If you think about Texas, you’ll surely think about Dallas, San Antonio, Houston or Austin. If you think about west Texas, you’ll think of the red necks, cattle, oil fields that smell like money, dry spaces, drugs from Mexico, and strict cops. San Angelo, a city in the middle of nowhere, is a bit different. But is there love and inline skating in the land of the Concho River, where the dirt hurts your eyes and the sun burns your ass off?
Okay, here I am, San Angelo, knowing no one who skates. No skaters around the mall, no skaters downtown; what to do? I went to the skate shop, Beluh42, and there was the first surprise. They had some inline skates. Wow! Between hundreds of decks, trucks and other skateboarding and piercing stuff, they actually had some Remz and Razors. So there is hope, there must be some inline skaters here!
During a short chat with the owner of the skateshop he told me that the next day they were having a skateboard and inline contest at the bowl in San Angelo. So I was good, there were bladers there, and a skatepark with a bowl. So I went to the “Slam Angelo” competition with its great bowl, great atmosphere, and that is how I met the guys from Sic Apparel: Kevin Little and Chris Spencer. They showed me a lot of love, took me to nice spots, around downtown, to the lake, and of course to Kevin’s house. It was a great, great time.
I had been to San Angelo about 10 years ago, but now my memories are gonna be a bit different — bladers skating together with skateboarders, cops waving and smiling to skaters from their cars — people are very polite and chilled out, and the burning hot air spreads this love and politeness (with a pinch of dry as hell green stuff from Mexico).
So yeah, I’m a red neck now, with my farmer’s tan and all the great memories from that place. Definitely, San Angelo is worthy of a visit. Got to see Fort Concho, old school downtown, and the almost magical atmosphere that you can actually smell in the air.
Thanks again guys for a great time. Big ups to Kevin Little, Abe Weertz, Chris Spencer, Stormy Kenner, Matt Crane and all the pretty ladies who were hanging around!
— Christofer Luca