La Feria's new SkatePark

When she soars off the big ramps, she feels her skateboard surfing on the wind, Linda Chapa said.

"It feels cool," said the 13-year-old a seventh grader. "It feels like you're actually flying with the board."

The city celebrated the opening of the $120,000 skate park,  built between La Feria High School and William B. Green Junior High, on Sept. 26.

"We really, really love it. I think it's really great," Linda said. "We don't have to be in the streets or at Dollar General and we get to meet new friends."

The park features a series of fiberglass ramps and curves on .39 acres of land donated by the school district.

The park's centerpiece is a 90-degree ramp.

As he sails off the ramp, the plunge sinks his belly, Ryan Puente said.

"It feels like butterflies," Ryan, 10, a fifth grader, said. "It feels like you're going to throw up."

For years, skateboarders turned sidewalks at the U.S. Post Office and the General Dollar store into ramps, Janie Camacho said.

For parents, the park keeps children off the streets, said Camacho, whose nephew skates there.

"It's safer there," Camacho said outside the El Centro grocery store. "They could have gotten hit by a car (on the street) or they could have gotten in trouble at the post office."

In La Feria, the city and school district joined together to give skateboarders a place to revel in one of the nation's biggest teenage crazes, Mayor Steve Brewer said.

Now, he wants to build a skate park on the city's south side, he said.

"Any kind of park for children to give them something to do is a good community project," Brewer said. "It gives them something to do instead of running around after school."

The park's a "model" for other communities, said Richard Cartwright, an assistant principal at La Feria High School.

"Anytime you give a kid an opportunity, it's an advantage," Cartwright said. "It gives them an avenue to do something they think is fun."

For Janie Martinez, the park's a new hangout where she and her friends learn to glide in the breeze.

"You can learn more tricks," said Janie, 13, a seventh grader. "It's awesome - the ramp."