Up and Comer: Scotty Lago
Dec 16 2006 / Breckenridge, COWhen you ask most competitive snowboarders who to watch out for this season, one name keeps coming up: Scotty Lago. So who is this mystery man whose name sounds like a children’s building block? And why is he making the veterans shake in their bindings.
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Lago’s tale begins just 19 years ago, in a small town called Seabrook, NH, on the border of New Hampshire and Massachusetts. But his snowboarding tale wouldn’t begin for seven more years, when he first headed to the local tubing park, Amesbury, and started snowboarding on the small tubing berms. Soon he moved on to the mountain, well, hill, Bradford in Massachusetts. It was small, but it did have a real chairlift, so that was something.
Though he started small, Lago is now known for going big, and has come along way from the slopes of Bradford. He soon migrated north to ride at resorts like Loon and Waterville in NH, where many a park and pipe ripper were bred. He started competing on a local scale, and was getting noticed for not only his pipe riding but park and rail riding as well.
“I did everything, tried to spread myself out,” Lago said.
Although he is definitely a force in the halfpipe, Lago is not a one trick pony. “Why do just one event?” he said. “I try to hit jumps, rails and shoot photos and film.”
Many competitive riders do not produce regular video parts, but Lago was featured in Mongo Productions film “Who Cares” last season, and is already slated for the opening part in this year’s video. And filming hasn’t affected his results so far.
On Thanksgiving, he won his first pro event, a World Cup in Saas Fee, SUI. “It was cool,” he said. “I knew I had the potential to win, but I wasn’t really expecting it, I guess.”
Being in videos, beating some of the top pros, these things have not gone to his head. Lago is remarkably friendly and excited about life. He’s also a typical New Englander —when not on snow he likes to bow hunt and fish.
The whole “one to watch” thing is still new to Lago. He is hardly boastful, and when asked why everyone keeps saying this is his year, he said, “I guess I’ve just perfected my tricks and am becoming more and more confident. I mean, the more technical tricks are becoming stock – but that goes for everyone, not just me.”
--Brooke Geery
