Trevor Prescott

Words by: Keir Johnson

My first memory of seeing Trevor, like many, was his part in the old Invisible video. I always remembered that his style was quick footed, solid and very clean considering the chaotic skate manner of the early to late 90's in the skateboarding world. It was like his style and trick selection were ahead of the time... I also always liked the song that he skated to, it was a different sort of hip hop than I was used to hearing being from the east coast in the early 90's. Later on I found out that it was by a group called Blackalicous, a song entitled "Swan Lake". An interesting sidebar to this is that Trevor told me that he had gotten that song on a mixtape someone gave him and that was the actual version he skated to in the video.

Many years later I found myself moving out to San Francisco. I had been seeing Trevor in magazines and videos this whole time and I was familiar with some of his work like the Thrasher video "Time Bomb" and also the latest FTC video at the time. Brian Tucci had been telling me about Trevor and I was curious to meet him. On one of my first days in the city I skated down Market Street to meet up with Brian and there he was with Trevor. I remember skating down Market with them and just enjoying the circumstances and mind-set of the day. We had a short session and went on our separate ways. A few days later I met up with Trevor again with Alex Hansen. I needed to film for the upcoming Pitcrew video and Trevor told me he was down. We skated around Embarcadero and ended up at the Red's Java house rail. I filmed a trick with Trevor there and left that day feeling good and also impressed with Trevor's mentality and skate sense. I didn't know it at the time, but this day was a sign of times to come.

I would go on many more skate excursions with Trevor and soon I also began to develop an interest in skate videography. I knew the camera that Trevor used was a VX 2000 so I decided to save and buy one myself. I bought the same camera and lens that he used and began to go out with it and learning how to film. I would look up to Trevor because his whole life was skateboarding, he paid all his bills and lived off of his talents both in front and behind the lens. Shortly after Trevor released the first of his video creation, "Seasons" to a great audience at Milk on Haight St. I remember Trevor explaining the concept of the video to me and he said something like "I want to make videos that show what skateboarding is really like in the bay area. The video will be a story of all of the skating that went down in the city, no matter if by top pro or obscure visitor." Trevor was giving all of the people who lived and visited SF the chance to appear together in something unique and inspiring.

Over the next 2 years that I spent living in SF I would skate and hang out with Trevor often. I considered him one of the friendliest people I met during my time there. Some of my best memories of him were the days when we'd come back to his room after a long day of skating and watch what tricks he had gotten that day. You could sense his excitement at logging each new line or trick for his next video. On a rainy day he would line up every clip he had and we'd watch all the footage that would be the making of his Seasons videos. Trevor and I also shared a love of hip hop music and I would always try to bring him CD-R's of new music. I would introduce him to east coast hip hop and in turn he would put me up onto Cali and bay area artists. I remember we both went to an MF Doom show at the DNA Lounge and Trevor was so hyped on it that we both talked about the show for weeks afterwards.

Another one of my best memories of sharing time with Trevor was when the deadline for Seasons 2 was almost up. Tucci had filmed enough footage for a part but he had moved back to DC. I spoke with B on the phone and we decided that I would help Trevor with the editing of his part. That day I spent about 5 hours over at Trevor's house working on Brian's part. We played around with the order of his tricks for a while and then played many different songs to his part. Everybody knows the fun involved when you're choosing music for someone's video part, the energy a particular song brings to the part and the different ways it makes you look at the skating itself. I feel so privileged to have shared that experience with Trevor.

I moved back to DC in the middle of the summer last year and wasn't able to make it to the premiere of Seasons 3. I instead held my own premiere of the video in DC, and turned it into a whole event. Everybody showed up and it was cool to share this with Trevor. The last time I spoke to him on the phone was a few weeks before his passing. He told me he was hard at work on his next video and that he had plans for coming out east this summer. He had the idea for doing a video like Seasons, expect with different cities and taking it across the country. I had planned to come visit SF in April and to see if I could help him out with making all these plans come true.

I will always remember Trevor for his passion about skateboarding. Something that I had a hard time understanding within myself he was able to show in a clear and appealing way. He was constantly in his own world, looking for spots, figuring out how to adapt to an environment, understanding the security of a spot and of course working on his own amazing skateboarding. He was friendly to everyone and was an icon to the San Francisco skateboarding experience. He was so humble about his own skating, I wish I could have been more vocally appreciative of it. He almost didn't want to have his own part in Seasons 2 because he felt people would think he only put it in because it was his own video. I remember laughing when he told me this and telling him I thought his part was really fresh. Trevor showed me how to experience the passion of skateboarding and how to use filming and the making of videos to express and share this passion with skaters everywhere. I will miss you forever dog and you will never be forgotten, rest in peace.