CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — If you've been out to Cole Park along the Corpus Christi bayfront then you know it's also a popular place for skateboarding.
It actually made its debut as an Olympic sport during the 2020 Tokyo games.
Here locally, growth in skateboard sales is also said to be booming. In fact, the city is also investing in the sport with a new million plus dollar skate on the northwest side near Annaville.
On any given day, you can find Smiley Rodriguez at Cole Park's skatepark.
"I like the scene here in Corpus Christi because everyone is really respectful, they just know how to have fun," he said.
The skateboarder is pretty stoked there will soon be another venue where he can shred it.
"It's really exciting to get a new park in town so everyone is really hyped on it," he said.
The addition to West Guth Park is currently under construction.
"We're kind of just taking over now," said longtime skateboarder and owner of Ponyboy Skate Company, Adam Rios.
He said the new skate park will rival those in other big cities.
"A high-end skate park, right up on the level of Austin, it's a street-level skate park which is where Olympic training went and skateboarding has gone as a whole," Rios said. "The good news is we have New Line Skateboarding developing that and they have built some of the best parks in this country."
Rios said it's something that could attract state or even national competitions to the city.
"Specifically here in Corpus is the third largest sports programming going on in the state," he said. "Football, basketball, and skateboarding is third, we are more popular than baseball when it comes to buying equipment from kids ages 8-18."
The sport is adding to the South Texas economy.
"Corpus Christi and the Coastal Bend accounted for an 11.2 percent of total skateboard and skateboard equipment sales in the state of Texas putting us even with Austin, Houston, and Dallas," he said.
At Benjamin's Surf and Skate a wall of boards greets you in the store's 'Fast Forward' section.
Manager Christian Delgado sees new generations of skaters come in every day.
"We've proudly been around since 1976, coming up on 50 years which is super exciting," Delgado said. "Everyday we see people come in, old regulars from the 90s, and they'll bring their kids or grand kids now."
He said skateboard sales shot up over Christmas and continue to be a bestseller.
"Skateboards usually fly off the shelves, constantly reordering more get them for the kids," he said.
Meantime, Rios said he will continue to advocate for more skate parks to come to the area like the one coming to West Guth which could open as soon as the end of March according to the city's website.
"There's such a negative stereotype with skateboarding, what we are showing now is that we are viable part of this community," said Rios.
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