THE GOOD EGG: A BICYCLE MISSION TO COLLECT AN EGG IN AID OF SUICIDE PREVENTION

the good egg embroidered patchI’m raising money for the Scottish Association of Mental Health because in 2011 my sister, Katrina, took her own life.

Up to that point she had spent her adult life climbing up to manic summits and descending down into dark valleys. But none of us knew how dark and confused those valleys had become.

Of course, when my Stepfather text messaged me with a frantic three exclamation points, “John. Call home NOW!!!”, I knew that something crazy had to have gone down, but nothing can prepare you for the total disembowelment that news like that arrives with.

Katrina had been outwardly happy, fun-loving, hard-working and loved by her friends. But somehow she’d been swept to a point where she just couldn’t see that at all anymore. As a little girl she was a talented figure skater and had even got back into that and horse riding in the months prior to her last day. That had all faded away, and looking back it had faded away with an alarming velocity.

In the turbulent months that followed Katrina’s death, my cousin, Liam, changed his life path and got a job working with the Scottish Association for Mental Health (SAMH). They’re a non-profit in Scotland who provide suicide outreach, education, and mental-health support to all who need it. They Can always use more cash and rely on a variety of funding sources, like this Just Giving campaign I set up. Of course, fundraising begins with the word, “fun”, so to encourage some donations I’ve decided to ride my bicycle to the Oregon Coast and relearn Egg Plants. I haven’t done an Egg Plant in at least 8 years, so we’ll see how that goes. Please support the cause and wish me luck. I will need it.

a photograph of Katrina Rattray

Predatory Bird Cruiser Board – Guinness Edition – Number 50 of 50

My Goodness, My Gullness!

Yes. In honor of St Patrick’s Day it is time to sell number 50/50 of the original Guinness colorway, first released a few moons ago. Click the image below to get to the listing.

The Predatory Bird skateboard deck
Number 50/50

If I sell this one then it could very well kickstart a whole new project. It’s an awesome fully shreddable wall-hanger that represents so much more than meets the eye. Buy it!

 

Skater Men | Going pro with Ultimate Phil

Phil with an axe looking seriousMeet Phil. Phil is a real man who skates. Besides being a father, husband, music-maker and entrepreneur, Phil also works hard at the local hardware store. There he trades in traditionally manly things, such as tools, nuts and bolts. Hard things. When we started working on this short piece Phil was 37, and he was coming to terms with the stark realization that it was probably his last chance in life to finally kickstart his dream career as a world-renowned professional skateboarder. Now Phil’s 40, and he runs a small, independent, board brand — Fixer Skateboards.
The thing is, if at the age of 37 Phil had followed the herd and pursued the standard pro path, riding for a bigger brand, like Girl, it would have been too obvious, and even worse than that it would have certainly oppressed his creativity. We do well to remember that the biological clock stops ticking for no living being and not a millisecond can be wasted executing someone else’s vision. So Phil didn’t pursue a big brand endorsement, he got a job at the hardware store, and now thanks to its modest size, running his Fixer brand on the side really allows Phil the artistic space he needs to continue to grow and contribute to the culture as a genuine devoted dreamer of dreams, and a formidable professional skater man.

Stalefish 101 with Fernando

Fernando Bramsmark peaks out with a big stalefish on the sea walls at the Barcelona Forum
Big fish.
I love working with the best humans who ever rolled on the surface of the earth. For me Columbian-born Swede, Fernando Bramsmark, easily falls into that category.
Not too long ago we put together this little video piece all about the grab we know today as the stalefish. We were in Barcelona and while we were there we sent a message to Lance Mountain asking him why this perfectly good-looking grab got named after something so unpleasant. Here’s what he sent back: “Summer camp, Sweden, 1985, Tony [Hawk] did them. Lunch was served in aluminum containers. Once a week we would have this bad fish. Tony and I were calling it stalefish with [many] bones and we’d go eat at McDonald’s. A British guy asked Tony if the trick he did was a Stalefish with [Many] Bones. It stuck. Tony did backside ones too. Gonz, I think, got the first photo two years later that popularized it. And he did the classic fold-down knee.” So there you have it, despite how utterly insane, doomed and incomprehensible the world might currently appear to be, we can take comfort in the fact that both Fernando and the stalefish have Swedish roots in common.

nando-youness-forum-2016-rattray-blackandwhite

Young gull on the beach
Stale fish preferred

Post Script:

I updated a text glitch above, from ‘no’ to ‘many’. If you need more stalefish intel then take a breath and enter Mackenzie Eisenhour’s stalefish wormhole.