Skateboarding in Houston, Texas

It’s all about supporting the community and the skate board subculture itself.  Whether you realize this or not, you and your skateboard have already become part of the fabric that makes up Southside Skatepark.  No matter if you’ve only skated in your driveway and are just learning to ollie, or you’ve risen up through the ranks and have become so good at skateboarding a major company has you on a jet and flying to California to go on tour.  This Houston skatepark has literally become synonymous with the skateboarding subculture itself.  Through it timeless aesthetic and never ending consistent hours of operation over the last 23 years.  South Side Skatepark and Skateshop are one of a kind, forged by the support of skateboarding and skateboarders from all over this region and beyond.

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23 Years of Skateboarding

Living up to the expectations of skateboarders and spectators alike can be difficult but we accept the challenge and work hard to deliver the best indoor skateboarding facility we can year after year. After 23 years in business Southside Skatepark and Skateshop mean so many different things to so many different people, it seems to have taken on a life of its own.  Which is honestly just more motivation for us to push hard to have the best shop we can, with as much exclusive product as possible and rebuild the skate park as often as we can.

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It’s the skateboarders themselves and their response to the new terrain that really hype us up and validate the park immediately after we complete a rebuid, making it all worth it.  Another instance of Southside skateboarding would also be the super stoked customer and their parents that are just happy that brick and mortar interaction and expertise is even available for their new to the activity skateboarder.

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Houston Skatepark – Skateboarding Events

We host a ton of skateboard events annually and everything you see regarding anything we do or are involved in, is made by us for you.  Skateboarding Contests, Skateboard Team Demos, Skateboarder Overnight Lock Ins, Skateboards Game of Skate, Skateboarding Bowl Contests, Skateboard Mini Ramp Jams and the Texas Skate Jam benefitting the Make a Wish Foundation have all been happening here annually for the last 23 years.  We are the most active participants in the skateboarding lives of those immediately around us and all those who make the pilgrimage to Southside Skatepark and Skate shop itself.  

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At this point the Houston skatepark – Southside has become an icon in the skateboarding world.  Many top professional skateboarders today at one time called Southside Skatepark home.  We also engage with skateboarding scenes beyond our city limits through various social media interaction, in an effort to show them support and help them to understand we are all in this together.

Texas Skate Jam Event benefitting the Make a Wish Foundation of the Gulf Coast

Southside Skatepark’s largest event would be the Texas Skate Jam benefitting the Make a Wish Foundation of the Gulf Coast.  In fact, it is skateboarding’s largest charity event having raised $896,000 in its 20 year history.  100% of proceeds are donated to the Make a Wish Foundation of the Gulf Coast which grants the wishes of terminally ill children annually.  Once the Texas Skate Jam reaches our goal of one million raised, the Make a Wish Foundation will grant the wish of three terminally ill children in our name annually in perpetuity.  

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Southside is proud to have accomplished this amazing goal and we are so very proud to be able to share that achievement with all of skateboarding and skateboarders everywhere.  You truly are a part of us, thank you for all your support through your participation in the act of skateboarding itself.

Southside Skatepark means so much to so many that it is very difficult to explain what we are about.  The act of skateboarding itself, often misunderstood, is something that unless you are participating can be hard to grasp.  Skateboarding at its core is an active lifestyle the promotes camaraderie between young adults and bridges all social, economic and racial gaps.  We find common ground through skateboarding and the unknowing pursuit of some of the best times of our lives.  Skateboarders are some of the most free thinking and living beings on the planet.

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Houston Texas Skateboarders

It’s no surprise that so many skateboarders go on to be very successful entrepreneurs and self-starters in many industries.  How many of your friends who enjoy skateboarding are painters, skateboarding photographers, graphic designers, skateboard videographers, own their own business, are in school and maybe even hold down a full time job all at the same time?  Skateboarders cannot be stopped and Southside Skatepark is proud to host the incredible talent that skateboarders and skateboarding continues to create day after day, year after year.  We are humbled to have stood the test of time and the economic changes of the post-internet world.  Thanks you skateboarders for keeping us in your hearts and thank you skateboarding for engaging all of us, urging us to take things into our own hands and be the best we can be. 

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About Eric Visentin