Scott smith rules
Sept. 10, 2008
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Words: 518
Greg Amos
Staff writer
Scoot takes ownership at Mary Hill
Scott “Scoot” Smith has done it again.
For the second year running, the green-haired Pender harbour hill bomber has polished off the competition at the prestigious Maryhill “Festival of Speed” championship, held in Goldendale, Washington in late August.
After a week of practicing the course before last year’s race, Smith said he “knew the course like the back of my hand.” His word proved solid in winning the race again this year, facing a field of 151 riders, in an event given TV coverage by American broadcaster NBC.
“He’s incredibly focused - even while at work drywalling,” said Smith’s father Neil, owner of Precise Painting and Plaster. “If he has a spare moment, he’s practicing his crouch for two or three minutes. He’s focused like any other professional athlete would be.”
The win also cemented Smith’s lead in the International Gravity Sports Association (IGSA) world longboarding rankings to a near-unassailable 1687.51 points. With just three world cup races left in the 2008 season, it will be tough for another longboarder to capture the lead – though Kelowna’s Mischo Erban remains in the hunt with a second place ranking of 1655.60 points.
In the downhill final on Aug. 31, Smith managed to avoid becoming mangled in a crash midway through the race, and sailed out of the carnage to a comfortable victory.
“It was an epic, perfect run,” said Eric Basil, co-owner of Silverfish Longboarding. “Off the top of the hill, he’s working his way towards the front. He drove his way around that, and at that point he just starts to drop away, and they can’t catch him. He has the perfect line, taking the inside corner.”
“Last year, he was the cunning strategist, nailing the impossible line. This year, he steers himself clear of something he saw coming, then takes the perfect aerodynamic position to win.”
James Kelly from Sonoma, California rode to second place while Swiss rider Martin Siegrist took third place. The festival also included women’s downhill longboarding, street luge, gravity bike, and other racing events.
Smith, 19, is captain of Pender Harbour’s “Team Green” longboarding crew, and after a summer of hitting the world cup circuit with his amigos, will be Pender’s lone representative in the United Kingdom’s biggest longboard race, “Go Fast! Speed Days”, held from Sept. 12 to 14 in Eastbourne, U.K.
After getting hooked on longboarding in winter 2003, Smith has devoted himself to the sport, and has placed in the top five over the past two years on his home turf at Pender Harbour’s Attack of Danger Bay longboard race held each May. His home town has helped him compete through a $500 grant cour- tesy of the Pender Harbour Lions Club last year, while longboard companies from as far away as Australia are increasingly subsidizing Smith’s racing expenses.
“He’s a good champ, and the first person to repeat,” said Basil. Smith plans to return home on Sept. 16 and earn some income through his drywalling job for two weeks before jetting to the season’s final races in Brazil and South Africa. To track Smith’s progress, check out www.scootsmith.com, or www.igsaworldcup.com.
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The sage, Longboard Buddha once said, "A tree spends 100% of its lifetime in a static environment and only after its reincarnation as a deck is it allowed to move at fast speeds...
when allowed, the wood will give thankless service if
allowed to flow."
Scoot OWNS!!!!
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