By James Sablan
[email protected]
Variety News Staff
LOCAL skateboarders finally got their chance to skate the new pavement at the newly developed Capital Hill Skate Park on Saturday afternoon with Kurt Arboliras claiming titles in both Game of SKATE and Best Trick during Mariana Surf and Skate League’s Street Session “Volume 2.”
The tournament format for Volume 2 was kept streamlined, using a single-elimination structure with a “one winner per event” rule to maximize free-skating time and community engagement.
The Game of SKATE tournament featured head-to-head flatground battles, with skaters matching trick for trick until Arboliras outlasted the field to claim the top spot and take home a brand-new skate deck.
Arboliras doubled down on his dominant Saturday performance by also capturing the Best Trick title on the park’s central funbox obstacle.
The Best Trick competition featured a high-intensity, seven-minute open jam session, with seven skaters given full access to the park at the same time, allowed to attack any obstacle and attempt their most difficult maneuvers, while judges evaluated runs based on difficulty, technicality, and execution.
In a frantic window where only four tricks were successfully landed by the entire field, Arboliras secured the victory with a precise backside 50-50 180 out.
The event, which served as a soft grand opening for the facility, faced brief administrative and logistical delays following the disruptive impact of Super Typhoon Sinlaku, which pushed the competition back from its originally scheduled date. Early morning rain on Saturday also threatened further delays, but the skies cleared just in time for Saipan’s skating community to showcase their talents.
“We did run into some rain this morning, but we’re happy that it cleared up and that the skaters showed up for this event,” said Tim Deleon Guerrero, skate director and acting chair for the Mariana Surf and Skate League.
The Capital Hill facility represents a structural shift for local action sports, designed specifically to bridge a developmental gap in Saipan’s skateboarding scene.
“We wanted to have an area where beginners can develop themselves, as well as intermediate skaters can actually elevate their game,” Deleon Guerrero explained. “The Chinatown Skatepark is just too advanced for beginners, so [Capital Hill] is an easier transition for skaters to learn here and then take it down to Chinatown.”
The new park features scaled-down obstacles, ledges, and manual pads tailored to help intermediate riders incorporate flip tricks into grinds — elements organizers said were missing from the Chinatown configuration.
Looking forward, the MSSL aims to collaborate with other local sports organizations to transform the area into a multi-sport ecosystem. Plans are underway to coordinate scheduling and events with the adjacent basketball, pickleball, and softball facilities.
“A big thanks goes out to everybody who put up with all the hard work I was pushing everybody to do,” said Deleon Guerrero. “We’ve got to thank the Mayor’s Office, Parks and Recreation, Mike Cruz, and all his team down there for allowing us to do this. We plan to have more events and combine it with basketball, pickleball, and softball, and hopefully just do one big shebang with everybody and keep this park alive.”
James Sablan has been a sports reporter for Variety since 2013. He was a liberal arts student of Northern Marianas College and covers all local sports.
