Interview by Alan Richardson
Photography by 'Blind' Johnny Haynes
We should get the boring usual stuff out the way with. Why don't you introduce yourself to the nice people, Scotchy?
Alright, ok, here we go. My name is Seaghan Crawley, people call me Scotch. I’m 26 years old and I live about 20 minutes north of Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Sick, and how long have you been ripping for?
Probably close to about 15 years now, on and off.
Who's been your biggest influences over the years? I know you love (the Illegal Civ video) Godspeed, which will probably come as a shock to a lot of readers.
(Laughing) I think I’m into Godspeed because they’re all street maniacs with lots of style, which is the very opposite of what I am; it’s good to look at how the other half lives (laughs). I'm heavily influenced by tranny rippers such as Raney Beres, Robbie Russo and Ronnie Sandoval. I’m also influenced by the homies that surround me, such as yourself, the rest of Team Bastard, and the Detested/Nothing Supplies family
Nah, you’ve got style brother! I know you're not the kind of person that likes to hear it, but clearly people are stoked! Yeah big ups to the homies, Detested, Nothing, and all the Peterborough brothers!
TB15 baby!
Frontside air in the abandoned bucket of a colossal excavator.
Tell everyone what's up with Team Bastard, since I was actually a late addition to the party.
Team Bastard started with just me and Alfie Mooncheese, when we left our small village behind and started venturing to Newcastle. It was just the two of us for a while. As we got to know more people like us, the group of homies started to expand to the point it’s at today. It’s just homies, really; nothing more, nothing less
Yeah man, and when I came along, I'd been out of touch with the scene a bit, and I literally sat down with you and Alf like, ‘I love this, please let me be involved’, and I'm sure your response was something like, ‘it's just homies; if you hang out and skate with us, you're Team Bastard’, which made me feel very welcome, so thanks for that dude. Been having sick times ever since! Even when you're nearly dying… I've seen you take some of the gnarliest bails in the short time we've been hanging out. Tell everyone about your near death injury.
Which one?
Big up the NHS; I wouldn’t be here without them.
Good point, actually. When you hit your tailbone, considering you only fell what? Three, four feet? It was the gnarliest.
Ahhh that time… Well I think that was from constantly falling on my tailbone, and that one last blow where I fell trying to boardslide a bench, I went to hospital where I found out that I had fractured my pelvis and fractured my tailbone. The doctors didn’t believe I did it skating, they thought I’d been hit by a car. They gave me painkillers and sent me on my way. About a week later there was a cut on my back that had developed an infection. I woke up when you were staying at mine and made you call an ambulance at like 4am, when smelly horrible looking blood was flowing out of my back. They rushed me to hospital and rushed me into surgery to get my infection drained, and that’s when they said that if I waited any longer I wouldn’t be here right now. So thank you to the doctors and nurses, and big up the NHS; I wouldn’t be here without them.
Keep the grabs on the streets, kid! Lengthy indy over both gravel and bench.
Big up the NHS! Yeah it was crazy, for some context to the readers, I was living with Scotch over lockdown because we were both on our own at the time, and when he was in the hospital they let me in to visit, so that says it all. That night was insane when we had to get the ambulance. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg as far as mental slams go for you. When you hit your gut on the kerb in Peterborough was mad. Luckily we were rolling with a big crew that day to get looked after.
Yeah, that was lethal (laughs), I bled out for seven hours before I ended up in a hospital on that one, and yeah, luckily I have a caring group of friends that sorted the job out.
Yeah man, everyone was pretty freaked out by that one. Good job Aimee’s a nurse and at least could make the call to go get checked out. Shout out Craig and Aimee, you’s know who you are! Which is a good segue into talking about Detested! How'd you get on the team? What's it about? Anything cool coming in future?
It was a pretty heavy one! Yeah, Detested, I got on the team by getting to know Craig (Woolley) and Cheek through you, and then proceeded to ask Rob at Detested if he needed a dirty northerner on the team. As for future things, there's the Human Scum deck and shirt coming soon, and we've got a few things lined up for an autumn/winter range. And I hope to travel as a team to as many places as possible and spread the plague.
Scotch cuts through the Tyne and Wear mist by frontside smith stalling the back wall of Whitley Bay.
Good ol' Craig and Cheeky, big shout out to those two nutters! Who doesn't want a dirty northerner on the team? And to be fair, your style suits Detested. Any plans for a Detested video in the future?
I don’t think there’s any plans for a video yet, no.
Boo! Come on Rob, get to it! So where can people see your skating, and have you got any new projects in the works in the Toon?
I think because we live so far apart, it’s a struggle to get a Detested video done. You can, however, watch all the Team Bastard stuff on YouTube, via BKBPrintingCo. I’ve been filming lately with Khuslen (Martin) and Mick the Dut (Mike Bennett), and trying to get as much out there as possible. But it’s hard to juggle skate life and work life, as many will know.
Now is there anyone you'd like to thank?
Yeah, firstly I’d like to thank yourself and the Newcastle homies for keeping the fire lit. I’d like to thank Blind Johnny for always making my tricks look better than they are. I’d like to thank Rob from Detested and the Peterborough homies for keeping me well stocked and bringing the hype. I’d also like to thank my dad for letting me skate as a youngster because not many parents are as understanding.
Follow Scotch - @scotch_666
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