Rumour has it that there is another person, who also grew up in the North East of Scotland, who is soon to release a CD containing strange songs and stories. The weird coincidence is that this artist also happens to go by the name Predatory Bird. Now, we are certainly aware that coincidences are rife in this universe but given that this alter-predatory bird is not in any way, shape or form affiliated with this predatory bird, that released the lifestyle promo or sells wonderful tees wheels decks and completes over here, this is all a little intriguing. The communication we received claims that one of the stories is inspired by the following youtube video. (more…)
Blog
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WTF is The Predatory Bird?
The Predatory Bird got started while I was on the narcotic painkiller Oxycodone. In a series of post-surgery visions, the swooping screaming gulls of my childhood shrieked the words “Blaaaaaawwwwwgggg!!! Blaaaawwwwwwgggg!!!”
Since it’s beginnings I’ve found gull culture and skate culture to be more similar than I ever expected and I am no more insane than you are. Both gulls and street skaters are reviled and misunderstood by mainstream society. They’re noisy, they make a mess, they wax ledges, they shit on cars, they terrorize the elderly. Both are compelled beyond their will to do what they do. Both are on an endless search to satisfy some deep primal urge. Gulls feast on food discarded by humans who often think of themselves as above and better than gulls. Skaters feast on (more…) -
Investigating Skateboarding 3: Andy
I just got back from the Zero Bacon and Legs tour which began curiously, progressed to curiouser and ended downright bizarre. More on that at some future point. In the meantime I’m all about these amazing boards that Folk Custom Skateboards made for The Predatory Bird. The complete item with the custom Thunder Trucks and Predatory Bird Wheels is a thing of beauty. It is available along with the Bird-in-Hand tee-shirt over at the shop. In the following video we meet Andy, my father in law, as he describes his fantastic experiences skating in LA in the 60s and gives us a wonderful Predatory-Bird-board sales pitch.
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Why Tommy Sandoval is a Ruler.
Sitting with Guns at the bar in the Texas Roadhouse. He’ll be flying out of tour to Street League in 2 days. “You gonna get there early for practice?” I ask. “Nah, I don’t do that.” (more…) -
The Lifestyle Promo
In this video we document the skateboarding lifestyle. It is composed of the type of lifestyle skateboarding we endorse and encourage. All skating is on The Predatory Bird Lifestyle Item, available here.
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The Wood Crafter
This video is of my friend Andy. When I was 13 I got drunk and threw a pool ball as hard as I could straight at his face. He dodged it, laughed, and introduced me to the R. Crumb/ Neil Blender style keep-on-truckin rock fakie. Now he operates a small wood shop in Vancouver where he has made a miniscule number of the first ever Predatory Bird products. I’m pretty sure this is the only time we will use this particular process. There are 50, some of which are completes with Thunders Deluxe made specially, thankyou Deluxe.
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The Predatory Word
Color magazine have asked me to write a regular sidebar on their book review page Inspiration Bound. They suggested it be called The Predatory Word, which I think is quite funny but I’m still a little self-conscious about it and have no idea what I’m writing for their next issue. Below is a piece I did for Color a while back about my experience with an electronic book that contains various skate-themed craft and design projects. It continues with the endless theme of designing the ultimate skateboard. Warning: It is mainly words.
Build it, Hack it, Skate it.
An account of what could happen if you decide to pursue the path to a home made lifestyle board.
You download a free kindle app and buy some book called Build it, Hack it, Skate it, for 99 cents. You are possibly the type of person who looks at the Ikea shelves and thinks “120 bucks! Pfff. I could make that myself, easy.” You might do your own oil changes and intrepidly replace drum brakes on old trucks. You are not alone. (more…)
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The Predatory Bird Cruiser Board: New Frontiers in Design Excellence
I first became interested in putting together the ultimate cruiser board when we discovered the following photograph of NGC 7293 a.k.a. The Helix Nebula, on A.P.O.D.
Without planetary nebulae we would have no carbon therefore no trees and no life as we know it. We also wouldn’t have aluminium and steel for manufacturing trucks and bearings. For this reason the Helix nebula was the starting point in our design process.
The carbon content of these nebulous gases got me thinking about trees. We sensed that trees might be the next step in the design process and we spent a lot of time rambling amongst these tall, glorious, gnarly bastards, and really (more…)
