The master of mega, Jake Brown, is our tenth inductee to the Slam Hall of Fame – presented by Converse Cons.
Words by Trent Fahey. Photo by Brian Fick.
Three people come to mind when I think of skaters who dominate the almighty Megaramp: Danny Way, Bob Burnquist and our very own Jake Brown. Born in 1974, the kid from Cronulla spent his young years honing his skills on the Fairfield mini and Mona Vale vert. Jake’s first checkout in Slam was back in ’92 and he remembers those days clearly. “My photo was on the Fairfield mini ramp on a parking block on the far side of the ramp,” he says. “Those days were so epic. We all used to stay at Danny Van’s house every weekend. He was so epic and down to support the groms and their skate dreams. He would do McTwists on the mini ramp extension when barely anyone could do them. He would squat out of them, so we would all call him Squatty Scam.”
Jake moved to Melbourne when he was 16 and began skating with vert legends like the Pappas brothers, Jason Ellis, Gary Valentine and Dom Kekich. After a year of skating with these guys that were at the forefront of vertical skateboarding, he packed his bags and moved to Southern California.
Jake was virtually sponsorless when he arrived on American soil, but in time he had a break and was picked up by Blind. Since then Jake filmed a part in their video What If and killed every contest he entered.
The contest that exposed Jake Brown to the entire world was X-Games 2007 when he fell 45 feet to flat. You all know the story, he’s a bloody tough cookie, somehow shook it off and walked away from arguably the gnarliest slam of all time – concussed, with a fractured wrist, fractured vertebrae, bruised liver, bruised lung and a ruptured spleen.
Jake Brown has so many achievements to be proud of – winning gold medals, named by Transworld as the 2005 Vert Skater of the Year, hell, he’s even been a computer-game character in EA Skate 2. When reflecting on his career during our chat I asked Jake what he’s most proud of. “Honestly, just coming from nothing and staying pure to my love for skateboarding and following it wherever it took me,” he says down the line from his home in Encinitas.
“There’s been so many ups and downs, but I’ve stayed fairly true to the type of skating I love. I’ve skated with 99 per cent of my heroes and I’m friends with most of them now.”
The Slam Hall of Fame celebrates the legendary skateboarders who had the potential to win Australia’s SOTY in their prime with coverage in Slam and abroad, or have made a huge impact on Australian skateboarding.
Previous Hall of Fame Inductees:
2012 – Dustin Dollin
2013 – Matt Mumford
2014 – Andrew Currie
2015 – Tas Pappas
2016 – Anthony Mapstone
2017 – Morgan Campbell
2018 – Tim ‘Dorfus’ McDougall
2019 – Andrew Mapstone
2020 – Chad Bartie
2021 – Jake Brown
Article cut from Slam Issue 197.
