Park Practice Photos + Highlights | Rockstar Energy Open 2024

Taylor Nye.

Welcome to the inaugural Rockstar Energy Open. With ludacris over the loudspeaker and the bleachers loaded with the homies (professional skateboarders, friends and family) lurking, the atmosphere around the Men’s and Women’s practice sessions felt like a throwback to a simpler time. 

Phoenix Sinnerton.

Feeling out the freshly poured clover bowl along the riverside in Portland, Oregon, the course was complete with two pool coping extensions across from each other, all kinds of hips and lip transfers. One hip step-up to lip in particular saw a lot of attention, it was from the deep end up and out to the long pool coping extension wall.

Keegan Palmer.

The depth of park riders went from contest killing olympians like two-time gold medalist Keegan Palmer to the less predictable types such as Greyson Fletcher poking ollie one-foots and finding tricky lines.One of the most creative lines, hopped out of the bowl for a short deck carve then back into the bowl across and out again to tail stall on the railing in front of a bleacher to back in. Greyson also gapped up to frontside 50-50 the entire pool coping section then drop off into the deep end. He definitely stole the session.

Greyson Fletcher.

Greyson also went for a lengthy doubles run with hometown hero Nick Peterson to really set the relaxed but rowdy tone of the session. Later Nick took a Texas plant off the top ropes of a pool coping extension and had the rest of the skaters smacking tail.

“It has been unpredictable. You have a lot of hectic riders,” said Nick Peterson, the local living legend in these here Portland parts. Nick has been a staple of the scene here and for skaters, like the two-time Olympic gold medalist Keegan, Nick has shown many people the ropes around this part of the world but has never competed with them at this type of event. 

Tom Schaar.

“I’m actually riding for Cal Skate in the Shop Event here, and wanted to get in on the pro practice sessions. But then they Peacock turned it back around to me and asked if I would skate in the contest with them, too. I said if I have to skate the event to skate the practice session, then I’m down.”

Australians Kieran Woolley and Keefer Wilson quickly dissected the bowl and put together full runs with Chris Gregson behind the lens–look for the clips!

Tristan Rennie.

Tate Carew came out for the second session and quickly realized he didn’t dress appropriately. Fortunately for him Kieran was willing to shed his pants and swap for Tate’s shorts. Everybody’s friends here.

“It’s a super sick group. It’s rad getting all the homies back together, I feel like it’s been a few years since we’ve had a squad like this,” said Clay Kreiner, looking around and enjoying the scene around the deck of the bowl. “With all the Olympic stuff, I feel like we haven’t had a good hang out, a good homie session in way too long. But here, even the hotel vibes here are rad. Everybody has been hanging out and going out with each other. I’m just feeling blessed to be out here with a beautiful list of homies.” 

Grace Marhoefer.

On the women’s side, a trio of rising Japanese skate stars—Mizuho Hasegawa, Hinano Kusaki, Yurin Fujii—were the standouts of Thursday’s practice session. Fujii, who has been getting more confident answering interview questions in English, said she showed up to the first practice expecting to find some lines in the bowl and start feeling out some trick potential, and was surprised by how quickly the vibe shifted to main event energy. 

“Everyone’s so crazy, and it pushes me,” Fujii said. “Oh, we’re doing 540s already? First day, first try? Okay. Let’s go!”

Bryce Wettstein was putting together full runs of the kind of creative, innovative, and technically difficult tricks that have now helped make her a two-time Olympian and could put her on the podium this weekend.. 

Bryce Wettstein.

“First impression: So much fun!” Wettstein said. “What I love most about skateboarding is that you don’t have to check the boxes with some exact checkmarks: the magic is in the magic that everybody brings just by being ourselves and having fun with the runs and tricks we think up. We can let go of the idea that there’s something we should be doing or need to be doing, and just do what we want to be doing and dream of doing.”

Lilly Erickson was doing the blunt-to-fakie straight into a half-Cab blunt on the next wall that has become her signature combo, and soaring the stalefish airs she’s best known for, and said her pick for practice standout is the RSEO Park course itself. 

Lilly Erickson.

“It’s really different from a lot of the other courses we’ve been skating this year, and we all like it because it’s just a perfect bowl,” Erickson said. “There’s a lot of lines to it and I really like the flow of it.”

While Erickson says she’s focused on this weekend’s contests, she says she has other goals for her first trip to Portland. “Burnside is next! It’s so cool to be in Portland, a city with so much cool  skateboarding history and culture and such legendary parks, and just get a chance to explore it.”

Jordan Santana, another standout of Thursday’s practice session, said the potential in a new event feels electric.

“I'm really happy to be a part of the first Rockstar Energy Open, because it's something new,” Santana said. “Everyone has been talking about what it’s going to look like and especially what the course will be like, and this bowl definitely meets the expectations and more. I also really like that this event is free and open to the public, so everyone in Portland can come check it out.”