Spring Skate Jam features trick demos, vendors, food, giveaways and more at Luckie Park on Sunday (4/19)

Ask any skater around Twentynine Palms and the rest of the Morongo Basin, and they’ll probably say that Dann Rothwell and the Escapade Skate Crew are responsible for elevating skateboarding here in the hi-desert over the last couple of years.

I first met Dann during 2025’s Go Skate Day event that’s held annually at Luckie Park Skate Park. It’s a full day of skating competitions that celebrate the sport and more importantly, get people out on a skateboard. “Go Skate Day” event also takes place in June, which could be cool and temperate or a total heatwave depending on the climate that year.

To get more skaters out to the hi-desert while conditions are perfect, Dann, the Escapade Skate Crew, the City of Twentynine Palms Parks & Recreation Department and Rediscover 29 came together to create the very first Spring Skate Jam this Sunday at Luckie Park.

“What we’re trying to do is start to do like Spring and Fall events that are a little more catered to being like a community event and inviting people from out of town. This time we’ve got Pastel Skateboards from Lake Elsinore, California coming up. They have a team of 12 pros, so we’re turning this into a bit of a pro skating demonstration. Or as they said back in the day, the old “skate demo” approach to this,” Dann told me while at a recent visit to the shop.

“It’s not necessarily a competition, but there’ll be product tossing and there’s sponsors that are hooking up giveaways and stuff for this, and we’re going to celebrate the the sick skating without it being a competition like we normally do for Go Skate Day.”

There’s also going to be a vendor market with 15 local and independent businesses setting up booths alongside food trucks and concession stands.

Dann lays it out: “We’ve got three food vendors. We’ve got Coffee and Donuts, thanks to Mean Jeans Beans and Shube’s Donuts. We’ve got Louisiana Fried Chicken pop up doing their food truck, and Alchemist Kitchen is doing their traditional Jamaican barbecue.”

Pastel Skate from Lake Elsinore will be teaming up with the Escapade Skate Team for two hours of sick skating demos at the world-famous Luckie Skate Park. The Escapade Team released their first video last year at the Go Skate Day event, and since then the team continues to grow.

Dann says that despite a fluctuating population due to the proximity to the Marine base, the core Escapade Team is “about 10 strong, and then the upcoming youth, you know, we’ve got about six or seven kids that’ll be in the place, like repping the shop and throwing down for us, so it’s nice. We’re looking at like a solid 30 plus skaters.”

For Sunday’s event, the park will be more or less closed off the the skate demo, but that’s only from 5:00 to 7:00. Luckie Park Skate Park is fully open to skaters of all levels and abilities, and if you know someone who even has a passing interest in skating, Dann says, come on down on any day that ends with a “y.”

“You’re going to at least see a couple locals in there. There’s a much younger contingent these days, which I’m always referring to as the next generation, but I’m really seeing it, man. I’m seeing kids helping each other out, teaching each other tricks, sending them to the skate shop if they have an old beat up board, stuff like that. So the community is there, and we’re pushing it all the time. Some of the older guys, you know, myself, I’m a new parent as of six and a half months ago, as well as another one of our key team members, but we still make it happen! We’re still in the background organizing events and trying to kick things here in town to make it something that’s larger than just us and the buddies, you know, like we really want to grow this thing.”

The very first Escapades Spring Skate Jam is happening this Sunday at Luckie Park in Twentyine Palms. It was organized in collaboration with the Twentynine Palms Parks & Recreation Department and Rediscover 29. 

The food and vendor market will be opening beginning at 3:00 p.m. and the main skate event starts at 5:00 p.m. and goes until 7:00 p.m. It is absolutely free, so bring a board down for skating after the event and to meet up with locals who push progression and community in their skate scene.

Check out Escapade’s website or their Instagram.