In order to build some hype around their reissue of his Screaming Bird graphic, Real Skateboards have seen fit to upload a top quality version of Kelly Bird in The Real Video, the company’s first visual assault on the world of skateboarding way back in 1993. With a line up featuring company owners Tommy Guerrero and Jim Thiebaud alongside the likes of James Kelch, Coco Santiago, Max Schaaf and Salman Agah, the video started things out with a bang for what is now one of the longest running and most regarded board companies in skateboarding. Kelly’s section skating to Steppenwolf’s ‘Magic Carpet Ride’ sits firmly in the ‘BPSW’ category indicative of where skate fashion sat in 1993, but is pulled off with enough panache to be enjoyable even to those not prone to nostalgia – in fact, if you haven’t seen it then you should definitely put aside some time and check out the whole video.

Hit the highlighted text below to read his accompanying interview over on the Real Skateboards website;

“It seems like virtually everything that was happening around this time was some kind of knock off. I must have still been staying at Jeff Klindt’s house and being the artistic type of dude that he was, he’d always be asking us to be thinking about graphics. I wasn’t super into Priest at the time-spending as much time as I did at Skatepark of Houston before going to SF, it was all Metallica, all day. I was down for ‘The Ripper’ and ‘Diamonds and Rust’ and I always thought all his album art was cool, so the ‘Screaming for Vengeance’ cover popped into my head one of those times Jeff asked because of the Eagle / Bird association and that was pretty much that.”

““Often imitated, never duplicated” – Kelly Bird was one of REAL’s original riders. He brought is own style to everything from his approach to skating and direction for graphics, including an all time favorite of ours… we had to bring it back. The Screaming Bird.”