Andy Macdonald: Skateboarding, Tony Hawk & Becoming an Olympian at 51

1. 0:00 – 1:26

   Scottish roots and first trip to Scotland

   1. DJDavid McIntosh Jr0:00

      I'm here in California, San Diego, with Skateboarding Hall of Fame, Andy Macdonald.

   2. AMAndy Macdonald0:05

      Oh, that guy.

   3. DJDavid McIntosh Jr0:06

      23-time medalist at X Games. Fellow Brit.

   4. AMAndy Macdonald0:11

      Yes, sir.

   5. DJDavid McIntosh Jr0:12

      One of my favorite vert skaters. This is a real privilege. Thank you for coming on my show.

   6. AMAndy Macdonald0:16

      Thanks for having me.

   7. DJDavid McIntosh Jr0:17

      Here in California, this is, uh, this is special for me. I grew up skateboarding in Scotland. Your grandfather is Scottish.

   8. AMAndy Macdonald0:25

      From Dumfries, yep.

   9. DJDavid McIntosh Jr0:26

      Let's take it back to the origin story.

   10. AMAndy Macdonald0:28

       [laughs] If you're gonna ask me a whole bunch about Scotland, I'm not gonna-

   11. DJDavid McIntosh Jr0:31

       [laughs]

   12. AMAndy Macdonald0:34

       The first time I went to Scotland, I called my dad, and I was like, "You know, I've been traveling the world for 30 years. I've never been to Scotland." And I'm like, "Dad, I'm finally gonna get to go to Scotland." Like, I, you know, your, your dad's from Dumfries. Like, "Grandpa, like, what should I do?" He's like, "I don't know." Like [laughs] my dad was not helpful at all, and he's like, "Your granddad's buried there. I don't know."

   13. DJDavid McIntosh Jr0:53

       [laughs]

   14. AMAndy Macdonald0:53

       Been since I was a kid. Like, he moved, uh, with his parents to America when he was, like, four years old, so that's my connection. [laughs]

   15. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:01

       Mm.

   16. AMAndy Macdonald1:01

       It's a distant connection. Um, but, uh, happily to, happy to report that my first experience in Scotland was all-time. It was amazing. It was just, like, went, and, and as soon as people heard that my last name was Macdonald, they were like, "Oh, come over here. We have your tartan here." [laughs]

   17. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:20

       [laughs]

   18. AMAndy Macdonald1:20

       Like, this is, like, just, like, it, it was, it was people going out of their way to, to make me feel at home. It was great.

2. 1:26 – 2:22

   Skating Scotland’s legendary Livingston (Livvy) bowl

   1. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:26

      How did you feel about Livingston, the famous or infamous skate park in Scotland?

   2. AMAndy Macdonald1:31

      Um, it was, it's, like, one of those, uh, bucket lists, you know, uh, historic skate places that, um, as a kid, I saw the Bones Brigade, um, you know, skating there on the 1989 Bones Brigade tour. And I was like, "Look at that park. Whoa," you know. And, uh, all these years went by, and I'd always wanted to go skate it, and, and, and throughout my whole career, I never got to go up to Scotland. I'd been to the UK a bunch of times but never got to go, um, and skate Livvy Bank.

   3. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:59

      [laughs]

   4. AMAndy Macdonald1:59

      [laughs] So I finally got to go recently, and, um, unfortunately, the weather was not good. It was, it was freezing cold. There was ice. Uh, the bowl wasn't really skateable. We, we weren't prepared, so I just, like, took a T-shirt and, like, made a track across the bowl so that I could do one frontside rock and roll and just be like, "Yes."

   5. DJDavid McIntosh Jr2:16

      [laughs]

   6. AMAndy Macdonald2:16

      "I skated Livvy bowl." Um, but awesome just to s- be there and experience it, just hallowed ground.

3. 2:22 – 5:53

   UK vs Southern California: facilities, culture, and the weather factor

   1. DJDavid McIntosh Jr2:22

      What was your first impression around the infrastructure for skateboarding in Scotland and GB?

   2. AMAndy Macdonald2:28

      Um, I, I work with GB still, um, having, having been a part of the, um, skateboard, Great Britain, uh, national team in the lead-up, the two and a half years lead up to the Paris Olympics. Um, I, I still do consulting for those guys and, and help try to build the scene in, um, in the UK, and I, and I, I basically, like, when I'm talking to people about it, I'm like, "The UK's, like, 20 years behind where we are in the States, or especially in Southern California, as far as facilities-wise. Like, as far as modern facilities with, you know, like, destination skate parks and, and satellite parks around that, and just feeder parks, um, places f- where, where people of, of all skate abilities can, can, um, have community. Uh, it's just, it's just not there yet. It's just, like, just growing, you know. Um, and the weather's a part of it, but I grew up in Boston, Massachusetts, so I know well about what, uh, what it's like skating and, and, you know, finding a parking garage or wherever you can do to skate, uh, when it's freezing cold, shoveling. Like, I, I got a skateboard for Christmas the first year when I was 12 years old, and I shoveled my driveway and put plywood up against the snowbank so that I could have a little something to skate. Um, but, uh, it's getting there, skateboarding in the UK, and, and, uh, with, with, um, you know, Sky Brown, who's a two-time, uh, Olympic medalist now. Um, there's, there's starting to be some funding and some support for the sport, um, in the UK as far as the Olympics is concerned. And, and, um, that's helped elevate the, the consciousness, um, in the general public of, of, uh, getting skateboarding out there.

   3. DJDavid McIntosh Jr4:06

      I think that's such a good observation about raising the consciousness because when I grew up in Scotland skateboarding, I was a bit of a misfit. It wasn't cool like it is in the movies here in the US to skateboard.

   4. AMAndy Macdonald4:19

      Right.

   5. DJDavid McIntosh Jr4:19

      It was quite an outcast behavior to skateboard. And I think one of the things I noticed about the skateboarding community was that the uniformity was diversity. Everyone was a bit strange and at the fringes of society. But when I watched movies based on the US or I watched skateboarding videos or parts in the US, skateboarding was much, much more glamorized-

   6. AMAndy Macdonald4:40

      Yeah

   7. DJDavid McIntosh Jr4:40

      ... over here, es- spe- specifically in California.

   8. AMAndy Macdonald4:43

      In California, yeah. I mean, I, I felt that growing up in, in New England. Um, I, I, I just... You know, blue skies and, like, these perfect ramps and, like-

   9. DJDavid McIntosh Jr4:52

      Yeah

   10. AMAndy Macdonald4:52

       ... and a lot of it has to do with the weather, right? Like, you can skateboard outside in a T-shirt and shorts in December, uh, in the middle of winter, um, all year round in, in Southern California, and that's part of what, um, you know, makes it so accessible. Um, and then it's just much more part of the culture, part of the lifestyle here. You know, when I, when I first moved, I, I came to California in 1992, and, um, I was staying on the couch of a friend of a friend. And every morning, I would see this guy skateboard by in a suit carrying a briefcase.

   11. DJDavid McIntosh Jr5:23

       [laughs]

   12. AMAndy Macdonald5:24

       That's how that guy gets to work every day. I'd see him skate to work every m- And, like, you would never see that where I grew up. Like, that would just be, like, unheard of. And it was just, it's just part of the deal here. Like, people surf. People skate. It's just part of the culture, uh, of, of living in Southern California. Um, like, you, you s- you grab your board in the morning, and you skate down to check the waves. [laughs] And if the waves are good, you skate back-

   13. DJDavid McIntosh Jr5:47

       [laughs]

   14. AMAndy Macdonald5:48

       ... and go skating, you know. And then, oh, if the waves aren't good, then I guess you go to work. [laughs]

   15. DJDavid McIntosh Jr5:53

       [laughs]

4. 5:53 – 9:55

   What vert skateboarding is—and how ramps are built and skated

   1. DJDavid McIntosh Jr5:53

      Tell me about vert skateboarding. I can't imagine Boston- Much like Scotland would promote vert skateboarding over street skateboarding.

   2. AMAndy Macdonald6:04

      Yeah.

   3. DJDavid McIntosh Jr6:04

      A lot of my listeners might not be skateboarders, they might not understand the scene, they may not understand skateboarding as a whole. How would you bring to life what vert skateboarding is?

   4. AMAndy Macdonald6:13

      Oh, boy. So, um, you, you first, you first have to understand just like along the timeline of skateboarding. I started skateboarding in the 1980s. Um, there was kind of a boom in, in popularity of skateboarding in the 1980s, and it was based on vert skating. The biggest stars in skateboarding were like the Bones Brigade, uh, Steve Caballero, Tony Hawk, Lance Mountain, those guys. Uh, and they were all known as vert skaters, and that's, that's what attracted me to skating. Like, I wanna, I wanna be able to fly in the air above these ramps, you know? So not long after I learned to like... Everyone learns to skate on the street because there's a street outside everyone's front door. Um, but pretty soon, like within weeks, we were building ramps, and we built, you know, quarter pipes in our driveway and jump ramps or whatever, and eventually we built half pipe ramps. Um, and that, that was our focus. Like, we would just like go and steal wood from construction sites [laughs] and get ramps built in our, in our friends' backyards and stuff. Um, and then eventually there was an indoor park, uh, that was built with a small vert ramp in, uh, Cambridge, Massachusetts, which was like an hour train ride from my house. So I had to like skate 20 minutes to the train, be on the train. I would do my homework on the train for an hour, 'cause you had to go all the way into Boston and all the way back out to where this ramp was. Um, and I could skate there. I, I, I convinced my, my, uh, my school to give me gym credit for going, going to, uh, the skate park. Um, and-

   5. DJDavid McIntosh Jr7:35

      Ah.

   6. AMAndy Macdonald7:36

      Yeah, I mean, that, that, that's what attracted m- me to skateboarding, uh, is, is the, the sense of weightlessness, the f- the f- the feeling of riding ramps. Um, so I just, I just made it happen. You know, either, either we built them or I found a way that, the, the next best ramp was in Maine, which is two states north of where I was, an hour-and-a-half drive. So every weekend I would find a way, get friends to drive me, uh, sorry, two and a half hours.

   7. DJDavid McIntosh Jr8:01

      Whoa.

   8. AMAndy Macdonald8:02

      From Boston to, it was outside of Portland, Maine, in Kenny Bunkport, Maine. Um, and that was the best vert ramp in New England. In, in, in, from New York to, to Maine, there was nothing. Um, and, uh, that's, that's, that's where I started, you know?

   9. DJDavid McIntosh Jr8:17

      For the listeners, could you detail the dimensions of what a vert ramp looks like and how tall and wide it may be?

   10. AMAndy Macdonald8:26

       Yeah, so, so the competition vert ramps that you see, like, on the X Games and stuff, um, for the past, like, 15, 20 years ha- have been, uh, standard like 13 and a half feet tall. So it's a, it's a about 11-foot transitions with, um, or 11 and a half foot transitions with two feet of vertical on top. The, the, the top part has gotta have two feet of vert because, uh, our wheel base is, is, um, our wheels are about 15 inches, uh, apart, and you need both wheels on a vertical plane to shoot you straight up in the air. If it's any- anything less than that, when you sh- when you come out the top, you really have to pull out or else you're not going, you can't go as high. Um, and so, like, the stuff you see, like, like this bowl we're sitting in, there's not quite two feet of vert. Um, bowls are a little bit, you can't go quite as high. There is this third dimension and, and that's part of what's, uh, a little more, uh... I don't know why it was, it ju- it's... Basically, bowls are more accessible than vert ramps.

   11. DJDavid McIntosh Jr9:21

       Mm.

   12. AMAndy Macdonald9:21

       Vert ramps are, are, um, you know, not every town has a vert ramp and, and more and more every town's getting a skate park or a bowl and th- that's why, um, street skating, 'cause it's accessible to everybody, uh, everyone's got a street out th- out their front door, um, and then bowls, um, became the first two Olympic, uh, disciplines. Um, hopefully, uh, by Brisbane, um, they, they missed the window for Los Angeles, so they won't have vert skating in the Olympics for LA in two years. But by Brisbane in six years, I think they'll, they'll have a vert ramp and add that discipline for skateboarding and finally. [laughs]

5. 9:55 – 11:59

   Going pro and building a career through skateboarding’s 1990s resurgence

   1. DJDavid McIntosh Jr9:55

      Did you begin your competition career in the '90s?

   2. AMAndy Macdonald9:59

      Uh, yeah. I turned pro in 1994. Um, graduated high school, uh, in '92 and drove to California to try, you know, like, you wanna be a movie star, you go to Hollywood, you wanna be a pro skateboarder, Southern California is the place. So I came to San Diego and chased my dreams of being a pro skateboarder. Um, turned pro in '94 and, and, uh, there wasn't much of a living to be made, but, um, I wasn't doing it for the money. Uh, I, I, I, I quit all my part-time jobs when I got my first pro contract. Um, I think I got paid $1,200 a month to, to be a, to ride my skateboard for a living, and that was enough to pay rent and buy groceries, so I was, I was happy.

   3. DJDavid McIntosh Jr10:37

      How did you navigate making that choice? Was it an easy decision for you to go all in on what you loved opposed to taking a sensible job?

   4. AMAndy Macdonald10:43

      Yeah, yeah, no, there was no other. Like, I mean, for my parents, there was a backup plan. You know, when I told my parents, like I was, by the time I was a junior in high school, I was like, "This is what I wanna do. I wanna be a pro skateboarder." They were like, "A pro what?"

   5. DJDavid McIntosh Jr10:55

      [laughs]

   6. AMAndy Macdonald10:55

      Like you can't make a living skateboarding, and at the time they were probably right. Like, there was a few people like Tony Hawk and, and the Bones Brigade guys were making a living skateboarding. Um, but that was-

   7. DJDavid McIntosh Jr11:05

      Yeah

   8. AMAndy Macdonald11:05

      ... you know, kind of before the crash. And then when I mentioned, like, there's these ebbs and flows in skateboarding, there was a big bump in the 1980s and then by, um, 1990, skateboarding was dead again and, and stayed dead, um, pretty much through the early '90s. Uh, it wasn't until like 1995 that skateboarding started to come back up with the advent of, uh, the X Games. The first ever X Games was in 1995, and I had just turned pro. So, uh, timing-wise, I, I timed it pretty good as far as like being able to build my career around, um, skateboarding's rise, uh, in the 1990s and, and skateboarding became, becoming this, um, or skateboarders becoming, you know, household names through television, through the X Games and, uh, the Dew Tour and, um, you know, skateboarding being on TV and, and you putting your sponsor logos on your helmet, you know? [laughs] So, um, that's, that's how I built my, my career from that point forward.

6. 11:59 – 17:37

   Street’s dominance, ‘core’ gatekeeping, and skateboarding’s inclusive community

   1. DJDavid McIntosh Jr11:59

      Was the epicenter of skateboarding in the '90s vert or street?

   2. AMAndy Macdonald12:03

      It was street very much, uh, in the '90s. It was, it was, um- Very, there, it was still a very small industry, very, like, I hate to use the word core, but, like, if you didn't skateboard, you didn't know. And, and it was, it was like, there was a period in the early 1990s where skateboarding was almost too cool for itself. Like, skateboarders were just like-

   3. DJDavid McIntosh Jr12:24

      Yeah

   4. AMAndy Macdonald12:25

      ... kind of like if, if, in, in any subculture, like, e- even, even as m- as welcoming as skateboarding was, like, y- you mentioned, like, when you were into it, like, it was people from all different walks of life and like kind from the fringes, like outcasts. And then once you got into this, "Oh, you're, you're a skateboarder, you're welcome here. Come..." And, and then in the 1990s it was like, "Okay, you're a skateboarder, but you're not a cool skateboarder unless you have this sponsor or wear this shoe-

   5. DJDavid McIntosh Jr12:54

      Ooh

   6. AMAndy Macdonald12:54

      ... or this clothing. Everyone had to have, like, the, the right style and whatever, and it was just like, no, that, that's contrary to what skateboarding's about, you know? And it, and it wasn't until skateboarding got a little bit bigger, um, that it really started, um, to embrace really, like, all the aspects of, of it doesn't matter who you are, where you're from, um, boy, girl, you know, uh, you know, women's skateboarding is the fastest growing demographic in our sport now, uh, has been for years. Um, so it, it, it's, it really isn't till more recently that skateboarding is, has just been able to really embrace everybody. Um, because there's not a lot of other sports where the playing field is so level. Like I skate, uh, on the British National Team, uh, 12-year-olds. Like, I was 48 years old, and my teammates were 12 and 13 years old. Um, and what other sport does that happen? Like, you're not competing again- you're not playing tennis against 12-year-olds. You know, you don't see, like, Andre Agassi, like [laughs] um, it just doesn't happen. And, and in skateboarding, it's, that's kind of perfectly normal. You know, like, here at the park this morning, there'll be people, um, Steve Cab here, we ran into Steve Caballero, he's in his 60s, and there'll be 12-year-olds taking a lesson, skating the bowl, and totally fine, totally normal.

   7. DJDavid McIntosh Jr14:06

      I love that. Where I come from, in Scotland, I can imagine it's the same here, most of the sports, whether it's soccer, we call it football [laughs]

   8. AMAndy Macdonald14:15

      Yeah

   9. DJDavid McIntosh Jr14:15

      ... American football here, or any other mainstream sport, is usually, like, age bracketed.

   10. AMAndy Macdonald14:22

       Yeah.

   11. DJDavid McIntosh Jr14:22

       Under 12s, under 13s.

   12. AMAndy Macdonald14:23

       Yeah.

   13. DJDavid McIntosh Jr14:23

       Where skateboarding, when I grew up, I was hanging around with 56-year-old dudes.

   14. AMAndy Macdonald14:28

       Right.

   15. DJDavid McIntosh Jr14:28

       And they became like surrogate fathers. They were passing life lessons down the chain.

   16. AMAndy Macdonald14:32

       Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

   17. DJDavid McIntosh Jr14:33

       And I did a lot of my own growing up and development through skateboarding because I had older male role models, for better or for worse.

   18. AMAndy Macdonald14:40

       Right.

   19. DJDavid McIntosh Jr14:41

       And very few disciplines have that, that intergenerational community.

   20. AMAndy Macdonald14:45

       Yeah.

   21. DJDavid McIntosh Jr14:45

       And I benefited a lot from it, specifically when I came from a home that might have not been as supportive or understanding of me and my passions and my hobbies. I had a place of community where I could learn from these older, older gents. Uh, and sometimes the guys weren't so helpful, and I could know what to stay away from as well. [laughs]

   22. AMAndy Macdonald15:04

       And, and use that as help. Like, well-

   23. DJDavid McIntosh Jr15:06

       [laughs]

   24. AMAndy Macdonald15:06

       ... well, he drinks and smokes every day, and he can't skate very well, so I'm gonna do that.

   25. DJDavid McIntosh Jr15:09

       [laughs] Yeah.

   26. AMAndy Macdonald15:10

       That's, that's what happened for me. Like, for sure, like, my parents were both like, they had no idea about skateboarding. "What's this?" And m- and my dad, um, played baseball. He was a baseball player, he got offered to play pro ball and everything, and, and course tried to get me to play ball. And the first softball that came at me, I was like, "Ah."

   27. DJDavid McIntosh Jr15:24

       [laughs]

   28. AMAndy Macdonald15:25

       "I don't like this. This is, that's not a softball. Like, [laughs] I don't wanna play that." Um, so you, you wanna do what your parents don't do. Um, I have three kids now, and none of them skateboard because-

   29. DJDavid McIntosh Jr15:34

       Cool

   30. AMAndy Macdonald15:34

       ... like, well, I don't wanna do what Dad does.
7. 17:37 – 20:33

   Life lessons from falling: discipline, persistence, and the magic of landing

   1. DJDavid McIntosh Jr17:37

      What did skateboarding teach you that school could never?

   2. AMAndy Macdonald17:41

      Oh, boy. Skateboarding's taught me everything. Uh, everything I have in my life I have because of skateboarding. Um, but certainly, um, just the, the, the self-motivation and the, the discipline it takes to be good at something, um, skateboarding will teach you that straight away, like the very first thing. Um, there's tricks in skateboarding that took me six years to do one time.

   3. DJDavid McIntosh Jr18:03

      [laughs]

   4. AMAndy Macdonald18:04

      So, um, y- yeah, I mean, it, it's, it's literally like to, to, to spend that long, uh, that many hours of literally Blood, sweat, and tears trying to do the same skill over and over and over, to finally accomplish that skill and, and the feeling of riding away, it's, it's like a feeling of satisfaction that you, you don't get from a lot of other things in life. Um, and, and that's what we're after. That's why skateboarders, you'll see any, any town in, across the world, people jumping downstairs over and over and over, and people go like, "What? They never, they never make it. They never land it." But that one time when they do, oh, it's just, it's, it's magic. Um, and, and hopefully they, they took it on video these days.

   5. DJDavid McIntosh Jr18:45

      [laughs]

   6. AMAndy Macdonald18:46

      [laughs] When I grew up, we didn't have a video camera everywhere, but, um, yeah, I mean, that's, that's, that's the main thing is just, like, it, you, you gotta, you gotta fall down. That's the first thing you learn skateboarding, is you learn to fall down, and then you learn to get up again, and then you can apply that to anything you wanna do in life, um, because that's the first thing. You gotta fail, and you gotta get good at failing. Um, and, and you get to a point where, like, that's not expected, but it's, it's, uh, uh, well, it is expected. You're, you know you're not gonna do it first try, um, but you're not discouraged by it. You're just, "This is part of the process. Um, it's, this is gonna take me a while, and I'm... And it, with each time I try it, I'm gonna make some adjustments and, and I'm gonna learn something new, and I'll try to apply that and see if that works." And, and, um, that same kind of, um, mentality can be applied to anything in life.

   7. DJDavid McIntosh Jr19:40

      I love how that sensation of nailing a trick is almost the same all the way up. Your first kickflip probably feels very similar to your first McTwist.

   8. AMAndy Macdonald19:50

      Right. No, absolutely, and that's, and that's part of, like, what I tell people i- in, um, in this sport. The age thing doesn't matter because the, the kid that's just learning to ollie up a curb, the first time he gonna try it, try it, try it, took me a whole summer to learn how to ollie up a curb, but the first time I did it, I was so psyched, and I was just as psyched when I did my first McTwist that took me six years to do, which are, like, opposite ends of the spectrum as far as ability, skateboard tricks-wise, but the feeling of achievement is the same. So yeah, you can be skating with a beginner skateboarder as an expert skateboarder and have the same feeling of achievement, um, in the same skate park with just different skills.

8. 20:33 – 24:23

   Innovation and progression: from 540s to 900s and beyond

   1. DJDavid McIntosh Jr20:33

      How do you feel about the innovation in skateboarding? I look at people like Ema Kama- Kawakami-

   2. AMAndy Macdonald20:40

      Uh-huh

   3. DJDavid McIntosh Jr20:40

      ... who's competing at 10 years old in the X Games, doing 900s that would take, like, Tony Hawk years to master.

   4. AMAndy Macdonald20:47

      Yeah, yeah.

   5. DJDavid McIntosh Jr20:48

      And now-

   6. AMAndy Macdonald20:48

      Years

   7. DJDavid McIntosh Jr20:49

      ... they're, they're doing it off the cuff at competition level at the age of 10. I think about the four-minute mile as an, uh, a, as an example of-

   8. AMAndy Macdonald20:57

      Yeah

   9. DJDavid McIntosh Jr20:57

      ... someone doing it once and then that piece of innovation causing-

   10. AMAndy Macdonald21:00

       It's amazing when that, when that guy ran the first four-minute mile, and now high schoolers are running four-minute miles. It's, it's amazing. Uh, I think a lot of that has to do with just, like, this mental block that we have. Um, we as humans, as a species, just go like, "Well, that can't be done," or, or, "Okay, maybe it could be done." Like the, the, the, uh, "Can you run a marathon in under two hours?" "Nah, nah." For years it was like, "Nah, it's not possible," whatever, and I was always like, "You know what happened to the first marathon runner, right? He died." [laughs]

   11. DJDavid McIntosh Jr21:26

       Yeah.

   12. AMAndy Macdonald21:26

       "You're not supposed to do that." [laughs] Running is just, like, not my thing, but my son's a runner, and he totally follows all that. He's a distance runner. Um, and yeah, I think that, like, once somebody, once, once a, a, a milestone has been achieved, it's set, and, and then a new milestone has to be set and, and that becomes the next goal. Because when Ema was born, 900s were already a thing, right?

   13. DJDavid McIntosh Jr21:54

       [laughs]

   14. AMAndy Macdonald21:54

       Tony had already done the 900 in 1999, before Ema was born, and, and then-

   15. DJDavid McIntosh Jr21:58

       That's crazy to think about

   16. AMAndy Macdonald21:59

       ... and then, so when, as he grew up and started skateboarding, he was like, "Yeah, of course you do 900. Everybody does 900s. Like, y- people have been doing those since, uh, before I was born," right? Um, and it was different for me. When I grew up, the 540 was the thing. Like, if you could do a 540, that was like, you could win a skateboard contest, and then it became the 720, and, uh, you know, I, I'm 52 years old. I can still do a 720. I'll never do a 900. It, which just wasn't in my, in my realm. Um, and now, like, because, because it is so much, um, yeah, the, the, the new skaters that come up, um, just have a different mindset.

   17. DJDavid McIntosh Jr22:36

       Mm.

   18. AMAndy Macdonald22:36

       And so you're not putting... Like, whether you know it or not, you're not putting these limits on yourself, um, for what can be done on a skateboard. 'Cause literally this thing is limitless. There are, there are infinite ways in which you can spin, and your board can flip and spin underneath you, uh, and different ways to grab it and catch it, uh, on all different kinds of apparatus, um, in skate parks, on ramps, in streets. Um, people will never, no one will ever master it, and if you think that you're coming close to mastering it, now you gotta do it backwards.

   19. DJDavid McIntosh Jr23:06

       [laughs]

   20. AMAndy Macdonald23:07

       Now you gotta switch stance, right? [laughs] Like, it's like, "Oh, you can hit home runs this way? Oh, you're batting pretty good? Now you gotta do it this way. Hit it that way. Get over the right field fence."

   21. DJDavid McIntosh Jr23:14

       Or, or like, "Oh, you're skating very... Here's a mega ramp now." [laughs]

   22. AMAndy Macdonald23:17

       Right. Right. Exactly. Yeah, like all the different disciplines of sports, you know? Like, and it, that takes a toll on your body a- as well, so, like, if you're, if you're like, "Oh, I just skate ramps," like, that's great. I think it's a lot less, you know, um, harsher on your body as I get older, uh, than just like jumping downstairs, you know? Um, but there's th- there's all different facets of skateboarding. There's freestyle skateboarding. There's slalom skateboarding. There's downhill skateboarding. There's ramps and mega ramps, you know, um, handrails, and it's, it's just, like, kind of whatever floats your boat. And, and, um, these days, the guys that are really, um, doing well in skateboarding are the guys that can do all of that, a little bit of all that. Like, they, they, all-terrain skateboarders, whatever you wanna call them, but I just call 'em good skateboarders. People like, if you're a good skateboarder, you should be able to do a little bit of everything. You know? If, if you're skating a handrail, you should be able to get some basic tricks and slide down the handrail. If you're skating a bowl, you should be able to get, grind over the death box and whatever. Um- It may not be your specialty, but each, each facet helps you become a better skateboarder overall.

9. 24:23 – 27:38

   X Games stories, multi-discipline competing, and the roots of mega ramp

   1. DJDavid McIntosh Jr24:23

      The year I was born, 1998, you were medaling in the X Games.

   2. AMAndy Macdonald24:27

      Mm.

   3. DJDavid McIntosh Jr24:28

      Which is so awesome. [laughs] It's crazy to think about now that you're still skating, especially competitively in the Olympics. If we're to go back to the 1990s, perhaps 1998, when you were competing at a high level in the X Games, tell me about the route to entry to the X Games and the highs and lows of the competition itself.

   4. AMAndy Macdonald24:49

      The road to entry in the X Games, um, in, in the '90s, like in 1995 when they, you know, the X Games was brand new. They didn't even know what they were doing. The, the, the, the ramps were painted pink with, like swirls on them, and [laughs] they built two vert ramps, one for BMX and one for skateboarding, and they put sand in the paint, and then painted one of the vert ramps with sand in it, thinking like, "Oh, the BMXers will want, like grippy for their tires." And the BMXers were like, "That's death. I'm not riding that."

   5. DJDavid McIntosh Jr25:18

      [laughs]

   6. AMAndy Macdonald25:18

      They came and rode our ramp. [laughs] So, um, it was, it was definitely a learning experience, but, um, the road there was, it was, uh... it's a TV show, so they just invited the, the guys that were, you know, the top guys in each discipline. Uh, I rode in street. Um, some of my medals in X Games were street, street medals. I got two silver medals in street.

   7. DJDavid McIntosh Jr25:39

      No way. [laughs]

   8. AMAndy Macdonald25:39

      In that, that year in '98, '98. When, uh, when you were born, I, I got a, a, a gold medal in vert, um, singles. Uh, I got a silver medal in street, and, uh, Tony and I won the vert doubles-

   9. DJDavid McIntosh Jr25:50

      Yeah. Mm-hmm

   10. AMAndy Macdonald25:50

       ... altogether. So, um, yeah. I mean, it was, again, just like skateboarding, skateboarding. You didn't limit yourself to, like, "I just skate this," or, "I just skate that." Um, and so, and then when, with the birth of, of, of park skating, uh, it kind of stemmed from the X Games. They did a thing called Super Park, um, in around 2000, um, 2003 or something. They started doing Super Park and, um, I skated that, you know, and, and have medals, you know, a couple, couple silver medals from Super Park because that, that was another form of skateboarding that was fun to do. Um.

   11. DJDavid McIntosh Jr26:28

       Yeah.

   12. AMAndy Macdonald26:28

       As, as it progressed, um, people became more specialized and, and, uh, eventually I was, I was, um, just skating vert, but when mega ramp came in, I was, I was, you know, I was the first person to, to do a jump. Uh, I set a world record jump the year after you were born. [laughs] In 1999, I set a world record jump in Michigan, where my dad lives. Um, I rode for Swatch watches at the time and, uh, I convinced them, um, to build a, kind of an Evel Knievel skateboard jump. Um, I used to go to snowboard camp every s- every summer after the X Games up in, um, Mount Hood, Oregon, and they would have these things called super kickers, where it's just like you just straight-lined it from the top of the glacier we were skating, we were riding, and you could jump like 60 feet on a snowboard, and I'd never flown that far in my life, and I was just like, "This is so fun. Imagine if you could do this on a skateboards."

   13. DJDavid McIntosh Jr27:16

       [laughs]

   14. AMAndy Macdonald27:16

       "And the board wasn't strapped to your feet, you know. Like, you could do all kinds of tricks and, uh"-

   15. DJDavid McIntosh Jr27:21

       Imagine doing this, but more insane. [laughs]

   16. AMAndy Macdonald27:24

       Um, Danny Way took that idea and coupled it with Matt Hoffman's big quarter pipe idea from the '90s-

   17. DJDavid McIntosh Jr27:30

       Oh, yeah

   18. AMAndy Macdonald27:30

       ... and dubbed it mega ramp. And a few years later, mega ramp was introduced to the X Games. So you did, did a big jump and then a big quarter pipe.

10. 27:38 – 32:56

    Olympics and skateboarding: ‘art vs sport’ and global growth

    1. DJDavid McIntosh Jr27:38

       It's incredible that you were the seed that planted that discipline. Incredible. How do you feel about skateboard- skateboarding's progression now that it's been recognized by the Olympics, of which you've competed in?

    2. AMAndy Macdonald27:55

       Yeah.

    3. DJDavid McIntosh Jr27:55

       Do you think it's been a good thing for the sport? I look at skateboarding and see two camps. There's the kind of outlawed, misfit, somewhat bad boy community that doesn't really see it as a sport.

    4. AMAndy Macdonald28:10

       Yeah.

    5. DJDavid McIntosh Jr28:10

       And then you have the, the, the opposite-

    6. AMAndy Macdonald28:12

       That, that thinks that, that thinks that the Olympics is gonna ruin it.

    7. DJDavid McIntosh Jr28:13

       Yeah, yeah, yeah.

    8. AMAndy Macdonald28:15

       Yeah. And then the other side that's like, "This is a sport and we have to train," and yeah.

    9. DJDavid McIntosh Jr28:18

       Yeah, they, they, they train like an athlete and they-

    10. AMAndy Macdonald28:20

        Right

    11. DJDavid McIntosh Jr28:20

        ... they don't drink, they don't take drugs. I know you-

    12. AMAndy Macdonald28:22

        Yeah

    13. DJDavid McIntosh Jr28:22

        ... you're an ambassador for an anti-drug lifestyle too. Uh, so they treat it like how a NFL player would treat football or a tennis player would-

    14. AMAndy Macdonald28:29

        Right

    15. DJDavid McIntosh Jr28:29

        ... treat tennis. There's like those two types of camps that at least I've seen.

    16. AMAndy Macdonald28:33

        Yeah.

    17. DJDavid McIntosh Jr28:33

        What, how do you think the Olympics has contributed to the sport?

    18. AMAndy Macdonald28:37

        So yeah, I mean, for, for a long time, um, there was this, like butting of heads within skateboarding, like skateboarding, even, even with the X Games, the advent of skateboarding being on television. People were like, people from what I call like the Thrasher mentality, like this is, this, this isn't a sport. Skateboarding is more an art form than a sport, and, and it needs to stay in the backyards and, and on the streets where, where it was born, or else it's, you're gonna ruin it. Um, and, and I was always, uh, of the camp that was like, um, "No, you can have both." Like you, you're, you'll never lose that backyard. Like, there'll always be people jumping fences and skating schoolyards and, and skating on public property because that's what skateboarding is. That's where it's, that's where it was born and will always be. But there was also always competition skateboarding and, and people that took that more serious. Even way back to the Dogtown and Z-Boys days, like the, the Zephyr team showed up to a contest and blew everybody's mind, but if that contest didn't go, they would've just been skating in backyard pools and nobody would've known, you know? So, um, I always felt like there's room enough in skateboarding that there can be, um, two camps and, and you don't necessarily have to be from one or the other. You can kind of ride in both worlds. Um, and, and I think that the Olympics has just expanded that opportunity. Um, certainly globally, um, the Olympics has, has fostered the, the, um, image of skateboarding. P- the fact that skateboarding is an Olympic sport has, um, broadened people's, uh, perspective of, of skateboarding, uh, internationally. There's more money in skateboarding, more skateboarders can make a living, um, riding their skateboard and just concentrate on skateboarding and, and therefore the level of skateboarding is progressing faster because that's what they do. Like it, once you, once you become pro and that's all you do every day, you, you, you get better faster. [laughs] Like you're skating with people that are better than you, and you get better faster when you do something every day. Um- And so, uh, the opportunity for that, because of the Olympics is, is more. Um, you know, uh, I, I, I was at the, uh, world- I, I won the world championships in 1995. I skated against the same two dozen guys I always skate against, you know, in 1995. In, in 2000 and, uh, 22, I went to the world championships in Dubai, and there was 135 guys from, like, 65 different countries.

    19. DJDavid McIntosh Jr31:03

        Wow.

    20. AMAndy Macdonald31:04

        And I was like, "Oh, this is what skateboarding has become." You know? It was the first time I'd really ever been, like, 135 guys in a contest, like, uh [laughs] I was the second guy in the second heat, a- a- and there was nine heats or something. Like, it was just like, I got, like, 50th place. It was like, how did the judges even, you know, know who skated in the first few heats-

    21. DJDavid McIntosh Jr31:24

        [laughs]

    22. AMAndy Macdonald31:24

        ... when they're, like, looking at skateboarding literally all day, from 9:00 in the morning till 8:00 at night? Um, but it, there were skaters there from India, from Uganda, from Mexico, from all over the, the, uh, Pacific, uh, Malaysia. Like, it was just skateboarders from everywhere, and this, this is what, uh, you know, skateboarding has become a global phenomenon for the first time. Uh, if there's cement there, there's skateboarding there. Um, and I've been lucky enough to see that, that, um, transformation. You know, I was, I was on the first tour that went to India and brought skateboarding, uh, to India for the first time, and it was, like, one thing to see skateboarding on TV, but to see it live, uh, and then, and then to watch it progress and, like, India has its own skate parks now, and like, um, there's this skate scene in India, and that didn't happen until, like, we went there in 2012, um, not that long ago for, for a, a lot of countries. Um, and it's so cool to see. Um, and, and, and part of that is because of competition skateboarding, skateboarding being on TV, and Olympic skateboarding. Um, and, and if it just stayed in the backyards and, and, uh, on the streets, uh, in this tight-knit little industry in Southern California, it wouldn't, it wouldn't have... You know, like, all through the 1980s and '90s, skateboarding was Europe, Australia, America, and Brazil, and that's basically it. Like, there wasn't really skateboarding in South Africa and, and, and, um, you know, like, it wasn't the global phenomenon that it has become.

11. 32:56 – 37:01

    How pro skaters actually make money: endemic vs non-endemic sponsors

    1. DJDavid McIntosh Jr32:56

       I like that you mentioned that because of the Olympics and competition skateboarding, it allowed skaters to create a living from it. Therefore, if they can create a living from it, they can spend more time doing it. If they can spend more time doing it, it creates greater innovation in the sport. How does one begin to earn money from professional skateboarding? What does a, what does a paycheck look like?

    2. AMAndy Macdonald33:18

       Therein lies the trick, right? [laughs] How do you make money as a professional skateboarder? As a rule, you don't.

    3. DJDavid McIntosh Jr33:25

       [laughs]

    4. AMAndy Macdonald33:26

       As a rule, like, if you wanna be rich, tennis.

    5. DJDavid McIntosh Jr33:30

       [laughs]

    6. AMAndy Macdonald33:30

       Golf. Golf, it seems like you could do that for like... Uh, just do that. Like, it's... I'm sure it's really hard, but you can do it. Like, there's a senior's golf tour, right? Like, you can do it until you're pretty old. Um, yeah, skateboarding-

    7. DJDavid McIntosh Jr33:43

       I mean, you're, you're doing all right skateboarding at 52

    8. AMAndy Macdonald33:44

       Yeah, I mean, but there's a senior's tour in skateboarding, too, so I don't know. Uh, [laughs] senior. Legends. We call it legends.

    9. DJDavid McIntosh Jr33:50

       [laughs]

    10. AMAndy Macdonald33:50

        I did a legends demo a couple weekends ago in Brazil. Um, yeah, it, I mean, I, I think that, um, everyone has their own, uh, would answer this question, um, differently as far as, like, how can you make a living skateboarding? Um, but the short answer is that generally you don't through endemic skateboarding. Like, skateboard companies, the people that make hard, good skateboarding, um, there's too many of them, and they don't make enough of them, uh, that, uh... And there's so many pros now that if you have your name on a, like, a signature skateboard, like, in the 1980s, the Bones Brigade made tons of money from their signature boards because there was only, like, four big skateboard companies that made skateboards, and so they got, like, a dollar per board, and they sold thousands of boards. Um, and now, uh, you don't get that much for, for a board, and, and people can, you know, one-off skateboards from their skate shop or whatever and, and being, having your signature skateboard isn't how you make money. Um-

    11. DJDavid McIntosh Jr34:49

        Mm.

    12. AMAndy Macdonald34:49

        The, the guys that make money in skateboarding have, um, non-endemic sponsorship deals. Um, so not, when I say non-endemic, that's like Nike, Monster Energy, you know, like some, some, uh-

    13. DJDavid McIntosh Jr35:02

        Patagonia?

    14. AMAndy Macdonald35:02

        Patagonia. [laughs] Um, companies that, that didn't come from skateboarding but have, uh, wanna, wanna be a part of that ethos.

    15. DJDavid McIntosh Jr35:12

        Mm.

    16. AMAndy Macdonald35:13

        Um, and-

    17. DJDavid McIntosh Jr35:14

        Understand

    18. AMAndy Macdonald35:14

        ... and for me, to answer the question personally, that's, that's how I made a living skateboarding. That's how I was, I was able to, my whole career, um, bridge the gap between, uh, non-endemic corporations and the, the core skateboarding world. Um, I rode for, I've been riding for Powell Peralta since 1997, and, um, they're one of the most core skateboard companies there is. Um, and at the same time, I was the first skater to have a, a, a drink sponsor, and took a lot of hell for it. Like, I showed up at the first, I was at the, the Gravity Games, which was the precursor to, uh, uh, the Dew Tour. Um-

    19. DJDavid McIntosh Jr35:52

        Yeah

    20. AMAndy Macdonald35:53

        ... and I had a Sobe sticker on my helmet, Sobe Beverages, and people were like, "What? You sellout."

    21. DJDavid McIntosh Jr35:58

        Sellout, yeah. You just like, blah, blah.

    22. AMAndy Macdonald36:00

        I was like, "I, I get, I skate, I get thirsty, I drink tea."

    23. DJDavid McIntosh Jr36:03

        [laughs]

    24. AMAndy Macdonald36:04

        Like, what's the big deal? Um, flash forward 20 years, like, who are you if you don't have an energy drink sponsor, right? Um, but it was, it was, this was before, like, you couldn't even get Red Bull in the United States. It was illegal. So it was, like, before that whole, um... So yeah, I mean, for me personally, I was able to, uh, uh, embrace that as, as a skateboarder for, for, um, the non-endemics and, and, um, had a reputation for being the skateboarder that, like, didn't do drink, did- didn't do drugs and didn't, didn't drink beers and, and wasn't, like, the partier. You know, I didn't have tattoos or whatever, so I had this, like, clean image. And so I rode for, like, companies like Lego and, um, Sony and Amazon and, uh, like some big companies that- ... skateboarders, you wouldn't really think skateboarding when you think of those companies. But, um, I, I was able to kind of, um, straddle that, that bridge.

12. 37:01 – 41:55

    Drug-free advocacy and the surreal White House moment

    1. DJDavid McIntosh Jr37:01

       You promote a drug-free, alcohol-free lifestyle, which is very much the antithesis to the image of skateboarding at times.

    2. AMAndy Macdonald37:09

       Yeah.

    3. DJDavid McIntosh Jr37:10

       But you've been such a great ambassador for that as a cause, so much so that you were invited to the White House.

    4. AMAndy Macdonald37:15

       Yeah.

    5. DJDavid McIntosh Jr37:16

       Tell me about that experience.

    6. AMAndy Macdonald37:17

       Pretty surreal experience. Um, I, I got a call from my manager. I was at a contest here in, in Oceanside, California. Um, uh, it was like a Friday afternoon, and my manager called me and like, "Hey," uh, you know, I had just done, um, a public service announcement, a TV ad basically, um, for the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, and it was basically like me just skating, "Hey, I'm Andy. Skateboarding's hard. You gotta fall down a lot. Oh yeah, by the way, I don't do drugs." And it turned out to be the most popular spot they'd ever done. Um, it was the first time they'd used an athlete for it. Um, and, uh, th- the, um, result of that was an invitation to the White House to, to introduce the, the new, um, campaign, uh, and introduce the president, do a speech and introduce the president. I'd never done any public speaking in my life, and I was at this contest, and my, my manager called and was like, "Hey, you just got invited to the White House. You gotta be there on Monday morning." And I was just like, "The contest, the finals are, are Sunday night." And he's like, "I got you a red-eye flight." Yeah, like, you don't say no [laughs] to, to the president.

    7. DJDavid McIntosh Jr38:25

       [laughs]

    8. AMAndy Macdonald38:25

       So they did the background checks and whatever. I won the contest, um, on Sunday and couldn't even go to the awards ceremony, 'cause I had to go to San Diego and get my flight. I took a red-eye flight to Washington, DC, stayed up all night practicing my speech in the mirror in the bathroom [laughs] just, like, so nervous. Um, showed up at the White House and, and had my skateboard with and-

    9. DJDavid McIntosh Jr38:46

       [laughs]

    10. AMAndy Macdonald38:46

        ... brought a skateboard for, uh, President Clinton, uh, the Clinton administration. And, um, yeah, background checks and security everywhere, and I come out on the other side of the, the metal detectors, and there's a big, long marble hallway going to the West Wing, and I was like, "Uh, gotta put my board down. Be the first to skateboard in the White House." [laughs] The Secret Ser- Secret Service agents weren't nearly as excited-

    11. DJDavid McIntosh Jr39:07

        [laughs]

    12. AMAndy Macdonald39:07

        ... about it as I was, but, but I, uh, checked that one off the, off the box. Yeah, first, first one to skate in the White House and, and, um, cool for skateboarding. You know, cool opportunity for me obviously and, and got to introduce the president and gave him a skateboard, and, uh, it was at the end of his, his term, and, you know, "You wanna get into skateboarding, give me a call. I'll give you some lessons" or whatever.

    13. DJDavid McIntosh Jr39:26

        [laughs]

    14. AMAndy Macdonald39:26

        So got some fun photos and stuff and, and, um, got to be, uh, you know, it was on live C-SPAN, CNN, you know, did the, the five-minute speech and just talking about skateboarding and, and skateboarding's hard and you gotta fall down a lot and, but we've come a long way, and here I am introducing the president, a- and skateboarding's coming up kinda thing. And, and it was funny. The, one of the, the funniest stories I'd heard is that one of the judges, name's, um, we'll call him Shrugi, uh, h- was at that contest in Oceanside and saw me at the contest or whatever, went out partying that night, 'cause it's the end of the contest or whatever, and, um, woke up on somebody's couch all hungover or whatever on Monday morning, and C- C-SPAN, C- CNN was on. [laughs] And I was, like, on TV.

    15. DJDavid McIntosh Jr40:11

        Wow.

    16. AMAndy Macdonald40:11

        And he's all groggy-eyed, and he's like, "What the hell?"

    17. DJDavid McIntosh Jr40:14

        [laughs]

    18. AMAndy Macdonald40:14

        Just like, "Andy was just here last night."

    19. DJDavid McIntosh Jr40:17

        It's like you time traveled.

    20. AMAndy Macdonald40:18

        "Skating this contest, yeah, and now he's in DC and he's talking on, like, he's introducing the president?" Like, he just couldn't fathom it, 'cause he was just all groggy and hungover and stuff. And I was just like, "Yeah, that happened."

    21. DJDavid McIntosh Jr40:29

        Oh, that's awesome. Such a symbolic image of how skateboarding has progressed or had progressed when it was this grungy backyard thrasher-style-

    22. AMAndy Macdonald40:41

        Yeah

    23. DJDavid McIntosh Jr40:41

        ... domain, and now you're being introduced to President Bill Clinton.

    24. AMAndy Macdonald40:46

        Yeah, yep, yep. We've come a long way, for sure. There's, there's, there's definitely, like, that's, that's what I used to battle a lot of, is, like, this, this image of skateboarding being like y- they're just a bunch of thugs and disrespecting authority and breaking public property, and that stuff will always be. Like, [laughs] it's just like that's the nature of skateboarding, that we'll always wanna try to skateboarding, skateboard on stuff that's not meant for skateboarding, you know? S- the, the best skate park in the world is probably New York City, you know, 'cause it's always changing, and there's always something different to skateboard in Manhattan, you know? [laughs] Like, um, but and it's a different thing to skate in, in something like this that's built for skateboarding, you know? Skateboarding, vertical skateboarding came from skating in backyard pools that weren't meant for skateboarding, but skateboarders adapted this transition, and you can ride up the transition and go in the air. And now, you know, that's the birth of vert skating, and now that's the Olympic sport. That's, that's, when they add vert skating, it's gonna be the most popular. Just, just like snowboarding halfpipe was for snowboarding in the Winter Olympics, you know? That's, that, people tune into the Winter Olympics to watch snowboard halfpipe. They're like, "Figure skating, eh, okay, but I wanna see the snowboard halfpipe." Um, it'll be the same for skateboarders.

13. 41:55 – 48:55

    Becoming Team GB’s 51-year-old Olympian: passport, nationals, and relearning bowls

    1. DJDavid McIntosh Jr41:55

       How did you become a British citizen and a British Olympian at the age of 51?

    2. AMAndy Macdonald42:00

       [laughs] Um, that started with the, uh, started a long time ago. It started with skateboarding's push to become an Olympic sport. Um, I was on the, uh, original board of directors for USA Skateboarding, which was at the time skateboarding's, um, uh, governing body as it pertains to the Olympics. Um, and, um, I helped, um, pick, uh, I suggested a, a man named Gary Ream, who ran Woodward Skateboard Camps-

    3. DJDavid McIntosh Jr42:37

       Mm

    4. AMAndy Macdonald42:38

       ... who I, I had a relationship with, uh, it's a skateboard summer camp. Um, this will be my 34th year straight going to skateboard summer camp. Gary Ream owned this summer camp, and Gary was older than all of us. He had gray hair, and the guys from NBC, who ran the Dew Tour at the time, um, were like, "Who can we get from the skateboarding community that can talk to these gray hairs at the Olympic Committee, the IOC, um, and kinda bridge that gap?" And, and he, he can't own a ca- he can't be in the industry, he can't own a company or whatever, but, um, how can we make this happen? Because NBC had just bought the rights to the Olympics for the next 20 years or whatever. And so they knew-- They saw what snowboarding had done for the Winter Games. They needed something for the Summer Games to get the, the youth, um, involved and interes- interested in the Olympics again, uh, and skateboarding was their answer. Um, but skateboarding wasn't organized enough. Um, uh, uh, there's all these rules and hoops that you have to jump through in order for skatebo- in order for a new sport to be added to the Olympics. Um, and so Gary Ream, being from Woodward, um, he could write volumes, at, at least a couple books on the, on the red tape and the drama involved in getting skateboarding to the point where it was gonna be in the games. Um, finally, it's gonna be in the games, pandemic hits, and they're going to Tokyo, and nobody can go. It's just like, you know, it's, it's, it's a year late, and, and it's just like, um... And I had been a part of it in, as far as, like, getting it to a certain point, and then I bowed out because we looked at our board of directors, we're like, "This, we're all white dudes. Like, [chuckles] we need some diversity here," you know? Um, so I bowed out and just kinda took a back seat and, um, watched it happen, watched the games, uh, uh, uh, in Tokyo, and, uh, a lot of my friends were, were, um, skating at the games. And, uh, a couple of them were based here in Southern California, but were riding for, um, like Lizzie Armanto rode for Poland. No, Lizzie Armanto rode for, uh, Norway or-

    5. SPSpeaker44:41

       Finland?

    6. AMAndy Macdonald44:41

       Some- Finland, yes. Thank you. Somewhere in Scandinavia. Um, Tokyo happened, and basically I was just like, "That's so great that skateboarding was in the games," but I kinda felt, like, bad for all the athletes that were there because there was no crowd. There was no like, you know, "I won the Olympic gold. I'm on the phone with my parents," you know? [chuckles] Like, um, and, and when they came back, I ta- I, you know, got to talk to them about their, their experience and stuff. Um, and, uh, one person I talked to in particular was Amelia Brodka. She rode for Poland. She-- I know her as a Southern California skater. She's, she's based here. Um, but, uh, she has ancestry, and so she was able to, to ride for Poland, and her, and her, um, partner, her husband, was her coach, and, and, uh, they supported her, um, uh, lead up to the games. Uh, and she encouraged me from day one, like, "If there's a chance that you're British, go get your British passport, and you could make the British National Team." And I was at first just kind of poo-poo'd it, like, "Eh, meh." She said, "Talk to other people," Uh, a couple other people that were, like, in and around the, the qualification series for the games, and they're like, "Absolutely, dude. Like, you have so many tricks compared to these kids that are going. Like, you've been doing it so much longer." I'm like, "Yeah, but I don't-- That's not my forte. Like, I don't skate these little bowls." Um, and, uh, kind of just out of, more out of curiosity than anything, I started looking into, like, am I a British citizen? Like, my dad's from there, and I looked up, like, actually, if you have a parent that's born before 1984, and, and, you know, doesn't matter where he was born. If he was British, you know, he happened to be born in, in England, um, then you're British. So I had to get my dad's birth certificate, my mom's birth certificate, their marriage certificates, um, and jump through all those hoops, but it wasn't too bad and, um, got my British passport. And, um, in the meantime, I had made a couple ph- phone calls to, um, the folks I needed to at, um, Skateboard Great Britain. Um, and they were like, "We'd love to have you-"

    7. SPSpeaker46:40

       [laughs]

    8. AMAndy Macdonald46:40

       "... but we can't, you know, like, we can't-- First of all, you have to be British. So once you get your British passport, um, you can skate the British Nationals, but you'll need to skate the British Nationals because that's part of the qualifi- qualification process. Uh, in fact, before you can skate the British Nationals, you'll need to send us a video showing that you're proficient in this discipline." And I needed to be able to do a flip trick, like a kickflip Indy or, you know, some, some flip variation, and a McTwist on things that were nine feet or lower, and I ride vert ramps. For, for 20 years, I had been riding Tony Hawk's vert ramp, which is 13 and a half feet high. And so I was-- The, the prospect of, like, basically, like, relearning all my vert tricks on these small bowls was daunting, and I, and I went out, like, kind of naive, like thinking like, "I'll just adapt," you know? Like, and it was way harder than I thought. It was, at times, miserable, just because I could do these tricks, you know, first try on a ramp. You know, I can do a nollie heelflip, a trick I invented and ended up doing in Paris, a nollie heel for frontside air. I can do it every time on a vert ramp. Pretty much nine out of 10 times, I got that. And then I came down to the smaller bowls, and one out of 10 times-

    9. SPSpeaker47:50

       [laughs]

    10. AMAndy Macdonald47:50

        ... I would make that, and it was so frustrating. Um, but yeah, I g- I got my British passport. I went over to the British Nationals and, um, and, and struggled through riding this little eight-foot deep bowl, um, that, that happened to be, um, in the next town over from Luton, where my dad was born. Um, and, uh, and ended up getting third place in the contest. Um, the kid that won was 12 years old. Uh, the kid that got second was 23. And then me, I was 48 years old at the time, and then the kid that got fourth was 12.

    11. SPSpeaker48:24

        [laughs]

    12. AMAndy Macdonald48:24

        So, and a lot of those kids became my team members. Um, so, uh, that, that's how, uh, [laughs] that's how, um, it started. And then, um, I got invited to be a part of the British National Team. So, um, Britain paid my way to go to the, um, the qualifying series. So the next contest was in-- Uh, the first contest was that one I mentioned in Dubai. Um, and then there was Argentina and then, um, Italy,

14. 48:55 – 58:02

    The two-and-a-half-year qualification grind—and the ‘miracle run’ to Paris

    1. AMAndy Macdonald48:55

       and then, uh, Dubai again. And by the time I got to Dubai, um, I was, I was-- I had been humbled. [laughs] I was just like, "This isn't really gonna happen." Like, I, I basically, like, I gave up a, a number of times throughout this two-and-a-half-year process of trying to qualify. Uh, the first time was that first contest I, I mentioned. There's 135 guys, and I'm like, you know- The 10th guy to go. There's n- they don't even remember me skating. Like, there's no way. I got, like, 50th place, so I was just like, "This isn't... Like, I c- I can't do this. Like, I'm not even close." You know? Like, coming from having never missed a cut in my professional career. Like, I was always top 10, and then I got, like, 50th place. And I [laughs] was just like-

    2. SPSpeaker49:37

       [laughs]

    3. AMAndy Macdonald49:37

       ... "Oh my God." Um, and so, I... It was just, it was just like, you know, um, Darren, the, the guy that runs, um, uh, Skateboard Great Britain, he was always just like, "This is a marathon and it's not a sprint. Y- it's a long process. This is gonna take two and a half years to qualify for Paris. Take it slow." You know? So he got me to come out to the next contest, and I did a little better, and I missed the cut. Like y- first you have to make a c- a, a quarterfinal cut, which is, like, a 30 cut or something, and if you make that, then there's a semifinal, whatever. Um, I missed this... I missed the quarterfinal cut by, like, two in Argentina, and that kinda gave me a little hope. And so I went into Italy thinking like, "All right. I got this. I'm gonna m-" And we got to have a training camp, and go to Italy and, and skate the park, and get a line down, and this is it. This is my best effort. Didn't make the cut again.

    4. SPSpeaker50:27

       Oh.

    5. AMAndy Macdonald50:28

       And I was just like, "Oh my God." So by the time I got to, um, Dubai, I was like, "I'm just having fun. This is... It's great that I s- get to continue to do this, and it's paid for. Um-

    6. SPSpeaker50:37

       Yeah

    7. AMAndy Macdonald50:38

       ... I, I'm not really, like, making a living as a professional skateboarder anymore. I'm just gonna have a go at this and, and get, I get to be in Dubai, and meet new people, and skate new places, whatever." Um, and that was my attitude at this last chance qualifier in Dubai. Um, you had to be in the top, uh, 44, um, to make it to the next round of qualification for Paris, and I was going into that contest, like, 49th or something. Like-

    8. SPSpeaker51:03

       Yeah

    9. AMAndy Macdonald51:03

       ... not really close. I would've had to do pretty well. Um, and, and skated the contest, had fun, um, but was... knew I wasn't gonna make it. I d- I, I had taken off my pads and actually gone across town to skate this other skate park that evening after the, after my, my round, 'cause I was always in the earlier rounds because I w- I was s- I was ranked so low. So, um, I'm, I'm, uh, skating, or I wa- I just finished skating, um, this park across town, and my phone rings, and they're like, "Andy, where you at? Uh, they need, they need you back at the venue. Y- they need your headshot." I'm like, "Why? I didn't make it. Like, I'm done." You know? Like, I thought I was going home, like, whatever. And they're like, "No, no. You, you made the top 44. You're 43rd-

    10. SPSpeaker51:46

        [laughs]

    11. AMAndy Macdonald51:47

        ... and we need a headshot because you qualified for the OQS," which is the Olympic Qualifying Series. The next phase of, of, um, the road to Paris was the OQS, and, uh, the top 44 in the world go. I was 43rd, so [laughs] I was just like, "Whoa, all right. I guess I'm going." And, and now it's the... Now the IOC is paying for the events, so they're building, uh, the bowls and, um, as, as, uh, Team Great Britain, uh, you have to, you have to actually wear your kit. You have to wear something that's, like, Great Britain, and you have to wear the flag, and you h- we're all kitted out, as they, as they called it. Um, and again, I was just like, "Okay." Like, "I'm r- I'm, I'm down for the ride." I get to go to the next qualifier, which is in Shanghai, China. Uh, and then the last one was in Budapest, Hungary. Um, went to Shanghai and did okay. Bumped up a few spots, but wasn't still really, like, close enough, uh, to really have a shot at it. Um, so going into the last qualifier contest in, in, uh, Budapest, um, Daz said to me, uh, he's like, "You need to make the, the semifinal cut to, to have a shot at it. You have to make top 16." And so n- since we were only 44 skaters at that point, the first cut was that, that top 16 cut. And, um, uh, I was in an earlier round because of my ranking, um, and went into it just like, "Same deal." Like, "I'm just here having fun. There's no way I'm gonna qualify, but if there's a shot, it's gotta be everything I have. Like, it's gotta be all my hardest stuff that I can possibly do." Um, and you get two, you get two tries in the qualifiers. You get two runs. Um, and in my first run, uh, I got t- two-thirds of the way through it, and I, and I missed a flip trick. Um, and my coach, Sam Beckett, was like, "Hey, man. Maybe that, that flip trick is just, like, a frontside error or whatever." And I was like, "No, dude. L- this is... If it's gonna happen, it's gotta ha- it's got, it's gotta all be here." I, I have to win my heat by a margin to even have a shot at making the top 16, because generally the scores go up as the, as the, as the rounds go up 'cause the guys are ranked higher and they skate better. Um, so, uh, I sure enough went it for, for... I, I just said, "I'm gonna, I'm gonna go for that same run again. I'm gonna go for that flip trick. I'll just go faster, and if it doesn't flip, I'll fix it." And sure enough, I went into that flip trick and it didn't flip, and I just flew out in front of me, and I put it on my feet anyways. And in skateboarding, you messed up and you should've fallen, but extra points-

    12. SPSpeaker54:19

        [laughs]

    13. AMAndy Macdonald54:19

        ... you didn't fall. You know? So, um, I, I finished my run. I, like, couldn't believe that I d- I did all the tricks that I'd done. Uh, the, the, uh, third to last trick was a fakie 540 over the, over the jump box, which I had made one time in practice. Of, like, four days of practice, I had only ever made it once. So made that and was just like, "Oh my God." Just like this surreal, like, I can't believe I just did that whole run. Like, the run of my life, and popped out, and the scores came up, and I had won my heat by a margin. Like, by, like, 13 points, and even then, I was just like, "Wow, that's crazy. I did way better than I thought, but I still am not gonna make it." You know? Like, 'cause the, the, the rest of the contest is still to go. There's still four more heats of guys that are trying to qualify for the games ahead of me. And so I went and literally, like, went, hit the showers. Went and took a shower, and mellowed out for a little while, and then, um, found my way back to the, the athlete lounge, and, um, my coach, Sam Beckett, came and found me, and he's like, "Hey, man. I've been crunching the numbers doing, and it looks like, like e- even if you don't make the cut, um, y- you'd be in there." I was like, "What are you talking about?" I went and looked at the board, and I was, like, sixth. And I was just like, "What?" And then the, the next, the last round was still to go, and those are all the guys that are either already qualified for the Olympics or, like, are gonna qualify. They all make their runs. They're all scoring. They're- it's better than my score. So sure enough, I watched all those guys go. Um, there was 11 of them, and I watched 10 of them go, and I got bumped down to 16th place. 16th is the cut. And, um, there's one guy that hasn't made a run, and it's Pedro Barros, who's, like, the Brazilian phenom, silver medalist from Tokyo, and, um, he's gonna make his run. He, he had bailed his first two runs, but it's Pedro Barros. Of course, he's gonna make it, whatever. And Sam's in the background, like, crunching the numbers. He's like, "I think, I think you got it. I'm not sure. Remember this number?" And he's just, like, [laughs] on his cellphone trying to figure out the rankings and every, you know, like, there's a big bump if you get 16th as opposed to 17th or whatever. Um, and as it turned out, had I gotten 17th, I, I still would've qualified. But basically, like, we're watching the finals happen, and Sam's just like, "Okay, if you get 16th, you're in for sure." And so we're sitting there watching Pedro Barros drop in. If he makes his run, I get bumped to 17th, and I don't go to the Olympics. If he bails, I get 16th, I make the cut, and I'm in the Olympics for sure. And he drops in and bails third wall. And my jaw just hit the ground, and Sam took a picture of me like [laughs] and then just tackled me. He's like, "You're going to the Olympics." And Daz comes over, and he was just like, "You wanted to give up three different times, and here you are," like, just miracle run, and, and I qualified for the games. And went and gave Pedro a giant hug. "Thank you for bailing." [laughs]

    14. DJDavid McIntosh Jr57:04

        [laughs]

    15. AMAndy Macdonald57:04

        'Cause he was already qualified. Didn't matter, like he was going to the Olympics anyways, you know? Um, and he had no idea. But, um, yeah, so it was just like that was the lock. Um, and it was just fun, just, just, like, kinda surreal experience because I went into it, the whole, the whole two and a half years, I was, "I'm not gonna make it. This is just for fun or whatever." Um, and it, it actually, um, in the end was a bigger deal to me than I thought, you know? I, I, um, went back to my hotel and called my wife and had a good cry, just like, I did this thing that I didn't think was possible. Um, and, uh, and then everything happened really fast. But, um, I was on the train from London to Paris on my birthday, on my 51st birthday, to go to the Olympics and go stay in the athlete village and become an Olympian. And it's pretty surreal, just, like, life, life, uh, the f- the, the, the experience of a lifetime, for sure.

15. 58:02 – 1:01:25

    Was the Olympics the pinnacle? Media spotlight, joy-first mindset, and closing reflections

    1. DJDavid McIntosh Jr58:02

       I can imagine with all of the achievements that you had gained from skateboarding, whether it was your X Games single medals or doubles medals, Dew Tour, any of the competitions like the World Cup Series, any of the sponsorship deals, I can imagine there were so many worthwhile achievements in that journey. However, do you think that the Olympics was the pinnacle of the career?

    2. AMAndy Macdonald58:25

       [sighs] [laughs]

    3. DJDavid McIntosh Jr58:27

       Especially at the age of 51.

    4. AMAndy Macdonald58:28

       I, yeah, I mean, that's what, like, that's the, that's the Cinderella story, like, that the media, like, I, there w- there was more media around the Olympics and, like, the old guy making it, like [laughs] like, um, around that than any other thing in my whole career. Like, pe- like, people, news broadcasters from, like, Forbes magazine to New York Times to, like, Ugandan Free Press, like, just, like, everywhere, from all over the world for, like, weeks, I was just, like, doing Zoom calls, just, like, interview after interview. I was just like, wow, this is, like, next level stuff, nothing I'd ever experienced in any of my sponsorship deals and, and, and X Games, uh, wins or World Cup championships. Like, I'm 10-time world championship. No one cares, like [laughs] um... But yeah, the Olympics is, is just, like, this, this whole other, like, you know, uh, on one, in one re- regard, it's like this, it's, it's been around for 100 years and blah, blah, blah. Um, it's like this, this pinnacle of sport because so many people see it, so many people watch it. Um, and it was the, the, the thrill of a lifetime, um, the experience of a lifetime. And, and from my perspective as a skateboarder, like, the opportunity for me to show the world, the biggest stage I'll ever be on, that skateboarding is the funnest thing and the most inclusive thing that you can do. And, and, um, my goal going into skating the, the, the contest in Paris was I'm gonna show people the joy of skateboarding. And, um, in, in every, all the feedback that I got, uh, from people that watched it, um, were like, "You look like you were having a good time." And I was like, "Good," 'cause I was. That was the, that was the goal. I'm glad that came across because the, my, my Olympic gold was making it to the Olympics, so by the time I got there, I was just like, "I'm just soaking, soaking this up. I'm just, I wanna experience being an Olympic athlete, being an Olympian, and going to the, the, like, living in the, in the athlete village and going to the, eating the chocolate cupcakes in the [laughs] in the, uh, catering place," and, and, and, um, just, like, really enjoying my experience of being an Olympian and, and showing the, the fun and joy of skateboarding, getting that across in a full-

    5. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:00:45

       Andy Macdonald, thank you for being such a positive ambassador for the sport, for being such a worthy advocate for a sport that only, not only represented me but so many of my friends. I really appreciate you taking the time to come see me-

    6. AMAndy Macdonald1:01:00

       Yeah. Thank you

    7. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:01:00

       ... at your home skate park.

    8. AMAndy Macdonald1:01:02

       [laughs] Yeah.

    9. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:01:02

       Uh-

    10. AMAndy Macdonald1:01:02

        It's a pleasure chatting with you.

    11. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:01:04

        Likewise.

    12. AMAndy Macdonald1:01:04

        For sure. Thanks for having me.

    13. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:01:05

        Fellow Scotsman-

    14. AMAndy Macdonald1:01:06

        Yeah

    15. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:01:06

        ... by heritage.

    16. AMAndy Macdonald1:01:07

        Yeah.

    17. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:01:07

        This is super cool, super full circle for me. I'm grateful for you and your time.

    18. AMAndy Macdonald1:01:11

        Thank you. Cheers.

    19. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:01:13

        Cheers. And that's a wrap.

    20. AMAndy Macdonald1:01:15

        Yeah. [laughs] Did you say you were gonna power drive him or what?

    21. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:01:19

        [laughs]

    22. AMAndy Macdonald1:01:22

        There you go.

    23. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:01:23

        [laughs]

    24. AMAndy Macdonald1:01:23

        But it's fine.

    25. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:01:24

        [laughs]

Episode duration: 1:01:25