Joseph Kyle Smith maneuvered his board in a twisting path along Kanawha Boulevard's bridge over the Elk River, skirting the orange and white traffic cones that lined the street in the shape of a snake.
"Wow, he's fast," one little boy said as he watched.
Smith is fast - he was the fastest rookie slalom skateboarder in the world last year, before he turned professional. Smith, of Ashland, Kentucky, is currently ranked No. 20 in the PRO World Ranking compiled by International Slalom Skateboarding Association, but on Saturday, he was skating in friendly competition with the skaters he grew up with.
"This is the group I grew up skating with, so it's a good excuse to get everybody out, hang out and have a good time," he said. "It's really freeing, and you really get to show your personality. There are no boundaries; if you want to cruise around, you can cruise around. If you want to throw tricks, you can throw tricks."
Smith and more than a dozen other skaters competed in the Charlie West Skateboard Slalomfest as part of Charleston's annual SportsFEST this weekend. Many of the skaters were from the same club, Hillbilly Outlaw Slalom Skaters (HOSS) based in Huntington, and Ben Barkey, race organizer for the event, said the sport is a unique take on skating that more closely resembles snowboarding than street skating.
"The boards are different; they're extremely fast and very responsive," Barkey said. "All of us in HOSS are world ranked - I'm around No. 125, and that's among around 4,000 to 5,000 skaters worldwide. Most of the group is in the top 100."
Slalom skating was one of several sports that featured during this year's SportsFEST, which played host to the West Virginia Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Submission Wrestling state championships Saturday, as well as the Pro Watercross National Championship, the final tour event before the world championship and the only river race on the Pro Watercross tour in 2016. Hundreds of people gathered at Magic Island Saturday afternoon to watch the events, both at the park and on the water.
Rachel Ludwig, of Charleston, was playing in the volleyball tournament Saturday with a friend from Ohio.
"It brings a lot of tourism into town to see all that Charleston has to offer, and I think it encourages sports in youth," she said. "They get an opportunity to get out and see some high-level athletes in a number of sports - watercross, volleyball, judo - so I think it's great for Charleston too, to get some exposure to sports that might not be as popular here."
The YMCA of the Kanawha Valley is also hosting three-on-three basketball tournaments at 101 Kanawha Boulevard West today as part of SportsFEST. Registration costs $120 per team, and 10 percent of the proceeds will benefit victims of the late-June floods.
SportsFEST will continue today, and admission is free for spectators. For more details and times, visit www.charlestonwv.com.
Reach Lydia Nuzum at lydia.nuzum@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5189 or follow @lydianuzum on Twitter.