Park Practice Photos and Highlights Day One at Rockstar Energy 2025
Cory Juneau. Photo: Andrew Durso
The fresh paint, pool coping, and cement pour for the park at the 2025 Rockstar Energy Open (RSEO) received their first beating during practice sessions on Thursday. Waterfront Park in downtown Portland, Oregon, is hosting the event for the second year, and before the weekend of competition ahead, the city’s finest stretch of park along the Willamette River was already buzzing.
Keegan Palmer. Photo: Durso
Between the women and men, more than 35 skaters took over the new bowl to break it in proper. With perfect warmup weather in the morning—under a bit of gray skies at a brisk 68°F—skaters from around the world brought the heat. By the time early afternoon hit Portland, the skies were blue… but the golden paint around the unique contest bowl was already showing its first signs of use.
Chris Russel. Photo: Muller
“Muscle [Chris Russell] is killing it,” said Tristan Rennie, as he waited patiently for his turn to practice. “I have looked at, I’ve watched people ride it… my first impression, it looks super fun! There are the shallow stairs, you’ve got the vert wall—I like the center island. The star looks like a sick option because you can stall both sides of it. Everything looks like it lines up.”
Issei Sakurai. Photo: Muller
The most notable quality of the bowl is the shape. It’s not typical—almost a clover pool with a proper round deep end, and even complete with a stack of stairs in the shallow end. In between the deep and shallow ends, though, is where you’ll see the majority of the action.
Pedro Barros. Photo: Durso
Separating the deep and shallow is a vert extension that takes a tight area and turns it into a trickable highlight—you can transfer by grind between the clover sections, or skate the round and difficult vert side. Across from the extension is a massive but mellow hip equipped with pool coping. Beyond that, there’s another vert extension wall near the shallow end, and across from that is a Rockstar Energy star feature on the deck where the bowl transitions from medium to deep.
Danny Leon. Photo: Muller
“I like the flow of the park,” said Sky Brown following her first practice session. “Everything is quick and easy to get to. I love the fact that it is small! I feel like it will show bowl skating and bring out the bowl skaters. This is bowl skating!”
Tom Schaar. Photo: Durso
Sky did not attend the inaugural event in 2024, and she quickly pointed out exactly what sets this contest apart. “It is quite a different group than we are used to. I always love watching Issei [Sakurai] skate, and it is cool to see Chris [Russell] in the park. Greyson [Fletcher] is here—I’m just super excited to see everyone.”
Gavin Bottger. Photo: Muller
Returning after earning third place in 2024, Keegan Palmer also commented on the shape and size of the bowl. “I think it looks really fun. It’s definitely a lot different. It is a lot smaller than what we are used to and has a lot of different features, so I am excited to skate it.”