Anthony Dodds took denim and surf and words by Jack Taylor . . . this is the result.

Photography: Anthony D. CD/Producer: Omee Moon. Stylist: Kelly Ariella. Assistant: Mirza Nurman. Models: Simon Palmer, Sheriff Cosgrove, Cal Lathrope, James Aiken. Words: Jack Taylor.

“No one here gets out alive.” – Jim Morrison.

Who knows how long you’ve got. Tomorrow, next month, twenty years from now, at some point it’s going to be all over. So fuck it, do whatever the hell you like, whatever turns you on. Life is too short for anything else. 27 years short for Jim Morrison, who met his maker in a Paris bathtub. He joined the 27 Club, in good company with Jimi Hendrix, who had already been there for a year propping up the bar.

As time went on Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse became members of the gang too. Besides being phenomenal musicians, doing lots of drugs and passing away at the same age, they all had another thing in common. They pursued their passions to the bitter end. “I’m the one that’s got to die when it’s time for me to die, so let me live my life the way I want to.” – Jimi Hendrix.

Some people seem to know exactly what they were put on this planet to do, others struggle all their lives trying to find out and a bunch are just fine with not having a clue.

Each to their own, but going your own way has to be one of the hardest things to do. It’s not just about what you wear and how you style your hair. It’s sticking to your guns even when it alienates you. Resisting the pressure to conform and taking a path different to the ones laid out before you.

Ignoring the propaganda to follow your dreams against the advice of people around you.

“They laugh at me because I’m different; I laugh at them because they’re all the same.” – Kurt Cobain

One problem lies in the fact that most of our minds are hardwired to try and make us fit in with those around us. Psychology tests have shown time and time again that individuals will change their decisions, even from the right decision to a wrong one, just to fit in with a group.

Crowd mentality can suck you in and before you know it you’re not even holding yourself responsible for the choices you’re making.

Just going along with what everyone else is doing because it seems right, it seems like the normal thing to do. “Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.” – Franz Kafka

It’s not hard to realise how people can end up doing something they don’t really want to do.

So it’s a good idea to get on the right track early, when you’re young. When your brain is brimming with dreams and you’re ready to live them. Your first wave, your first love, your first line, life is full of firsts when you’re growing up.

Before the dreaded monotony sets in. Stagnating in the same town, the same job, the same bars, stifled and silenced by conformity. “Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead.” – Charles Bukowski

Making money is one thing, but a life worth living is harder to earn. Dreams rot if nothing is done with them but they linger on in minds, wrinkled and decrepit, whispering why they’ve been left to die.

So keep riding life out, ride planes, ride waves, ride anything that moves, anything that takes you to someplace new. Get excited and don’t think too long on what the ending will be like. It might not be a happy one but the fun is in finding out.

“This is what being alive’s all about, all those fucked up feelings. You’ve got to have them; when you stop, watch out.” – Irvine Welsh