The 15th Annual Jonathan Broderick Skateboard Competition has grown from the ditches, quite literally, and now acts as a catalyst for local kids interested in skateboarding.
Dating back to 2003, the competition is held in the memory of Jonathan Broderick, a local skateboarder who died after a motorcycle accident in 1999. The San Marcos skateboard community is continuing Broderick’s legacy through the competition, which encourages kids to get involved in skateboarding just as Broderick and his friends did as children.
The competition gives prizes for winners, including skate gear. The contests were separated into age groups that competed in both a street section and bowl section.
This year’s competition was organized by local skateboarder Brete Anderson, San Marcos Community Enhancement Initiatives Manager Amy Kirwin and Cody Hobbs, the owner of local skate shop Texas Skate.
“It’s all about giving local kids a place close to home that they can safely go skate,” Hobbs said.
In its early years, the competition was held at a local skate spot known as the “CFAN Ditch,” a drainage ditch on the side of Interstate Highway 35. In 2007, the Jonathan Broderick Skateboard Competition was held at the San Marcos skatepark for the first time with the help of Texas Skate. With the new skatepark, the contest took on a whole new purpose: get local kids interested in skateboarding.
“We are skaters,” Anderson said. “It didn’t matter to us that we didn’t have a fancy skatepark. We made use of what we had and we skated it.”
Before the skatepark was built, the only place to legally skate in San Marcos was Sewell Park. Anderson and Kirwin decided it was time for someone to stand up for skaters after city ordinances banned on skateboarding at Sewell as well.
Kirwin, who worked for the city, got the ball rolling and took the money from the first Jonathan Broderick Competition, a little over $1,000, and started the Skatepark of San Marcos Non-Profit Committee. Following, she reached out to city officials to help find funding.
In 2003, San Marcos had $50,000 available from Community Development Block Grant funding for a low-income project. After years of garnering public support, the city broke ground on the project in 2006. Less than a year later, the street section of the San Marcos skatepark was complete.
“Getting the support of city officials Bill Taylor and John Thomaides was the turning point that put our plan into action,” Kirwin said.
The San Marcos skatepark is located at 625 E Hopkins St, San Marcos, Texas 78666, and is open from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.