Kelvin Hoefler Qualified First in Skate Street Prelims
The Toyota City Championships kicked off the action-packed weekend in San Francisco, California by bringing back the Skate Street contest to showcase the rich history of skating with replicated iconic spots and the evolution of modern-day skating with the rest of the obstacles allowing for variety.
The Skate Street course includes replicas of iconic San Francisco street spots like Hubba Hideout and the China Banks recreated and dropped into the Civic Center. Combine those with everything else packaged into the course and you get something for everyone to enjoy.
Kelvin Hoefler, backside nose blunt
With City Hall in sight, the 23 skaters were split into six heats of four or five skaters. Each heat ran as an organized jam lasting for 10 minutes with skaters allowed to do up to three tricks per line. The top 17 overall scores advanced to the Semi Final round.
Right out the gate in the first heat we saw Kelvin Hoefler get technical with a nollie bluntslide on the A-frame rail and a backside noseblunt on the picnic table earning him the top spot from the heat and cheers from the fired up crowd. Fast forward to heat number three and Alec Majerus and Curren Caples came out with authority. Majerus went technical throwing kickflips in to almost every grind, while Caples was smashing around the course finding the biggest gaps to snap stylish ollies over.
Curren Caples, kickflip
Wrapping up in the fifth heat there was David Gravette going all out with his hesh style pulling a 50-50 one of handrails middle rail – nobody saw that coming. Then Adam Dyet came out with a huge front blunt down the big hubba right into a backside flip melon over the bump to bump gap. Can’t forget about Taylor Bingaman who also took a blunt to the down hubba with a back noseblunt.
When everything was said and done, nobody was able to unseat Kelvin Hoefler from the top spot so he rode out qualifying first for tomorrow’s semi-final.
Be sure to check back shortly for a photo gallery posted to the top of this article and video recap of the session!
Results
1st Place – Kelvin Hoefler
2nd Place – Felipe Gustavo
3rd Place – Curren Caples
4th Place- Alec Majerus
5th Place- Louie Lopez
6th Place- David Gravette
7th Place-Taylor Bingaman
8th Place-Adam Dyet
9th Place- Dave Bachinsky
10th Place- Jordan Hoffart
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