Considering its Pacific coast location and latitudes south of the Equator, it is not surprising that little is seen or heard about the skateboard scene in Chile. Invisible, maybe, but Chile is no different than most places and has seen it all—from banana board to popsicle stick, from clay to urethane and the rise and fall of giant skateparks in ‘80s.

Imagine what it woiuld feel like if you went out longboarding and ove 200 other skaters joined in. That is what is happening in British Columbia right now.

North Carolina’s DownHillBillies have quickly established a solid reputation for putting on a first class skateboarding event. There are many reasons for the DownHillBillie’s success but two of the key reasons are they ensure they have excellent prerace planning and a solid team in place to execute their plans. This article focuses mostly on planning a slalom race, but the advice given here is applicable for planning all sorts of skate events including a downhill, slide, street or transition
contest.

The following is Rod’s story and history in skate- boarding as told to me. He’s been skateboarding since the mid-seventies and through the years he has played a major role in the New York and New Jersey skate scenes and in turn in the global skate scene. He’s one of the true unsung heroes and architects of modern skateboarding. And those who know him and have been lucky enough to befriend him and skate with him will tell you without a bad word one, that Rodney Smith’s fingerprint is on all that’s good about skateboarding. And no doubt it will be for a long time to come.

Retirement, wow! It has been a very hard thing for me to do, not race that is. I got hurt at a Red Bull race and messed up my neck and broke my leg. Then a few years later, I went down hard again twisting my neck. I had it xrayed and the doc told me my neck could not take many more hard hits or blows. He went on to say that I needed to stop racing skateboards, and it’s kind of funny, he told me I was already too old to ride skateboards… so I retired then for the first time. I was feeling great and riding again within 3 weeks. I raced again the next year and had a ball but the crashes where again taking their toll on my body. I had real pain to contend with. I started a new job that couldn’t give me time off to go to races, and hell… I just turn 42 so I figured it’s time to stop for sure.