Here's a good look at the Grand Opening of the Gale Webb Action Sports Park, in Menifee, California. This video was put out by Rad BMX Builds. This event just happened, November 8th, 2022. The location is 26533 Craig Avenue, in Menifee. Menifee is out in the SoCal desert, about 60-70 miles southeast of Los Angeles, near Lake Elsinore.
Gale Webb has been known as America's Sports Mom since the 1980's. For decades her and her late husband Jim put on action sports shows all over the place, including weeks at a time at Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, California. Riders like Eddie Fiola, Martin Aparijo, Scott Freeman, and skateboarders Primo and Diane Desiderio were active riders in her early shows, along with dozens and dozens of top action sports athletes since.
I first heard of Gale Webb in 1985, when I saw a little photo of an woman doing a wheeler on a skateboard in a halfpipe, in Bill Batchelor's Shreddin' zine. Back then, the first story I heard about Gale was that she had survived a terrible skydiving accident, where her shoot didn't open until she was about 150 feet off the ground. Something crazy like that. She made a long, full recovery, and went on to compete in women's motocross for many more years. This was at a time when young kids were just getting into BMX freestyle's first wave, and the third big popularity wave of skateboarding. Gale could ride skateboards, rode motocross really well, and tried her hand at mountain bikes, which were also a new thing back then.
I interviewed Gale for the American Freestyle Association newsletter in 1987, riding my bike to Knott's Berry Farm, since I didn't have a car. She was putting on several BMX and skateboard shows a day there. As luck would have it, Primo and Diane Desiderio got stuck in traffic, and I filled in for the first show, doing a few tricks on my bike. The riders that day, as I recall, were Martin Aparijo, Scott Freeman, freestyle skater Andre' Walton, and a vert skater and BMX ramp rider. I don't think Eddie Fiola was there that day, though he often rode in her shows, when not on tour for GT. Gale was putting on shows like no one else in those days, BMX, skateboarding, inline skating, and occasionally vert roller skaters like Fred Blood and Duke Rennie. Even with all there is to do at Knott's, a major amusement park, her shows drew crowds of 200 to 500 people for every show. I doubt anyone in action sports has shown more kids these sports firsthand than Gale Webb's shows. So it's really cool to see her honored with a great action sports park named after her.
So far there's a BMX/MTB jumping park, a kids BMX park, and a pump track, which can be ridden by BMX and MTB bikes, scooters, and skateboards. I don't know if there's a skatepark at the park yet, it's so new, nothing shows up on Google Maps, but an empty field.
In this video I see Eddie Fiola, 80's BMX vert legend, and the very first King of the Skateparks. I saw 80's freestyler turned supercross announcer Dan Hubbard, as well as new school riders Mike "Hucker" Clark, and Tucker Smith, and I believe MTB rider Dylan Stark, who lives in the area, was there as well. I'm sure several other high level riders were there, those are just the ones I saw in the video above.
Skateboarding, BMX racing, and BMX freestyle all were invented in Southern California, but because land is so expensive, there are few bike parks and pump tracks in SoCal. There are great bike and skateparks all over the U.S. and the world now. So it's really cool to see a really good park opening here in Southern California, where these sports began. I'm sure there are many, many great sessions to come at this park.
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