While looking for old footage of X Games Vert Runs, I kept running into the limitations of internet records. While I used to think you could find anything posted online, there is a lot of footage that I just can't find online.
X Games 2 took place in Rhode Island. Back then the format was 3 45 second runs. The lowest run was dropped and the highest 2 runs were averaged together. Back then, there was a bigger emphasis on consistency.
Andy MacDonald won this competition with his highest run scoring an 89. I never watched this contest when it first aired in 1996 however I was lucky enough that it was aired on Eurosport and posted up to youtube.
Andy's 89 scoring run was his third run and he had to knock off Tony Hawk from first. After watching this run, you really see how much vert has progressed over the last 20 plus years. Andy's run had several setup airs, repeat tricks, and stalls used for setup. Despite that, it is still fun to watch these old runs.
This vert ramp appears to be 12 feet high.
Andy starts off his run with a Frontside 5-0 on the first wall and leads into a 3 to 4 foot Frontside Air on the second wall.
He hits wall 3 with about a four foot Backside Melon on the extension and gets a 5 foot Backside Method on wall 4.
On wall 4, he does a 5 foot Frontside Indy Stiffy and leads into a Frontside Stalefish about 3 foot out on wall 6.
On walls 7 and 8, Andy does a four foot Frontside Mute and a three to four foot Backside Melon.
On wall 9, he does a McTwist about 4 to 5 feet high. He follows that up with a 4 to 5 foot Backside Melon on wall 10.
On wall 11, he does a four to five foot Backside Kickflip to Indy and follows it up with a Frontside Madonna about 2 to 3 feet out on wall 12.
On wall 13, he does a Backside Axel to set up for a Frontside Wrap Around about 2 feet out on wall 14.
He does another Backside Axel on wall 15 to setup the next trick. On wall 16, he busts out one of the most difficult tricks in his run. He does a Backside 540 Body Varial 3 to 4 feet out on the wall.
For further clarification, Andy's body spins a 540 going backside while his skateboard spins 360 going backside.
On wall 17, he does a Backside Varial four to five feet out and does a Backside 360 Varial on wall 18 about 3 feet out.
On wall 19, he finishes out his run with a Nollie Heelflip Indy to Fakie about one foot out.
During Andy's Run, he does the following:
19 total tricks
16 tricks in the air
3 tricks on the coping
2 tricks spinning a 540 rotation
1 trick landing in fakie
1 grind
2 stalls
7 tricks going Frontside
10 tricks going Backside
2 flip tricks
During this run, Andy repeats a Frontside Air, Backside Axle, and a Backside Melon.
He kept most of his air tricks up around the 4 foot range.
No switch tricks were done and there were a lot of setup airs.
The highlights of the run include the Backside 540 Body Varial as well as the Nollie Heelflip Indy to Fakie. He also did a Backside 360 Varial and a Frontside Wrap Around which were not seen that often during this competition. He also does a McTwist in his run but it was a common trick back then.
I do wonder what a run like this would score today. In the last several vert competitions, you wouldn't see basic stall tricks for setups or several basic airs.
Luckily, Andy has competed consistently in just about every X Games since inception so we can actually compare the scores from his 2018 Vert run to this one.
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