BANGOR – According to the quirky yet time-honored custom of the Pine Tree State, Seth Wescott is not, officially, a “Mainer.”

That title, the most crusty residents of the state will tell you, cannot be earned through years of dedicated residence, nor bestowed upon a person for good deeds.

Not even if that person grew up here, went to school here, and (as in Wescott’s case) will eagerly return after winning an Olympic gold medal in snowboardcross.

Wescott, it turns out, flunks the only test available for those seeking true “Mainer” status: He was born in Durham, N.C.

But ask those who’ve met the personable snowboarding star, and they will say that doesn’t mean he’s not one of them.

“He’s a Sugarloafer,” Doug Oliver said Thursday afternoon. “He’s a local boy. Laid-back. Just a really good athlete. When I saw him he was actually teaching [telemark] skiing. He’s a phenomenal teleskier, too.”

Oliver is a manager of the Bangor Ski Rack. And, like fellow manager Dave Behany, he shares a common bond with the new American hero.

They aren’t technically friends. But all three, you see, are Sugarloafers. And that’s something not to be taken lightly.

Sugarloafers, it turns out, don’t have complicated and rigid entrance requirements. All you have to do is ski or snowboard at the Maine resort – and love every minute of it.

And when one strikes gold on the world stage, thousands of other card-carrying Sugarloafers will be watching and celebrating.

Behany watched Wescott’s winning runs on CBC on Thursday morning. Upon heading to the Ski Rack, he told Oliver what he had seen.

Later that night, both had plans to meet up with other Sugarloafers to watch the tape-delayed prime time broadcast on NBC.

The bad news for Behany and Oliver: It was a balmy 55 degrees in Bangor, and they didn’t get to spend the entire day celebrating Wescott’s success with a flood of customers.

“Unfortunately, with this weather we don’t have a lot of people coming in today,” Oliver said. “There have been a couple of people who have mentioned it, but there hasn’t been a lot of that today.”

That was OK with David Hughes of Bangor. When Hughes arrived at the Ski Rack Thursday afternoon, he looked at the two managers and laid down the law.

“Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know,” Hughes said.

Later, laughing, Hughes admitted that he’d been under a self-imposed media blackout all day and was looking forward to hosting his two friends and others for the Wescott-watching party that evening.

“Somebody called me this morning and said, ‘He’s on [TV] right now, and ooh, somebody fell! I don’t know who it is,'” Hughes said. “I’m just hoping it’s not Seth, and he didn’t get blown out in the first round or something today.”

His friends weren’t willing to totally ruin the surprise, but neither were they able to contain their upbeat moods.

“All I’ll tell you is I bet they’re already partying at The Rack,” Behany said, referring to the Sugarloaf restaurant (and site of another former Ski Rack store) that Wescott co-owns.

Hughes has had plenty of dealings with Wescott in the past and is a big fan.

Hughes said he rarely sees Wescott during the winter months when the snowboarder is competing, training and traveling.

But in the summer, Hughes often sees him on the water around Sugarloaf. Hughes is an avid paddler, as is the Olympian.

“Seth is a very humble and soft-spoken guy. He’s a part of the community up there, part of the fabric of the community up at Sugarloaf,” Hughes said. “I think he’s a great spokesman for his sport, for Sugarloaf Mountain, and for our whole region.”

Behany said Wescott is friends with many Sugarloafers and friendly with scores of others.

“He’s just a really nice guy,” Behany said. “He’s just very much a hard-core local rider.”

And when he returns from his world travels and gets a chance to spend time with those pals, everyone benefits.

On the world stage, Wescott is a star, an icon, and now an Olympic hero. But to some of his closest Sugarloafer buddies, he’s also a bit like Santa Claus.

“He gets sponsors from all kinds of different companies and spreads the gear around to his friends,” Behany said with a chuckle. “He spreads the love around, let’s just say.”

And when Wescott returns from Italy, Sugarloafers will have a chance to return that love for their favorite hometown (if not technically “native”) star.