ARLINGTON — Joe Mazzone came all the way from Chicago to skateboard in Arlington, so he wasn’t about to let a little rain discourage him, even when it turned into a lot of rain.
The Centennial Sk8 Festival Oct. 10-11 saw participants come from as near as Oregon, Idaho and California, and as far as Texas, Tennessee, Florida, Maine, New York and New Jersey.
And while they each weathered the elements in their own way, they were all more than willing to get wet for the third annual local skateboard and longboard racing event, sanctioned by the International Distance Skateboard Association.
Mazzone came in first in the 5K race on Centennial Trail that Saturday with a time of 11 minutes, 37 seconds, while Colby Cummings of Portland followed close on his heels at 11:38.
While Cummings stayed warm in skintight leggings, Mazzone went bare-chested in the downpour, reasoning that the weight of a wet shirt would slow him down.
It was Mazzone’s first time in Washington, while the Puget Sound area is familiar ground for Cummings, but both agreed that the climate was no more harsh than what they’ve braved back in their home states.
“It’s not too cold,” Mazzone said, even as the rain turned his chest hair into a damp carpet. “Chicago is still worse.”
The 24-year-old Mazzone began boarding seven years ago, after he borrowed his older brother’s longboard. When big brother encouraged him to start racing a couple of years ago, he was hooked.
Cummings, 22, has also been boarding competitively for two years, but he started when he was 7. He credited his second-place finish to sticking to his goal time and staying with the pack.
Event producer Angela Kuhn noted that Sunday saw the skies clear, just in time for a half-marathon along Centennial Trail, but acknowledged that Saturday forced festival vendors to try everything they could to keep their tents from launching in the wind.
“Water jugs, cinder blocks and creative tie-downs were no match for the gusts,” Kuhn said. “One ten-foot-tall tent flew up and landed on top of Atskuki’s Food Truck.”
Kuhn described the 5K as “a hydroplane of a race, with puddles, wet leaves and droves of fuzzy caterpillars.” During the “Cape Race” that followed, boarders were required to wear capes, and Cummings won a tandem skydive donated by Skydive Snohomish.
The 90-Second Challenge obstacle course almost didn’t happen due to slippery ramps, but several bystanders lined them with thin cardboard. Winners Braidan Skrabak and Jonah Menck walked away with zip-line tours from Canopy Tours NW.
The Slide Jam, hosted by Omen Longboards, took place on the closed Third Street, and was “way better than I even imagined it would be,” Omen rider Nathan Blackburn said. Riders slid down the hill individually and in formations, with some wiping out safely into bales of hay at the bottom.
The one-mile race took place Saturday night, through the closed streets of downtown. It began on Olympic Avenue and went uphill and downhill through slick streets.
“I was impressed with the turnout for the over-forty age category,” Kuhn said of the Sunday half-marathon. “It shows that longboarding is not just a punk kid sport. It’s such a great sport for all ages, male and female.”
Angela and Chris Kuhn said they plan to keep Arlington on the map as a Pacific Northwest longboarding destination.
