OCEANSIDE — The city has officially named the skatepark at John Landes Park after the late Shane Hidalgo, a professional skateboarder whose legacy of community service lives on.
Hidalgo was an up-and-coming professional skateboarder who grew up in Oceanside. He first learned to skateboard and surf from his father, Larry Hidalgo, who had his son on a board as early as age 3.
By age 7, Shane was teaching other children to skateboard.
His drive to teach and mentor others continued throughout his life. He worked for Urban Surf4Kids, a nonprofit that teaches surfing and swimming, and for the Oceanside Parks and Recreation Department at Joe Balderrama Park, where he mentored local youth.
Hidalgo died in a car collision in 2012 while on his way to skateboard at a benefit for an orphanage in Mexico. He was 24.
Oceanside Mayor Esther Sanchez said she began discussing the possibility of naming a skatepark in Hidalgo’s honor with his father in 2019. Seven years later, that dream became a reality when the City Council approved renaming the newly rebuilt John Landes Skatepark after him earlier this year.
The city unveiled a newly painted mural bearing the skatepark’s new name on Oct. 6.
“This young man meant so much and continues to mean so much to our community,” Sanchez said at the ceremony.
Councilmember Jimmy Figueroa, who represents the Tri-City neighborhood where John Landes Park is located, said it was “truly special” to have Hidalgo’s legacy honored there.
“You can tell the legacy and the fruit of someone’s life based on the impact that they’ve had on people’s lives, and the amount of people that have shared with council and city staff and myself about the impact that Shane had on their lives, and the kind of person he was and how he treated others, really shows the fruit of his life,” Figueroa said.
Several of Hidalgo’s family members and friends attended the ceremony, including his father.
“My son was an amazing kid,” he said. “I used to bring him to this skatepark when it was just some ramps when he was like 9 years old.”
The city recently rebuilt the skatepark at John Landes Park, expanding it to 7,500 square feet with ledges, rails, banks and transitions designed with input from local skaters.
Larry Hidalgo reminisced about taking his son skateboarding, surfing and on other outings with his son’s best friend, Travis Tielens, who also spoke at the event.
“It’s just astounding the amount of effort and the heart all the city officials put into this – it’s energy that will be very well spent in the future,” Tielens said. “I’m just very emotional, and we worked so hard to get to this point.”
The skatepark is the city’s last park to be named after an individual, following the council’s decision last month to change the city’s facility-naming policy.
