Quarterfinals day on the World Skateboarding Tour is the moment when the average standard of skateboarding suddenly goes way, way up.
Out of 184 skateboarders registered on Monday, only 32 can go forward from here so the action is suddenly more serious and focused.
There to enjoy it all are schoolkids bussed in from Kitakyushu and surrounding areas- hundreds over the space of a few days- to experience one heat each of skateboarding at the highest level for the first time. It is particularly heartwarming to see an all-girls school witness female skateboarding at this incredible level. How affirming it must be to see young women their age doing things which for their teacher’s generation must have been inconceivable.
We are living in a changing world, every day.
As you might expect for the second WST stop in Japan (the previous being World Championship Tokyo in December 2023), Asia is well represented here. Not just Japan, who are quickly becoming the dominant force in competitive skateboarding worldwide, but also China, Korea and Thailand- all of whom have managed to get their skateboarders into the quarterfinals against the other skateboarding superpower nations of USA, Brazil and Australia.
Two of the fastest skateboarders in the Women’s division were 13-year old Mei Ozeki and 15-year old Nanami Onishi, both of whom were absolutely flying around the course with verve and energy. They are both exciting future prospects and fun to watch.
The big shock of Women’s quarterfinals, however, was that World number one and Paris Olympic gold medallist Coco Yoshizawa failed to make the cut into semifinals by 0.03 of a point despite having a full second run. Liz Akama already made the cut with her first (incomplete) run but missed completing her second by the buzzer and will have to pay close attention to her time management if she is to progress beyond semis.
Men’s quarterfinals were opened by a powerful run from Australia’s Daniel Woolley, younger brother of WST Park skater Kieran.
France’s Joseph Garbaccio managed to complete his second run with a huge nosebluntslide on the wooden out-ledge but fellow Europeans Simon Gerber, Remco Erkeland, Pacal Teixeira and Jonas Larsen were less lucky and unable to complete full runs.
Australian veteran Tommy Fynn was a crowd favorite but could not land the 360 kickflip to noseslide on the yellow hubba in either run.
Incredibly, Nyjah Huston is out at quarterfinals stage because the standard is now so high that it basically comes down to can you land your last mega-trick- and, needing to do so on his second run, he could not. Going through to the next round, however is Brazil’s Tour newcomer Wallace Gabriel, who had a superb first run capped off with a switch backside lipslide to power into tomorrow’s semis.
Doing likewise is Japan’s Yukito Aoki, who looks like he has broken his run of bad luck for now (he last made it to finals at WST Dubai back in March 2024). That same luck was not in for USA’s Braden Hoban, who somehow managed to fall off his last trick as he was rolling away on what was an otherwise perfect run that would have easily taken him into the next round.
The long day came to an incredible crescendo with Ginwoo Onodera and Toa Sasaki crashing out while Great Britain’s Joe Hinson made it into only his second semifinals of the WST by just one point.
Tomorrow is a new day- but can it be any more exciting than this one?
