Dirt Jumps: A new legend is born?
12.7.06

Last Saturday I headed down to my local jumping spot to help with the digging. What I saw in progress blew my mind, and while I am totally and completely stoked, I'm also a bit concerned. More on that later though. Check this place out!

Staring at this picture is killing me. I want to go riding soo damn bad now.

The man with the plan

Have you ever wondered how they get jumps to look so perfect? Now you know...

-but I didn't bring a shovel... No excuses- shovels provided by Mike.

the team at work

There is a right way and a wrong way to build jumps. Build them wrong and they won't flow, and be hard to ride. Like hard in a stupid way. Here Matt and Jimmy measure the gap to make sure it is consistant with was has already been worked on.

A lot of work has been put in transforming this place to what you see here. And is continuing to be done every weekend. If you ride here, do your part and come down and help. Last week I finally broke down and bought a shovel on the way down...

We have plans for a pump track in the back to keep the groms away from the main line. It's not going to build itself..

And now, some thoughts:

First off, the new jumps in progress look so awesome. I cannot wait to ride them. Some of the lines will be fairly scary the first time through- personally, I know I will have to step up a bit. The big set I put off on hitting last year( that I finally hit thanks to Jimmy) is even bigger this year. And I'm not only down with that, but looking forward to it. I'm feeling healthy, my injuries are pretty much healed, and after learning no handers recently, my dj mojo feels strong.

What concerns me is this: The main line at a popular south bay jumping spot has been completely redesigned. Many of the riders that were able to ride these sections will have to step up their game. Jumps that were easy to learn on now have been replaced with actual dirt jumps. I've posted a number of spot reports on this spot, as it was a great place to take friends that were just getting into riding dirt jumps.

I'm not sure if this is the case any more.

Again, I should state that I'm torn. I'm extremely stoked on what is going down. I'm just concerned that this spot could be on its way out with this new development. I saw it happen at Cali in San Jose. Hannah Ranch was recently plowed. Jumps come and go. The jumps have been in this location for a number of years. Hopefully the redesign doesn't change that.

The crew that was working on the new renovation shared my concern, and so it was decided that future references to the spot would be vague, and the redesign you see here would stay on the down low for the time being, as all this new stuff is still unridable. The last thing we need is someone getting jacked on them before they are done.

I could be wrong about all this though. Red Devil is fairly decent sized, and above the skill level of the average mountain biker. I haven't seen or heard of any kids getting carted off by paramedics, just local kids killing it at a high level of riding. Fortunately most people have a decent sense of self preservation. The new "hucker" mentality is what concerns me. More and more riders launching themselves off of jumps and stunts after watching the videos, without ever taking the time to learn the basic skills.

One thing I am excited about is that construction on legendary Nor-Cal DJ spot, Calabazas has finally begun. It will never be what it was, but hopefully it will be the new destination spot for mountain bikers to go and learn these necessary building blocks. You have to learn to walk before you can run. I just hope it doesn't turn into a giant pump track (not that pump tracks aren't fun, but this is another topic altogether) or allowed to fall apart like the Pleasanton BMX park; or even worse, never finished, like the Bmx park in Ashland, Oregon.

One thing is certain: it is about time we have some real jumps. The riders, led by a rider with a vision have banded together to make it happen. And hopefully the increased level of difficulty will help keep the jump destroying 50s away. I'm just worried that some kid will break his neck and we'll lose our spot. To everyone that reads this and heads down to check it out, do every one else a favor and ride smart. A lot of work is and has gone into this. Don't f*ck it up for the rest of us.

Thoughts? I'd love to hear them. I'm still working on installing a forum and talk back functionality, so email your feedback old skioll to: jason@ihatebikes.net and I'll post them here.