Skate Culture • Leander

Skate Culture • Leander

Written by Mark Collins Friday, 20 June 2008

Like a pioneer on the Oregon Trail, Jose Santamaria packed up his family and moved to Leander in search of a better life.

“We owned a house in California and opted to cash out and come here and build a nice house and start a business,” Santamaria said. “The cost of living and high quality of life here is amazing.”

Santamaria and his wife, Theresa, co-own Skate Culture, a full-service skateboard pro shop. The store offers skateboards and accessories as well as popular brands in clothing, apparel and shoes.

Skate Culture also recently partnered with ramp company Fresh Park to provide portable rails, ramps and other skate park paraphernalia.

The shop is the realization of a dream that Santamaria and his wife shared when they moved to Leander with no previous small-business experience and no idea what kind of business he wanted to open.

“We didn’t know it was going to be a skateboard shop until we had a family meeting and one of our kids mentioned a skate shop. We were like, ‘Wow, we didn’t even consider that,’” Santamaria said. “The following day, we started doing some research and found that there weren’t any other pro shops around.”

Now, Skate Culture is excited about all the skating growth in the area. The City of Leander recently began accepting bids from construction companies to build a skate park in Benbrook Ranch, and the Texas X Park will soon break ground on a 200,000 sq. ft. skate park.

“You can drive around the city and you will most definitely see kids skateboarding. When we got here they were kind of behind the scenes,” Santamaria said.

Skate Culture supports the community by organizing competitions, demonstrations and giving away products to local schools, churches and parent-teacher associations.

“Owning your own business is a lot of work; it takes a lot of dedication,” Santamaria said. “But it is also very exciting and very fun to be able to help a kid out and give him a product that he is happy with, knowing that somehow you helped develop his skill.”

Skateboard components

• Deck – Usually made of wood, the deck is where skaters stand
• Trucks – Connects the wheels to the deck
• 
• Bearings – Attaches to the trucks and helps keep the wheels lubricated and spinning
• Grip tape – Sticky on one side and rough on the other, grip tape sticks to the deck and helps skaters keep their footing
• Risers – Used to make the board higher for taller skaters

Skate Culture, 2800 S. Bagdad Road, Ste. E, 260-4155