Reading the thread about the Texas tri shop review…
Here, in El Paso, we have 4 bike shops. One, crazy cat cyclery, that I really like.
However, there are no tri shops. Heck there isn’t even a good running store (with real running shoes and no bozo telling you that asics DS trainers are trail shoes…reading this Shawn? wanna know where they say that? )
However, there is a pretty big group of triathletes (about 40 of them going to IMAZ this year) in both El Paso, and Las Cruces. Add to that Ciudad Juarez and you have roughly quite a few triathletes to take care off.
Besides, SAC, Olaf and I are starting the first EP camp this coming september and will likely have others in the future…(Think of a really cheap Boulder, Co, with only 3’ tall trees, no snow and a lot of wind
So, is anyone stepping up? We NEED a trishop here!!!
Danois, konabro2, jmhtx…you guys gotta say something!
I was pretty amazed that El Paso did not even have a decent outdoor store when I moved here 18 months ago. We have 100+ miles of trails in the Franklin Mtns, and no freakin’ outdoor store.
I will agree with you comments on Crazy Cat. They are one of the best shops I have dealt with in living in about 8 different cities. While they don’t have a huge selection on hand, it is better than mosts. However they are great folks, with great service.
My last business trip to Atlanta I went to All3sports to get a decent pair of goggles. In the last year I have been to Demerly’s shop, All3sports, Nytro, Bonazi (in Northern VA), Final Kick in VA Beach and at each picked up some tri specific item. What is common about these shops— they are all in an area that has the triathlon demographics to support a dedicated shop. The reality is El Paso is very much a working class town, without a robust Triathlon race presence.
Francois, I will take a slightly different approach. We need to get some decent RACES in El Paso. The races drive the participants, participants drive retail sales. The nearest races are in New Mexico and they are sprints, and are reverse order. Maybe you and I should put together a race… but we need to find a decent swim location.
I would love to. But apparently, there are only 2 decent swim locations in the ‘area’. One is Elephant butte lake which is a 1h30 drive from El Paso, and there is an other one at some lake in the northeast I believe.
Obviously, it would be a lot easier to organize a duathlon here. Maybe something like 10-60-10 (km that is) and a 5-30-5…lots of places to do that…including columbus road which would make things interesting it was was windy!!
What I loved was heading to El Paso to head out to Hueco Tanks. Its one of the premier bouldering climbing spots in the country. Nowhere is there a store to buy chalk or new shoes if you blow a pair out.
Weird place, can’t wait to go back to climb there again.
Actually, the clostest outdoor store is REI in Albuquerque I believe! 5h drive…oh but then ‘foot locker’ pops up everywhere…these kids don’t know anything about running (or shoes altogether)
Again, I think while we have the weather, trails, (even rock climbing as noted above), etc- El Paso does not have the sports related demographics to support high end stores or competive events.
Francois, a couple of observations about El Paso:
I see lots of people running every morning, but not that many road races-- except for Transmountain, and a couple of 5ks. No dedicated running store.
Tons of folks out riding on Sat and Sun mornings, great group rides on Sat and Wed, but few road bike races, 2 good bike shops (both Crazy Cat Locations) and two below average bike shops.
100+ miles of hiking trails, rock climbing at Franklin and Hueco, backcountry campsites, no outdoor store.
Okay, maybe these aren’t mainstream sports, but there are only a couple of golf courses in the city.
I think the bottom line is this is not a very active city, and one where expensive sports like triathlon, golf, climbing, etc don’t have the base to support dedicated shops. Good thing I have internet access and Trisports is one day via UPS ground.
Maybe you and I can discuss further tomorrow morning on a ride?
Actually, there are quite a few crits, probably a good 30 a year between El Paso and Juarez, more if you count Las Cruces. Then there is an annual stage race (aida’s around the clock), a road race on the extension of resler (9 loops + finish at the top of TM road). Although the year I arrived, there were an other 4-5 road races in Town.
There are also some road races (foot). Scenic Half marathon, TM challenge, some 5 and 10k races (all on the east side) + some trails races + some in LC. Add to this about 6-7 duathlon in White Sands/Las Cruces…You can race every weekend from febuary to november.
The problem though is that there is NO ad whatsoever for most of these races…unless you’ve lived here for a while, you don’t even hear about them (well, you should have heard of the Scenic half marathon though).
Yeah! and EP is not small. I think the population is up to 750,000.
BTW. I saw a Bike shop over off of Redd Road, next to one of those chain sub shops. It looked, from the window that they had some TRi stuff, but it was closed.
“What I loved was heading to El Paso to head out to Hueco Tanks. Its one of the premier bouldering climbing spots in the country. Nowhere is there a store to buy chalk or new shoes if you blow a pair out.”
Back when I was climbing full time, I would live at Hueco for a month or so every winter. This was ten years ago, but there WAS a little climbing/outdoor store in town; I seem to remember that it was in the same mini mall as the Sooper Salad. We would re-load on chalk there after we pulled the bags of all-you-can-eat salad out of our pockets…
Is the one and only giant pink drive in porn movie theatre still there? I nearly crashed my car the first time I drove through EP and realized what it was…
That giant pink obelisk will always stand out in my mind as the quintessential statement/summary of life in El Paso.
Giant pink porn screen, miles of barbed wire, pullin’ pockets with blown tips (the best bouldering on the planet,) a pocket full of contraband all-you-can-eat salad, drunken brits huddled around the pot belly stove eatin’ Hueco Pete’s Burritos… that’s El Paso to me.
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