Here in Vermont for a ski weekend, which would come as a surprise for many of my friends who know I haven’t really been on skis for 20+ years. It’s never been my chosen sport - sacrilege for a New Hampshire kid, I know. I’m having fun now, in mid-life, learning the slopes with my family. Better late than never, I guess.
We’ve had our share of mountain stars from New England. One of them is a kid from Seabrook who dropped out of school after eighth grade to pursue his competitive snowboarding dream. (A dream he first learned at the tubing hill in Amesbury.) A free spirit perfect for the snowboarding culture, Scotty won the 2004 world championship in the quarterpipe and later a bronze at the 2010 Olympic Games.
It was after winning that medal that Scotty became embroiled in some controversy. At an after party, some pictures were taken of Scotty, shirt pulled up to reveal some astonishing abs, a young female acquaintance kneeling in from of him to admire his medal. Said medal was slung low across his hips in a suggestive manner. The humorless USOC sent him home early. Because the USOC is perfect.
It didn’t hurt Scotty at all. In the anti-authoritarian world of snowboarding, it only burnished his image as he started selling his namesake boards and started his own traveling snow-sports show. He married a Miss New Hampshire and travels the world bow-hunting and heli-boarding. Dude is living the life.
Plus, his folks own the best ice cream place in New England. Bonus.
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