Before we get into the action side of things here in Japan, let’s take a little stroll from the event to the adjacent Kokura train station, one of Kyushu island’s main transit hubs. More than 10,000 people pass through here every day, and the local organisers have the entire place branded with WST Kitakyushu promotional features. Banners, posters, images inlaid on stairs and Best Trick loops on video screens are all promoting skateboarding to the commuters in imaginative and striking ways.

Moving on to other pressing matters in the form of Fashion Watch: griptape art of all types is a go, printed beanies are red hot and black wheels are becoming alarmingly popular. 

All of which leads to Women’s Open Qualifiers, which took place first. Most notably improved since WST Rome last June were the always- stoked Nanami Onishi, Spain’s Abbie Burns and hyper-energised Mei Ozeki. Poe Pinson squeaked into the cut despite not completing a full run thanks to her imaginative use of the course and uncommon trick bag, and quarterfinals will be better for her being in there as a result. All 32 of the women who qualified today will have their work cut out for them trying to progress by unseating any of the pre-seeded skateboarders who they now join in the quarterfinals if pre-seeded practice was anything to go by.

Because the World Skateboarding Tour is an open format in the sense that any federation can send teamriders, a lot of thought and discussion is given to how best to balance the open door opportunities for anyone to make it into the finals with the realistic understanding that only 8 skateboarders in fact can.

Now as you may already be aware, the World Skateboarding Ranking’s rolling 18-month window of relevant results means that nothing remains static for long. This means it is absolutely possible for people to miss individual events or indeed several and still claw their way back into the top flight, although it is far from advisable for this reason: the more you have to skate, the more can go wrong.

Put it like this: back in the 2023 World Championship last time we were in Japan, Chloe Covell- she of the 50-50 kickflips out and much else- stumbled on a flatground push during her Run section and lost her rhythm. Given that she missed out on a podium spot by 0.65 of a point, we can say with some certainty that one unfortunate fluke cost her a medal. That is how treacherous skateboarding can be at this level.

So anything which can give you a fraction of competitive advantage is worth buying into- which is where Pre-seeding becomes relevant.

Pre-seeding sees the previous WST stop’s podium places plus the next 5 highest WSR-ranked skateboarders given a by into quarterfinals and a dedicated practice slot on each day beforehand, and the two days of Open Qualifiers are punctuated with these super-sessions.

When you watch pre-seeded practice, you begin to understand how accurate judging and consistency across the Tour begins to tell: it is like watching the best demo ever. All 8 of the skateboarders in pre-seeded practice look like finals contenders and you begin to see the pedigree of elite skateboarding at this level.

Only the very highest- scoring rippers from Open Qualification look like they have any chance of unseating the pre-seeded cohort, and you see the development of one of the great stories-within-the-story of each event: if the leaders of the Open Qualifier pack are to progress into the final, then who will be nudged out to make space for them?

This is why the Semifinals are often just as hectic as the Finals, and Open Qualifiers are when those sub-battles are first tee’d up.

Foremost in the minds of everyone watching Men’s Open Qualifiers as the person most likely to go on a tear straight through to the finals was South Korea’s Juni Kang, a talent among talents who is doing Suciu grinds (alley-oop backside ollie fakie nosegrind out forwards) on handrails every single time. Unreal gift; people who know are already tipping him as the next Yuto, which is high praise indeed.

Unable to make it into quarterfinals at this time of asking but nonetheless worthy of praise from early heats in Men's Open Qualification were Indonesia’s Zaidhar Ibrahim, Maksim Ezhov and Puerto Rico’s Gabi Lavellee. Better established names who also didn't make the cut include Shane O'Neill, Kelvin Hoefler, Filipe Mota and Manny Santiago.

On a little sidebar note but of real relevance to skateboarding in Japan, during today's Open Qualifiers a press conference was held upstairs discussing the future of competitive skateboarding here on Japan's southern island, which is determined to become both an international and domestic draw for youth culture and action sports.
Attended by Nyjah Huston, Yuto Horigome, Coco Yoshizawa, the aforementioned Chloe Covell and Cordano Russell- as well as World Skate president Sabatino Aracu and the mayor of Kitakyushu- the presentation marked a starting point for what are huge plans to make Japan a permanent seat of international competitive skateboarding from now on. One term used was 'the Wimbledon of skateboarding'.
Exciting times ahead here in Japan!