Rolling Mission

Alright everyone… things are happening and happening fast, so we’ll see you this weekend at the shoot.
Details on the Facebook Page
and let’s not forget some additions the guys made this weekend in Laredo. Thanks to Ray Soto, Dominic Garcia, Luis Lozano, Rob Z, and others… this obstacle will be at the shoot for you to skate.

oh and it seems they had fun building it too…. Oh Luis loves the wood.

The summer shoot ad. Ray Soto is out with the SYF today celebrating, so i’m sure we’ll be hearing about the antics if not watching them at some point but for now… the Open Invitation for the Summer Shoot where Ray will be playing host to the wrap party.

The Summer Shoot from Jason Reyna on Vimeo.

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SYF was at hoedown and they let it be known. here are some photos shot by Dominic Garcia of the south texas crew and a Glow photo because he’s so colorful. (the sorta part is because none of these were from the Hoedown comp)

Ray Reyes - ao top acid

Rob Z top soul

Ray Reyes - ao top soul

Rob Z - top acid

Josh Glow SWITCH ao fish

and the steeze! (this photo and this trick just look really damn good, way to go pat and dom)

Pat Leal - Rocket Fish

Dominic and Damien Garcia, Ray Soto, and Raymond Reyes are some of my older friends. Both in age and longevity of our friendships, so when they told me they do an “old man” session on Mondays at the Brownsville Skate Park I had to fly down for a session. South Texas is hot, humid, and a formidable foe on even a winter day, but with pure determination, SPF 45 and above coating our ever inch of exposed skin, and joined by a group of even more friends we pulled through and got only slightly burnt.

bruised the hell out of my left hand.

GRAB YO SHIT!

you make a freestyle look this good you can get away with it.

after the session the guys over at Big Brother Skate Shop invited us over for a tour of the shop, some pizza, and just over all to show their support. They will be carrying rollerblading products (skates, wheels, clothes, dvds, ect…) and are helping to organize contests. We’ll post more info as it comes to be.

ally op mizou style points at the camera.

Our friends down south want a new park, and they did the unthinkable… They teamed up with skateboarders and bikers to show the city they mean business. The gathering caught local newspaper The Monitor’s attention and the following article is the result.


Skate boarders don’t like rollerbladers.

Rollerbladers put wax on obstacles so their skates will slide faster and smoother. That wax makes skateboarders slip. And the rollerbladers don’t like most skateboarders. Their wooden boards, not attached to their feet, limit them from jumping the biggest gaps and grinding the longest rails. Don’t even ask about bikers, whose huge metal rides cause painful injuries during the occasional skate park collision.

But they’ll forget all these problems. Just ask them about building a concrete skate park in McAllen. The answer is a unified “yes.”

For years, skaters in the city of palms have ridden small metal ramps at the McAllen Municipal Park, located north of Pecan Ave. on Bicentennial Ave. The ramps and obstacles are challenging for beginners, they say, but after a few months, the park becomes boring. Plus, the metal has become damaged over the years. Some skaters haul large, home-made wooden boxes to the park for more challenge.

Many skaters still use the park. Several others, however, say they have started making two, sometimes three trips a week to the Brownsville Sports Park, where a $688,000 concrete skate oasis awaits. Brownsville opened it in December after five-year campaign by local skaters to ge tit built. The 12,000-square-foot park features obstacles twice the size of McAllen’s park, and it’s built from concrete with variety. On a weekend with good weather, as many as 1,000 skaters use the park, says Tuffy Martinez, the facility’s superintendent.

That’s what the skaters want in McAllen. That’s the one thing they all agree on.

But city officials often balk at dropping more than half a million dollars on a skateboard park amid a recession, says Larry Pressler, McAllen’s director of parks and recreation. And $688,000 is just the construction price; Pressler says it also costs money to maintain and operate.

“One of the things the city always looks at it is how many customers are served with the dollars spent,” he says. “With things like police, fire, streets, drainage, infrastructure and things like that, those are pretty much necessities our residents here need to live. One of the facilities the city has interest in updating is the skateboard facilities, but there’s other things that seem to push it back all the time.”

But it’s not a hopeless cause. Pressler says skaters can work towards the park. He encourages them to speak regularly with elected officials, such as city commissioners and parks board members. Pressler can only submit proposals for skate parks. He can’t approve the funding, and he says skaters who e-mail him with pleas and demands for a better park often don’t understand that. He also encourages skaters to speak directly with elected officials, rather than through e-mail.

And the younger skaters should encourage their tax-paying parents to speak on their behalf, he says. These measures have worked for runners and joggers, who now enjoy an extensive path along Second Street.

For the foreseeable future, skaters will continue to make the trip to Brownsville. Jeremy Rodriguez, known as the Germ and widely regarded as one of the best skateboarders in McAllen, says he drives to Brownsville three times a week, often packing six other skate boarders into his truck.

The group usually spends the entire day there, gassing up and buying food from local restaurants. They leave at night when the lights go out. Kevin Wagoner, owner of the Switchfoot Skate Shop in McAllen, says most of his customers do the same thing. Wagoner, an Oklahoma native who has skated all over the country, says a major city needs a good-size concrete skate park.

“McAllen wants to be a world-class city,” Wagoner says, “but they can’t even be a Brownsville-class city.”