent Victor up the coast with a simple assignment: Get surf action with Nate Tyler. Focus on action and surfing, leave the lifestyle behind. Strictly shredding. And that’s an order! It went something like that.

Victor came back with something terribly and amazingly different — but not something terrible. In fact, what he came back with was something that inspired an entire new series at What Youth, and a very original short film set to really good music.

Here at what Youth we consider the “web clip,”as it’s commonly referred to, as a demon. It’s a quick fix and they need to reset. And it’s why we created: The Auteurs.

Below is a chat with Nate Tyler and Victor Pakpour on their film, a post-edit, behind-the-scenes of sorts. Read their concept below and come back tomorrow to watch their short in it’s entirety and see if they executed.

WHAT YOUTH: Let’s start at the beginning.

VICTOR PAKPOUR: I drove down that afternoon.

NATE TYLER: And you took the wrong path. Google maps gave him three options. He took the quickest one without asking me, so it took to the deepest zone, taking him straight up the 5 and over the little winding road and basically into the most awkward entrance to my place.

VICTOR: I drove through the state prison and a bunch of nothing. I got there in the evening. Nate and I went to go shoot, but there wasn’t much light left on the first day. We shot for the last hour of the day and Nate pulled a pretty big stalefish reverse, which we used in the film. I shot it in slow-motion, but Nate didn’t know I shot it like that. When we watched it that night at Nate’s house, he was pretty psyched. It sort of set the tempo for the vibe and we decided to stick to that the entire shoot, which was only going to be like 2 days.

WHAT YOUTH: Is it weird to shoot constantly in slow motion settings?

VICTOR: We realized it was the style we wanted to go for. We found some pretty average waves, but the angles we found made it possible for us to shoot the concept we had. If you saw the waves though, you wouldn’t even paddle out.

NATE: And it helped that the whole time we shot we didn’t surf with one other person.

VICTOR: Yeah, that was kind of rad. Just Nate and I. We were giving each other hand signals. I’d throw a thumbs up after clips I was stoked on — full team building.

NATE: That spot takes like horrible weeks of wind and rain to be worth looking at. Eventually, it just gets fun. It needs lots of rain usually, but we didn’t get much rain and it’s still been fun. So I’m questioning my own knowledge now. I always thought it took a lot of rain, but I think it’s more about sand than rain. It’s a weird little spot, but it has fun ramps.

WHAT YOUTH: You made the decision the first night to shoot that way. Do you find it funny that it was the opposite of what you were directed to do?

VICTOR: Nate had the Chromatic CD in his little Toyota — what model is that? In his unregistered Tercel, and the Chromatics CD was on and we’d listen to this slow and dramatic, piano driven song al day. And now, I realize it just fit so well. Every session we knew what we were aiming for. We had a song.

NATE: That’s my favorite track of that album. I listen to that song, like, all the time. When Victor showed me the first clip he shot, like I said, I was bummed on the surf, but I had no idea he was shooting a high frame rate. So I wasn’t even thinking about that element. Like if you watch certain airs at full speed, but slowed down, like an ode to Joe G, it makes it pretty, you know? I had no clue he was shooting like that so I came in from the first session so pissed about surfing bad. And when I got in, Victor was like, “I think you got one, it’s sick!”

That night  he played it for me, and I was like, ‘Whoah! You were shooting slow frames! Wow, that does look cool!’ And from that moment on I got so amped and came up with a concept that worked for shooting 240 frames a second the entire time.

WHAT YOUTH: How different is that than shooting regular frames? Real time?

VICTOR: Well, I wouldn’t shoot that slow if I planned to speed it up, because you have to shoot a higher shutter when you speed it up. When you speed it up it’s too high of a shutter and it’s too digital looking. Like you can speed it up, but it’s not ideal. Shoot it slow to run it slow.

WHAT YOUTH: What made you shoot it like that the first night then?

VICTOR: The waves weren’t that good so I shot tight and slow. The lighting was real nice, so I thought we could get a cool shot as opposed to “clips.” The waves looked so bad straight on and planned to check it before dark. They walked around and looked at it from the side and it looked sick. We were like holy shit, let’s try to shoot it. And that’s the day we got everything.

WHAT YOUTH: Is it weird for you to surf all alone?  Alone, at a weird wave shooting slow motion footage?

NATE: I used to always think I’d surf better when I was alone. Nobody around but a filmmaker who I have a close relationship with. But now, I dunno, I’ve been on a couple trips where I’ll get stuff. My girl used to always film me, and for what’ve reason I’d be able to get get good stuff. Maybe it felt like no pressure.

WHAT YOUTH: If someone asked you what the concept for this was, what would you say?

VICTOR: I think it was rad to stray away from a super basic, amp you up edit. Which is exactly what I was assigned and which was the opposite of what I shot.

NATE: That’s exactly what you said you wanted! Laughing. You said I just want a super amped surf edit.

WHAT YOUTH: Which was what we needed! We sent Victor to compile action footage for various projects.

VICTOR: Kai kept calling me and was nervous about it all and kept saying, “I don’t know what you’re doing… but make sure you do some interviews or something…” And usually, there is no way you would ever use that much slow motion, but with the angle we had, the waves we had, the music we had and the lighting we had, it was cool to push it as far as we could and the whole thing turned experimental — mostly thanks to The Chromatics album. The song was literally on repeat.

WHAT YOUTH: So the song set the vibe for the film?

VICTOR: I came back and tried to edit to different songs and it just didn’t work. The Chromatics song works so well. I knew I just had to set the edit to that.

NATE: Joe G (Secret Machine, Year Zero) came up and I was showing him the footage and I played that track (The Chromatics) when I showed him. He had that track but his was a different version or recording of it — same song, different recoding. It was the exact same track. You could tell he was bummed, it was in his vaults for something special. And that is a compliment. Joe’s music archive runs deep.

[Come back tomorrow to watch: The End of the River in its entirety]

PHOTOGRAPHED BY: Nate Lawrence.

Our fourth installment of the What Youth book is a reminder. A reminder of why we surf. A reminder that we’re not perfect — not even close actually. It’s a reminder that our heroes wear resin boots and have porno mags on the toilet and shape things that make us our happiest. A reminder that we’re different than most. Flawed. Rebellious. And motivated to experience. A reminder that there will never be anything better than driving with your friends through a strange and new world — all the answers in life right there before you, hidden between the sand and melted wax and coffee cups and rattling rails of surfboards, right there, waiting. Each mile driven proving that the routine patterns making up most of our lives can be broken. And will be by us. Often.

We hope you enjoy this issue. Our website. And our films. We’re just getting started. And hopefully so are you. —What Youth

Click here to order your copy of What Youth Issue Four now.

]]> http://www.whatyouth.com/2013/05/15/what-youth-issue-four/feed/ 0 http://www.whatyouth.com/2013/05/14/the-final-surf-for-slow-dance/ http://www.whatyouth.com/2013/05/14/the-final-surf-for-slow-dance/#comments Tue, 14 May 2013 16:05:58 +0000 What Youth http://www.whatyouth.com/?p=9319 It’s pretty hard to find moments like this. The last day of school maybe? First day of a long vacation? Who knows, gotta feel good though. After a long year of filming and working on his new film, Craig Anderson finally made it to the last day of filming for Slow Dance, which comes out this summer. You have to wrap it up sometime, and the day was this one.

Craig let us come along and Kai spent most of the time filming backwards — towards the shore. Towards Beren Hall, who was filming the surfing. In the backseat. Chippa Wilson joined in for a few as well. But it’s a feel good piece. Surfing and celebrating. Aint that the ticket? Congrats to Craig for wrapping filming. Good luck in the editing bay dudes. We’ll bring ya some coffee. 

Email hello@whatyouth.com and tell us your favorite section of the film. For the subject heading put: Anything Sing Zine Giveaway. If you’re one of the first 50, it’s yours. Contests are easy. 

Be sure to include your mailing address in your email. We’ll notify you by email if you should start checking the mail for your zine.

Thanks to everyone who emailed. Winners will be notified shortly, but all 50 have been scooped. Thanks for all of you who hit us up!

Craig Anderson just wrapped up filming for his new film Slow Dance, which is being produced by Craig and the Marine Layer Production team, which includes Dane Reynolds and filmmaker Dustin Miller.

The other day Craig officially wrapped filming in some small waves at home with Chippa. They had a beer and called it. Now it’s off to the editing bay. We caught up with Craig briefly as he thought back to the months of filming.

The full interview with Craig and more photos are after the jump.

WHAT YOUTH: NOW THAT YOU’VE WRAPPED FILMING, YOU STILL GLAD YOU SIGNED UP FOR YOUR OWN FILM? CRAIG ANDERSON: I’m definitely glad I signed up for it. It’s been a really cool journey making a film. Especially with the crew involved. It’s kind of like for the guys that compete want to be on the world tour and win titles and shit, I guess for myself as a freesurfer this is probably my world tour win or trophy: the finished film. I never thought when I was growing up that I wanted to make a movie — or it was never a real goal but it happened and I’m really stoked. Nothing in life is easy. And I went into this knowing that, so I knew what I had signed up for. Usually I’ll get a handful of waves in a Kai Neville or Taylor Steele film, but now I’ve had to try to fill up 30 minutes of footage (not all me), which is still a lot for me. I fall off all the time and nothing is ever smooth sailing. I’ve never sailed before but I’d imagine seas get rough all the time. Working on this has had its ups and downs. A lot of of ups, a few downs. I guess I always try to remember the good times though.

WHAT’S IT BEEN LIKE WORKING ON A CREATIVE ENDEAVOR WITH DANE? It’s been amazing to work with all the guys like filmers Beren Hall and Dustin Miller, who are just amazing humans and very talented cinematographers. Before this project I didn’t even know Dane at all and its been rad to see how he operates and get to know him. Apart from him being a really good surfer, I think creatively he has amazing vision. I think in the past he hasn’t been represented the way maybe he would of liked to see, which is why he’s taken a lot of things on himself. So it looks and feels how he wants, learning all the editing programs, Photo Shop etc. I also think its made him pretty sensitive on getting all my thoughts on things too. But a lot of the time I don’t really know what I think.

THINKING BACK ON THE LAST ONE YEAR, WHAT STANDS OUT? I like South Africa. I spent close to two months roaming around. I grew up there and I still call it home. I’m comfortable there, I have a ton of friends and family and I think it definitely gave me its blessings of waves for this film. Europe on the other hand was soul crushing, we did one “stitch up” trip where we drove all around Italy and Portugal looking for waves and it didn’t work out.

HOW WAS YOUR LAST TRIP WITH OCCY AND MATT HOY? That was the last trip for the movie. I’ve always found those iconic guys very interesting. I guess they are the heroes you grew up watching, they have so much personality and style — amazing stories, they are just real human beings, not trying to impress anyone, not biting anyone’s shit, they’ve done that for decades, same with Ozzie and Rob who have surfed on other trips with me. They are my favorite surfers and the stories are too unbelievable to be told.

FAVORITE BOARD YOU RODE OVER THE COURSE OF FILMING? IS IT STILL IN ONE PIECE? I enjoyed riding a Hypo Crypto 5’4” made by Hayden Shapes. I’m actually not sure how it’s still in one piece, but its old and yellow and is still my favorite board in the stack.

Dillon feels guilty. For existing. And especially for existing as a professional surfer, born and raised and currently residing in Malibu, California. But he has a sick style, a heart of gold and Kelly Slater once told us that he thinks Dillon is highly underrated. And we think so too. If he can get through his psychological hangups with existence and the pressure that the late writer Henry Miller puts on him, he has the potential to be one of California’s most stylish contributions to surfing.

We spent some time with Dillon at home in search of some good old fashioned American amusement in this episode of Fairly Normal.

Filmed and edited by Blake Myers.

]]> http://www.whatyouth.com/2013/05/10/fairly-normal-dillon-perillo/feed/ 0 http://www.whatyouth.com/2013/05/09/dear-youth-12/ http://www.whatyouth.com/2013/05/09/dear-youth-12/#comments Thu, 09 May 2013 16:53:03 +0000 What Youth http://www.whatyouth.com/?p=9157 I have a friend who lives in South Africa. He ends all his e-mails with the statement: Every wall a door and don’t say shark. It’s a mix of local folklore from the group of laborer/friends he surfs with, mixed with a bit of his own philosophy. Apparently surfing in a community known for having more than it’s fair share of shark attacks will inspire a bit of mysticism between surfers. He believes it’s all part of the balance that keeps South Africa’s coast so wild.

I mention this because we’ve had more conversations about sharks the past few weeks than I can remember. And since I was in third grade — as most kids are I’m sure — I have been obsessed with sharks. In the most nerdy way. It was borderline obsessive. Once, when I was 8, I sat down with a pencil and paper and wrote 15 pages off the top of my head on everything knew about sharks. There was no assignment for this. I just needed to let it out. This is not the climax of the story I promise.

Last week Dane Reynolds came by and we were talking about spots for a couple upcoming surf trips. A location was thrown out that Dane immediately doubted, “Can you even surf there and not get attacked by a shark?” No one really knew. It was sharky as fuck. (Continued after the jump.)

“Ummm, well not on the side of the island we’re on…” Kai vaguely said.

“I don’t really mind surfing where there might be great white sharks,” Dane said. “They only eat like once a month and the ones that attack humans sound like they are renegades or something is off with them. The chances are lower for sure. But bull sharks, those are the ones I have trouble with. They’ll bite and mess you up for no reason and they’re always eating.”

Courtney wasn’t a fan of sending Dane to the bull shark captial of the world either. She sat there dramatically shaking her head, drawing on our whiteboard.

Brendon Gibbens recently told me the theory he and his buddies have about sharks too: (Where Brendon surfs in South Africa may be one of the spookiest looking places for sharks ever): “There are so many stories,” he said. “But you can’t talk about them. No one does. You don’t say shark. You just hope they’re just that: stories. You can’t go there in your mind.”

Owen Wright has a similar theory: “I have this thing with sharks where I used to freak out, but now, I know if I see one I just get out. Or…your time’s up.”

Ok, maybe we should stop talking about this now. Let’s go surfing.

Every wall a door and don’t say shark,

-Travis