Jackalope Ventura Arrives Loud with JD Sanchez Taking Vert

For one weekend, Ventura turned into the center of skateboarding.

The ocean was right there. Salt sat in the air. The sidewalks were packed with people carrying boards, old pros leaning on barricades, photographers hunting angles, and families watching people launch themselves twenty feet above a vert ramp like it was completely normal behavior.

And somehow, for a first-year event, Jackalope Fest already felt legendary.

Everything about it was dialed.

The setup.
The energy.
The crowds.
The skating.

You could feel people realizing in real time that this wasn’t just another contest stop. Ventura fit Jackalope perfectly. The city, the coastline, the skate culture, the mix of art, music, food, and vert all collided into one of those rare weekends people end up talking about years later starting with:

“Were you there for that first Jackalope in Ventura?”

MERGE4 was supposed to be there in person.

Then the Stagecoach winds hit.

After the 60mph gusts damaged our setup and flipped our schedule upside down, we couldn’t physically make the trip happen the way we planned. Missing the event was brutal because this one mattered to us. But we were still incredibly proud to create the custom socks for the weekend and be part of something that felt so important right out of the gate.

And then the vert finals started.

The crowd tightened around the ramp. Cameras came up. Every hit started getting louder than the last. Riders were flying high enough that for a second they looked suspended against the Ventura sky before dropping back into transition.

Then JD Sanchez put down the kind of runs that change the entire tone of a contest.

Fast lines. Huge airs. Full control. No hesitation anywhere.

You could feel the momentum building every run until the place finally erupted.

Vert skating has always carried a different kind of weight. There’s history in it. Risk in it. Commitment in it. And JD absolutely owned that ramp.

Huge congratulations to him on the win.

And massive thanks to Joaquin for grabbing that quick clip with JD immediately afterward. 

We’re grateful to the entire Jackalope Fest crew for bringing something this special to Ventura and for having MERGE4 create the custom socks for the event. Pulling off a first-year festival at that level is no joke, and what they built felt awesome from the start.

Ventura showed up.
The skaters showed up.
The fans showed up.

And from everything we saw, Jackalope arrived in California exactly the way it should have.

We'll be there next year if they'll have us.