Rob Pace’s path to Australian SOTY was as eventful and productive as any.
Two genuinely heavy video parts stacked full of groundbreaking tricks, a solid sprinkling of footage across several additional projects, and a constant stream of photo coverage in magazines made it difficult to argue against Rob’s achievement. What’s interesting about Rob’s accolade, much like the three or four most recent SOTYs, is that he earned his spot almost entirely through coverage and achievements on home soil, via locally produced videos and media. Historically, Slam SOTY tended to be awarded to Australians who’d had breakout years overseas, usually with major US-produced video parts and coverage in US magazines – think of big international heavyweights like Shane O’Neill, Dane Burman, or Chima Ferguson – because in order to be culturally relevant
