The Pixies’ song “Gigantic” blares from the sound system set up at the skatepark in Oliveira Park Tuesday morning as the park fills with skateboarders looking to celebrate Go Skate Day together.
From 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., skaters of all ages and skill levels stopped by the park for free food, free skating and a helmet clinic to encourage safety in honor of the holiday.
The energy in the park is high as skaters practice tricks over and over again, often wiping out before hitting that elusive perfect move. On the lawn, firefighters from the Brownsville Fire Department pass out breakfast tacos and reminisce about their skating histories together.
The event is the product of local skaters Raul Valdez Jr. and Tom Gómez to make sure that local skaters, who might not have the ability to go to the Beach Bash Skate Jam event on South Padre Island at Tompkins Park, would still have a place to take part in the holiday.
For members of the older skateboarding crowd, like 42-year-old Sergio Ramirez of Los Fresnos, something like this being available for the younger crowd is a nice change. When he was growing up, there weren’t many official events, parks or gathering places for skaters outside of the ones they made for themselves. Ramirez opened his skate shop R.I.P Novelties, one of the only brick-and-mortar stores in the lower Rio Grande Valley, this past year.
“There were not any events like this growing up. It was just a way of getting around back then, another way to explore the streets and sidewalks. I probably would have been a better skater if I had things like this and a park to skate in,” he said.
While the event is about having a good time together, Valdez Jr. is serious about preaching helmet safety. Skaters trickle over to his tent in small groups to hear his talk before he passes out one of the 20 helmets donated by Healthy Communities of Brownsville, Inc. for the event.
“Helmets are always cool. You can break your wrist and fix that. You can break your ankle and fix that. If you hit your head, that’s a different ballgame — you can’t fix that,” he explained.
At his side, Gómez is quick to assure the skaters that a Pikachu sticker, like the one on his helmet, does up their coolness factor if that’s the only reason they aren’t wearing them.
Turnout at the event was small but steady throughout as skaters showed up to skate together.
“I think the more people that come, the bigger the event will get. We had COVID hiatus starting in 2019, and it’s now 2022, so hopefully, it just gets bigger and better from here on out,” Valdez said.
