New Geer skate park strengthens Salem skate community, provides challenging new obstacles

A rainy day at Geer skate park on Feb. 7, 2026 in Salem, Oregon. Photo by Sofie Szigeti.

In October, the city of Salem unveiled a brand new skate park in northeast Salem. 

The project had been underway since January of the same year, and after a few delays, the park was finally open for business and quickly surged in popularity. In the first few months since its completion, Geer Park has been making waves through the Salem skate community. 

Joshua Santos-Díaz (’28) is from Salem and has been around the city to many skate parks. “I know the skate parks around here are not really liked because they are older or not taken care of,” he said. Geer Park, on account of its newness, is nicer than many others around the city. For Santos-Díaz, the new park has sparked increased interest in skating in the Salem community.

The increased interest is evident in the variety of ages that show up to skate at the park. Both Santos-Díaz and Jack Godsil (’28) mentioned that younger kids are usually at the park, but there are also plenty of older adults showing off their skills. “I was just out last weekend, and there were a bunch of new and older people from the ’80s generation coming out,” Godsil commented.

Godsil was interviewed for the initial article by The Collegian on Geer Park in February of 2025, and The Collegian followed up with him now that the park has been open for a few months. He explained that the park was a replacement for an old BMX, or bicycle motocross, track, so there are some obstacles that are geared toward bikes rather than Godsil’s chosen skateboard.

Godsil explained that these obstacles can be dangerous to skateboarders with “zigs and zags that are hard to navigate,” but, undeterred, he sees it as a fun challenge because “it poses a new way to skate the park.” The difficulties the obstacles present don't take away from the park or steer skaters around Salem away, he said.

However, because the park is so new and popular, it can be very crowded. Godsil explained that one of the biggest issues is that the amount of people standing around the obstacles sometimes makes them “unskateable.”

New skaters aren’t always aware of the skate park etiquette that keeps things smooth and safe. Expanding on the hazards created by the crowd, Godsil mentioned a recent time he was trying to pull off a trick and there was a group of younger kids standing a little too close to where he would be speeding by. 

The crowd is full of people with different skating abilities, and the park does well to accommodate that. There are difficult sections, like the steep walls and old bike tracks, but there are also obstacles that are designed for beginning and intermediate skaters. Godsil emphasized, “It’s a skate park that’s pretty designed for everybody because there are so many different ways to skate it.”

Reflecting on how skating has impacted him personally, Santos-Díaz said, “In skating you learn how to fall, pick yourself up, and try again. I think that really shaped a lot of my mentality. As long as you get up, you’ll eventually get it.”