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, Wash. in late August. After a week of practising 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 1,687.51 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 1,655.60 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.
James Kelly from Sonoma, Calif. rode to second place while Swiss rider Martin Siegrist took third. The festival also included women's downhill longboarding, street luge, gravity bike, and other racing events.
Smith, 19, is the team 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 courtesy 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 not conceited - he remains humble, and I can see him becoming a spokesperson for his sponsors," added Neil, recalling Scoot's demeanor in an NBC interview after his win at Mary Hill.
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.
