Portugal Rookie Fest 2026: why the top 7 are all under 16

On August 29 and 30, 2026, Peniche’s Boa Sombra Skatepark hosted the Portugal Rookie Fest, the Portuguese stop on the World Rookie Tour. Portugal’s Pacal Teixeira put down the top boys’ score: 81.70. On the girls’ side, Spain’s Natalia Muñoz topped everyone with 76.00. Except when you scroll down the scoresheet, something doesn’t add up.

The podiums and the scores

In the boys’ field, Pacal Teixeira takes the top spot with 81.70. French-British rider Kayden Cantoni is right behind at 77.53, and Portugal’s Sahar Toledo rounds out the podium with 74.90.

• 1. Pacal Teixeira81.70

  Portugal — best score of the contest, all categories combined

• 2. Kayden Cantoni77.53

  France and United Kingdom — 4.17 points off the win

• 3. Sahar Toledo74.90

  Portugal — third step of the boys’ overall standings

Behind them: Bereket Fernandez (Spain, 73.67), Martim Brostelines (Norway, 64.73), Vinícius Ciareli (Brazil-Portugal, 60.40), Isaac Marques (Portugal, 59.03) and Diogo Costa (Portugal, 42.27). Remember that last name, we’ll come back to it.

On the girls’ side, Natalia Muñoz ran away with the final at 76.00 — nearly 14 points clear of second place.

• 1. Natalia Muñoz76.00

  Spain — top girls’ score of the weekend

• 2. Maria Leonor Rodrigues62.27

  Portugal — top Portuguese girl in the overall standings

• 3. Carmo Gautier59.57

  Portugal — first in her age category

Then Vega Santa Maria (55.50), Sarah Gonzalez (55.33), Benny Roquette (54.40), Deiane Zoaznabar (53.13), Luz Mesquita (38.63) and Alice Carneiro (34.73).

81.70 vs 42.27: the gap that says it all

The World Rookie Tour splits its riders into two age brackets. Groms, born in 2011 or later — so 15 and under in 2026. Rookies, born between 2007 and 2010 — 16 to 19. Two categories, two sets of podiums, but one scratch overall.

And that’s where it gets interesting. Diogo Costa wins the boys’ Rookie category. His overall placing? 8th. Last in the final. 42.27 points. Translation: the best of the older bracket finished behind seven kids aged 15 and under. The gap to the winner is 39.43 points — almost double.

Kayden Cantoni, the French-British rider 4 points off the win

The official sheet lists two flags next to his name: France and the United Kingdom. Kayden Cantoni ends up 2nd in the boys’ overall with 77.53, and 2nd in his age category. He was 4.17 points short of walking away with the win.

That’s starting to add up these past few months. Over in Italy, France went one-two in street at Taranto. Young French riders are heading abroad and grabbing results on circuits where nobody saw them coming three years ago.

The four category podiums, and the flip on the girls’ side

Boys’ Groms: Pacal Teixeira, Kayden Cantoni, Sahar Toledo. Girls’ Groms: Carmo Gautier, Vega Santa Maria, Sarah Gonzalez. Boys’ Rookies: Diogo Costa, Rúben Carlos, Alai Ruiz Chaves. Girls’ Rookies: Natalia Muñoz, Maria Leonor Rodrigues, Luz Mesquita.

On the girls’ side, the script flips: Natalia Muñoz is a Rookie, and she buries the field. The top Grom, Carmo Gautier, sits 3rd overall. Same day, same park, and the two age brackets told two opposite stories.

Peniche, 49 riders and concrete under the old city walls

49 riders ranked across the two days, out of an announced 80 spots. Peniche is first and foremost a surf town on the Portuguese west coast — and a spot where skating grew up right next to the waves. Boa Sombra runs year-round with kids’ classes, girls’ sessions on Friday mornings, and an indoor park for those Atlantic rain days. It’s not a room rented out for a contest weekend, it’s a club.

Next stop Celje, September 25-27

Peniche isn’t a one-off contest: it’s a qualifier. The World Rookie Skateboard Finals 2026 run September 25-27 at the Celje skatepark in Slovenia, street and bowl. Spots come off the World Rookie Rank standings — top 10 Rookie girls, top 10 Rookie boys, top 10 Grom boys — with a September 22 cutoff.

Here’s what the event these kids are chasing actually looks like, filmed by FUEL TV, the tour’s official broadcaster.

Why the under-16s took over

The answer comes down to three things, and none of them is luck.

One. The 11-15 bracket has become the deepest in European skating. These kids started around 6 or 7, right after skateboarding hit the Olympics, in parks that already existed and with coaches on hand. By 14, they’ve got eight years of structured riding behind them. The 18-year-olds above them learned it on their own, on street furniture.

Two. The format rewards exactly what they’re good at. A judged park run is all about clean execution and linking tricks without a bail — not one high-risk hammer. A kid who puts down eight clean lines beats an older rider who goes for two bangers and misses one.

Three. By 17-19, the best ones aren’t here anymore. They’ve moved on to international am circuits, national championships, Olympic pipelines — like at Damn Am San Diego, where a 17-year-old beat 70 other riders. The World Rookie Tour has actually baked that into its own system: it holds a Finals quota for Grom boys, not for Grom girls. The tour knows where its depth is.

So no, that 81.70 against 42.27 isn’t a fluke on a scoresheet. It’s a generation showing up with a technical level the one before it didn’t have at the same age, on a format built for them. In Celje, late September, we’ll find out if it holds up against the rest of the world.

At your local park, are the 14-year-olds already going bigger than you? Drop it in the comments ↓

If you want to follow skate contest results stop by stop, we cover the circuit all year long on nosk8.com.

{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "SportsEvent",
"name": "Portugal Rookie Fest 2026",
"startDate": "2026-08-29",
"endDate": "2026-08-30",
"eventStatus": "https://schema.org/EventScheduled",
"eventAttendanceMode": "https://schema.org/OfflineEventAttendanceMode",
"image": "https://www.nosk8.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/portugal-rookie-fest-2026-peniche-skate.jpg",
"location": {
"@type": "Place",
"name": "Boa Sombra Skatepark",
"address": {
"@type": "PostalAddress",
"addressLocality": "Peniche",
"addressCountry": "PT"
}
},
"description": "The Portuguese stop on the World Rookie Tour Skateboard, held August 29-30, 2026 at the Boa Sombra Skatepark in Peniche. Winners: Pacal Teixeira (81.70) in the boys' field, Natalia Muñoz (76.00) in the girls'.",
"sport": "Skateboarding",
"organizer": {
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "World Rookie Tour",
"url": "https://www.worldrookietour.com/"
}
}

{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "Portugal Rookie Fest 2026: why the top 7 are all under 16",
"author": {"@type": "Organization", "name": "Nosk8"},
"datePublished": "2026-09-08",
"description": "Full results from the Portugal Rookie Fest 2026 at the Boa Sombra Skatepark in Peniche: podiums, scores and standings across all four categories.",
"keywords": "Portugal Rookie Fest 2026, World Rookie Tour, results, Pacal Teixeira, Natalia Muñoz, Kayden Cantoni, Peniche, skateboard"
}