Creepin' with Brayden McPharlin
I've heard murmurs from a distance about this kid and now wam bam, here we are, rewarded with the gift of a full-length video part. It's red hot, it's juicy, 'medium-rare' type work! Guided by the yung gawd of Adelaide, Ricky Catanzariti, the 1836 boys (Adelaide city based BMX crew) have come together in their natural habitat to produce some A-grade Australian BMX content that you would do well to ingest.
With little to no famiiliarity, barely a hint of the dudes link with TMPRD and most egregiously, lacking the all important social media relationship, I was hyped to right this wrong. So when I clicked on DIG and saw the dudes video, this seemed like a perfect opportunity to get in touch with Brayden, shoot the shit on some topics surrounding the video and offer up a more personal insight into who this kid is.
To supplement the conversation, Brayden was gracious enough to send through a bunch of photos, most (if not all) of which haven't slunk their way to socials - a genuine rarity.
So having just kicked back after a little yip and a yahoo on the BMX, Brayden and I got stuck into our work. First up, we spoke about the video and how it came about.
"I met an older crew doing their thing around 2017, got introduced to the filming process, found it pretty contagious and got the push from the boys to start my own, filmed most of a video then Ricks hard drive shit itself. It was a struggle to recover what we had but a few months ago he surprised me with something he put together and that’s what we’ve got."
Some of you may have heard of Ricky Catanzariti, young fella from Adelaide with a you-beaut attitude, a remarkable set of biking skills and an all important passion to grow the local scene. Having been passed the baton from the older generation of Adelaide bikers, Ricky and a bunch of other cats have a crew (1836) which Brayden now finds himself apart of.
"1836 homies made it happen (the video), everyone being keen to hang all the time and Ricky behind the VXs telling dudes to do something cool while he’s not, and Connor running around framing it all."
We also spoke about the Adelaide scene from the 1836 perspective.
"The local scenes pretty cool, Adelaide’s small so your trails & ramp riders know your street riders whether your from the city, hills or the beach so you’re always talking to new people riding different spots and learning odd tricks. Since the new city parks opened up the numbers are growing too which is mad."
The old Adelaide city park was a sight to behold and a truly remarkable skatepark, however its prime inner-city location meant it was always subject to threat of redevelopment. Anyway, back to the video. I was keen to understand more about some of the battles to make this thing happen. Obviously the first clip stands out, everyone loves a fool in the drink, which turns out was a second attempt (the first not pulled, but still staying dry), complete with full pockets. Great news that Brayden didn't drown, a good skill to have amassed when failing a wallride on a boat. But what about some of the other nuggets!
"The last clip I tried for 30 minutes and couldn’t make the distance back from the wallride. I was getting tired so to be funny I pulled my ass out and ended up landing it. The longest battle was the curve rail to gap rail. Erybody gangsta til they doing a slow pegs haha. Favourite clip would definitely be the hard 3 over the up-rail, I wondered about that for ages so rolling away just felt crazy."
Kid has moves, alongside that nonchalant, modern technical style of biking which seems to cross over with a snotty punk rat style. It's hard to not see influence from dudes in the vein of Branden Begin and Jared Duncan. Turns out the kids style has been shaped by someone much closer to home.
"Well I Grew up watching Ricky superman out of curbs, nose manny rails and flair trees. You can’t compete with shit like that in my eyes. Shows you there’s plenty out there to keep ya occupied. And I think that’s what’s it’s about, keeping busy and enjoying it."
Alongside fathering Brayden to full nurtured status, offering a path forward through BMX, filming and editing his video, Ricky also took on the ever-significant task of choosing the track for the video.
"Was definitely stoked with the song choice. My musics all over the shop man, trap, some Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Jack Johnson, who knows."
Another father figure in Braydens life is now the fly-in-fly-out dad of Tempered Goods. As I mentioned above, I hadn't heard of the brands plan with Brayden. Having been part of the crew for so long now, and with a more peripheral association these days, it's pretty cool to see the nu-school sprouting with the support of TMPRD. Even cooler to see some joy being spread down in Adelaide, not historically a TMPRD stronghold. I asked Brayden about how the TMPRD partnership came about and his role in working up a signature frame - the 'Sword Killer'.
"A couple years ago TMPRD hit me up asking if I’d be keen to rep a couple parts and I was with it. Been chatting ever since. The start of ‘23 Chris asked for my input on an Australian made street frame and now we’ve got a prototype ready to build up. Proper can’t wait to try it out."
Pretty exciting stuff. Keep on the look out for that one, also highlighting that Australian made status - not something to be overlooked. Equally exciting, Brayden mentioned that there are a couple trips booked for the coming year, plenty of filming to come and an 1836 BMX house in Adelaide city, the boys are on a roll right now. A very special time in the life of a biker.
On that note, let's wrap this thing up. Shouts?
"Ricky Catanzariti and the rest of the 1836 boys for hangin' out and doing it. TMPRD and South Coast Cycles for the help and support and you for hitting me up Vocko. Thank you!"
