When Ben Calvert hangs suspended in the air, taming his bucking metal bronco, there’s barely an eye in sight not trained on him.
The Toolamba local has mastered concrete playgrounds near and far on his scooter, and when the 13-year-old comes to play, onlookers know they’re about to witness something extraordinary.
It’s the kind of captivation which Calvert commands that’s set to land him at the International Scooter Federation World Championships, held in Sydney on October 19-22.
He reached the stage by performing well in three qualifying events, making his way through to the Victorian - and eventually Australian - titles where a top 10 finish secured a spot at the international event.
Calvert came sixth in his age group, and the rest is history.
“I was pretty shocked, I didn’t really realise how cool it was at the time,” Calvert said when asked about making the world championships.
It seemed a straightforward run to Sydney, but for Calvert, it was anything but.
The scooter prodigy broke his finger the day before he was slated to attend the state event, but iron-willed to soldier on, he pushed through the pain to place well at the event.
“That wasn’t very great,” he said with a wry smile.
“I didn’t get what I wanted, but I still qualified for the worlds, so I was happy.”
Calvert’s mum Danielle said he’d first picked up his sport of choice about five years ago, but only began competing last year.
“He’s enjoyed it since he was about eight, but he’s only started really competing last year ― this is his second season competing,” she said.
“It’s awesome to see him succeeding in something that he loves doing.
“We’ve seen his progression for a long time, so what seems alarming to some, we’re kind of used to ― we just have to have trust that he knows what he’s doing.”
As a parent, a degree of unease would surely arise seeing your child airborne, flipping around a skate park with only a helmet and their pure skill standing between a trip to the emergency room.
But Calvert’s no klutz.
His broad arsenal of tricks contains mind-boggling backflip variants, 720s and much more, and he’ll be hard at the coalface ― or the concrete face, rather ― in the lead up to the world championships.
“I usually go to the skate park a couple of days before an event to practice my comp run, and get Dad to get the timer because we have 45 second runs,” he said.
“Then I’ll just keep practising it and hope for the best in my run.”
In terms of ambitions set for the championships as well as his future in the sport, Calvert has rightly set lofty goals.
The teenager is quietly spoken, but roars to life when he’s wrangling the handlebars of his scooter ― and he wants the entire planet to hear his sonic boom.
“It would be pretty cool to be top 10 in the world,” he said.
“Hopefully this year I can make at least like the top 20 or 50.”