Presented by Southside Skatepark and hosted at Tranquility Park in Houston, Texas on June 15, 2024
We did it! Southside Skatepark presented Red Bull Keys to the City Tranquility Park Houston, Texas on June 15, 2024 where a cash purse of $6000 was awarded on a trick-by-trick basis across the 5 heat, 60 invited skateboarder field, participating in 3 events in one afternoon!
The onslaught of incredible skateboarding began at 12:30 pm at the Fountain in Tranquility Park. Bigo unlocked the first event with Roger Skateboards own Alder Wilson being awarded the Keys to City trophy for back nose blunt 270 out transfer and switch front blunt transfer. Meaning that he had the most meaningful moment of event 1 at the conclusion of all five heats of cash-for-tricks style skateboarding. Amazing skateboarding from Nick Holt, Taylor Jett, Chris O’Neill, and many more was enjoyed and event one set the afternoon off for everyone with $1000 in cash being awarded!
Houston’s Own Travis Sales Honored Us by Unlocking Event Two at Red Bull’s Keys to the City June 15, 2024!
Red Bull Keys to the City event 2 took us to the original chrome rail as seen on the cover of Thrasher not too long ago! We had our favorite VX1000 Houston legend on hand to unlock it, none other than Travis Sales. Once the lock had been removed we were right back at it, awarding $2000 in cash for tricks as we ran each of the 5 heats. Some ripping from Wes Wallace, Josh Tollin, Deandre Daniels, Carter Wood, and more were seen and enjoyed by all. It was a wild day and we are pretty sure that literally, everyone in Houston skateboarding was there. When all was said and done, and the 60 skateboarder field had finished killing it, Ryan Thompson was awarded the Keys to the City trophy for nollie front blunt. Congratulations Ryan Thompson, another ROGER!
Guru Khalsa Stepped Up and Unlocked Event 3 to Launch the Sessions on the Big Corner Rail at Tranquility Park, Houston, Texas for $3000 in Cash for Tricks courtesy of Red Bull!
The third and final event was set to take place on what is known as the Corner Rail at Tranquility Park. Knowing that the rail is way too long and mellow for many of the skateboarders in the field we embellished the spot by capping the entire planter to open up the gap. We also created a massive down bank to provide lower impact, which then increased the technical skateboarding. This 3rd and final event did not disappoint with some of the best skateboarding we have seen in years taking place. Some notable callouts would be David Langston, Ben Havran, and Trap Deon putting down some of the heaviest skateboarding in this section of Red Bull Keys to the City Tranquility Park! At the buzzer, heat 5’s own, on literally what would be the very last attempt John Bradford laid down an absolutely perfect 360 kickflip from the planter to just beyond the stairs, literally as perfect as could have been done. Congratulations John Bradford on winning Red Bull Keys to the City event 3 Tranquility Park where we also awarded a purse of $3000 to numerous skateboarders and a ridiculous amount of skateboarding tricks!
Little Backstory Regarding the Birth of this Event!
What can we say about the best event we have ever been to in our lives? This event has been rolling around in the minds of Houston area skateboarding locals for the last 10 years. We had been thinking of how we could host a natural street event with some minor structural embellishments for a long time. Tranquility Park in Houston, Texas had always been top of mind with some other locations also being considered. Over the years and especially in the last five years, we had noticed the vibe at Tranquility Park changing. We had our concerns that the City of Houston might eventually be removing the park completely, as our downtown area has experienced so many changes as downtown living continues to grow in our ever-changing City of Houston.
Coincidentally Southside Skatepark was approached about hosting a natural street skateboarding event by Red Bull. It really hit us pretty hard that an entity like Red Bull considered our skateboarding scene and the City of Houston the site to set off this new intellectual property “Red Bull Keys to the City!” So we all set out on a two-year journey of site visits, photos, communications, and subsequent legalities, to achieve the City of Houston’s approval and the Houston Parks Department’s support of the event. At that point, it was out of our hands and the negotiations were left to the professionals. Before too long, we heard back that the event was looking like it was going to be approved and we all started making preparations for this once-in-a-lifetime moment for the skateboarding scene of Houston and the surrounding territory.
We were committed to executing this event to highest caliber that we were able and we hope you could see and feel that if you attended. If you were unable to make it we hope you enjoyed these photos and videos filmed by many and edited by John Danielson. We are thankful to Red Bull, Throwing Star Collective, and every skateshop, skateboarder, spectator, and skateboarding enthusiast who helped us all celebrate the history of Houston skateboarding at this iconic skateboarding spot that has truly been the epicenter of Houston skateboarding for the last 30+ years.
