Santo Domingo Summer 2026 (Day 1/2)

It's finally SD Summer 2026 time! This is my thirteenth cubing competition, so as I mentioned on yesterday's weekly update, I'm keeping an ace of spades in my pocket for funsies. I might bring a different one tomorrow though, as it actually ended up bending quite a bit. Whatever.

This is also my busiest competition so far. I'm competing in every event except 5x5 today and One-Handed tomorrow, so that along with judging, sometimes helping run the shop, and now writing these posts and editing and uploading the videos for each average, it's definitely a doozy. But I do have my spirits high, and there's always this electric energy in these competitions that keeps me going!

Before I go into the solves, I do want to share this big working 3D-printed cube made by one of my fellow cuber friends and their family, which is super cool! They brought it over to keep near the shop, and it's one of the most eye-catching things we've had in a while, as seen above.

My first event was definitely my silliest. This was my first time officially competing in 3x3 Blindfolded, which for a long time I said I was never gonna do in a competition in Galería 360, simply due to the noise, but after the previous competition in a different venue had terrible acoustics, I decided to just bite the bullet and do it.

My only goal was to have at least one succesful solve, and that's exactly what I got. I did not finish every solve except the fourth one, which was a 5:15.84. That being said, only six people competed in 3BLD, and three of them had no succesful solves at all, which means, by default, I was 3rd place and win a bronze medal! My favourite way to win!!

Next up, what's probably my main event, Skewb! This was a pretty consistent 6.61 average, my second best yet in competition, as I didn't have any solves that were particularly good or particularly bad. My first two solves were my worst and best, a 9.93 and a 4.95, and after that I got three pretty average solves, an 8.05, 6.37, and 5.41. Pretty good average all things considered, but it did result in me getting 4th place, once again.

Also this is finally my first average I've properly filmed myself! You can check out the videos for each average in the hyperlinks below their respective image.

Now we go from one of my favourite events, to one of my least. I really don't like Pyraminx, perhaps surprisingly; I used to like it a lot more, but as time has gone on I've found it a bit annoying to handle, and I especially don't like the tips. Because of this I haven't competed in it since 2023, but I decided to do it again this time just because (similar to 3BLD) and especially after I got the WeiLong Pyraminx, which allowed me to enjoy practicing the event a bit more again.

Anyways, despite all that, I am still not very good. As usual I perform better at home, but I didn't even get a Sub-10 in the event. Just like Skewb, my first two solves were the extremes, with my first being my best (10.05), and the second being my worst (17.51). After those I got some other solves that were quite sub-standard for me, a 15.53, 14.85, and 14.88.

This resulted in a pretty bad 15.09 average (technically my PR), but to be fair I didn't have any expectations for this event whatsoever. If you really want to see it, the video is on YouTube, but why would you do that. Perhaps matching my feelings towards the event, this video has multiple technical difficulties.

After lunch were two events that I did not make the cut-off in my most recent competitions, but that I finally managed to again!

First was 4x4, which was probably my highlight of the whole day, as I finally got my first official Sub-1 solves! In all competitions since 2025 there's been a 1 minute cut-off which I never broke through, but after a worrying 1:12, I got a very nice 57.39, which finally broke the minute barrier and my PR! I then broke it again immediately with a 56.75, my actual new PR single, beating my previous one by almost 4 seconds! After this I got a pretty standard 1:02.28 and 1:08.17, but that 57 and 56 were definitely enough for me, and resulted in a 1:02.61 average, beating my previous best by over 7 seconds!

Also, fun fact, all of my solves had double parity, all of them. I know parity problems aren't fully random as there are ways of recognizing and preventing them early, but if you assume it's simply a 50/50 chance (as it is for me), that's just a 9.77% chance! Cool, but unlucky.

Second was Square-1, one of my favourite events despite not being one of my best. I got a very lucky 30 my first time competing in it, but I haven't gotten close to beating that, and in my previous two competitions I haven't been able to make the 45 second cut-off, but I finally did it again!

For the third time this competition, my first two solves were the extremes, with my first being my best (40.37), and the technically-second being my worst (54.63), but that was only because I messed up and thought the second scramble was a rescramble when it wasn't, so I actually got an extra. My next two solves were a pretty decent 47.17 and 49.56, and the extra gave me a 40.41, barely more than my first solve!

I ended up with a 45.71 average, which is my new PR, and I am very happy with it!

After that, the final event for the day was Megaminx, but unfortunately — like my previous two times, I didn't end up making the cut, and this time both solves were quite bad. This one was definitely my fault though, as this was the one event I didn't practice at all for some reason, despite me really liking it.

I got a 2:08.10, and then a 1:55.93. Womp womp.

And that's it for today!

I am running out of unique ways to say this, but I am just really glad to be here in a competition again. It's nice to see my fellow cubers again, and despite not being as involved as I hoped to be, I still always feel great to be here and contribute in whatever way I can! I'm really looking forward to tomorrow.

Read Part 2 here!

Also, just saying this now: That is a 2x2 Face-Turning Octahedron, and you cannot deny it. You know who you are.