The IGSA World Cup Series left the European continent and moved to Eastbourne, England for Round #4 August 20-22, 2009. The first three rounds of the Series had produced three different winners with Louis Pilloni in Peyragudes, Scoot Smith in Argonay and Martin Siegrist in Padova. Mischo Erban was sitting on top of the point standings due to his consistently high finishes. Coming into Eastbourne he was really feeling the pressure to earn his first win of the season.

IGSA's report on the 2008 Niorth American Championships and the Hot Heels Africa races, as featured in Concrete Wave Magazine.

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.

Profiles of women skaters, August, 2006