Barcelona Skateboarding Recap
 
By Chris Mitchell
Sunday, July 24, 2005

Moll de Marina – The prelim qualifying results read like a Barcelona phone book of skateboarders. Nine out of ten skaters came from Barcelona, and Orlando Acosta was in the lead spot. The crowd was excited to have so many hometown heroes to get behind, and it was standing-room-only in the bleachers.

Right from the start, it was a battle between the top four skaters. Fifteen year old Ruben Vincente Puentas pulled hard tricks with a lot of style. The judges were split, but in the end, Ruben slipped to 4th place, putting Frank Esteban in 3rd. Orlando Acosta did a string of big, tech tricks – a 50/50 down the shotgun rail, a frontside flip over the pyramid – but he missed a few too many tricks and had to settle for the silver. Jose Manual Roura grabbed the gold with a complete run that used the entire course. He pulled a nose gring down the hubba ledge, then transferred from the big quarter to the little one, and almost stuck a feeble grind down the shotgun rail.

At the award ceremony, everybody was ecstatic. Barcelona owned the podium!