In this latest episode we have the gorgeous founders of What Youth!
Have you ever left the safety, the comfort, of a sure thing and launched into the dark unknown? Did you wake each morning in a cold sweat? Did you wonder if your plans, maybe hatched during a drunken hour, would actually pan out? Could actually pan out?
Oh how easy it is to sit on the sideline and snipe. Creating something though, anything, out of scratch takes all kine moxie. It takes a strong backbone and a stronger pair of Ray Bans. It takes a teflon coated spirit. It takes guts.
And here we have two of the three founders of What Youth, Travis Ferré and Scott Chenoweth looking like the coolest jazz cats on earth and talking a little about what it feels like to build something.
What Youth has become a necessary component of our surf universe. The profiles, direction, art and spirit define what is coming next rather than what has been. Without it none of us would have anything to bounce off. They define the borders of our frontier.
This interview here is not deep but it is fun… or was fun for me. I got to drink many spicy pineapple margaritas with two of my favorite people on earth!
I would like to see these guys go on to shark tank and explain how their business model is going to work.
So we’re down to what, about 8 months before What Youth buys Beach Grit? Where’s Zeldo anyway? Remember a few months ago when he told me Slater was still going to win it all? Yeah, that was cute.
Flattered to hear you’ve missed me..were it not such an energy-suck I’d spend more of my life here. But there’s real life happening, and that’s exactly where magazines fit in. Does anyone really want to spend their life online, besides all these cyber-jockeys with nowhere to actually get their work published? One might note the What Youth crew never respond to any of this, they’re too busy honing unique surf content into formats that stoke surfers. They’re not getting rich, but they love to surf, including Scott (sorry Lemmy), and base their lives around surf, travel, music, girls, and the art of intertwining these things in some rather stylish ways. Does anyone doubt Kai Neville knows how to showcase surfing? What Youth was largely his brainchild, along with Travis, Scott and their ideas of how to make things better for surfers.
As for Kelly, let’s talk after he wins Teahupo’o and at Lower Trestles. That ought to adjust the ratings nicely. We can make a friendly wager if you like? But you’ve got to pick your horse to win too.
how in any way does this make things better for surfers?
surfboard. wetsuit. wax. nature. done.
Have you seen Surfing or Surfer lately?? Do those mags stoke you? Make you wanna go surf?!
Nah. But I am dead inside to shopping catalogs.
Now I just look out the window at the sea and go > looks good, i will go surfing.
Boom! Like a jeanie in a lamp – just takes a few rubs and there he is!
I don’t read What Youth, but if you’re making it work, good!
Picking “the” winner is tough. My gut’s with Gabs. Slater might win Chopes if he doesn’t have to beat Gabby, but he definitely won’t win Trestles. In fact, I’d say he can’t win Trestles because his small wave surfing’s not up to par anymore.
But that’s all a side-show. How long until WY takes over Beach Grit?
It’s hard to make any surf media platform “work” these days, financially.. Quality, unique content costs vs. limited ad messages (forever such a topic), but the WY crew is poised to make shit really start
crackin’.
If Trestles is 4-6′ Kelly will be dangerous. He’s won there. And he’s still my pick, over Medina, if the End of the Road is doing its thing.
I don’t see the What Youth hui “taking over” Beach Grit anytime soon. I do see WY taking a big share of surf media and beyond, sooner than later.
If you don’t see Kelly’s a step behind Filipe and JJF (and others) at Trestles, I’m not sure I can trust your vision on WY’s future either 😉
You’re backing Medina or Toledo, whose your Brazzo? You only get one, there is No “Storm”. Neither know what an actual Power Turn feels like. They don’t weigh enough so it’s not their fault. Kelly’s not much over a jockey’s weight either, but none could dispute that his are Man turns. And there’s zero chance Toledo will show up if ‘Chopes is puking it’s guts out. Medina, in a cautiously calculated way will find the nerve to get over the ledge, but we all saw the wave selection he settled for in that Final against Kelly..when it should have been KS v. JJF anyway.
Re: JJF – yep he’s on serious fucken Fire and has been for the past few years. There’s nothing he can’t do.. Except maybe get out-strategized by a guy with 11 more WT’s than he. So is Kelly “a step behind” Anyone, really? These guys are half his age, spines far more elastic, for now..but you just simply cannot ever count Kelly out as long as he’s choosing to stay in the race. Like I said I’ll put money on him. I’m not afraid to die with my boots on.
And as for What Youth, that’s not My vision, its that of the crew steering it. I’m an investor and sort of an advisor, but our staff knows well their direction and have a shitload of ideas to unleash that will last many years.. they don’t need my advice. I’m backing them ’cause surf media had become a rather boring space. They’re taking chances, crushing the norm, and making a great looking site and mag. Hopefully it pans out..it’s starting to look that way. Thankfully the WY team would rather die on their feet than live on their knees, or be told what to do by any corpo wannabe boss. This is why I say they are making the surf world a better place.
no one honestly gives a fuck about print or half print, media, web bullshit..either online or fuck off. i just hate these guys
progression is not the end all be all in activities like surf, snowboarding, and skate. Shit has got so gnarly in snow and skate that they are going back to style and riders who can shred everything. street/parks to vert. That fat fuck with that stupid beard thinks surfing would be better by now? this overweight cunt cant even pump down the line let alone get the fins free. get the fuck outta here with what youth. i dont think Jeff Spicoli has said it any better, “Those guys are fags!!”.
Definitely agree on the progression thing; who cares about 720s or whatever; most surfers can’t even do a proper turn; that guy is ridiculous for being salty about the “progression” of surfing.
Why are they trying so hard to be “cool”. As off-putting to me as trying too hard to “shred”. True cool is being yourself and not giving a fuck.
thank you.
was that really you or you trying to sound cool?
I am not cool
Oh wait, maybe I am
Is this really you or you trying to sound cooler? It was probably the cool glasses that triggered velo’s comment.
Amen, these guys just repackaged the same old stuff. They took PBR and made it, well PBR.
They are magazine creators and art directors, let them wear what ever style of sunglasses they want. If you want baggy jeans and white arnette’s go grab yourself a Justin Gane VHS.
“Have you ever left the safety, the comfort, of a sure thing and launched into the dark unknown? Did you wake each morning in a cold sweat? Did you wonder if your plans, maybe hatched during a drunken hour, would actually pan out? Could actually pan out?”
Not since my wife’s career took off, no.
Regarding the 720:
Waves, as moving launch ramps, translate to less reps than fixed obstacles. If you can fit in X# of tries in skate or snow in two hours, you get exponentially fewer tries when you have to wait for the wave, the section, the wind. Nevermind being at a level–and having professional motivation–to spend your entire waking life trying it. How many skaters got the 900? Not very many, and it took most of them 10+ years of targeting the trick on repeat.
I’d give it another decade until more than a few have been made.
So you’re saying that only kelly slater can do it because he has a fixed wave?
Precisely.
What did they ” build”? A platform to capitolize on others skill sets? If anything they are the producers and the surfers are the directors, with out the director doing things your just throwing a bunch of money in to a trashcan and hoping the wind blows some back. There’s a difference between being a self promoting platform, and having a “product” that was “built from scratch”.
So a magazine isn’t a product? I think you’re kind of stretching, Turd Ferguson.
In a day in age where everything is available on instagram. Print is dead. No I don’t think a magazine is a product ” its a platform for advertising and selling a product whether it’s a surfer or a shitty v neck made by the new “hip kids” on the block. If you knit something you’ve made a product.
This is a bit of an incoherent take. Print isn’t dead. Throwaway, entirely ad-supported print is on the way out. Reader supported journals are growing. People who enjoy reading for the sake of reading—admittedly, not a giant surf piece of the surf demographic pie—are purchasing more high-end journals and spending more $$ on them than in years past. I’d argue this is wonderful for the kinds of print and editorial than can adapt and endure. Furthermore, to think that to knit a thing is to create a product while building a magazine isn’t leads me to believe that you’ve done neither.
I’m an avid needlepoint enthusiast thank you very much.
I love reading mags; they’re definitely not dead.
To be honest, I tend to forget that What Youth exists and haven’t read one in a while, but assuming there’s worthwhile editorial in there, that’s your product. You may not like that product, or enjoy consuming it, but it’s a product all the same.
Print Media, as well as Online Media both classify as Manufacturing. Your needlepoint comment saved you.