Red Bull 7 City Hustle Recap

On Saturday, March 14, Bell Garden Skate Park played host to Red Bull 7 City Hustle, the ultimate cross-town skateboarding showdown. The event pit skaters from seven surrounding East Los Angeles areas against each other in an epic local skateboarding contest, as a crowd of nearly 1,000 onlookers cheered on their favorites. Each area or city represented has its own local skate park, and a select few skaters from each traveled to Bell Gardens to prove they (and their city) were the best. In the end, home-field advantage seemed to be a determining factor, as Bell Gardens had the most top finishers, earning them the overall win.

The seven cities fighting for supremacy in the all-day, all-out skate battle included: Bell Gardens, Compton, Huntington Park, Downey, Montebello, Lynwood and Hawaiian Gardens. The event featured brackets broken out by age, with 20-25 total riders in each. Brackets included: 7-10 year olds; 11-14 year olds; and 15-17 year olds. The winner from each bracket earned more than just bragging rights - they will also get a professional video reel of their skate performance produced by Red Bull, and a scholarship for skate lessons at the renowned Camp Woodward West facility.

Coverage included: an article in the Bell Gardens Sun, a segment on KVEA-TV (Telemundo), and write-ups on grindtv.com, skateboard-revolution.com, activerideshop.com, la34.com, skatedaily.net, departmentofskateboarding.com, broadbandsports.com and actionsportsblips.dailyradar.com

Winners -
7-10 age bracket
1st Place - Rene Serrano Age 8, City of Bell Gardens
2nd Place - Fabian Herrera Age 9, City of Huntington Park
3rd Place - Mateo Rael Age 10, City of Montebello

11-14 age bracket
1st Place - Chris Joslin Age 12, City of Hawaiian Gardens
2nd Place - Kevin Mejia Age 14, City of Huntington Park
3rd Place - Alexander Galindo Age 12, City Bell Gardens

15-17 age bracket
1st Place - Vincent Luevanos Age 16, City of Huntington Park
2nd Place - Jorge "Pio" Jimenez Age 15, City of Bell Gardens
3rd Place - Alex Valdez Age 17, City of Bell Gardens