SKATE PARK REFRESH

New paint, new murals and new skaters in Troncones this week as artists, kids, Comex, La Unión, Sectur and Tres Santos come together

It may not be getting the action it used to get, but the Troncones skate park is a place where the younger members of the community have gathered for at least 20 years. Lorena Castañeda, manager of Hotel Tres Santos, is making sure it’s cared for so the next generation can continue to ollie, grind and slide.

Published on

November 27, 2025

Troncones Skate Park. Courtesy of Hotel Tres Santos

“Hey, look at this. They’re painting the skate park the first week of December,” Aura said out loud. There are perks to being part of La Onda Troncones. Sometimes it’s getting to meet people; other times it’s getting news before things happen. The best perk of all is discovering the cultural and social quirks of Troncones that no one person seems able to explain.

That’s the way it is with the Troncones skate park. The how and why come off pretty straightforward—Patrick Crosby, the owner of Mi Casa es Su Casa (now known as Hotel Tres Santos), decided to build his sons a skate park and a gym to keep them busy and close to home. Everything else is lost in the air, stuck somewhere else in time. The year is somewhat inexact, although around 2005 and about 20 years ago, seem to be in sync. That there was a skateboarding demonstration at the opening, un exhibición for the community, led by professional skaters is the stuff of legend. The name Paul Rodriguez comes up a lot, but no one remembers when he came.

Ramiro Valle, Carlos Nuñez, Max Solis Chimino and Jesús el pollo, 2007. Courtesy of Iseal Vega

The only undisputed facts are that the skate park has been open to the community since it was first built and that generations of Troncones’ kids have come to know its concrete, its bowls, its curves and its rails. Who designed it and who built it, probably only Patrick remembers for sure. It’s a place not always known for its best behavior, but that seems to be the case wherever teenagers go, and to be expected, considering how adolescence and skate culture are both widely known for bad choices leading to good stories.

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When Lorena Castañeda came to Hotel Tres Santos four years ago, oversight of the skate park became part of her job. She explains, “We have a family and community-minded operation at the hotel and the park wasn’t always that way. I had some cleaning up to do over there and we’ve done that now. The other ‘clean-up’ I wanted to do was the space itself. It needed a re-start, a re-fresh, a new coat of paint. I wanted to do that in a community way.”

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HOW THE EVENT CAME TO BE

The community plan Lorena came up with involved more than Troncones. She reached out to Comex, the paint company, which does not have a physical presence locally. In talking to their representatives and managers, Lorena pointed out the amount of construction going on in Troncones, the amount of money being spent on paint and the fact that some people here don’t know about Comex products, only what their contractors recommend. Her logic, ingenuity and persistence led Comex to donate 75,000 pesos worth of paint towards refreshing the park.

That left Lorena asking herself, “Who’s am I going to get to paint?”, a question that was easy for her to answer. She’s been meeting local artists ever since she opened up Hotel Tres Santos for art exhibitions two years ago. In awe of the creativity she’s discovered, Lorena described its strength in saying, “I’m impressed how our local artists use color, how they’re able to convey ideas without words. It’s not something I can do. Their work is magnificent, its truly special and they’re a really close group. I reached out at first to one or two muralists, and now we have ten coming. They start arriving on Wednesday [December 3^rd].”

Among those coming is Salvador Tinocco, of Trapiche, Guerrero, who helped Lorena make her vision of many artists working together a reality. He reached out to local artists on Lorena’s behalf and suggested a few she contact on her own. That networking has united the talents of Roberto Gallegos of Petatlán, Wipo Mita of Tecpan de Galena and Ana Laura Méndez and Oscar Mendoza of Guadalajara; Ángel Fuentes, Diego Sotelo and Azul Tinoco of Zihuatanejo and Miguel Ángel Jaimes González of Ixtapa, together with Ciria Venus of Troncones.

With Lorena being able to offer Hotel Tres Santos to house the artists, the next part of her plan was finding a way to pay them for their work. Thinking such a gathering of talent for a local cause could be good for tourism, Lorena reached out to Troncones resident Victor Santana, the director of tourism for the municipality of La Unión [an area which includes Saladita, Majahua and Troncones]. Victor liked the Comex + Artists plan Lorena had put together for the skate park and connected her with municipal president, José Francisco Suazo Espino. Jose Francisco took to the idea, too, and, after a year, found some funding in his budget. During that same time, he reached out to the offices of the Secretary of Tourism [Sectur], both in Guerrero and at the Federal level, getting the two government units working together to match his donation. Each artist is now set to receive 10,000 pesos for their work. Lorena is still amazed this all came through, like she imagined, thrilled, gushing, “We’ve been able to unite public investment with private investment to do something significant for our community, its artists and its kids.”

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THE LAST PART OF THE PLAN

The skate park paint program is officially known as “Troncones in the Colors of La Unión”, a collaboration between Hotel Tres Santos, Comex, La Unión and Sectur, its stated goal being, “to express, through art, the values and essence which define Troncones—nature, beach, serenity, gastronomy, rural life, flora and fauna, well-being, sports and its beautiful community.”

One thing missing from that official press release are the skaters, the kids, the clicking, scraping and ka-chunk of skateboards, edges and wheels; the oooh, auch and jajaja when things go right, or whenever they go wrong. Lorena’s taken care of that. She has Edi’s Skate Shop in Zihuatanejo bringing talented local skaters to the park late on Saturday afternoon to work the old concrete and try out new moves. Rumor has it that a few OG Troncones skaters, kids then, fathers now, are talking about coming back out. Isael Vega says he’s definitely skating.

Imer and Juan Carlos Rosas. Courtesy of Isael Vega

Lorena has made arrangements for music from DJs Johnny Delaware and Raúl Hernandez, and she is working on having food and drink available, kermés-style, all inexpensive and homemade. A different sort of celebration is planned for late Sunday afternoon, municipal president, José Francisco Suazo Espino and, possibly, the national director of tourism, Josefina Roderiguez Zamora, recognizing the artists and re-dedicating the skate park.

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