Earth Surf (1977-81)
10366 Dyer Street
Born of the 1970’s popularity explosion of skateboarding, El Paso’s very first skatepark was well-documented by manager Steve Crye in both photo and 8mm film.
Much of the park’s concrete was roughly finished, but a vert bowl extension was later added to the 3rd run, making it the place to be for the city’s best big wall talent.
In the late 1990’s, Earth Surf was featured on KTSM-TV in a Wild Wednesday segment with narration by famous Western historian Leon Metz.
Desert Surfing (1978-80)
10120 Montana (at Wedgewood)
El Paso’s second pay-to-play skatepark had a super smooth concrete finish and was patterned after the iconic Concrete Wave in Anaheim, CA minus the in-between run Astro Turf and rope fencing.
70’s pro skaters Stacy Peralta and Ellen O’Neill famously stopped by for the park’s grand opening.
A cool surfer cat named Scott Mayo was the resident pro, frequently sound-tracking late night skate sessions with a well worn 8-track tape of The Outlaws “Bring it Back Alive” album.
Thankfully, we’ve got some vintage Kodamatic photo collections from James Valadez and Jeff “Micro” Clark to help remember the scene.
Sadly, despite extensive outreach and research, we’ve been unable to locate any film footage of Desert Surfing – if you have any leads, please let us know.
Sun City Skatepark (1989-91)
Mountain Shadow Lakes, Horizon City TX
Embracing the late 1980’s popularity of vert, Sun City Skatepark was build by old school skater Tim Fulmer, the same bro-turned-civil engineer who helped create Carolina Skatepark in 2002.
You had to drive a bit to get to the man-made lake/skatepark, but it was well worth the trip.
Numerous big name vert pros stopped by to shred with the El Paso Times doing a nice feature story on the place in July 1990.
Northeast YMCA (1998-2002)
5509 Will Ruth
Inspired by the late-90’s extreme sport craze, this former outdoor swimming pool was converted into a wooden ramp line course and was later expanded to include a 12-foot vert ramp.
It was the brainchild of aggressive inline skater Coy Roberts. His grandpappy Stan was a former El Paso City Representative who kicked down a few thousand in cash to kickstart the YMCA build.
The skatepark was staffed by laid-back rippers Larry Overstreet and Chucky Carruth. It became a real hot spot for local BMX crews before closing.
Blade N Skate (1999-2004)
4850 Doniphan
Big thanks to the Talley family for stepping up to the plate on this one.
The parents of Matt and Katherine Talley started simple enough by opening a skate shop on North Mesa near Coronado High School.
They later relocated the shop to a warehouse space off Doniphan that included a skatepark build by American Ramp Company.
Memorable moments at the Blade N Skate park included live band shows and the 2002 Hometown Heroes skate contest won by Julian Jones.