‘Running the skate park requires us to stay motivated and inspired and we can find that right here in Texas’
Eric Visentin
Southside Skatepark
Southside Skate Park
February 2026
Southside opened its doors in 1994. Who brought the indoor park to life?
Tommy Mixon and his father Big Tom Mixon, a Korean War Veteran who had purchased a large amount of commercial land parcels in the South Houston area in the 1960s 1970s. Then they would build warehouses and rent those buildings to various businesses. Southside Skatepark was born in the spring of 1994 in one of those vacant warehouses.
You must be one of the longest running indoor parks in the US if not in the world?
We will always trail Skatepark of Tampa as the oldest indoor skatepark in North America and possibly beyond. SPOT was founded at some point in 1993 when Brian Schaffer moved Paul Ziter’s vert ramp inside a warehouse in Tampa, Florida and set it up. You will have to get at them to really lock in those early days of that skatepark.
I read somewhere that you were a patron since its inception until you took it over in 2007. How did it all unfold?
I graduated High School in 1994 and Southside was just 20 minutes from my house. My skateboarding friends and I would find ourselves at Southside pretty much multiple times a week. Over the years I always handled the screen printing of stickers and apparel for Southside Skatepark, so I was doing “business” with Tommy, but I never worked for him. I also would MC the contests and constantly film Houston skateboarding and making montages and videos during the pre-internet era for websites like fourduos.com our regional message board and clip sharing site. I also filmed and edited Southside’s ten-year anniversary video Memoir “A Decade from the Southside.” So, I would be making team suggestions, and even before all of that, I was very involved in the Houston Skateboarding scene having video premieres in the mid-90s and supporting the scene as best I could as a weekend warrior, documenting my friends and skateboarding in the city. I was approached about managing the park and the salary I requested to leave my, at that point 12-year career, was an “ownership amount of money”, so Tommy offered that I buy him out of the business. We began the process about a year later, which was a painful wait for me. Luckily it happened as promised and it took my wife Janine and I seven years to complete the buyout.
‘If you know Steve he just goes, he will figure out later, and we did as he always does.’
Almost 20 years later you still call the shots at Southside, and I am sure you have tons of stories to share. What is the most memorable of them all?
Standing next to Paul Rodriguez and Eric Koston giving the kids in line a poster to get signed. Mike Carroll asked to use the phone the call transportation to the airport. Dylan Rieder, Arto, and Dill in the shop getting ready to skate a demo on a Mind Field tour stop. It has also been an incredible journey renovating and rebuilding the entire skatepark and working on every inch of the facility be that street course, bowls, vert ramp, the shop, backstock, office, observation areas ~ it’s been totally insane, a life’s work, and very rewarding, it gives you that ‘job well done’ good feeling day after day.
I watched Steve Van Doren’s Nine Club episode where he mentioned his support with you guys during a natural disaster. Did I get this completely wrong?
Yes, after hurricane Harvey we launched “I Cleaned Out My Closet for Houston” which had us receiving, sorting, and applying about 400+ parcels of donations a day which went on for about 3 weeks or so. Vans came in to support Houston and set up 3 drops of 1500+ pairs of shoes, socks, tees for the Community and Steve asked where I thought we should distribute the support near us. I coordinated a central supermarket nearby and we launched a grass roots give back event for the flooded-out community. If you know Steve he just goes, he will figure out later, and we did as he always does. Pretty cool and an awesome role model for all of us.
‘Skatepark building provides me a form of escape, so just as I am approaching burn out.’
You are based in Houston. Where is the skate capital of Texas?
Probably Austin, Texas due to all the brands wanting to go there and marketing dollars being applied there so much. Elias at No Comply and the team they have their executing their events consistently, is also very strong. Dallas has some incredible skate spots as does San Antonio, although Houston does have some of the best street skateboarding in the state as well. Honestly if you come to Texas, it would be best to try to visit all four of our major cities, they are each unique and offer something special, in regards to what it means to live and skateboard in the State of Texas.
What is the Texas skateboard community most proud of?
Respect in skateboarding is hard earned and continuously tested year after year. If I were to choose something, we might be most proud of it could be the way we have handled ourselves over the last 40-50 years of skateboarding. Consistently turning out pros and ams “skateboarding in the now” aka whether it’s vertical, technical, beautiful lines, or smashing and manipulating the environment as we have now – we seem to always have someone in the mix representing this territory, often calling it their home while doing so. From John Gibson and Jeff Phillips to Anthony Correa and Wayne Patrick to Nate Broussard, Darrell Stanton, and Guru Khalsa to David Langston, Ben Havran, and Max Peterson – to like a Keegan McCutcheon, we just seem to always have someone you can look to in your own city or region to get you hyped on skateboarding. So, in a way maybe I’m most proud of finding my stoke in my own regional scene, not having to look to the industry too much to find motivation in skateboarding. Running the skate park requires us to stay motivated and inspired and we can find that right here in Texas.
What is more challenging to manage? The skate park or the skate shop that is part of your park?
So the shop is a constant, and things have changed so drastically in retail, for example, you literally have to entertain your customer now. Be that through social, youtube, and on-site events where you can engage with them on a grassroots level. The youtube thing product reveals etc. actually gives our shop a voice, so instead of being something you have heard of we become something you can get to know and put a face and name to. The Southside Skatepark YouTube Channel personalizes this legendary entity that is Southside Skatepark now in its 30th year of “Your Skateboarding is Our Priority,” – it’s was legendary before I took over in 2007, so just to be clear, I’m not saying that about myself. Whereas maintaining and rebuilding the skatepark is super intense and I actually use building for example, this recent vert ramp build, as a way to psychologically break out and turn off the business of running the shop. Skatepark building provides me a form of escape, so just as I am approaching burn out, I just tear off into the skatepark and build for a few weeks. As an entrepreneur you end up wearing so many hats, executing so many roles, you find yourself changing gears and it helps you fight burn out. Always a new adventure with something new to learn and do. We have a very small crew, only like four employees between the skatepark, shop, online store, and nearby satellite shop Southside Boardshop about 20 minutes south of Southside Skatepark.
‘Houston does have some of the best street skateboarding in the state.’
From your LinkedIn account I understand that you completed 84 hours on a 124-hour business degree from 2002 to 2007 at the University of Houston. I have so many questions about that, but I will ask only one; Why didn’t you push through the remaining 40 hours?
When we first took over the park I continued to work at my screen-printing job while my wife Janine worked at the skatepark. I would go to the park every day after work and both Saturdays and Sundays for about seven months just to make sure that, YES, it’s going to work, and we can do this. Then I cut the chord, quit my screen-printing job and worked at Southside Skatepark full time. I didn’t go back to school because I was at a crossroads, I absolutely had to make this work. Not only to live but there was no way I was going to let Southside Skatepark close, it means so much to so many people, I didn’t want to be the reason it didn’t work out. It was a lot of pressure for someone who at that time had just turned 30, yes on National Go Skateboarding Day June 21st. That mentality is what has gotten us through all the ups and downs and all the arounds of running Southside Skatepark. It has taken every bit of me at various points over the last 18 years to stay open from time to time. Although I wish I had that Business Administration degree I would hope that by now I have learned anything else that I had to learn in college. Luckily my two children Roman and Remy are both high achievers and should both go on to earn their degrees and possibly post grad from what I can tell. So, I’ll just live through them and cheer them on, I personally didn’t enjoy school very much, but I did do well while I was there.
Last question. If you could interview any person in the world?
I really don’t have an answer, luckily there is so much podcast content out there that I get to listen to a ton of interviews, which really lets us all get to know people we were curious about, or had heard of but didn’t know too much about. So big shout out to all the content creators like yourself for handling all the Q & A! Bigo.