This month, the world of action sports had their eye on the 3rd Annual Rockstar Energy Open which is a 3-day annual skateboarding competition and music festival at Tom McCall Waterfront Park in Portland, Oregon. Over the days of this festival, attendees enjoyed skateboarding contests, live music, and the festival village which included art installations, interactive sponsor setups, and local food trucks.
We sat down to talk with some of the athletes that participated this year which includes: 2X RSEO and 6X X Games Medalist Braden Hoban, 2X RSEO and X Games Bronze Medalist Lazer Crawford, X Games Medalist and Team USA Olympian Paige Heyn, RSEO Bronze Medalist and 2X Team USA Olympian and 2X X Games Bronze Medalist Bryce Wettstein, Team USA Olympian and RSEO Gold and 4X X Games Medalist Chris Joslin, and RSEO Silver and 2X Team Australia Gold and 6X X Games Medalist Keegan Palmer. We talked about their style of skateboarding, how they train, what they were looking forward to with the games, and more.
ATHLEISURE MAG: What drew you to skateboarding and when did you realize you wanted to do it as a pro?
BRADEN HOBAN: What drew me to skating is watching my neighbor skate his half pipe when I was 4 years old. I was obsessed instantly.
LAZER CRAWFORD: I guess I grew up around it cuz my dad was a skater and so were my two older brothers but I remember the day I decided I wanted to skate, X Games was playing on the tv and I went into our garage and grabbed my brothers board and that set it all off.
PAIGE HEYN: My uncle gave me a skateboard when I was younger and I would always kinda mess around on it but when I did my first skate lesson at 8 years old I fell in love and knew I wanted to skate forever after that.
BRYCE WETTSTEIN: My dad introduced me to it. It was fun to be able to see it from his perspective and as I got older, I fell in love with it on my own. There were challenges which are a blessing now, but at age 13, 14, 15, I began to fall in love with it even more. It also helped me love music and my other sports more – like surfing and volleyball.
I love the intimacy and focus you have when you’re skateboarding and how beautiful it is. The passion, grit, beauty and love to create real moments with real friends and family. How to navigate ups and downs, have perseverance. Sometimes you over complicate it and sometimes you don’t over complicate it – and that’s what makes it simply beautiful.
CHRIS JOSLIN: I always loved the freedom skateboarding allowed. No coach, no rules just you and the board.
KEEGAN PALMER: Something that got me really excited while I was a kid was seeing all the pros coming out to skate in Australia. They were really motivating because they showed me that I could make a career out of something I loved and something that was so exciting to me.
AM: For those that compete in street, what do you enjoy about this?
BH: The art of street skateboarding is what I enjoy, so being able to skate contests is great because it gets you sharp for street skating.
LC: Street contests are cool there fun when you can land your tricks haha but at the end of the day I’m a street skater and that’s what makes me happy.
PH: I love all the girls, they’re my best friends.
CJ: I enjoy the fact that skateboarding has taken me all over the world and seen amazing places while getting to ride my skateboard and have fun.
AM: What do you enjoy about competing in park?
BW: I love figuring out the bowl. It’s like a puzzle. You have to intermingle with people in a cohesive environment, like an island. It feels casual yet there’s something brewing and we share our love for skateboarding. After going to the same spot, people see you grow up over a long time and we are all around each other’s progression over time. Your mind is constantly figuring it out new lines for tricks, figuring out rhythm and cadence of the ramp. It’s a surprise to skate the course every time, it’s never the same. The process resembles life - soaring and over coping, having fun, enough for flow state and push past boundaries and not over thinking too hard. Always feels familiar but there’s always room for growth.
KP: Something that really excites me about competing is the nervous feelings I get in the mornings before a contest, and even while I’m at the contest. Going through the process of overcoming those feelings or using them to skate my best is really rewarding for me. I also love that I’m always battling against my homies - we all want to see each other do good but we all want to win as well so that friendly competition gets me motivated to skate my best at any competition. For park specifically, I’ve always been more drawn to the airs and spin tricks versus something like jumping down a stair set in a street contest.
AM: What is an average week like when you are training for upcoming competitions?
BH: As of now, I don’t really workout other than just staying on my board as much as I can. Skating skateparks during the week is essentially working out for the contests.
LC: Honestly, it’s always different I’m usually just out filming with my friends not necessarily training at all. Probably should though.
PH: I’m skating about everyday and taking care of my body and definitely trying to have fun with it all along the way!
BW: The training schedule is what feels right. Nurture your soul so you can be open as can be when you’re skating. As I get older, it’s more about my mindset but also about my physical well being. Treat my body right, go to the gym at Nakoa and have a nutrient dense diet - treating it all more serious with a Fun and serious blend. I am more receptive to people around me when I feel distracted. It’s my fresh take and perspective on skateboarding.
When not competing, I do two sessions per day, I skate about 2-3 hours a day and after X Games, it has made me want to skate more but maybe not quite as intensive.
It’s broken out into 2 hours in the morning and 1 hour in the evening. I squeeze in surfing a lot and I’m also trying to prepare for the upcoming Super Girl Pro, and my music. Sometimes I play two gigs a day. Music is healing. Skate, surf and music is like a deep dive in my soul – updating the new me!
When prepping for comp - I skate 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the evening. I do quality training sessions for the first part and the second part in the evening is fun skate. More cruising and soul skating, which is fun. I find joy and recharge for the second sessions after my morning ones.
CJ: I would say an average week of getting ready for upcoming contests would contain 3/4 skate sessions along with multiple stretch/mobility sessions a day.
KP: During the average week before a contest, I always make sure I’m not overworking my body and draining myself too much. So I usually skate for about an hour a day. I’ll hit the gym and do some PT around 3 times a week depending on how my body is feeling.
AM: What workouts do you do to optimize yourself in the sport?
BH: I think skating as much as you can so that you can be comfortable on your board.
LC: I just try to stay on my board as much as possible.
PH: I do a lot of yoga in the morning and at night.
BW: For my workouts at Nakoa, I do everything from plyometrics, lounges, squats, weights, cardio, stretch….just all around training. It’s important to be consistent. I eat avocado toast, eggs, Caesar Salad, broccoli, apples, bananas, oranges and pasta with olive oil!
CJ: A lot of single leg stability stuff to help with balance.
KP: My favorite way to work out off the board is by surfing and golfing. Surfing is so relaxing and nice and it always feels really great to be in the water while getting in a good workout. Golf is peaceful and quiet and I really enjoy being able to use golf as a way to stay outside and move my body while learning a sport without the risk of any injury.
AM: Bryce, you are a 2X Olympian. What does it mean to you to be able to represent your country and sport on such a global stage?
BW: It means everything. It feels like an even bigger chance to connect with the world and myself. The chance to be on a big stage and perform feels bigger than me. It’s a combination of having a lot of courage, inspiring others to have courage because when they have it, they have that strength too. Skating in the Olympics feels like another day in my life…like a treat, joyful, something worn on me not just for me but a chance to share my gift with people. Inspiring people is something I feel more of a blessing and something we can all do. I try not to put that pressure on myself because wherever you are, you’re meant to be. All the emotions. I love talking about this, oh my gosh.
AM: Chris, as an Olympian. What does it mean to you to be able to represent your country and sport on such a global stage?
CJ: The feeling of getting to go to the Olympics and compete for America is still so surreal to me and I’m not sure if that will ever change haha.
AM: Keegan, you are a 2X Gold Medalist Olympian. What does it mean to you to be able to represent your country and sport on such a global stage?
KP: For me, it was a special honor and something I am really proud of. It is a really special moment when you get to see your country’s flag being raised in honor of your sport and country at such a global stage.
AM: You will be competing at this year’s Rockstar Energy Open. Lazer, you won in 2024 at the inaugural event. What are you looking forward to?
BH: I’m excited for this whole week. Each year of the Rockstar Energy Open has topped the last.
LC: I’m looking forward to having fun and seeing a bunch of my friends! Rockstar’s contest is the most fun by far.
PH: I’m super excited, the vibe at the rockstar energy open is amazing and everyone is always so hyped!
BW: I love this event because it’s liberating and leisurely after coming off a big X Games experience, which I love. NYC team support gave me that family vibe. Connecting and having a great time. We showcase skateboarding and have a good time as always jamming with friends and being in the moment. It takes coming to another state literally to see our confidence grow. Experiences are a part of us forever. You push yourself but not over push, thankfully! I think I’ll journal about and write about.
CJ: Looking forward to skating the Rockstar Energy Open course, seeing all the homies and enjoying the good times Portland provides for everyone!
KP: THIS EVENT IS WAY MORE EXCITING than any other event. It’s unique and different from all other park contests and I love that I get to compete against friends that don’t typically compete like Clay Kreiner and Tristan Rennie. I think the overall vibe and energy we’ve felt in Portland is what gets me the most stoked and makes it a really fun event to be a part of.
AM: Are there any upcoming events or projects that you have coming up that you would like us to know about?
BH: Yep I have a Rockstar Energy x Thrasher Magazine video coming out in late November that I’ve been working on. I’m super hyped to put that out to the world.
LC: I got a part dropping next month with Plan B I’m excited about that!
PH: Just a lot of traveling and skating!
BW: Recently, it’s to slow down time. Have all this new wisdom but stay humble. Lately I’ve been writing about staying present with Jessie (London) – both cover songs and originals. We have different versions of mixes of old songs. I have an album with my friend Beebs (Money) coming out. So a lot of music things and hopefully release a book of dreams and poems, and maybe an autobiography later on. I’m also working on a video part in skateboarding. I’m attending Mira Costa College and SDSU majoring in anthropology and psychology.
CJ: Nothing too major planned out right now just trying to stay consistent on the board for as long as I can.
KP: I have the 2nd Olympic qualifier for the LA 2028 games in a little over a month, which is really important to me and anyone else trying to qualify for the Olympics. Right after that event, I’m looking forward to a road trip the Rockstar Energy crew is cooking up. We’re going to do a roadtrip to the Sick New World Music Festival in Texas and skate along the way with the whole team so I’m looking forward to hanging with all the homies. As far as projects go - I can’t really share anything just yet but I have some cool things in the works with Quadrant and F1 that I’m really excited to be a part of.
After talking with the skateboarders, we also talked with some of the bands that kept the vibes going! We sat down with Hot Mulligan, PUP, Angel Dust, and Basement to get to know more about their music as well as why they wanted to perform at this year’s sports festival!
ATHLEISURE MAG: Tell us about your band and how do you define your style?
HOT MULLIGAN: We’re based out of Michigan, even though none of us really live there anymore, except for one. And we reluctantly describe ourselves as post-emo, kind of a pop punk, emo, fusion.
PUP: We are a loud sweaty punk rock band from Canada. We’ve been doing this way longer than we ever expected. I still think this is the funniest thing that anyone ever said about us - it sounds like if Modest Mouse, Weezer and the Dillinger Escape Plan had a threesome.
PUP STEFAN BABCOCK: My fashion is very simple. Right now, I’m wearing one of the only T-shirts I own that is not identical to every other t-shirt I own. I usually find one thing that I like, and I buy it in 10 variations, and that’s it. I believe in comfort and efficiency, and I know what I like, and I’m not that adventurous.
PUP STEVEN SLADKOWSKI: My fashion is very simple. Right now, I’m wearing one of the only T-shirts I own that is not identical to every other t-shirt I own. I usually find one thing that I like, and I buy it in 10 variations, and that’s it. I believe in comfort and efficiency, and I know what I like, and I’m not that adventurous.
PUP SB: Okay, minus the not being adventurous part. I feel like I’m the most adventurous of... sartorically speaking, in the band. Uh, Zach is too. Everyone has cool style. But I do echo some of the trying to not overthink it, especially on tour. I have sort of got to this point on the road. You can get very decision fatigue, choice paralysis, because you’re making so many decisions all the time, and you’re exhausted. So, on the road, I will have, usually a pair of blue jeans and a pair of black jeans. And a series of white shirts. And then I’ll be a little more adventurous on stage. For a long time, I would wear a basketball jersey, A -’ cause it’s like universally cool. And we sweat a lot so it was actually very efficient. It actually cools. At home, I’ve been really into loud pants lately. These are not particularly loud, but patterns, crazy pants lately. I feel it’s evolved. Everyone is like, oh, I wear a crazy shirt with very standard pants. Inverting that has really opens some stuff up a bit. What if I just wear crazy pants and crazy shoes? I like crazy shoes.
BASEMENT DUNCAN STEWART: I would say, at this point, Basement is an alternative rock band, which has been formed through a lot of different influences and a lot of different ideas that we’ve all worked together to give us our own individual sound. And I think our personal style, we all borrow from counterculture, from skateboarding, from punk, from work stuff. We kind of pull from more underground styles.
BASEMENT RONAN CRIX: We were talking about how we’re not really easily definable as one specific genre. Because we’re so individual as people, there is a lot of ground covered in the music we make. Same with us, with our styles. For a long time we didn’t really try and style ourselves. As you grow up, you see your counterculture become more mainstream. It becomes a little bit of a weird cycle of, “oh, the thing that I was into, which wasn’t cool, is now cool.” So I’m dressing cool now by mistake. (band laughs) We’re also constantly evolving. We’re always trying to find inspiration in fashion, art, music. It’s all a nice, beautiful cycle of creativity, really.
HM: We just schedule time and lock ourselves in a room and jam and write songs.
AM: Tell us about your creative process and how you approach your music.
PUP SS: PUP is very much the four of us, and it’s a band that couldn’t exist with the three of us. It needs everyone engaged and going to make the things work, but yeah, my process is that I write every day of my life. At first, it would sometimes seem like a chore, but I’ve reached a point with it where I just love it so much that I feel weird if I don’t do it. I write every single day, and then as a band, we take a lot of those songs, and we... tear them apart and rebuild them, and we fight with each other over... what’s good and what sucks. We are all on the same page, and yet constantly disagree, bicker, argue. And that is a product of the four of us having radically different influences, but also radically different tastes, strengths. And, it is kind of the magic of the band. We all respect each other.
PUP SB: We all want the same thing.
PUP SS: We want the same thing. We respect each other, and the butting heads thing is what, I think, makes these songs.
BASEMENT ANDREW FISHER: Our creative process tends to be that one or 2 of us will have ideas that will bring to each other. We work in little groups first before we bring stuff to the whole. Either I’ll be by myself writing ideas to send to, usually Alex. And he’ll say oh, maybe not, maybe yes, and then we’ll get together, hash a few ideas out. I think we’re all constantly striving to find that spark, that feeling of, where you’re fighting over words to express that you like something, and that’s when you know. Hopefully you’ve got something special. We then bring that to the group, and then everyone puts their own touch on things, and we start to look at, what can we add, what can we take away. How does someone feel about this bit or this bit? That’s when the real magic happens and that’s when we, all 5 of us, find that spark and that excited feeling. And then we record it. And that tends to be how it works. Sometimes someone will come with an entire song, fully formed, and everyone’s like, tick, done, next. The more collaborative elements there are and the more push and pull, that’s when I think the best stuff comes out. So that tends to be my favorite way of doing things, but you just have to let stuff happen.
BASEMENT RC: To underline that last point for the newest record wide, because I feel that it was probably the most collaborative record we’ve done so far. Did the most time over it, putting the most, the most thought into it. It was definitely our most passionate project, today. And it’s reflecting how it sounds, how it looks and our work that went into it. Alex put a lot of work into that, and there’s a lot of too-ing and fro-ing.
AM: You guys are performing at the RSEO. Why did you want to participate here, and what are you most looking forward to?
HM: Well, we got asked just a couple months ago, and I’ve always wanted to go to a pro skating event. So to be able to perform at one and watch some sic skating is just sic. Plus, it’s a free event, so it’s cool. We haven’t played Portland in a minute. So excited to have some of our fans come out and not have to pay to see us.
We have a couple guys in the band who are big skating fans. So just the perfect opportunity to play a show and then also get to see some skaters that we like a lot and we got to meet some of them last night.
PUP SS: Well, they’ve been very nice to us, which goes a long way.
PUP SB: I love skateboarding.
PUP SS: We’ve gone to this point with the band where when opportunities, something like this is totally different than a tour. A tour is all right, you know it’s gonna be several weeks. It has its own rhythm. And you need to do that to survive in this world and keep the band on people’s radar. But for fun stuff like this, we go on a case by case basis, and if it sounds cool, it makes sense for us to do, usually we’ll say yes.
PUP SB: I started skateboarding at the age of 35, and it’s fun. It’s fun to be the band that we used to watch in early 2000s movies, that the punk band that plays the skate events is pretty fucking funny for me. We get a lot of weird opportunities in this band, and this is on of them, and we’re just trying to enjoy it.
PUP SS: Yeah, same. hypnotizing. to watch. The last couple of Olympics was skateboarding were fucking amazing. It was really cool.
ANGEL DUST JUSTICE TRIBE: I am a self-proclaimed poser when it comes to skating! I love Rockstar, particularly the yellow Rockstar Energy lemonade, which we always called that yellow stuff. We would make songs about that yellow stuff. It was our drink of choice touring, and I have a loyalty to Rockstar that attracted me to this event. The merge of the extreme worlds of skate and hard core rock ‘n roll.
ANGEL DUST ZECHARIAH GHOSTTRIBE: I came up skating - I don’t skate anymore but I surf still. And yeah, the natural progression of skate and rock ‘n roll. I mean, I got an album because I saw the cover of it at a skate park. So much of punk rock is absorbed from skate videos.
BASEMENT DS: It’s a free open skateboarding music event, and that very much ticks all the boxes for us. It’s a way of giving art and things back to back to the crowd and it’s in Portland, which is one of our favorite cities in America. We want to be playing to new crowds and new faces, and this seemed to be a perfect opportunity to do that. We’ve never played anything like this before. So, to get the opportunity to do that, it was a no brainer.
AM: Are there upcoming tours, festuvals, etc that you are looking forward to that we should know about?
HM: This year we still have a few. We have shaky knees, and we have, what is it, louder than life. Probably a couple more. I’m missing, but yeah, I’ve still got a couple left to do this year. And then we have not a full U.S. tour, but it’s like a 3 week tour. with one step closer, Riley and Wakeley. that starts at the end of October.
PUP SB: Stefan We’re winding down from a pretty heavy year and a half of touring. We got a tour this fall in the States, so come over and see it if you want.
PUP SS: We’ll play in October. We’re playing Riot Fest, which is always a really fun, exciting time.
PUP SB: We’re playing our second record, front to back, which is exciting for us, because it’s been a while.
PUP SS: 10 year anniversary
PUP SB: It’s the 10 year anniversary of that, so, yeah, Riot Fest will be a great time, and then there’s a tour in October. We’re looking forward to it, and equally looking forward to time off after a couple of years of going hard.
BASEMENT DS: In October and November, we have a full US headline tour. We had all the big stops. We go into a lot of cities, and it will be the biggest tour we’ve ever done, for sure. There is nothing more fun than a full US tour around America, as far as I’m concerned. You get to see amazing cities, you can see the country and the food! Our fans are incredible. They’d be so supportive since day one, since our music’s been accessible from the states, our American fan base has been so supportive. So we take every opportunity with such gratitude to come over and we’re so excited.
PHOTO CREDIT | Rockstar Energy Open
Read the AUG ISSUE #128 of Athleisure Mag and see ROCKSTAR ENERGY OPEN 2026 in mag.
