Jodi McDonald from West Palm Beach, Florida began skateboarding in 1986 when she was 14 years old, and according to fellow vert skater Heidi Fitzgerald, “Jodi brought speed, aggression – it was like, beautiful chaos when she skated.”
[October 24th Update: Jodi’s battle with breast cancer continues, so please enjoy this post but consider donating to her GoFundMe page]
Photo: Jenna Hirt, Jen O’Brien and Jodi in 1989, from Thrasher March 2022.
In a recent profile by Dawne Belloise for the Crested Butte News, Jodi shared how she was raised by her hippie mom on the Suwannee River in a treehouse, doing their dishes and taking baths in the river, in contrast to her stockbroker Dad and his new family down on Palm Beach. Jodi essentially “grew up on the beach and the boys would go surfing and ask us to keep an eye on their skateboards for them,” but instead, they would rip around on them!
Once she graduated from high school in 1989, “all she really wanted to do was skate and Daytona Beach, Florida seemed like the place to be” (Belloise). Jodi was part of the action at the Stone Edge skatepark in South Daytona, which was constructed in 1989 featuring concrete bowls and vert ramps, and along with Jen O’Brien, and a bunch of dudes, she was part of the Glug crew. Jodi shared that Stone Edge was pivotal and from there, “I went to Charleston, South Carolina, and skated the Hanger, also Atlanta, and Dallas” before heading west to San Diego.
Photo: Stone Edge skate park circa 1989
I was clawing through old issues of TransWorld skateboarding magazine feeling super frustrated, when a sequence of Jodi transferring a hip and catching air finally appeared, documented by J. Grant Brittain. I let out a sigh of relief and said, “Thank God for Jodi!”
Jodi’s photo and article (reading more like beat poetry) by Adam Luxford in the August 1993 issue of TransWorld was the only feature of a woman skateboarding in this publication for two whole years! That’s 1992 and 1993 – how brutal is that? TransWorld may have been smut free, but the publisher did little to support female skaters.
Jodi had gone pro in 1992 and was age 21 at the time of the article, sponsored by Milk, Tracker, Vans and Dead End, although she would eventually get hooked up by Reef shoes and Independent trucks.
Luxford reported that, “She has been seen with smelly drunk boys who don’t brush their teeth a lot. Jodi lived behind a door in a shoebox, always drinks free beer, ate dinner neck deep in the Swanee River, also lived in a treehouse, and she drools and dribbles uncontrollably while laughing at thin air.” Sounds pretty adorable to me! “She wears plaid with stripes, and argyle sox with blue lipstick. Metallica, King Diamond, Slayer, and Bob Marley are the tunes of choice, while smothered sirloin with mushroom sauce is her favorite desk (she eats Masonite and concrete for dessert).” The description also suggested she was of hippie parent origin, and “Some boys make fun of her, but they’re just jealous of her style” (83).
Photo: Vans ad featuring Jodi, Jen and Cara-Beth in the April 1997 issue of Thrasher by Patty Segovia.
Jodi, Jen and Cara-beth Burnside were tight friends, and when Cara-beth got a snowboarding feature in the July 1994 issue of Thrasher, all three of them contributed to the banter. Cara-beth explained, “Jen and Jody are my bad influences, they come around and just cause all kinds of hell. They make things fun. This is my posse.”
Photo by Miki Vuchovich: Jodi competing in the AGSJ, which was included in an article called “Girls Kicking Ass” by Tiffany Steffens for the February 1998 issue of TransWorld Skateboarding mag.
When Patty Segovia launched the first-ever All Girl Skate Jam in Chula Vista, California at the Graffix warehouse on September 7th, 1997, Jodi was there! She took a second place in vert behind Cara-beth and ahead of Jen, Kyla Duffy, Heidi Fitzgerald, Starr Quinn, Isabelle Ranger and Ashley Mull. This was a game-changing event!
Photos: Jodi launching a mute air appeared in Thrasher in the December 1998 issue, photographer unknown and a Patty Segovia pic.
The 2nd annual AGSJ event in San Diego at the Escondido Sports Center would result in Jodi taking 3rd place (with Cara-beth and Jen ahead) in pro women’s vert. Wez Lundry wrote an article called “Chicks with Sticks” on the event for Thrasher in the January 1999 issue (pp. 88-91). Lundry wrote, “Jodi McDonald was cruising 50-50s and airs and rolled in during the contest backside, which is gnarly on vert.” Apparently there was big session and party at the Nude Bowl that went into the wee hours of the night.
Photos above by Patty Segovia in Punk Planet magazine (May/June 1998).
In the Summer 1998 issue of Skateboarder, thirteen questions were fired at five of the leading female skateboarders of that time being Jodi, Jaime Reyes, Elissa Steamer, O’Brien, and Burnside, on behalf of Jessie Van Roechoudt of Rookie fame.
Jodi shared that she had moved west from Florida and was living in Mission Beach, CA. And even though healing was on her mind, “I eat, sleep, and skate. I’ve been skating for 14 years, and skating is like breathing now… I liked it when vert died: it kept the family together. Everyone who is good now are the ones who stuck with it through the drought.” Jodi also felt that creativity in skateboarding was important, “because everything you do is individual. Everything you do is your own style. Everyone can do the same trick and each one can be completely different.”
Jodi concluded her batch of questions, sharing that she was spiritual and “Every day I thank the spirits that be for what I have and what I am.”
Photo: Desiree Astorga from 1999
Jodi was a regular at the AGSJ events, which was expanding its offerings. By 1999, there were three contests! In May at Rhode Island, Jodi tied for 2nd place with Jen, in September at San Diego back to 3rd behind Candy, and another 3rd place in Haliewa, Hawaii in November. All first place finishes were CB! The following year, another 2nd place tie with Candy at Mountain Creek Resort, Vernon, NJ in 2000.
Slam City Jam in Vancouver, Canada clued in to all the great women’s vert action and became the only World Cup event offering a women’s vert division in 2000 with ten competitors (they started offering women’s street in 1998). This time Candy bested Jodi, followed by Lindsi Thompson, Wendy Willhoite, and Starr Quinn.
- Article from Check It Out girl’s skateboard magazine Issue 5 (2000) featuring Jodi in her 1979 Bluebird shortbus.
In the August 2001 issue of Thrasher there’s a small article about a party at Kelly Belmar’s DIY pool in Huntington in April of that year. Skaters were celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the pool. Wez Lundry wrote, “Jodi MacDonald had some fast lines, airs, and grinds down, proving that some chicks can put it up there better than the men.”
2002 was a hard year for Jodi with a knee injury sustained at an All Girl Skate Jam, and the passing of her father, based on Susanne Tabata’s SkateGirl (2006) documentary. In her profile for the Crested Butte News, Jodi shared how she had turned to partying and drugs to ease the pain. “After several arrests, she became determined to change her course. ‘Literally, I just got in my car and drove. I went up to Lincoln City, Oregon, another famous skate spot, and started skating again.’ All her friends had written her off. ‘They thought I was done, down and out,’ she remembers.” And this all unfolded in the documentary…
But Jodi persevered, and by 2004 she was back in the contest mix, charging and getting top ten World Cup rankings. Belloise wrote that after the filmer, Susanne Tabata tracked her down in Lincoln City there was a contest called the Golden Otter that week. “No one had seen Jodi for four years and she arrived under the radar. ‘I took my runs and took the contest,’ she says. She was 34 years of age. Word spread that she was back and skating better than ever.”
When the X Games in Los Angeles started offering women’s vert, Jodi was up for the challenge. In 2006 she placed 7th, and the same in 2007 alongside a cut-throat line-up. She also had a fifth-place finish at the 2007 Vans ProTec Pool Party. The following year, Jeff Greenwood of Concrete Disciples got a photo of her at Lincoln City, competing in the 2008 Oregon Trifecta (above). Jeff stated that she is “one of the most powerful women skaters out there. Here she is pulling a rare one out of the trick bag, back stale off the extension.”
Jodi continued to travel and live in a variety of locations, as described in her profile by Dawne Belloise. She had her son, Adam in 2009 while living in Oahu’s North Shore.
Jodi truly ripped and was inducted into the Florida Skateboard Hall of Fame in 2015, the same year as Elissa Steamer. She was still competing in 2015 at the Florida Bowlriders Cup at Kona Skatepark, placing 3rd behind Autumn Tust and Grace Marhoefer, and ahead of young guns like Poe Pinson.
Footage from the SkateGirl (2006) documentary by Susanne Tabata. Jodi was also interviewed in the 1999 documentary by Tara Cooper called Live and Let Ride.
Unfortunately, as of 2017, Jodi has been battling breast cancer, and a GoFundMe was organized by Emily Oliver (Founder of Cherry Skateboards).
Wez Lundry rallied for Jodi and her battle with cancer posting an article to Thrasher’s website – “Help Jodi McDonald Fight Cancer” (September 20, 2018). Wez wrote, “Jodi was part of the infamous ripping and hard-partying Team Glug out of Daytona, Florida, and local to Stone Edge. She relocated to San Diego with fellow Glug member Jen O’Brien where the two became fixtures in the vert and backyard pool scenes, occupying a transitional point in women’s skating and serving as examples to up and coming girl skaters. Jodi has made her home in Colorado for the past few years, and is now seeking treatment. Please dig deep and help a sister out.”
Many skateboarders gave Jodi support at this time, including vert skater Andy MacDonald via Twitter who acknowledged that she was one of the first women he ever saw blasting out of a vert ramp! Sined skateboards released a sweet Jodi McDonald signature board, with 100% of the proceeds going to help with her medical bills, as shared out via Lowcard magazine.
Meghan “Migzy” McGuire, editor of Bigfoot Skate Magazine wrote some memories of meeting Jodi in an article called “Jodi McDonald – Payback Time” from August 16, 2020. Meghan first witnessed Jodi pushing her limits and taking some serious slams in Vancouver in 2000. She then got to roadtrip with Jodi in her customized bus, which was wallpapered in skateboarding stickers. And just being in Jodi’s presence motivated Meghan to drop-in to a vert ramp for the first time.
McGuire explained that, “no one in the world is more influential in skateboarding and life adjacent than Jodi McDonald… Jodi was warm and generous and her inspiration on a skateboard was colossal. But her spirit? Intergalactic… Jodi gave me the gift of validity when I really needed it. I felt like she took me under her wing. And who knows how many people feel the same way. There is no-one on earth that epitomizes the spirit and mission of BIGFOOT than Jodi McDonald.”
Please note that a new GoFundMe page has been created for Jodi, as the battle continues!
Wishing healing and all good things for Jodi – a legendary skateboarder who helped change the game for women!
Photos: J. Grant Brittain, Desiree Astorga, Capo, Cobourn Huff, Jeff Greenwood, Liza Araujo, Luciana Toledo, Miki Vuchovich, Patty Segovia
Reference:
- Belloise, Dawne. “Profile: Jodi McDonald,” Crested Butte News, December 27, 2023.
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