PORTLAND scooter rider James Moore has been crowned 14 and under state champion, while injury and some bad luck has stolen Zeth Bennett’s big moment in his first time competing in the open division of the state championships, but still managed to claim second spot.

Moore blitzed the field with his best run score of 274/300 – 24 points ahead of the second placed rider – while his younger brother Taj rounded out the impressive results for the locals with a second place in the 12 and under competition.

Bennett, 17, was practising at the Portland skate park ahead of the competition on Sunday March 20, when he mistimed a landing and damaged his ankle, then when he got to the Melbourne indoor ‘Volo skatepark’ ahead of his two scored runs he did one trick and his scooter fell apart on the landing, so all of his practice time was spent fixing it ahead of the judged runs.

“Tricks are a big part of getting good scores, but to do that you really need to know how to ride each park to get them,” Bennett said.

“You need to be able to work out what run is going to work best for you and what you can do, and especially not being from Melbourne we don’t get much time on these parks outside of the competitions, so the rides when we go down before the competition are really important.”

“I had some plans for what I wanted to do, and I just wasn’t able to put down the runs that I wanted to.”

Bennett only fell five points short of the state champion, and says the 274 that he scored is well below what he usually attracts from the judges.

“I was pretty disappointed with how it all went with the ankle, but now I’m definitely pretty motivated to do really well in the nationals next month.”

The move up in to the open division has not been too difficult for Bennett, as he is mostly coming up against riders he was competing with in the juniors. He expects the big challenge to come when he moves into the top tier ‘pro’ division, which he plans to do next year.

“All the best riders are in the pros, they’ve got sponsors and can spend so much time at the park.”

James Moore is fairly new to scooters, having only started three years ago after being impressed by Bennett’s skills at the Portland skatepark.

Bennett, who had previously lived in Horsham, says he took Moore under his wing and brought him along to Melbourne to ride the bigger parks.

“He’s gotten really good really quickly since then, and it’s been awesome having someone at that level around here.

“I think it really pushes both of us along with our skills, we’re learning new tricks from each other, and really encouraging each other to keep getting better.”