Park Practice | RSEO PDX 2026

There was so much frenetic energy in and around the Rockstar Energy Open bowl for the Men’s Park practice session on Thursday night that it almost felt like the event had already started.

Cory Juneau. Photo: Ballard

“Everyone was a little hungry tonight in practice, because tomorrow is a qualifier and we all want to be in the big show, so we're all trying to figure our runs out quickly,” says Keegan Palmer, the two-time Olympic gold medalist, two-time X Games gold medalist, and longtime star of the Rockstar team. “Everyone's just excited to skate, and the energy out here seems like everyone is without a worry in the world, just here to skate. That creates a good energy and a good flow for sure.” 

Keegan Palmer. Photo: Ballard

Palmer, who finished 3rd at RSEO Portland in 2024 and 9th in 2025 (and winner the Best Trick Jam), says a win on Sunday is definitely on his mind, but he’s just as excited to be in the moment and embracing the chance to skate an event with a much different field than he’s grown accustomed to.

Roman Pabich. Photo: Ballard

“One of my favorite things about this event is skating with all my homies, a bunch of the boys that don't do a lot of the other contests with us, guys like Roman Pabich, Cory Juneau, Zion Wright, Taylor Nye, some of these Portland guys like Kevin Kowalski and Nick Peterson. Bro, it’s so sick,” Palmer says.

Taylor Nye. Photo: Ballard

There will also be six skaters in Friday’s Park Qualifier field who fought their way in through The Platfrm Video Qualifier series, including JD Sanchez (better known as a vert podium regular at events including X Games and Jacklalope and Tony Hawk’s Vert Alert), Jedd McKenzie, Myles Pacheco, Taiyo Amano, Tommy Calvert, and Weston Caldwell. 

“The VQS is one of the coolest things Rockstar does because at pretty much all of the other events in the whole world it's always the same dudes,” Palmer says. “The VQS finally gives the kids an opportunity. For kids that don't get invited to X Games or don't get to participate in all the World Skate and Olympic stuff, the VQS gives any random kid on a skateboard a chance to get in.”

Tom Schaar. Photo: Ballard

Friday’s Park Qualifier will have a brutal cut, slashing the 28-man field to just 10 riders for Sunday’s Final. 

“It’s going to be mayhem out here trying to make that cut, especially with the Portland crowd going crazy,” Palmer says. “A lot of people don't know, but Portland was actually my first skate trip in a van with a bunch of guys, so Portland always holds a soft place in my life for skateboarding. We went to Burnside on that trip and we went to the Oregon coast, you know, we did all that, skated so many great parks. It was one of the sickest experiences of my life, so I'm always so stoked to be back here. The energy that I'm gonna bring this weekend is so big, just knowing the whole crowd is full of Portland skate legends. Like, you've got to come correct here for these fans! Just wait 'till you see it.”

Joey Yarbrough. Photo: Durso

Joey Yarbrough, making her RSEO debut this weekend at age 13, was one of the standouts in the Women’s Park practice on Thursday.

“I was super excited I got invited, Yarborough said after Thursday’s practice. “I watched all the contests from last year and it looked really fun. Now that I'm here, skating the park is so fun. This would be a great skatepark to skate on a daily basis!”

Yarborough is a member of the Dickies Skateboarding team and a rising star in the leadup to the 2028 Los Angeles Paris Olympics, currently ranked #5 among USA’s women’s park competitors in her first year of World Skate competition. She’s even better known as a lifer in the Exposure Skate program, and says she’s excited to help out with the Exposure fan activations this weekend here in Portland in the RSEO festival area.

Bryce Wettstein. Photo: Durso

“I started skating when I was 18 months old at the Exposure Skate Rising event, and I wouldn't be here without them—I'm super grateful for them,” Yarborough says. “All the people I look up to, I now skate with them at Exposure and World Skate and now here. It's so fun to be here with so many of my friends, to skate and get to compete with them. Like Bryce Wettstein, she used to teach me at the Exposure events when I was really little, and now here I am at the Rockstar Energy Open, ready to compete with her. It’s so exciting!”

Another standout rider in Thursday’s practice: Defending 2024 and 2025 Rockstar Energy Open champ Mizuho Hasegawa. Mizuho is having an absolutely incredible year so far in 2026, winning the World Skate Saõ Paulo Park World Championships in March and the X Games League MVP title last month after collecting 8 medals between X Games Sacramento, Chiba, and New Orleans.

Minna Stess. Photo: Durso

Other riders to watch for include Lilly Erickson, Heili Sirviö, Yurin Fujii, Ruby Lilley, Minna Stess, Lilly Stoephasius, and Jordan Santana. 

Joining them are four up-and-comers who earned their way in through The Platfrm Video Qualifier Series (VQS): Asahi Kaihara, Katelyn West, Klara Kermoade, and Mazel Paris. Mazel, the youngest in the field at age 12, is coming in fresh off wins at the Mystic Sk8 Cup in Prague in June, and her Exposure Bowl win in November.

Grace Marhoefer. Photo: Durso
 
Friday’s Women’s Park Qualifier begins at 1:00pm PT and the Men’s Park Qualifier starts at 4:30pm PT. Both contests will run multiple heats of riders (two heats of 16 total women, three heats of 28 total men) each allotted three :45-second runs with only their best score counting. The top ten women and ten men will advance to the Finals, respectively.