Congratulations to Mereweather’s master of transition, Jedd McKenzie, winner of our New Gen of the Year award for 2024.
Of the four New Gen profiles we ran in 2023, Jedd was voted the top up-and-comer. He made his mark with his gnarly Independent Raw Ams part and his groundbreaking Slam cover frontside flipping over the Pizzey hip.
Thanks again to everyone who voted in this year’s Slam Skater of the Year awards, presented by Converse CONS.
Check out Jedd’s full New Gen interview from Issue 238 (Winter, 2023) below:
JEDD MCKENZIE
AGE: 21
LIVES: Merewether, NSW
RIDES FOR: Opera, Converse Cons, Independent, Modus, Sanbah
Words by James Turvey. Portrait by Bryce Golder.
As a grommet, Jedd McKenzie made a name for himself on the comp circuit, winning some of the biggest bowl events in Australia and travelling to California to enter the Vans Combi Pool Classic. On paper, it would be easy to assume he’s the kind of guy that would be gunning for the Olympics, or energy drink sponsors.
But he’s actually the complete opposite of that. While he has managed to secure himself a host of pretty serious sponsors, he’s laid back, and when he’s not travelling, he can be found within close proximity to the beach.
With a solo part ready to drop, and filming for the upcoming Cons Australia video, Jedd flew down to Melbourne to shoot some photos with Bryce Golder and complete the trifecta with this article.
In fact, Jedd managed to have a surf and dry off in the 20 minutes it took me to drive from my house and meet him at Bar Beach Bowl to discuss these photos.
“My mum is a flight attendant, and although Cons pay for my travel, they don’t need to because I already get cheap flights,” Jedd explains. “But they paid for my hotel room. Bryce told me there was this really old vert ramp, and when we got there, we had it to ourselves. It’s fun because it’s not a scary size, but it’s still big enough that you can boost on it.”
It’s no wonder Jedd’s indy air is done with a classic textbook style to complement the vintage walls of the Epping vert ramp – he’s family friends with Australian vert legend, Michael McDonald. Michael had pro models on Omni in the ’90s, and in some ways, has served as a kind of mentor.
“Macka is friends with my Mum,” says Jedd. “I met him when I was really young, and he has helped me out ever since. He showed me the real way to do tricks, no stink bugs, and proper tuck knee style. He told me about the industry and a bunch of stuff as well, because he’s done it before.”
Indy air. Epping, Victoria. Photo by Bryce Golder.
“I LEARNT TO HEELFLIP INDY ON TRANSITION BEFORE I COULD HEELFLIP ON FLAT.”
Jedd lives in Merewether, a beachside suburb of Newcastle, so it’s no surprise that he surfed before he started skating. What might surprise you is that Jedd surfs goofy-footed, but skates natural. So, in a way, all the tricks in this article are kind of switch...
“My dad used to skate as well,” Jedd tells me. “He actually still skates a little bit, so he got me into it, and then when I was nine, I got a mini ramp for Christmas, and I just started skating natural footed even though I surfed goofy.”
Bar Beach Skatepark opened about a year later and that’s where he learnt frontside flips, or switch frontside flips if you go by his surfing stance, on the tiny quarter pipe connected to the street section. Jedd learnt everything he knows on transition first, a concept that’s hard to grasp for people who grew up without access to decent skateparks.
“I learnt to heelflip indy on transition before I could heelflip on flat,” he says. “I love doing frontside flips. The ramp in that photo isn’t actually that big; it’s only about eight foot,” he says humbly, despite the fact that he’s catching his board almost double the height of the ramp.
Frontside flip, Kensington Skatepark, Victoria. Photo by Bryce Golder.
“Bryce would roll around every park we went to for the photos in this interview; he shreds,” Jedd says when asked if he felt a lot of pressure to get photos on the trip down to Victoria. “He was grinding around the bowl at Brunswick. That frontside invert was shot on the first day I got there, and we got another one that same day, so I felt less pressure after that.”
At the recent Belco Bowl Jam, Jedd won the highest air comp without pads, so it makes sense that he’s comfortable doing this padless frontside invert at Brunswick Skatepark.
“I feel more comfortable without pads on,” he says. “Sometimes when I get to the bowl, if I go to put pads on, I just don’t feel like skating. I padded up the other day to learn kickflip lien airs, though. I’d been trying to learn them forever.”
Not wearing kneepads means not being able to knee slide out of trouble, which sounds sketchy to someone like me, having never skated a decent-sized ramp in my life, and especially because Jedd has broken his feet multiple times – but he doesn’t seem phased.
“When I was younger, I went to a couple of the qualifiers for the Olympics, but I broke my foot,” he says. “It was basically whoever skated the most events made it in. I broke both feet twice and couldn’t really skate for two years. I broke my left one and was off my board for four months. Then, I randomly broke my right foot two weeks after I started skating again. And I’ve done that twice.”
Frontside invert, Brunswick, Victoria. Photo by Bryce Golder.
“I FEEL MORE COMFORTABLE WITHOUT PADS ON.”
It’s hard to imagine anything making this bowl more dangerous than it already is – over-vert with patchy concrete and a hoard of little pests crawling all over it, but not the kind most people are used to at skateparks. These ones had six legs, not two.
“That thing was huge, it was so sketch, and I’d never even seen it before,” Jedd explains. “It was full of these bugs – I don’t know if they were crickets or cockroaches, but the whole bowl was covered in them when we first arrived. I was skating through them at the start and they were getting squashed beneath my wheels. It was horrid. Luckily this dude on a BMX went and got his broom and swept them all up for us. I got this back Smith and a frontside nosegrind tailgrab as well.”
Jedd’s former boss at Madness, Bill Weiss, known for doing nude 540s, wouldn’t fare well sliding through the bugs on his bare backside. But when I bring up Weiss, Jed informs me that Madness is done and that Weiss has a new company called Opera, which has only just been announced.
“From what I heard, a big corporate company bought Dwindle, and I don’t really know, but they were trying to do wack shit. They ended up firing Weiss, and the whole team just stuck by him, because Madness would have been nothing without him. The new Opera team is Clay Kreiner, Jack Fardell, Sam Beckett, Trey Wood, Alex Perelson, Nick Papa, and me. It’s basically everyone from Madness. The graphics are sick, and I love the name, too. I should get all the new boards in the next couple of weeks.”
Backside Smith grind, Epping Skatepark. Photo by Bryce Golder.
“I had to work for that one for ages; it took me about an hour,” Jedd says about this frontside nosegrind, which means it was hard, because anyone that has ever witnessed him skate knows how consistent he is.
It’s OK, though. What goes around, comes around and Jedd is patient. On the recent Cons trip where he first met Bryce, he spent a lot of time waiting for his own terrain.
“At most of the spots, I’d just be sitting there drinking beers and watching the rest of the team, unless there was a fun-looking wallie or something. The trip was sick, though. Everyone was so nice. Nog [Noah Smith] was having a bit of a crack with me at Corio. Samske [Sam Fairweather] did, too. He does some gnarly switch drop-ins. I think he might even skate transition goofy.”
According to Izrayl [Brinsdon, Cons filmer], Jedd got a reputation for ordering the most expensive steaks he could find on the trip, and the team manager told him he was going to have to start paying him back.
“I got so scared,” he says. “I didn’t know [Jacob Boyd-Skinner] was joking. I only got one expensive meal. I wanted a steak, and the only one they had ended up being 50 bucks. I felt so bad. He was fully taking the piss and I didn’t know.”
Frontside nosegrind, Greensborough, Victoria. Photo by Bryce Golder.
“GRANT TAYLOR WAS THERE, AND WHEN I SAW HIM, I WAS LIKE, I’M JUST GOING TO WATCH.”
This DIY barrier spot was built by a couple of Newcastle locals in the vein of BA.KU. Lodged between a semi-trailer depot and the snake-riddled salt bushes of the harbour, it’s not an easy one to hit. And, until Brendan Frost managed to lure Jedd out there, I don’t think anyone had managed to ollie out of it, at least not like Jedd.
“I didn’t even want to go there when Frosty first showed it to me,” Jedd says laughing. “I was like, ‘That looks fucked. it’s about two feet tall!’ I didn’t think I could do anything on it that was worth a photo, but it worked out well. I actually love that photo. It’s a pretty random spot.’
Secluded spots like this barrier are the antithesis of the ramps Jedd cut his teeth on during his competition days. “I get too nervous in comps now; that’s why I don’t really do them anymore,” says Jedd. “I’d go if I was invited to the X-Games or something. The only Australian comp I’ve been to recently is Belco, and that’s not really a comp. It’s more of a jam. Over the past three years I’ve only done Belco, Tampa twice, and I did one comp in Europe, too. The Copenhagen Cup was more like a bowl jam. Grant Taylor was there, and when I saw him, I was like, I’m just going to watch.”
Backside ollie, Newcastle. Photo by Brendan Frost.
Slam Issue 239. Photo by Wade McLaughlin.
