At the risk of sounding like a stuck record since I already noted it in the semi-finals, WST Lausanne was beyond doubt the best crowd so far on the World Skateboarding Tour. They cheered right through practice, they cheered every single run- they even cheered the guy with the leaf-blower for managing to run up a quarter pipe without falling on his head (which, to be honest, is no small ask). Two hours before kick-off and every single seat, every gangway space, every step and every vantage point was taken. This is what they witnessed.

Let’s start with the men’s contest, for the sake of a change?

Ph: Jake Darwen

Aurelien Giraud

Staying with the subject of the crowd, Aurelien Giraud was the crowd favourite without question.  Although he had a similar contest trajectory to the last stop in Rome- which is to say, looked bulletproof going forward from the semi-finals, including a perfect Backside 360 Kickflip in the Best Trick section- he then left himself with a mountain to climb by trailing 25 points off his closest competitor and nearly 40 off the leader going into Best Trick.He landed his first (Backside Nollie Flip) and last (Hardflip Backside Revert) Best Trick attempts, with the latter being sufficiently huge to be the absolute crowd moment of the contest. He then promptly gave his board away to an uber-stoked little man. A class act all-round, and only needs to be lucky once in order to sweep all before him.

Ph: Jake Darwen

Richard Tury

It’s hard not to root for Riso. The great underdog story of the World Skateboarding Tour, he operates from an almost-totally different trick bag from most of the rest of the field and is clearly working his posterior off to find ways to eek out those individual points that make all the difference at this level. He made a Heelflip Tailslide on a 9-stair rail worth 84 in his Best Trick Section, and tried a Heelflip Nosebluntslide on the same during the Semi’s. If he makes one of those, it wll be a telephone number of a score. Tactically aware and super humble, his consistency and hunger have seen him make WST finals more often than better-established names- and with this 7th place, he currently sits 6th in the WST rankings. Some accomplishment.

Ph: Jake Darwen

Yukito Aoki

A best result to date for the unbelievably consistent Japanese powerhouse who manages to have a real lightness of touch for such a tall guy. Like Aurelien Giraud, he had a fallow middle period in the Best Trick section bookended by his two makes (Cab Back Lip, Nollie Bigspin Heelflip Back Lip) although with his ability to score well in the Run section, this may have been his first final but seems unlikely to be his last. Also seems totally unintimidated, which will also work in his favour going forward.

Ph: Jake Darwen

Yuto Horigome

One of the great imponderables of skateboarding is where the interface lies between it being a science and an art. From a science perspective, if he had posted a higher Run score than a comparatively modest (7th highest) 75, his art would have made him unassailable. Three of five Best Tricks each in the 90’s (of a theoretically possible 100)- and one an eye-watering 96.95- tells it’s own story. Notwithstanding his late deposement from the leaderboard, in Yuto Horigome we are witnessing skateboarding’s John Coltrane who is taking the possibilities of the form into new and unchartered territories. He even took a swing at a Backside 270 Nollie Heelflip Boardslide. Genuinely: let’s recognise greatness when it moves among us.

Ph: Jake Darwen

Kairi Netsuke

Skateboarding has it’s own waves and Kairi Netsuke has caught a huge one right now. Had he not hit the same bad luck streak mid-Best Trick, he would have been on the podium; but with that said he got his feet back on a (*clears throat) Heelflip Backside Tailside Bigspin Out on a 9-stair handrail. Read that back. Two Run scores above 85 plus two Best Tricks above 88 AND he was unlucky.A modern Heelflip great already and frighteningly good all round- what happens if he is lucky?

Ph: Jake Darwen

Giovanni Vianna

It is very difficult in skateboarding to be absolutely distinctive in all aspects, but watching Giovanni Vianna skate is like seeing something being said. More solid and emphatic in the way he lands than anyone else on the World Skateboarding Tour, he also has tricks nobody else does. Perfectly horizontally-locked Caballerial Frontside Noseslides (on a handrail!) and a Fakie Frontside Ollie to Back Smith on same aforementioned rail speak to a unique talent and vision. A welcome and worthy newcomer to the WST podium, who brings a unique interpretation of skateboarding with him and is a master of his own personal craft.

Ph: Jake Darwen

Toa Sasaki

Although having made the semi-finals at every WST stop since Rome 2022, this was Toa’s first finals moonshot and he took it. The 16 year old from Mie in Japan is the biggest stealth contender of them all, and had the strategic nous to bag a staggering 89 Run score to leave him with breathing space he didn’t need. During Best Trick, he landed more than anyone else- 4 of 5, including one which was rejected when the grind dropped down into a boardslide which he rode out anyway. Insane talent to do so, and one which clearly impressed the person who beat him- because he signed him to his Disorder Skateboards brand straight after.

Ph: Jake Darwen

Nyjah Huston

If you thought that Nyjah Huston’s return-if-he-was-ever-away from contest domination was a non-story, the reverse is true. It is more than a redemption tale, it is a study in the ability of human will. On the cover of magazines since he was 10 years old, coming back off a knee injury which is widely regarded as skateboarders ruin, the 28-year-old dominator is somehow better than he was before.With the only 90+ Run score of the men’s finals and 3 out of 5 Best Tricks all in the 90’s: if you come at the king, you best not miss. Nyjah Huston didn’t miss a beat all weekend, including a Nollie Heelflip Nosebluntslide on a handrail, first go. Nobody else is doing that.

The Women’s final preceded the men’s on Saturday but was no shorter of storylines. Half the field was Japanese, Brazil had a pair and the US and Europe had a sole representative holding it down for their respective continents. Let’s begin with Europe.

Ph: Jake Darwen

Roos Zwetsloot

The charming and well-liked Dutch rail-chomper had perhaps felt the attrition of a full week’s skating by the time the finals rolled around. Looking a little nervy as the first one in during the Run section (where she was gapping to 50-50 on the driveway every single time), she unfortunately couldn’t repeat her Semi-Final Best Trick heroics in which she she landed a Heelflip Front Board perfectly. She made one in the finals, but put her hands down on the rollout and declined to take the points in favour of another attempt which was not to be. In that regard, she was not the only one in Lausanne, as we will see elsewhere.

Ph: Jake Darwen

Rayssa Leal

Having made it into the finals emphatically with 3 of 5 Best Tricks in the Semi’s, the current World Champion opened her account well with a strong first run that left her in second place going into the Best Trick section but looked to be in impact pain right from her first attempt. Although she gamely battled back to land a Kickflip Front Board, it was to be her only make in the section. Showed a lot of courage in doing so.

Ph: Jake Darwen

Funa Nakayama

The pacemaker throughout the entire women’s competition couldn’t improve on her first Run score of 68 and went into Best Trick 20 points adrift of Momiji Nishiya and- after posting a perfect Backside Overcrook as her first trick- she gambled on a Noseblunt for her second and slammed hard enough to end her day. She returned for a fourth trick in which she Boardslid the flatbar for 22 points which were enough to bump her up a position into 6th, but was clearly still in pain. We extend our best healing wishes to her, here.

Ph: Jake Darwen

Pamela Rosa

The Brazilian powerhouse’s best-ever WST result was a victory for consistency through every round. Of all the female finalists, Pamela had the steadiest trajectory of progress throughout the qualification rounds. Gapping over the driveway both to Lipslide and to Smithgrind as if it was easy, a scratched first Run left her no safety blanket. She will look to improve there, but that aside she ploughed a solid course through the field where others crashed and burned and that 5th place bumps her up to 7th in the OWSR rankings- with which she will presumably be pleased.

Ph: Jake Darwen

Coco Yoshizawa

The 13-year-old Japanese youngster presents a real challenge when she gets to the Best Trick section precisely because her international profile is so low that few people have a handle on what tricks are in her arsenal. Although she used up 3 Best Trick attempts on a Noseslide Shove It on the Hubba ledge, the place in which she can hoover up most points next time is the Run section where her best complete run was worth a 57. While her 4th place here is a personal WST high for her, the gap between her final score and Bronze was 19 points- a gap easier to close in Run than Best Trick.

Ph: Jake Darwen

Paige Heyn

Everything is coming together all at the same time for the Arizona native. Her first podium place at a WST event (she came a commendable 7th in the 2022 World Championships) came about as a result of mid-sixties Run score and then her second 3 of 5 Best Trick showings in her last two outings (she made a 4th but rejected it because the grind failed to lock). The fact that all her Best Trick makes were switch- and her Switch Frontside 50-50 was the one of only two 90+ scores of the women’s contest- will have both skaters and coaches taking note.

Ph: Jake Darwen

Yumeka Oda

With her third and highest podium placing of the WST so far, Yumeka Oda’s star is in the ascendant. Exiting the Run round with a relatively modest 66 score in her pocket, her first-try Flip Front Feeble(!) in Best Trick was the highest-scoring move of the women’s competition and she edges ever closer to top spot.

Ph: Jake Darwen

Momiji Nishiya

Standing in Yumeka’s (and, indeed, everybody else’s) way is the indomitable Momiji Nishiya. The current Olympic gold medallist returned to the podium for the third time on the WST with her first outright victory since Tokyo. The fact that she was 20 points in the lead at the start of the Best Trick section meant that the contest was hers to lose, but she still needed three attempts and her last trick to land a Bigspin Front Board and put proceedings to bed. She was first place by a margin of ten full points in the end. Say no more.

Now, in the style of one of those homilies Jerry Springer used to give to camera at the end of his show: what did we learn from WST Lausanne?

The first thing appears to be that, against conventional wisdom, it now seems that for the men’s competition going forward it will be back in the Run section in which those leaderboard-leaping points will be most easily found; if we take off the top and bottom Best Run scores, the average men’s run score is 83. In their Best Trick, there were 9 makes of 90 and above. The conclusion must be that every individual point above 90 in Best Trick is like scaling a vertical wall. From the women’s perspective, Paige Heyn’s showing here (alongside Chloe Covell’s success elsewhere on the Tour) would suggest that developing a switchstance game may be the way to go for female skaters looking to up their point tallies in the future.

Finally, we would like to thank everyone at Segment Festival once again for hosting/ putting up with us!

The World Skateboarding Tour continues!