Local wakeboarder earns second place

Alex Scagliotti rides a wakeboard better than just about anybody else in the country.

The 16-year-old Sisters athlete recently returned from Fort Worth, Texas where he finished second in his division at the World Wakeboard Championships. The event was held September 20-24. Scagliotti, along with 40 other competitors, vied for a top place finish in the Junior Men's Division (14-18 years old). Competitors from the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Japan and Brazil were represented at the event.

Scagliotti has been wakeboarding for seven years, since he was nine years old. Alex has put in hours and hours of practice on his board, and this year his road to the Worlds took several months of hard work and stiff competition.

Earlier this season Alex qualified for the Pro Tour, which consists of five tournaments. At the qualifier Alex fell a couple of times and missed the top 16 by one point.

"Only the top 16 advance," said Scagliotti, "but one guy got hurt, and I was next in line."

Alex traveled to Twin Cities, Minnesota, moved up three spots and finished 14 out of 16.

From there, the Pro Tour moved to Kelowna, British Columbia where 40,000 spectators gathered to watch the event.

"All of the competitions are on private lakes except for Kelowna," said Scagliotti. "At Kelowna there were tons of Canadians, and they were there to party. At one point, a big ship, the Queen of Kelowna, went by and huge wakes appeared everywhere. That made it very difficult to stay on your board, let alone do your hard tricks. The guy who won the heat, normally wouldn't have even placed in any other heat but the fact that he just stayed up gave him the win."

Scagliotti finished up the Pro Tour with appearances in Portland and Reno, Nevada.

Alex then moved on to Nationals, which is open to anybody. Nationals were held the third week in August in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The competition proceeded amid tornado and flash flood warnings.

In the quarterfinals at Nationals, all six competitors in Scagliotti's heat fell. Alex told The Nugget he knew at that point he wouldn't have to bring his best run.

"I planned to just go out and land the stuff I knew for sure I could do," said Scagliotti. "It would have been dumb for me to try and do my hard tricks and take a chance of falling. But I melted down and fell on my easy stuff."

Although Alex wasn't able to advance to the semi-finals, he did place third in his heat, which qualified him for Worlds.

At the World Championships, Scagliotti finished third in his heat on the first day of competition, which was barely enough to move him on to the semi-finals. The following day Alex won his heat in the semis and advanced to the finals.

"The finals are the top six, so the worst I could do was place sixth," said Scagliotti. "I would have been happy with that. My goal was to just make it to the finals."

Scagliotti said, "I did most of my hardest tricks in my final pass and was consistent and solid. It was my first podium in a pro event, and it was pretty cool."

Alex hopes to make a repeat appearance at Worlds next year and finish in the top three. Alex told The Nugget that to wish for a first place finish would be a pretty tall order.