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Annual skate festival draws dozens of shredders to Angel Fire
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ANGEL FIRE — Skaters of all ages and skill levels turned out Saturday and Sunday for the third annual Angel Fire Skate Festival, a free celebration of the athleticism and camaraderie of a once-misfit sport that’s grown into a worldwide phenomenon over the last 50 years.
“Falling down and getting up again is a really valuable lesson in general, and skateboarding is all about falling repeatedly,” said Oliver Bradley, an Angel Fire resident who began the event as a skate jam after moving to the high-mountain village three years ago.
Bradley grew up in England and started skateboarding when he was 10 years old. He’s been building skateparks since he was 20, and previously operated a park in Dallas, where he regularly organized skate meetups and exhibitions.
“I’ve moved around the world a lot, and every place I go I try and take skateboarding with me because I think it’s a really positive thing for young people and adults,” he said. “It’s good for your mental health.”
As Bradley spoke, professional and amateur skateboarders took turns dipping in and out of a half pipe erected for the event, at times flying several feet out of the ramp into a bluebird sky set against the verdant alpine backdrop of the Moreno Valley in the mountains east of Taos.
In another section of the park, skaters rolled along an undulating track into a quarter pipe, then back down again toward a ledge where they could perform flips and grinds.
Trial and error — underpinned by vigorous encouragement from fellow skaters — were the themes of the day, with shouts, cheers and the snapping of boards interspersing the blare of live music coming from an event tent nearby.
“It takes a long time to perfect any particular trick, to get style, and so it builds perseverance and resilience,” Bradley observed. “Skateboarding’s also cheap, which is great. If you’ve got a board, you’ve got the best skateboard. There’s no thousand-dollar skateboard. The one you’ve got is the same one the pros ride.”
The event, held at Mountain View Event Center, was presented by The Overground Project and Angel Fire Resort, which first opened as a ski resort in 1966 and has since expanded into a world-class snowboarding, hiking and biking destination in New Mexico.
