Born in Sydney, but raised in Hong Kong to English parents, Harry Clarke now calls Barcelona home, and that’s where Flashscore’s Pat Dempsey sat down with Clarke on a brisk spring day to chat all things downhill skateboarding.
From how he discovered the sport through YouTube videos to travelling the globe to 'bomb' the best roads, from winning multiple world titles to suffering serious injuries, the 28-year-old touches on the highs and lows of his own skating career, as well as the sport’s broader concerns.
The Olympics, he tells us, will always be an ambition for downhill. But even if that doesn’t come around soon, Clarke might have another way of getting to the Games… read more to find out what that could be!
For the uninitiated, downhill skateboarding, formerly known as 'downhill longboarding', is an extreme sport involving riding a skateboard down steep roads or hills at high speeds, often exceeding 80 km/h in both freeriding and racing formats.
With the World Downhill Skateboarding Championship (WDSC) tour kicking off this week, it is the perfect time to learn more about this perilous and thrilling sport through the experiences of one of the world's best.
Correct me if I'm wrong, Harry, but last year, you finished second on the downhill world tour. And the year before, you topped it, and the year before that, second again. So, in the last three editions, you've been in the top two athletes globally?
"Yeah, yeah. I think I've been out of the top two just once in the last seven years."
That's crazy. So, would you say you're the 'GOAT'?
"I mean, I wouldn't say that yet. But I'd like to be. There are definitely some guys from the peak era who have some insane stats. But I think of my generation... I'd say I'm up there for sure. For sure."
What's your ambition for this coming season?
"I think the big one is just… the world tour and then the World Cup. If I win at the WDSC one more time, I'll be the only rider in history to win three world tour titles. So, that's always been my goal, since I won my second one."
So, one more, and you're the first person to complete the ‘three-peat’?
"Yeah, because people have done, you know, world tour titles and then World Cup titles. So, people have had up to four combined, five combined of those. But no one's ever won the world circuit three times. So, that's... Like, it's right there, you know? And I crashed every single race last year, and still made second. So, I can do it, man. I can do it, it's right there. That's been my motivation for the longest time."
I wanted to ask about the different tours, because I noticed on your Instagram bio that you were down as WDSC, IDF and World Skate champion. They are three separate bodies, I take it. So is it like three separate belts, to use a boxing analogy?
"Yeah. That's the best way to describe it. And that's why I put it like that. Because not all tours are equal, in my opinion. Or not all organisations are equal. For example, World Skate - that's one race. It's like the World Cup final. Right? And then IDF and the WDSC, those are multiple stops, and it's on points. And for me, those carry more weight."
Because you've got to be consistent?
"You've got to be consistent, and you gotta race around the world, and you gotta race in different places in the world, and you gotta race different people in the world on different types of roads and use different types of skills.
"While at the World Skate race, there are more people there. The competition level is higher. But normally, the road is not as good, and it's just one day. Well, only three days, but it's one event, if you know what I mean? It comes down to that one Sunday (the final)."
World Skate is the body that is connected with the Olympic Games, right?
"Yes. They are the IOC Association, so they're the recognised skate body by the IOC. So they do all the qualifying for the Olympics, for the street, and the park guys. So when we go there, we represent our countries. So, at World Skate, I race for Australia.
"And that's another thing about World Skate, it has a bit more prestige because you go there, you're in the Australian team, you're in your Australian kit, your Australian suit and all that sort of stuff. So people love that. That's a bit more World Cup-esque, while the WDSC, you're more racing for yourself."
Of the three titles, is there one that stands out as the one you’re most proud of winning?
"Honestly, no. But I feel like the WDSC, IDF ones carry more weight because they are across more times. Like, that's the ones I want to win the most. Now that I've already won a World Skate. Now that I have all three, I'd rather have more of the other two.
"Although World Skate, winning them, you get a bit more recognition, although it's marginal. Like, if I win the World Skate, I'm in the Sydney Morning Herald (a daily newspaper in Sydney), for example. Do you know what I mean?"
So the WDSC, which is the tour starting in June, that's like a summer circuit, right?
"Yeah, so that coincides with the start of the season. Today (late March) is the start of the season, basically. And from now until I'd say September, there's an event every weekend in Europe. But yes, the WDSC kind of kicks off in June... but they don't really operate in Europe that much. Because they're trying to do different things.
"They're trying to do broader sporting events rather than just skateboard racing. They're focusing on live streams and media and getting money from local tourism boards to then promote the area, which is why we're going to different locations rather than, you know, the main skateboarding destinations, I'd say. For example, the first event is in Turkey."
From Turkey to the Isle of Man and beyond...
You mentioned live streaming, so people can watch these live. And can you go to them?
"Yeah, you can go to them. So, you can rock up to any of the events. It's all free. You can talk to any of the riders. You can get right up there. You can be in the pits… You have all access if you're a spectator, which is pretty sick. But then you can also watch them on any of the streaming services, or just for free on YouTube. It's on DAZN, and it's on all that sort of stuff.
"This year, we're doing the event on the Isle of Man, and we're racing on the motorcycle track. We went last year, bro, and there were like hundreds of people who had never heard of the sport before, but they just heard about it, and were like, 'Yeah, let's go!' Because they just love racing there. They're racing mad. Well, the only thing that's happening is racing. Just different types of racing all through the year. And they were like, 'Oh, my God, finally something that's not motorbike racing.'
"So, excited for that one. Last year was awesome. This year's going to be even more insane, 'cause we're doing it on the TT track."
Are there any other points on the tour this year that you're really excited about?
"I think Turkey… The track in Turkey that they use is the scariest, most dangerous, fastest track that's ever been raced, ever. So going back there is always, you know, pretty exciting, but also so scary. Like, you wake up every morning, and you're like, 'F*ck, I gotta do it again!'"
See the full WDSC tour calendar and read more about it on their website!
So, you still get the fear?
"Bro, it's impossible (not to). Like, you're doing backside slides at like 110 kilometres an hour with three other guys. It's nuts."
So that fear never goes away… but does it get worse?
"The better you get, yeah. The better you get, the more nervous you get, for sure."
'I vomit before every single run'
Maybe it sounds cliché to say, but is fear a good thing? If you're getting the fear, does it mean you’re pushing your limits?
"Yeah, you care about it, for sure, like 'I'm in that red zone'. Bro, I do this crazy thing where I vomit before every single run… Before every single heat, I'm vomiting on the starting line. It's brutal 'cause I can't eat anything during the event."
That’s not great for the optics of the sport, I bet?
"It's super, super bad, bro. You're on the live stream, and I'm like churning in the bush on the start line on the live stream. It's so bad, bro. Every single heat. The only heat it doesn't happen for is finals. Which is weird."
That's interesting to hear because I think for people who don't do extreme sports, we often think, 'I'm scared of that, but they’re made of different stuff, those athletes don't get scared.'
"Oh, bro, untrue. We're all terrified. Like, if you're not terrified, you're like mentally ill."
Do most of the races work as a time trial?
"So the races are three or four days long in total. You'll have two days of practice, or one day of practice, and then you'll do singular timed qualifying runs. So, two to three qualifying runs, where you're by yourself. A to B as fast as possible, and you get a time. And then those times put you into a bracket.
"So, the first guy gets the easiest heats, and the last guy gets put with the first guy. And then on Sunday, you'll race in heats of four. First two advance all the way until there's only four left, and then that’s the final."
Sharing a road with other skaters is a very dangerous aspect of it, right? And a different skill from just freeriding?
"Yeah. Three other people. Well, that's the whole game. There’s downhill skateboarding, and then there's racing. And they are not the same… You could be the fastest downhill skateboarder in the world, but if you don't know how to race, you'll rarely win a race. Race craft, tactics, managing a weekend, equipment, everything. It's completely different."
There's a little bit of crossover there with how some of the Winter Olympic sports work. When you watch the snowboarding events, for example, they'll do a time trial, then heats. And it's like two different skills combined…
"It is two different skills. Yeah, 100%. I mean, the time trials, the heats, and then just being able to attack a random road that you've never seen before, which is what we're doing most of the time outside of the racing, are completely different skills.
"And there are different techniques that you can use outside of racing that are cooler, or more difficult, or more aesthetically pleasing, like not using your hands at all to slide. Super difficult, but objectively so much cooler to watch. You know, power sliding with no hands on the ground. It's so sick.
"Racing is a bit more one-dimensional in that sense. It's basically just about getting to the bottom as fast as you can. But yeah, it's a completely different skill entirely - racing is its own thing. It's like driving a car fast for fun and then Formula 1.
"Because we have no propulsion on our boards, the only way we can get faster is by braking less in the corners. Or getting behind people, drafting them, getting a little bit of a break in the wind and then passing them that way. Tactically, it's super interesting. I think it's one of the best racing sports that you could ever watch. If you get into it a little bit more, once you get over the fact of ‘Oh my God, this is nuts’, the racing's great!"
'One of the best racing sports you can watch'
One of my first thoughts when I was watching your freeriding videos online was, 'What about cars?'
"Bro, it's so dangerous what we do. And as I get older, it's been really interesting, because, I've been doing this since I was 14, and I've felt my brain developing and becoming more responsible as I've been doing this sport from just dropping into an open road and if there's a car, there's a car, like, 'we'll figure it out', to now, I'm in a mode where I have radios integrated into my helmet, there's a spotter car going down the first, and people blocking the streets - it's a whole thing now."
What speeds are you clocking when you're going down a road?
"Depends on the road. On anything that would be considered a decent road, I'd say the average speed is between 70 and 80 kilometres an hour. But, obviously, there are more chill roads where you can go between 40, 50, 60, and then, if you've got a long, steep road, I can reach up to 140."
Wow. And you're not that well-protected?
"Well, I mean, similar to how a motorbike rider would be protected, you know? I see people going down the rambla around here on their mopeds with way less protection than what I'm going down on - at least my helmet's made of carbon fibre, you know? I'm wearing a spine protector. I got knee pads. I got gloves. And then racing, you're wearing a full leather suit. So that protects against abrasions... When you come off going 100, the skin is gone. You smell it, bro. Yeah, it's not good."
Have you had any serious injuries over the years?
"I think two weeks after I moved to Spain, I went to Granada and smashed into a guardrail and broke my tib and, my PCL and my meniscus. So that was like a welcome to Spain moment, which was pretty cool. Got to lay low for a bit after that. I was out for like five months. But like, I just bought the most expensive health insurance that you could the week before it, so I was chilling!"
I guess that's something that a lot of people don't think about from the outside, insurance…
"Bro, the number of my friends who don't have health insurance is insane. Like, you're going down the road, skimming guardrails, potholes, and cars. If you have an accident, you're gonna go bankrupt. And my mates in the USA, one crash could ruin them. Bro, I've seen people have potential spinal injuries, and they're like, 'Don't take me to the hospital, please!'
"I got a bill for 30 grand (in the States) for an X-ray, and like a little thing of pills. 30 grand, bro. And like, I had that off into my travel insurance. I was chilled… Can you imagine being 30 grand in the hole for an X-ray, and being just a regular struggling person?"
From North Carolina 'cults' to Alpine adventures
Where's the biggest hub of downhill skateboarders globally? Are there more people here in Europe doing it or over in the United States?
"Oh, I’d say it's 50/50... It's pretty close. The biggest single hub is Asheville, North Carolina."
How interesting. Why is that?
"Hills, and it's relatively cheap to live there. Regarding, if you're taking into account what it costs to live in the United States. It's pretty cheap. And also, they just have the most roads thanks to the housing crisis.
"So they paved all the roads. But no one's living there. And nobody built houses 'cause the market crashed right before that. And so, there are all these driveways with private gates on them. And they may or may not have figured out how to hack the electronic gates, and just like go in there and just skate all day.
"It goes back to 2008 (the global financial crisis). They built all these private residences, big metal gates and everything. And you go up there, and there's all these driveways, but only like three lots have houses on them. And so all the other roads are just that. And so the boys are in there, just ripping around all day with no cars. But it’s difficult to spend a lot of time there."
So you spent some time there yourself?
"Yeah, I spent a bit of time there. There's something called the 'Skate Estate'. Which is a compound. It's owned by one of the skaters. And his trade is construction. And so he built like seven or eight houses on his property, and just rents them out to skaters. And so, people just come from all around the USA (for that)."
Cool, it’s almost like a bit of a Mecca for downhill skaters, is it?
"..More like a cult, yeah. It's real culty. It’s a crazy place to be. Chase is running a whole thing over there… His name is Chase Hiller."
That’s a great name for a downhill skateboarder… Perfect if you're chasing hills!
"Yeah, right, 100%. So he’s the centre of that scene there, but he's not the first one to be there obviously. It's been there for decades.
"Aside from that, Europe is definitely the heavy hitter. There's something called the 'Euro Tour'. And it's like a pilgrimage for downhill skaters. It's every summer between June and August. It's not (an organised) tour. It's just like you come to Europe. And you just tour. There are no dates - it’s just you and your boys flying into Munich, renting a car, and just disappearing for two months. But everyone kind of flows in the same direction. And you kind of hit some events here and there...
"But it's the bits in between the events where you all just like disappear into the mountains, and like set up camp somewhere, and then like wake up at 5:00 AM, and like bomb hills together. It's the best."
So it's kind of like ski bumming, in a way?
"It's exactly like ski bumming. But it's in the summer."
What are the iconic spots in Europe that people hit on these tours?
"Well, I mean, here (Barcelona) is a good place to be. That's definitely one of them. So yeah, Barcelona and the Pyrenees. Mainly, it's the Alps… The French Alps, the Austrian Alps, and the Dolomites are the big ones. And they're made for it. And at 6:00 AM, there's no one there!"
And is it legal to use these public alpine roads to freeride?
"No, bro, it’s all illegal."
Is that why you don't publicise exactly where a road is? Because I noticed on your YouTube videos, you haven’t listed locations…
"Yeah, I'm never gonna tell you where the road is. That's on purpose. You never wanna burn the spot. I mean, there's a whole lore to this, bro. It goes so deep."
Ok, so it might not be legal, but you take precautions, right? Like, you have your radios, as you said?
"Everyone has radios in their helmets. So we'll be a pack of 20 on a big day. Every single person has a radio in their helmet. Every single person knows the hand signals if the radio dies. If there's a car on the road, we all stop. I don't want anyone to see me skating past a car, 'cause if you've ever been in a car and you get passed by a pack of skaters coming down the other lane, it's terrifying.
"Even for me, as someone who's been doing this for more than half of my life, if I'm driving up the spot to meet the crew and they're doing a run and they pass by the car, I'm like, 'Holy sh*t'. It's so scary. So you gotta imagine, someone who's never ever seen this sport before in their life, they freak out, you know? And they immediately call the police, like, 'He's gonna kill someone!' So yeah, we always shut down if there's a car coming."
You mentioned that on a day of freeriding, you'll be up to 20 people. How many of that group are skaters, and how many are just spotters and drivers?
"So everyone's a skater. And we take turns doing the radio. So everyone knows how to operate the radio, and everyone knows how to skate. So, we'll make an order of who's gonna drive in which order. And then the driver will rotate among everyone. So, for example, I drive, you skate. Next run, I skate, you drive. And then just back and forth. So, we all have to trust each other. If someone comes to town and they don't speak Spanish, we all change to English."
'One thing that we do have is virality'
I suppose one of the big issues with the sport, as you touched on there, is that there's not a great deal of general knowledge of what you guys do, is there?
"There's nothing. But, the one thing that we do have in our sport is virality, like just being able to put out content that makes people sh*t themselves. They're like, 'What the f*ck am I looking at!?' You know what I mean? The videos that we can capture of our sport, especially nowadays, are insane. And how we film is also incredibly dangerous, but it creates amazing content when you just strap a DSLR to the hood of a car, and they just follow you down like that."
So when you're skating, there's often a car right behind you filming it?
"Yes, that's the most dangerous thing we do, for sure. Those are the scariest days for me. I just did one; I did three days of filming just now. The last three days, I've been in the Pyrenees filming. And it's like every run is like, 'F*ck!' Because you go faster with the car behind you as well, 'cause it kinda cuts the draft out. The turbulent air behind you gets, like, stopped, so you end up going faster than you think.
"And yeah, it creates some sketchy situations sometimes… You can hear the tyres squealing going around the corners. It's terrifying. 'Cause you're fully locked on the brakes... like hard, and you're like, 'Please don't hit me. Please don't hit me. Please don't hit me! Don't run over anything.' When I had my crash in Granada, I missed the car by, like, 30 centimetres. When I hit the guardrail, it nearly just ran over my whole hand."
That relationship between content and virality in the sport is fascinating. I suppose, that's how you can catapult into the broader consciousness…
"It's the only way."
Is the sport professionalised at all? Are there sponsorships going around?
"It's so slim."
So you’re basically funding this out of your own pocket a lot of the time?
"Most of it, yeah… Like, the way that you can make money in this is doing the super dangerous filming and posting insane viral videos, 'cause basically all companies want is like good clips and good marketing. So you can kinda make a way for yourself doing that, and a couple of guys do that pretty successfully. Like, they create amazing content, and brands are into that. And they do sort of partnerships.
"But in terms of mainstream sponsors, there's really only one dude. We just finally, for the first time in 20 years, got a guy to join Red Bull. A Spanish guy - one of my mates from Mallorca - became like the first Red Bull rider in like 20 years. And he's like, he's gone to the moon now, you know what I mean? He does the best content, right, so they picked him up."
A sport too gnarly for Red Bull
Why has Red Bull not touched downhill as much as other extreme sports?
"Red Bull wants gnarly stuff... but, there's a limit for everything, right? So, I don't know. I've heard all sorts of stories of reasons why - like, we're doing it on public roads, you can't promote that. You know what I mean? It's maybe even a sport too gnarly for Red Bull. Which is not something that most people would say or think about…
"And in terms of like, racing, there's not really a lot of support for racing, but there's a lot of support for creating these amazing visuals, I'd say. Because I think that's our biggest selling point right now, but it also happens to be the most dangerous bit of our sport."
Would you say the sport still has quite a long way to go before it’s widely recognised?
"Well, we've come down a long way; that's the problem. It used to be huge. So, the Red Bull (attention) was like the early 2000s, late '90s. We were in the X Games. You can go back and watch all the X Games footage… But those guys are the pioneers. They couldn't slide. All the gear was trash. The boards were huge. They were legitimate long boards. Now the boards are smaller than traditional skateboards.
"Shorter wheel base, bigger turns… We cracked the code on the truck geometry. So we don't get the wobbles anymore. So now we don't have to have the long boards, which is why it's not called 'longboarding' anymore. Because technically, the street skaters are the longboarders, bro. Yeah, they're 32 inches, where I'm riding a 29-inch board, you know? And now, the geometry of the trucks that we have… We’re going faster on a smaller board.
"So if you go watch the X Games and then compare it to modern-day races, it's like night and day. But those guys, those guys were the craziest, because they're competing on things that they couldn't turn, they had no stability. The helmets are papier-mache.
"They were just figuring it out. Those guys invented the tuck position. And so it kind of peaked there, disappeared once the X Games finished, and then kind of got up again in this boom in 2009. And then people were professionals. They were pros. You know, on salary, six figures. Sponsors, everything. Big industry sponsors. And that's when I started. I started right on that peak, on that boom. I got into it, and I was like, 'Holy sh*t. Like, this is the sickest thing ever. I wanna be a pro!'
"And then it all just… the market just collapsed overnight in 2016."
Was there a trigger for that collapse?
"No idea, honestly. The market disappeared. People stopped buying boards. And it just kind of fell off, and all the guys who were on salary disappeared. And they just left all the kids who bought all the boards just there, like… ‘what the f*ck?’ Which is my generation.
"And so now we're picking up the mantle, but also just trying to be like our heroes were... pros. But it's not possible, really. But I think it's healthier now than it was four years ago, that's for sure."
So, the boom that you mentioned in 2009, is there something that triggered that big spike in interest in the sport?
"I think it was YouTube. Honestly… Seriously, that's how I found out about downhill skateboarding. Or, longboarding as it was. It was a YouTube ad. I clicked it, took me straight to a video. It was a five-part video series about these people longboarding in Hawaii. Straight to the website, bought the board, done. And I know a lot of people outside of North America who were similar.
"In North America, it was kind of like a university campus thing, sort of like longboarding clubs, that sort of vibe. But in Hong Kong, bro, there was no one."
What do you think could help get the sport back into the consciousness more these days?
"A safe place to practice. It's exactly that. We'll never get the numbers if we don't have a place."
What would that look like? Literally like a concrete ski-slope type of thing?
"Yeah. Or just an access road in the BMX parks, which is what we wanted. They're building all these pump tracks. Have you seen those things? Like the concrete waves that they put in every park instead of skate parks now. They do that for kids. All we need is one of those with one turn on it, and that's it. And then I can start teaching classes and have a safe place to practice. Because let's be real, man. There aren't a lot of parents who are gonna let their kids go and play in the traffic and practice the sport. Thank God my parents did. Right?
"Realistically, when you look at it on paper, especially if the way that you first come into contact with a sport is one of my insane videos of me, it looks like I'm going like 150 miles an hour. A kid shows this to mum, his mum's gonna be like, ‘Oh, yeah? No chance, bro! What are you talking about?’ Because nobody knows that we're absolutely taking all the necessary precautions. No one really knows that side of it, but it does come down to the fact that it’s just visually very scary. And if we had a safe place to practice, that would stop that whole thing for us."
Aside from facilities, what do you think would be the best thing for the sport to take it to the next level?
"Getting more kids into it. 'Cause that's really important... You know, the youngest person I know who skates downhill is maybe like 18 or 19 now. I don't see many 14-year-olds anymore."
From Summer Games to Winter Games?
Is there or has there ever been talk of making a push for inclusion in the Summer Olympic Games?
"Always. There's always been talk of the Olympics, but the biggest response that we've been given is that we need equal participation of males and females… especially as a new sport. If you're a new sport coming in, you need to have equal representation of males and females, and that's what they gave us the first time we applied for it. Whether that's the truth or not, I'm not really sure. But I believe it - we do need more women in downhill… It's almost like 80% male. There are definitely some girls going down, but not nearly enough.
"That's what they told us and why we're not going to the Olympics, but I feel like there might be some other reasons as well. It's a tough sport to film and put on, like venue-wise. It's difficult logistically... compared to (park) skateboarding, where you just build the park, and they're off.
"But there's a big argument that our sport fits better into the Olympics than other types of skateboarding, because it is a race. There's no judging. You know, we had a massive controversy in the last Winter Olympics over judging in snowboarding. They got a lot of the technicals wrong in snowboarding this year. And that's always going to be the case in sports that are subjective like that.
"So, I do think downhill belongs in the Olympics. But is it necessary? No. I’ve said it before: I'd rather have a sustainable world tour, a professional world tour, rather than us go to the Olympics every four years and then be like... scraping the bottom of the barrel every year in between."
Have you ever thought about dabbling in other sports? Speaking of the Winter Games, I can see there’s a bit of a link between downhill and some of the more extreme speed disciplines, such as the skeleton, luge or bobsled…
"So, at the end of each (Winter) Games, when the interest is at its peak, all the teams put out applications. And all the athletes from all the sports will then post links to those applications for the next cycle, which is for 2030. And so obviously, I'm watching this stuff 'cause I love the Olympics, bro… So I saw all this come up, and I was thinking, 'there's a shot for me', of course, I'm applying!
"I applied for the Aussie (Winter Olympic) team and the Great Britain team. Obviously, I'd love to represent Australia more. And what I've heard is that the Aussie one is probably a little bit easier to get into, but they do have training constraints. They don't have many facilities in Australia to do those sports, which sucks. So all those guys have to train in Canada or in Europe, so they're travelling all the time. Whereas the GB team has their own thing. It's more professionalised."
Lastly, if a young kid came up to you and said, 'I want to be a downhill skateboarder' and asked for one piece of advice, what would it be?
"Just don't quit. It's literally that. I've outlasted so many people who were better than me. You can kind of separate a lot of the riders into two categories: whether they're naturally gifted or if they worked hard. And the people that you see the longest in the sport are the people who worked harder.
"You know, I'm not a gifted guy on the board, but I worked so f*cking hard, for so long to get where I am. There are so many people who could have been world champions that I grew up skating with, but they all just went and did other things or lost motivation, or they had accidents. So yeah, the biggest thing is just don't quit, 'cause you'll always get better if you're turning up every day."
