Boozer Jam 2022 at Sheep Hills, in Costa Mesa, California. Mike "Boozer" Brown was a lifelong BMX racer, jump builder, and local at Sheep Hills from the earliest days. He was paralyzed in a racing accident in 2011, and riders started doing an annual fundraiser to help Mike and his mom out evey year. Mike's health declined, and he died in 2019, and the annual Boozer Jam at Sheep Hills is now to honor Mike and the spirit of BMX trails riding.
A long time ago (OK, 30 years or so), in a place far, far away (Costa Mesa, California) a weird tribe of mound builders evolved (maybe DEvolved, but that's more fun anyhow). This crew began to build small earthen mounds in an obscure area of small brushy trees and oil wells, between Huntington Beach and Costa Mesa, California. These weren't the Adena people or some other culture like that, they didn't build Cahokia or the Great Serpent Mound of Ohio. Their mounds were not built to track the stars, they weren't built for religious ceremonies, or as a burial site for the dead. This group of small mounds, originally built mostly by guys then known as Hippy Jay and Hippy Sean, were built to jump BMX bikes, get air, learn tricks, and just plain have fun.
Jay told me he originally called the jumps Hollywood, after pro racer "Hollywood" Mike Miranda, who had built a few jumps further up the hill, where the condos, off of 19th street and Balboa boulevard in Costa Mesa, are now. But not long after riders started showing up, kids started calling the area Sheep Hills. So even Hippy Jay doesn't known where the name came from.
The Costa Mesa mesa itself was a place where shepherds raised sheep and goats in the 1800's, and maybe early 1900's, and the Goat Hill Tavern (141 beers on tap!),up in Costa Mesa, pays homage to that in its name. But in reality, no one really knows where the name Sheep Hills came from, even they guys building it in the beginning. There were no sheep in the area when they began building in 1990, but the name stuck.
An unknown rider boosts a clean X-up over the Boozer pack at Sheep Hills. I just asked on Facebook again, to try and identify this rider, a couple guys thought it was Jody Donnelly, but he said it's not him. Let me know if you know who this is, so I can name him here. #steveemigphotos
One big problem with BMX dirt jumps is that they usually get built on someone else's land, then the land owner gets pissed, or worried about liability issues, and the jumps get plowed. In most locations, that can happen in a few days or a few months. When Sheep Hills was built, it was deep in a chunk of unused oil company land, surrounded by small, brushy trees, in a hidden meadow area between the Santa Ana River and Costa Mesa. A few homes on the surrounding mesa could see the jumps, but most seemed to ignore them. At the time, dirt jumping was not really a sport itself, but usually an event held at some national BMX races to stoke the crowd. Riders jumped, as they had before BMX itself began, for fun.
The top jumpers at the time were led by Chris "Mad Dog" Moeller, and his roommates at a house in Westminster, called the P.O.W. House. That stood for Pro's Of Westminster. Chris, Dave Clymer, John Paul Rogers, Alan Foster, Lawan Cunningham, Eric Millman, John Salamne, Jay Lonergan, and a few others, along with builders Jay, Sean, and Mike "Boozer" Brown, were the first guys to session Sheep Hills on a regular basis. The first set-up of jumps were three berms, one inside the other, each line with jumps in it. Transfers were possible between the lines in places. Sheep Hills was one of the jumping areas these guys rode often, along with Hidden Valley and Edison in Huntington Beach, and the jumps in the P.O.W. House backyard (seen at 33:50 in this video, followed by footage of the Edison High jumps).
Long time Sheep Hills local in the late 90's, Cory "Nasty" Nastazio, lays a flat tabletop 360 out at Sheep. 2020.#steveemigphotos
Before Sheep Hills came along, around 1987, teenage jumpers Chris Moeller and Greg Scott were frustrated by how many bikes they were bending and breaking while jumping. They found a welding shop, and had a couple of their own, custom designed frames made in 1987. That launched the garage company S&M Bikes, which has had strong ties to Sheep Hills ever since, sponsoring many of the local riders from the early 1990's on. S&M, and sister company, Fit Bikes, are still a major force among Sheep Hills riders.
When the trails were new,you had to cross the creek on rocks, then follow a rabbit-sized foot trail, to get back to the jumping area. A video cameraman I worked with at Unreel Productions, (which was up on the mesa above and west of Sheep) Pat Wallace, told me a four foot long alligator was once found in the creek there in the 1970's or early 1980's. I've never been able to verify that story, but it wouldn't surprise me.
In the first few seasons of Sheep Hills, the winter rainy season would flood the whole area, and the jumps would turn into thick, unrideable muck, from December into March. Every spring, they would be rebuilt. There was a natural bowl in the beginning, which had a jump into and a jump out of it. That was about where the trench leading into Titties (it's the name of the jump folks, don't get mad at me) is now. At one point, there was a line of doubles along the fence, up by the pond, which you can see in a couple shots in the 1995 Team Soil video, produced by Barspinner Ryan Brennan. There was a ten pack along the left side for years (as you walk in from the Hamilton side entrance), as well.
K.O. D. (King of Dirt) was the big jump in the mid 90's, built to practice for the "huge" jumps at jumping contests. It's a 7 foot tall big set of doubles, followed by a roller, and another big set of doubles. K.O.D. is still there, though Titties has taken over at the main style jump. U.K. BMXer transplant Stephen Murray built a four foot high, 27 foot gap set of doubles, called The English Channel, at one point, around 2000. That was the longest jump ever built at Sheep Hills.
The jumps at Sheep went largely unnoticed by neighbors and police, which is what BMXers like, until they accidentally drained the nearby pond with a pump, sucking it all out to water the jumps. I think that happened in 1993 or 1994. The trails into Sheep got widened out, so police cars could roll through, among other reasons.
A bunch of local kids started jumping there in the early 90's, and they evolved into the Sheep Hills Locals, aka SHL crew. Ryan "Barspinner" Brennan, Sean Butler, Josh Stricker, Freddy Chulo, Jason and Adam Pope, Marvin Loetterle, Mike "Boozer" Brown, Jason "Dogger" German, Ricky Ratt, and Mental Ian were the main guys in that posse. At the same time, Alan Foster's little brother, Brian Foster, moved to California from the East, and became another key member of both the P.O.W. House, and the SHL crew. "Religious Rich" is another long time local there, as well.
This second wave of riders out of Sheep Hills came up the ranks, some as racers, and some as jumper/street riders, in the mid 1990's, just in time for ESPN's first forray in action sports, the X-Games. It was in that same era that dirt jumping morphed into it's own sport, along with other BMX genre's, flatland, vert, park, and street. Through the late 1990's, Sheep Hills was known as the home trails of many of the best BMX dirt jumpers in the world, and became a travel destination for riders from around the country, and around the world. In the late 1990's and early 2000's, it wasn't unusual to ride into Sheep and meet riders from the U.K. or Germany or Japan, just there to check it out and ride a little, while on vacation in the U.S..
Several other top riders made Sheep a daily riding spot in the late 90's. Cory "Nasty" Nastazio, Chris Duncan, Stephen Murray, and top racer Christophe Leveque ushered in a new era of Sheep locals. As the years passed, Sheep Hills became better and better known, and the area was eventually turned into Talbert Regional Park of Costa Mesa. Now there's a big "Sheep Hills" sign there, trash cans that actually get emptied, and wide trails around the whole area, for riding mountain bikes, jogging, big wheeled stroller pushing, and just walking.
The once sketchy, largely hidden BMX spot, is now a family area used daily by the neighbors living nearby, as well as many visitors. It's really unusual that a set of BMX trails can last 3 or 4 years without getting plowed and destroyed, but Sheep Hills has somehow managed to last over 30 years, and is going into it's fourth decade (damn we're old).
Sheep Hills can be found on Google Maps, or look up "Balboa boulevard, Costa Mesa" on GPS, that's where many people park these days to go ride. Go down the hill, and follow the trails with the most bike tracks, and you'll find the jumps.
This post is dedicated to three Sheep Hills Locals. Mike "Boozer" Brown was paralyzed in a BMX crash several years ago, and died in 2019. Stephen Murray was also paralyzed several years ago on a double backflip attempt, and Bryant "Doc" Dubon was tragically lost to Covid-19 in 2020. Ride in Peace Mike and Bryant, and Stay Stong Stephen Murray (now back in the U.K.).
The pits area during a big jam. Good bikes, good friends, good fun. That's BMX. Sheep Hills 2020. #steveemigphotos
You can check out more of my photos of Sheep Hills on my Pinterest page. (160 photos and counting...)
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