Red River Brewing donates to Questa Skatepark Project

NM pro skater to attend grand opening of Red River park

Red River Brewing co-owner Sharon Calhoun gifted a $1,300 check to The Questa Skatepark Project on Monday (Sept. 12) to help push forward the village’s efforts to create a new space for local skaters to recreate.

The check was presented at Red River’s new skatepark in Mallette Park just off the main strip. Already home to a 9-hole disc golf course, basketball court, volleyball court, sport climbing granite wall and a pump track, Mallette Park will hold a grand opening for its new skatepark on Friday (Sept. 30) at 2 p.m.

As part of the grand opening red ribbon ceremony, New Mexico skating legend Mariah Duran will be in attendance. In 2016 Duran took home the silver medal at X Games and turned pro for Meow Skateboards, which features felines on some of their top decks. Duran is a back-to-back Women’s Street X Games gold medalist, winning in Sydney and Minneapolis in 2018.

Duran made the 2019 and 2020 USA Skateboarding teams and represented her country in the inaugural U.S. Skateboarding Olympic Games, where she finished 13th in the preliminary round.

In the latest Thrasher Magazine Mariah Duran video part, titled “Rapa Nui”, Duran demonstrates technical precision in her flips and pops. More importantly, the video shows off her otherworldly videogame-like balance while doing a 50-50 down a steep and kinked handrail.

Owner of Red River Angler and Sport Sloan Covington talked briefly about the potential impact of the skatepark on tourism: “The pump track and skate park is exciting for both the local population and for our visitors. You know, we’re starting to see some traffic of people that are coming to the area, [from] Angel Fire for the bike park, or, you know, come over to Red River in the evenings and use the pump track and then go out to eat or go shopping. So that’s exciting.” Sloan continued, “just excited to get more activity in that park there. A lot of people have been visiting the area for a long time and don’t even know that park exists. So the more user groups and the more activity we can get back in there, I think is awesome, because it’s a great asset for the town.”