Henry Kavanagh – The ‘I Feel Like Tigers Don’t Like Bites’ Interview

Introduction + Interview by Jono Coote

Sheffield has always had a thriving skate scene. DIY spots, scene videos, an SOS and an SOP (skater owned park), good hills; many cities have some combination of these, but not many can boast all as Sheffield can. The only thing missing is a good outdoor skatepark, but the scene seems to be doing just fine with the questionable options (Devonshire Green, Meersbrook, miscellaneous council-built shite) that they have. This is embodied by the new generation of Steel City skaters, who are uniformly on a fucking tear at the moment and who can be seen en masse, alongside some of the longer serving denizens of the Sheffield scene, in Henry Kavanagh’s video ‘I Feel Like Tiger’s Don’t Like Bites’. After a short run of DVDs, the video is poised to hit the web and give you an insight into the city from those who spend their days roaming its streets. To coincide with that I caught up with Henry, along with Hasan Media and Max Weir (who both have banging parts in said video) to discuss the process, the Sheffield scene and the NSD crew’s preoccupation with hillbomb-based sadism.

First up, what does the video’s title relate to?

There’s not much thought behind it at all. It’s something my friend Gruff said while we were out filming. Finn McGloin was filming a trick, Gruff was just talking to the camera, then Shaun came in and said some stuff afterwards. There’s no meaning or anything behind it.

Did you start off with a full length video in mind, or did it come together organically as you were out and about with everyone? 

I was kind of just out filming, I didn’t really plan a full length. After a year or so, I realised it could be a full length video and decided to carry on with it. Shaun Currie kind of got me into filming in Sheffield, he saw me filming at the first Gauntlet jam a couple of years back and hit me up when he saw I had a VX to help him film for Skateboard Cafe. We ended up filming a section together and he introduced me to everyone else in the scene.

What’s the worst interaction you saw between him and a security guard?

I wasn’t there, but the one where he was frontside flipping into a bank and Frank O’Donnell was filming…

Max: It kicked off!

It’s always at the uni banks. Like that time in the Surgery edit when the guy was trying to stop us. That’s a hard spot to skate with security.

So was The Gauntlet your first experience of filming beyond just with mates?

Yeah, I’m from a tiny village, Luckington, kind of near Bristol. I wasn’t making videos, I’d just film bits with friends on a GoPro or DSLR. I’d go to Cirencester Skatepark and film there quite a lot, but wasn’t making any videos at that point. When I moved to Sheffield it was to do Digital Media at uni, I’d always been into filming and stuff but never really got into filming skating until I moved here. 

You met John Onyehara and Ghostman and the rest was history. Those Gauntlet jams are fucking gnarly, what’s your favourite Sheffield hillbombing moment?

I think when Jasper Clough came to the first Gauntlet, that was really good. He was just blasting over the wallride, a car was parked super close and he would weave through loads of shit on the floor next to it as well. That was sick. Also Hasan, he was pretty much first noticed at the first Gauntlet as well. He was killing it. 

What’s your favourite hillbombing moment Hasan?

Hasan: Probably the last Gauntlet, when Lenners was at the top of the hill. He got on his board, I don’t think he’s been skating too long, I saw him go down and thought, “This dude is going to die.” He got to the bottom going so fast, he can’t powerslide so he just slammed and split all his hand open. It was gnarly. The fact he went to the top and bombed it was so sick. 

Does your filming of The Gauntlet make you NSD’s official videographer; the Benny Magliano to their FA/Hockey? To strain this analogy further still, which is AVE and which is Dill out of John and Ghostman?

(Laughs) I guess so. And I don’t know actually. I reckon John would be Dill.

Max: Ghostman, AVE DC era, in some links. 

With this being your first full length, when approaching the filming/editing did you have any particular influences in mind as a guide?

Growing up I didn’t watch skating too much, it’s since I’ve moved here that I’ve gotten more into watching skating. I’m into a lot of Static videos, East Coast stuff. Magenta as well, I really like their stuff. I’m into a lot of old VX stuff. I was filming with DV tapes for a bit but got glitches straight away, so I moved onto the tapeless and now it goes straight on the SD card.

There’s a few other locations featured in the video, where did you travel to while you were filming and what were some highlights of that?

We went up near Middlesbrough, Chap’s (Matt Chapman’s) mate Justin lives that way so we went up and skated some seaside spots. There’s a little bit in Leeds, a couple of other places but a lot of it was filmed in Sheffield.

I mean Sheffield has such a solid visual identity…

Though it’s hard to film a full length here, because the spots are all quite hard to skate. There are spots about, they’re just all pretty crusty. You really have to work for tricks. But it worked out well, which I’m really happy about.

Were you watching old Sheffield scene videos, Brass Monkey and stuff, while you were filming?

I watched Brass Monkey once a while ago, but I recently got the DVD from The House and watched it again – that was after I did the video, though. There were a couple of others, Cruickshank’s other videos.

Max: Ravenous as well.

Yeah, we watched that. But I didn’t know much about the Sheffield scene at all before I moved here. It was only when I started chatting to people that I learned more about it. Frank’s video was the last scene one, I think, around Covid era or just before. But I was quite lucky at the time I started this, there was no one else filming so everyone was sort of down rather than being pulled between various filmers.

Did anyone particularly surprise you with the way they skated?

Probably Zach Hudson, he properly killed it. I used to see him skate Dev Green and he was obviously amazing, he’s just so consistent.

Max: He can land what he wants, even if it looks like he’s going to bail he’ll land it. 

It was a toss up between his and Hasan’s part for last part, but I thought Zach’s would work really well at the start.

I kind of know Zach just from The House miniramp, so I knew he had a banging switch frontside grind but I didn’t know he could hit the streets like that.

Max: He does that in the deep end of Meersbrook Bowl, I call him Bob Burnquist. Have you ever skated Deeside, the indoor skatepark in North Wales? There used to be a bowl there that was about 8ft deep and he’d skate it like a miniramp.

I’m always interested in people’s approaches to video soundtracks, and IFLTDLB has an eclectic one. What was your process regarding song decisions?

With Max’s part, he’s really into Willie Nelson and I thought that would work pretty well. The same with Hasan, he’s really into Kate Bush and he sent me the song for that. Zach, I feel like everyone expected something pretty heavy. It took a long time to find that one, but I felt like the tune went pretty well with it. Ben’s song was one he showed me, there’s a lot of influence from everyone in the video. Then Jake Snowden’s song is his own – him and Harry McCormick are in a band called Cleaver Blue and they put together a song for their joint section, which was really sick. 

Sheffield can be rough around the edges, were there any particularly notable/sketchy interactions with locals while you were filming?

Max: That time at the wiggly bench…

We were just about to film something and these three crackheads came over, asking for our beers and stuff. They started going on about the camera, talking about stabbing or some shit, and we had to run off. You always get a few weirdos around, but it’s not been too bad other than that. Certain areas are worse for it; like around Castlegate, where Hasan did the pop shuv down the big set, there’s always people sat up there. But they don’t bother you too much, they’re doing their own thing.

Max: The guy on the bench when Hasan did the pop shuv was loving it.

Sheffield has always had a productive scene in all aspects of the culture, from videos to DIY to music. It’s a big question, but why do you think that is?

I feel like we’ve had to make do with what we’ve got, there are never any new parks popping up or anything. That’s where the DIY culture comes from.

Hasan: There’s not many spots people can meet up at and just skate, most of them are gnarly and only skated when people are getting clips. Also the whole NSD thing, where they’re down to build, you know?

Every time I came over, even if it was just a two week gap, they’d have built something new at Staples DIY.

Max: I feel like, since Staples got demolished, there’s been a bit of a lull.

We’ve been skating a curb spot outside an office block in the evenings, it’s kind of got a similar vibe but it’s further out and isn’t a DIY or anything.

Max: It was the double sided curb that brought it all together.

To finish up, what’s next – another full length, or some shorter projects for a while?

I’m not too sure at the minute, but I’d like to do another full length. I like the whole process of it, even working out the prem, that was sick. Shout out to Robin who owns Field Tested, the place it was at. He helped us out with a lot of things. If there’s another video in the future I’d be down to premiere it there again. I know Gary McNaughton wants to work on a full part, but I don’t know if that’s going to be separate. Otherwise, I’m just going to keep filming and see where it takes me. 

Any last shout outs?

Thank you to everyone who made this video possible, and thank you to Shaun for introducing me to the scene and getting me more into filming with everyone.