In the parking lot of his apartment, UT student Dalton Smith plugs in an air pump to the cigarette lighter of his car. He plugs the other end into his pogo stick – a visibly worn, yet top of the line air powered jumping machine. When the pumping is done, Smith proves his skill – jumping uncomfortably high in the air and performing a variety of stunning tricks and stunts.
Smith, who celebrated his 20th birthday this month, is a philosophy major and transfer student from Columbia College in Chicago.
“My passion is exploring things,” Smith said. “That bleeds into a lot of things like doing art and especially doing things like extreme pogo sticking.”
On top of balancing the course load of a full-time student, Smith is a big part of two extreme pogo sticking groups: Xpogo and El Pogo Loco. Smith said Xpogo is “the ultimate entity of extreme pogo sticking,” and that as a hub for news, videos and competitions, Xpogo acts as “the main company that keeps the sport intact.”
Through Xpogo, Smith had to opportunity to compete on America’s Got Talent, travel the world, collaborate with other groups such as Dude Perfect and earn his ranking as the number one extreme pogo sticker in the world at Pogopalooza, the Xpogo world championship series.
Recently, however, Smith is working more and more with another group – El Pogo Loco or EPL.
This creative pogo syndicate, founded by Bryan Pognant in Costa Mesa, California in the mid 2000’s, has had a recent revival. El Pogo Loco shut down in 2010, but with the resurgence of extreme pogo activities, Smith teamed up with original founder Bryan Pognant to restart the group under the shorter moniker of EPL.
While Xpogo focuses on event planning, gigs, showcases, clinics and other performance-based affairs, EPL focuses more on retail and video production matters. And, the retail emphasis of EPL has given Smith the excuse to pursue a new passion: screenprinting.
Smith makes all of his screens in his bathroom and prints EPL designs on shirts, hats and jackets.
“Being able to print something that seems high quality is a really appealing fantasy,” he said. “Even though there are so many clothing companies out there and everything, it’s fun to get your brand and your idea out in the world in tangible ways.”
Smith gives his finished designs to Pognant, who travels the country in his van distributing the EPL brand.
For Smith, screenprinting and pogo serve the same purpose as essential creative avenues in his life.
“The actual act of taking an idea and making it into a brand, identity and tangible art is the same thing I’m doing with pogo in that I’m taking something creative that I can see in my head and changing the environment in some way,” Smith said. “Screenprinting, pogo, these tangible arts are a way for me to change my environment and make it a little bit more of my own so I can feel closer to it.”
You can follow EPL on Instagram @elpogoloco.
Dalton Smith is a part of two pogo sticking groups and makes prints for El Pogo Loco.
