the predatory bird

Blog

  • Following Tom

    At some point during the summer of 2012 Div called me up.
    “John!” He said.
    “Yeah?”
    “Will you film me and Tom [Remillard] fur AntiHero?”
    “I can try.” I told him.
    We met down at Washington Street to get a couple of clips and see where that led us but Div couldn’t make it. He’d thrown his back out troweling concrete for too many days straight. Ideally we’d have filmed a shitload of random skate clips and sent them to Deluxe where they’d have stirred them into something unmistakeably AntiHero but I get these ideas where I’m psyched on old Powell videos and…
    Well, this is the first thing Tom and I did while we were waiting for Div to heal up. It was originally the techno bonus of a short called HITAROCK. Obviously it’s not all one line but if you’ve ever seen Tom skating WSVT you may be like me in thinking that this dream line is not that farfetched. We feel it does a decent job of showcasing the ferocious concrete contours of one of the best renegade park projects in the world.

  • Following Jake

    Jake is from Eugene, Oregon.
    He lives in Portland, Oregon.
    He is the inventor of D3PO.
    He’s down to rip in the streets whenever possible.
    Jake worked on the Following video project with the shakier of 2 existing Predatory Bird camera operators (me).
    Jake and this camera operator spent quite some time searching the streets for just the right bin. Many were rejected before we eventually found the one by the tramlines.


    Jake would like to thank Krooked for flowing him the boards skated throughout.

    What’s so good about The Smiths compared to Morrissey? (more…)

  • ANTISOCIAL SKATEBOARD SHOP attacked by PREDATORY BIRD!!!

    If you are ever a pro skater in your 30s, from Aberdeen, Scotland, in the year 2012 then the chances are you’ll find yourself standing in Antisocial Skateshop with a bag of tees your friend has designed for your small-ass, home-grown, aggressive-gull-themed brand. Luckily your friend is none other than the prolific, A1, prime-cut British comic book artist Jon Horner and together over email and sci-fi-style video chat you’ve been developing a laughter plot to take the street wear market by storm!

    What is it?
    It’s street wear!

    Which is clothing to wear…in the street.

    Check it out. (more…)

  • The Process is called Marquetry

    In November 2012 Dudebarn1, Jake Gascoyne and I headed to Vancouver, in Dudebarn’s fuel efficient car, to see the #prettysweet screening. What my friends didn’t realise is that we were also going there to work. The 2nd and final round of Folk Custom Skateboards produced Predatory Bird-in-Hand-crafted decks were in need of a love injection. Fate had dictated that I was the only one with the appropriate syringe.

    MARQUETRY (mar·que·try)
    Noun:
    Inlaid work made from small pieces of variously colored wood or other materials.

    We needed to check each cut for imperfections that require sanding with some 220 grit.
    considering
    Some need to be finished by hand. Carefully working through score by score with a craft knife gets the job done. (more…)

  • An Attitude of Exactitude: Custom Deck Construction and the Precision of the Veneer Inspector

    The 2nd and final run of decks went into production up in Vancouver the other day.
    There had been some delays due to structural changes in the veneers at the molecular level – that is not a joke – but I finally got up there and met with Andy and The Veneer Inspector.
    He may seem rather small for a veneer inspector but I can assure you it is that very smallness that allows him to peer so deeply into the structure of the wood.
    The veneer inspector raises his safety specs
    As you can see he takes safety EXTREMELY seriously. (more…)

  • Storytime Part 2

    The genteel folks over at Thrasher Magazine have been kind enough to print a short Predatory Bird Comic story each month with the experimental title of… The Predatory Bird.
    It’s become a morbid tale and in the first 3 parts there is heavy, unimaginative use of the word fuck.
    kid getting shit on

    I’m a grown up, or I appear to be most days, and (more…)

  • Getting There: The 2012 Dew Tour in SF

    The streetstyle setup – at the 2012 SF stop of the Dew Tour – was one of the raddest things I’ve ever skated. Who’d have thought? Mountain Dew, killing it. Omar Salazar had a hand in designing the course.
    course diagram 1
    I’d been thinking something like this would be super fun for a while now. In my version there’s a couple of wooden driveway bumps and a slalom course leading to some banks with ledges then a gap with a hubba and then a quarterpipe at the end. My version is in a forest where sunlight dances through a wild and verdant canopy. It’s all a little reminiscent of the brilliant short piece Spike Jonze made with Rick Howard in Mouse.
    Anyway, the Dew setup was like my imaginary version only not as leafy or pussyish. (more…)

  • The Bear Necessities

    Whether Peter Greenaway’s violent unknown event had any bearing on what we in the skate world now know as ‘The Creative Hiatus‘ – or The C.H. – is difficult to say. What we do know is that up until The C.H. occurred I masqueraded as a pro skateboarder representing skate footwear brand éS (generally believed to be pronounced “ess” as in chess or less or mess (more…)