On June 25, 2016, in San Diego, an urban 
legend became skateboarding history with the debut of Skatercross. The first-of-its-kind event, spearheaded by style master Andy Macdonald, took place during the infamous Clash at Clairemont. This event brought together the most highly respected/skilled skaters of our generation, representing nearly every discipline of board riding. It was an incredible sight to behold; like a mashup of Mega Ramp, roller derby and downhill. Attendees included first-wave bowl rider/slalom master Dave Hackett, vert legends Tony Hawk and Christian Hosoi, street master Ryan Sheckler and third-generation ripper Greyson Fletcher, to name but a few. Sheckler and Fletcher both qualified for the main event.
Let’s back up for a moment, though, before all the television crews, event staff and crowd of nearly 2,000 flowed through the gates. Nine days before the event, we had a closed session on the newly minted course. We linked up with “Mr. Consistent” Andy Mac and a couple of his 187 Killer Pads teammates, Sacrifice skateboards’ Jeromy Green and Arbor’s own Josh Stafford, to take some runs, pull some frames and talk about the future. “This wasn’t necessarily ‘my idea,’” Andy said, “so much as an ongoing conversation I’ve been having with other riders since about 2003. When it first started, I was envisioning guys like Wade Speyer and Chris Senn being ideal for this type of event because of their high skill level and ability to transition from one type of terrain to another. … This project has been in the design phase ever since. We did go skate a wooden BMX course on the Eastern seaboard to get a general feel for how it could work. Following that trip, I sat down with the guys at Live Wire Construction and began the layout of banks/gaps/pump-rollers.” The result was a behemoth of a track. To eliminate human error there are no judges, just a wireless timing chip attached to each rider’s board.
The start deck measures 26 feet high, dropping into a 7½-foot kicker that launches riders over a 25-foot-long gap. This leads directly to a 7¾-foot roller measuring 19 feet from lip to landing. If you clear those, you find yourself looking at an 11’ 5” tall left-hand berm with 5 feet of vert. At this point, riders are approaching 30–35 miles per hour. We’re just getting started, but at this point it’s worth mentioning that all this is happening while two other riders are breathing down your neck (no pressure). Continuing through the course, you’re greeted by a double roller leading directly into a step-up double roller with a take-off height of 5’ 9”, leading to a nearly 7’ high tabletop. Assuming you clear that tabletop, you’re immediately greeted by the second of three 11’ 5” berms featuring a 6’ 5” transition, this one being a right-hand turn.
Next up is a single roller into back-to-back tabletops, which both feature hurdles to clear (set between 2 and 4.5 feet) and have zero breathing room in between; then onto the third and final massive right-hand berm. Now you’re in the home stretch; the only thing between you and victory is a double roller followed immediately by a step-up double roller and on to the finish line, a 6’ 8” tabletop topped by a 5-foot-high hurdle – because racing three-wide for 430 feet against some of the best riders on the planet wasn’t already hard enough. The idea of a full speed, head-to-head race across constantly varying terrain has been floating around the skating world for well over a decade. On May 2, 2016, construction began on a one-of-a-kind track at the YMCA’s Krause Family Skate & Bike Park a few miles off the beach in San Diego. After 20 days, 1260 man-hours and $200,000, the track was completed. This mega-project was brought to life through the tireless efforts of the YMCA, Live Wire Construction, Ron Roberts of the City of San Diego and the unwavering passion of one of our sport’s most consistent and progressive riders, Andy Macdonald. Andy was essentially the catalyst of this evolution in skateboard racing. Between his unparalleled passion for our community and his industry-wide reputation of being incredibly talented as well as a class act decade after decade, Mac is quite possibly the only one who could have pulled this together.
After the finals, the first-ever Skatercross champion, 15-year-old Trey Wood, was asked, “What did it take to win this?” His answer: “Stay in your lane and go fast.” Sounds simple enough. About a week after the inaugural event, Andy Mac and I spoke again to get his impressions of the first running. I asked how he felt about seeing such a diverse group of highly skilled riders show up to take part. Andy’s answer was short and to the point: “Lucky.” When asked about the future of Skatercross and where he sees it going from here, he responded, “I see it being fully self-supported, possibly building another track on the East Coast to create a series. Also, a mobile track would be great. We’ve already been in contact with NASCAR organizers to run our races [think opening act] on the infield prior to the car races. That would be huge, providing exposure on a much larger scale.” You can check out the build, more photos, additional interviews and videos on their Instagram @skatercrossevents. Huge thanks to Scott Flanders for being an invaluable resource.
