City Heights Skatepark
City Heights Skatepark is a 19,000 square foot concrete skatepark in the City Heights neighborhood of San Diego California. Also known as Park de la Cruz Skatepark, for the park in which it’s located, the skatepark offers a backyard pool-style bowl and a large street plaza/flow section that’s jam-packed with fun and unique features.
Details
| Location | City Heights, San Diego, California |
| Address | 3901 Landis Street San Diego, CA 92105 |
| Coordinates | 32.744522, -117.110727 |
| Features | Backyard pool; flow bowl area with spine ramp, extensions; an escalator love seat; stair set with rails; euro step up gaps; grind rail and ledge combinations; a-frame with rails and flat gap; manual pads; ‘M’ transition ramp feature |
| Riding Allowed | Skateboards, roller-skates, roller-blades, in-line skates |
| Construction | Concrete |
| Hours | 10 am to 8 pm |
| Fee | No |
| Phone | (619) 516-3082 |
City Heights Skatepark Overview
City Heights Skatepark was designed by Stantec and built by California Skateparks. While not as well known as some of San Diego’s other skateparks, this park is a gem and in our opinion one of the best parks in the county.
The brainchild of Stantec’s Kanten Russell, the park opened in January 2018 and cost just under a million clams. At 19,000 square feet, this feels like a much larger park, and a lot of creativity went into the design.
The park is a bit similar to the Kimball Skatepark in nearby National City in that it is located on a strip of land behind a baseball diamond. The start of a trend in skatepark location?
The result is a long, narrow overall shape. Stantec packed in skatable features along the entire length.
One ends is anchored by the backyard-pool style bowl. The bowl’s three-lobe design is fairly common in skateparks nowadays, and this one flows well and is well built.
One feature you don’t see too often is the step-down ledge/death box in the deepest lobe of the pool.
Starting from the elevated pool deck, the park drops down a small, transitioned ledge, which is continuous with a larger transitioned quarterpipe. Then comes a stair set that was designed as a tribute to a popular local skate spot.
Beyond the stairs set are a number of street plaza features, including euro step up gaps, grind rails and ledge combinations, an a-frame with rails and flat gap, manual pads, and a distinctive ‘M’ transition ramp feature (butt-shaped is another way to describe it, but I digress).
At the far end of the park from the backyard bowl, is a really cool flow bowl. It’s hard to describe this feature. It’s basically a large circle with transitions all the way around and a spine in the middle. The side towards the rest of the park opened up via a pump bump.
This feature is way fun. You can pump around the circle carving it like a wave to keep your speed and then spice it up by hitting the spine or extensions.
My only complaint about City Heights Skatepark is that it now opens at 10 am, which means early morning sessions are out of the question. I can’t imagine is a noise issue, as the park backs up to the I-15. Not my neighborhood though, so I’ll butt out.
If the park is too crowded, or you’re just up for some variety, Central Avenue Mini Park is located across Interstate 15 and is accessible via a pedestrian bridge a short skate away.
