The World Skateboarding Tour touched down in western Argentina in May for a Pro Tour Park contest which contributes those all-important ranking points on the Road To Paris 2024.

The Pocito Skatepark in San Juan is framed by the Andean mountains to one side and both a velodrome and football stadium to the other. One day’s practice had to be curtailed by Argentina’s Under 20 football team playing next door for which event organisers World Skate laid on tickets for whomsoever wanted to watch, which was a nice touch.

With over 160 skaters entered from around the globe and a football match-sized interruption to the schedules, at least the weather looked like it would play ball- at least as practice time turned to qualifications. In a surreal but not entirely unheard-of meteorological twist for six-hundred metres above sea-level, the azure Andean skies first vanished under a freezing fog and then gave way to something close to a tornado before clearing again just in time for the finals. The woman’s finals saw the first recorded full sweep of entrants all lodge a score above 80 points out of a possible 100, which represents a new benchmark in the standard of international female Park skateboarding.

Among the best-represented nations in both divisions was the resurgent Brazil who brought the party with them as they always seem to and it was their stealth weapon Luigi Cini who took the top spot in his final with a first run which could not be caught by any of the four Americans in his finals to the delight of their extended crew.

With this WST San Juan Park Pro Tour event sandwiched between the 2022 World Championships in the UAE several months ago and the WST Rome 2023 Park World Championships scheduled for October, the Road To Paris now heads for its final decider at the Spot Skatepark in Ostia on the Italian capital’s waterfront to decide who will proceed to represent their nations in Paris the summer after this one.

In occasionally challenging circumstances, the riders from all over the world came together in Argentina to put on a world-class show for fans right around the globe courtesy of the internationally syndicated WST broadcast. All roads now lead to Rome: we will see you all there!

Photo credit: World Skate Skateboarding