Locals know him as a World Cup slopestyle athlete, a skateboarding aficionado and a member of prolific winter sports filmmaking crew Shmobb. As of this last weekend, Truth Smith is also The Grind Whistler's inaugural snowboard champ among men.
Smith locked horns with Dane Menzies in the big final and emerged with gold, forcing his Kiwi opponent to settle for silver. Bronze went to Colton Eckert.
Jackie Carlson, meanwhile, dusted off her board to win the ladies' event over Juliette Pelchat, with Adel Talyspayeva rounding out the top three.
"I am fired up," remarked Smith, who wowed viewers with big backflips and a plethora of technical rail work. "The game plan was just to have fun and try to feed off the Whistler crowd. Felt like I boarded really well, and I had a lot of fun with my friends."
Carlson, for her part, said: "I just played it as smart as I could tonight, and I guess it paid off. When I saw them building this [venue], I definitely had a pit in my stomach. My plan was to try and hit every single feature at least once, just do what I could on it, and I pulled that off in the qualifiers. That got me a spot in the finals."
Best Street Trick recognition went to Caleb Chomlack and Carlson, while Bryan Bowler and Talyspayeva were awarded for Best Technical Trick.
All in all, the nascent marriage between The Grind and the World Ski and Snowboard Festival (WSSF) is off to a good start.
Series director Rich Hegarty commented in a press release: "I have envisioned The Grind in Whistler Village headlining the WSSF for over a decade and am looking forward to this movement growing."
Bringing the vibe
Saturday's competition featured a number of interesting plotlines.
For example: Smith got to ride with his Shmobb buddies Chomlack and Lane Weaver, both of whom got a front-row seat to witness him triumph. Carlson basically came out of retirement to prove her skills remain up to par—and then some.
"Shout-out to my best friend, Caleb. He was bringing the vibe and he kept it there all night," quipped Smith. "It's everything I've ever wanted, everything I've ever dreamed of. I've been growing up watching WSSF events, big airs, and competing in littler rail jams here. Now to be a part of this big one, having my home crowd here, my family, it was unreal."
"I'm a judge now," Carlson said. "Honestly, I thought The Grind was going to message me to judge this event, and they ended up messaging me to compete. Every girl did something insane. Any girl hitting that closeout is insane. That is so high-consequence, so high-impact, and I think I saw two, three, maybe even four girls hitting it. Props to them. Props to everyone. People took slams and got up."
Let's not overlook Pelchat, who grew up alongside many of her fellow competitors—including younger sister Amalia (a.k.a. Billy).
"It was definitely a scary course to get into, but so fun to ride, and I'm stoked to put some things down," said Pelchat. "I haven't hit features like this before. Honestly, I just wanted to land that front three out of the plaza feature and I did.
"The feeling is incredible. It's really sick. I was riding for myself and also for [the late] Jeff Keenan today, so it felt really nice to put some tricks down. The sense of community was so sick. Definitely touched my heart…I'm not home enough. My respect goes to every girl in snowboarding and every human in snowboarding. I think everybody's creative, and everybody brings a different aspect to [our sport]."
