(Andy Macdonald) That comes again from me just liking to be in the air. I’d always been into bouncing on traditional pogo sticks since I was a kid, and I always wondered - it would be neat to develop one for an adult! I grew too big, you know? Me and my friends, we’d bounce on traditional pogo sticks and you can only get so high before it bottoms out, or before you’re too big for it and they just break. So about 3 years ago, I hooked up with this MIT physicist actually, and a company that has the actual original patent on the original pogo stick since 1918. We put together a little bit of a team, and with the physicist’s help as far as how the guts work we came up with an elastic band system that works much like a trampoline - the feel is much like a trampoline. You can get upwards of 6 feet high on a flybar. Which is adjustable - depending on how high you want to bounce and how heavy the bouncer is, you can adjust it by engaging or disengaging the bands. And then it’s just basically a trampoline that you can bring anywhere (laughs). If you can bounce 6 feet high you obviously have more time to do tricks.
(Cave) That’s really high!
(Andy Macdonald) Yeah (smiling). I imagine that once people get on these things and start really pushing to see what they can do, people will do backflips on a flybar for sure. Just like bounce – bounce - flip! And keep on bouncing.
(Cave) That would be nuts!
(Andy Macdonald) Yeah, it would be fun. You can certainly bounce high enough, it’s just a matter of who’s got the guts to do it.
(Cave) So where do you see yourself going from here, in the future.
(Andy Macdonald) More of the same. There’s a new tour that NBC is starting up starting next year. It’s called the Action Sports Tour. Probably doing that tour and not much else. There’s a tour that I do with Tony Hawk called the Boom Boom Huck Jam tour. That’s an arena tour, basically a stunt show with BMX, freetyle motocross and skateboarding. And it’s all choreographed with music and basically just a fun show to work on and to be there and watch. So I’ll be doing those two tours this summer, and probably doing not as much traveling. In the past I’ve spent as much as 9 months of the year on the road, and it gets to be quite a bit when you’re just following summer. “We’re going to New Zealand and Brazil because it’s winter here!” And then back up to all over Europe and North America. So, just doing those two tours and still keep doing this professional skateboarding thing as long as I feel like I’m progressing. I’m 31 years old, I have a teammate who’s 39, I think he’ll be 40 this year (Steve Caballero), and he’s still on the pro tour and still going.
Basically I’ll keep doing it competitively as long as I feel like I’m progressing, as long as long as I feel like I’m getting better from one competition to the next. Not even necessarily as placing, but just as far as my own personal performance. And then I’ll probably still be involved in skateboarding in one shape or form, whether it be through the business stuff I do through consulting, or you know teaching skateboarding at a skateboard camp, or just advocating or public skateboard parks. Do a lot of that.
(Cave) Very cool. Nice. Well, thank you!
(Andy Macdonald) Cool! It was good talking to you.
Check out our review of Andy Mac skateboards (Rookie and Grom series), and visit Andy Macdonald's website.
