San Jose, Costa Rica
By the start of the early Saturday afternoon at Arenas Skatepark in San Jose on May 17, you could tell it was going to be a full house. We had a line of kids standing outside of the skate shop waiting for us to start the sign up sheets and get a spot in the Game. This was the most kids we ever had enterering the Game of SKATE. Actually, there was so many people that the vending machines at the park had to be restocked on three different occasions with water, soft and energy drinks during the 4 1/2 hours it took us to run the game.
We saw lots of surprises and upsets at this qualifier, as some of the better known flatground skaters of the country got eliminated early on by new/up-and-comers.
In the end we had another four way final that consisted of Miguel Castro, Jose Figueroa, Daniel Chacon (éS rider and 12 years old) and Rodolfo Solano. At the end of the 25 minute final it was Rodolfo who took everyone out, not even getting one letter himself, by throwing down a solid combination of switch and regular kickflips, tre flips, hard flips, late shove-its and late shove-it kickflips, bringing out a little bit of the early 90's flat skills.