Dennis Enarson's backyard ramp set-up

While this is a Colby Raha video, I'm sharing it so you can check out the crazy backyard ramp set-up that Dennis Enarson has.  

When I first started this blog, a couple of months ago. a Colby Raha video popped up on YouTube, as I was getting ready to write the first post.  Since I was writing about bike and skate spots, all the weird places that riders and skaters ride and skate, I used Colby's video for post number one.  It was a sick looking spillway, a crazy looking spot, and Colby did a 114 foot downhill canyon jump there.  You can check that post out here.  

Since then, I've watched a bunch of Colby's videos, which are always entertaining.  He's a great MX rider, and pretty crazy, and he likes to push the boundaries, and ride some really weird places.  He's one of the reasons, probably the main reason, street MX is now a thing.  I've done a lot of skate posts, and was looking for another BMX place to write about.  It turns out that this video starts out at Dennis Enarson's backyard ramps.  But this is one crazy set-up for backyard ramps.  

In this video, about 4 of the first 5 1/2 minutes are at Dennis' ramps, and we see Dennis run through a series of lines, showing us what all these ramps are for.  The main feature in the center is a big jump box, and that makes sense.  But there's a huge undervert banked wall on one side, an under  vert curve, a wall ride, a curved corner section, a spine, and ramps at odd angles.  Then there's a huge launch ramp, that doesn't seem to lead anywhere.  In a few minutes, we see Dennis tear up this place up, alley-ooping into the banked wall, and launhing off that weird launch, carving back to the main landing.  There's a whole bunch of interesting ideas going on in this ramp set-up.  While backyard ramps have progressed a lot over the last 35 years, I've never seen a set-up like this.  

After Dennis and Colby riding the ramps, and a couple of other guys, we see Colby hit the ramps on his motorcycle.  The video goes on to how Colby doing a big, downhill bonzai jump in San Diego on his motorcycle, and then they hit up a ditch, and then some curved wall rides on the BMX bikes.  Dennis' ramps are one of the most interesting backyard ramp set-ups I've seen, and it may give BMXers out there some ideas for building their own ramps in the future, either in a the backyard, or maybe for a contest or skatepark.    

Federal Bikes- Brussels Remix

Brand new edit this morning, just popped up on YouTube.  Insane BMx street from the Fderal Bikes team in Brussels.  

Cultoween 2022: Cultcrew's Halloween bash at Huntington Beach Skatepark

Here's Cultcrew's edit of their Halloween party at the Van's Huntington Beach Skatepark for 2022.  Happy Halloween everyone!  Whatever you do, don't click this link.  Or this one either.  

Classic Skate/Bike spots: The Embarcadero in San Francisco

In 1986, across this span, street skating pioneer Mark Gonzales did the "ollie heard 'round the world." He ollied the gap between the wall and block section at the Embarcadero.  This video is from 1993, when he went back and became the first to kickflip over what became known as The Gonz Gap. 

Disclaimer 

It became known as The Gonz channel, later The Gonz Gap, or just The Gonz.  The story is that photographer MoFo told Mark some other kid had already ollied this gap, so Mark decided he needed to nail it and get the photo.  Mark made it, and MoFo got the sequence.  This video above, by longtime Thrasher magazine editor Jake Phelps, is Mark Gonzales back at it in 1993, landing the first kickflip over it.  After that, this gap became a proving grounds for top skaters, each trying to take it to the next level with a bigger trick over the gap.  You can read the history of The Gonz Gap here.

On a personal note, I moved from Boise, Idaho to San Jose, California in August of 1985, and lived there for about a year.  I published my first BMX freestyle zine about the Bay Area pro and amateur riders, which led to a magazine job in Southern California in 1986.  So I sessioned at Golden Gate Park with the BMX guys a dozen or so times over that year, and interviewed several for my zine.  I watched Tommy Guerrero and friends blast off launch ramps there.  And I rode at the Embarcadero with several of those BMX guys 4 or 5 times.  I rode poorly, mostly did footplants, nothing too cool.  I wasn't a local, but I did ride it a little, and saw what a cool spot it was, particularly for that era.  This blog post is not meant to be the official history of the Embarcadero/EMB bike and skate scenes, just a good solid look at it, and how much influence that spot had on both BMX and skateboard street.  

The Embarcadero area was a park area with big, concrete,  block ledges and structures that drew in skateboarders and BMXers.  It was located in San Francisco, in the 1980's and 1990's.  It played a huge and influential role in the history or both BMX street and street skateboarding.  But before I get to that, let's go back to the roots of street skating itself.  

In the early 80's, there were two main forms of skateboarding, the cool guys who rode vert, skateparks and later halfpipes, and the dorky guys who made hardly any money and did freestyle skating.  There's no consensus on exactly when modern street skating started.  But there's a great line Thrasher's 25th anniversary book, something like, "In 1984, Mark Gonzales launched off the side of a ramp, and things got gnarbuckle."  That's as close as you're going to get to the birth moment of street skating.  

But many of the foundational tricks used in street skating, had already been invented by freestyle skater Rodney Mullen in 1984.  Rodney was one of the "dorky" freestyle skaters then, but he was a 5 time world champion freestyle skater.  Rodney invented the flat ground ollie, the ollie kickflip, the double kickflip, the 360 flip, the flat ground Caballerial (fakie 360 ollie), and the ollie impossible.  That was all before street skating really got started.  Don't believe me?  Check out this Rodney Mullen video from Japan, shot in 1984.  In the middle of his freestyle routine, you can see Rodney do a Caballerial, an ollie impossible (technically a pressure flip), and a double kickflip... in 1984.  

In the earliest days of street skating, there were guys like John Lucero, Lance Mountain and others sessioning curbs.  Then came the three musketeers, really pushing early street skating in the mid and late 1980's.  Mark Gonzales (1987 video) down in Huntington Beach/Orange County.  Tommy Guerrero (1985 video) in San Francisco.  And Natas Kaupas (1988 video) in Santa Monica (west of Los Angeles).  Their magazines photos, and later video parts, began to show the world street skating.  The early magazine photos and video parts of these three inspired a whole legion of early street skaters, with Mike Vallely and others coming up right behind them, and sparking progression, and the street skating movement.  

Of those early three, Tommy Guerrero, was skating San Francisco every day.  The reason I wrote so much in this post about early street skating is because the first video I pulled up to work on this post was a great video, it's below, but it also says, "inventing street skating at EMB in the 1990's."  No street skating was already a thing, and skaters were skating Embarcadero, and many other spots in San Francisco, before that.  Here's Tommy Guerrero's Transworld Legend clip, to prove it.  The classic era of EMB in the 1990's blasted the progression of street skating into hyperspace mode, but they didn't invent street skating.  

The BMX side of the story begins with a group of freestylers, led by Dave Vanderspek, and his bike/skate team, the Curb Dogs.  Here's Dave and some of the team on a local TV show in 1985.  In the clip, they start with some flatland, followed by Dave and skater Joe Lopes riding Joe's halfpipe.  Known as Vander by many, he was a great bike rider, a good skater, and an incredible promoter.  Maurice Meyer was the other key BMX rider in the Curb Dogs, seen in this TV clip from 1986, riding the streets, and at Golden Gate Park, the weekend hangout for BMX freestylers from around the San Francisco Bay Area.  You can learn the history of the Curb Dogs on this website Maurice created.  

In those days, producing videos was still a job for professional crews, but Dave managed to get a full length Curb Dogs video produced in 1986.  There are scenes at :40, 1:47, 3:07, 11:42, 20:00 that show some of the earliest riding, and skating, on video at the Embarcadero.  At 20:05 in that video, Dave Vanderspek bunnyhops The Gonz Gap, and there's quite a bit of skating there afterwards.  Dave died tragically in 1988, and the Curb Dogs II video came out after his death.  There's quite a bit of footage from the Embarcadero in the tribute to Dave, in the first several minutes.  

The Curb Dogs, and other Bay Area riders, were a huge part of the early street riding influence in BMX freestyle.  This was before peg grinds, wall rides, and big gaps were a thing.  Dave Vanderspek doing bar endos at the edge of a ledge, along with footplants, and tweaking tabletops off curb jumps, were some of the early street riding moves.  In addition the famous San Francisco downhills, with their rhythm section like drops and banks, influenced their riding, and use of urban obstacles.  Vander and the Curb Dogs brought both a skateboard and a punk rock influence to BMX freestyle, at a time when most riders were clean cut, and dressed in motocross style leathers for contests and shows.  Dave and the Curb Dogs were ahead of their time, and set the stage for the street riding explosion of th elate 1980's and into the long recession years of the 1990's.  

Here's some more Embarcadero BMX street footage, starting at 3:20 in this video, with Curb Dog Maurice Meyer (tie dye tank top), Eddie Roman, and another rider, from 1989 or early 1990.  

Now if you ask the Old School street skaters about the Embarcadero, or EMB, they probably picture something a lot more like this:

This is Mike Carroll's part from the 1992 Plan B Questionable video.  Mark Gonzales' gap ollie in 1986 put the Embarcadero on the map of the skateboard world.  The early 1990's skaters and video sections made it legendary, and dramtically boosted the progression, and popularity of street skating worldwide.  

Here's a 13 minute video, Skateboarding History at San Francisco's EMB, that I mentioned earlier.  This is a great look at a bit of the history of San Francisco as a city, and how it influenced skateboarding, particularly Embarcadero/EMB.  This video is worth checking out just to learn how "hubbas" got their name.  That was new to me.  

Here are some of the best clips on YouTube of skating at EMB during the 1990's.

Another Day at the bricks- 90's EMB

EMB Raw skate clips II- 1991-1993 - Classic Steez

Jamie Thomas - The Gonz Gap barefoot- Early 1990's

The Gonz- Mark Gonzales/kickflip- Gino Ianuuci Backside flip

In these clips, a few EMB skaters look back on those days of skating the Embarcadero.

The Nine Club- What it was actually like skating EMB- Mike York  

EMB Memories with Karl Watson- Insight part 2 of 2

So there's my look at one of the most influential street spots in the history of  both BMX street riding, and street skating.  In The City, where bombing hills, and alternative culture spawned many things, including Thrasher magazine, street skating progressed at light speed in the 1990's and 2000's.  This spot, the Embarcadero, or EMB, was legendary, and I wish I wouldn't have sucked so bad when I got to ride there a bit.  I'm still not sure where the term "hella" came from, but I want to add that when I moved to the Bay Area in 1985, the skateboard term "vollie" for vagrant ollie, or an ollie over a homeless person, already existed.  But there was no similar term for a BMX bunnyhop over a bum.  So I polled all the main riders for my zine, San Jose Stylin', in early 1986.  The vote was close, but the locals decided "bummyhop" was the best official term for a bunnyhop over a homeless guy, and yes, I've done a few, long before I actually became a homeless guy myself.  

 

Multi-flash manual sequence at the Embarcadero of Maurice "Drob" Meyer, taken by 19-year-old photographer Spike Jonze.   

When I first wrote this post, I asked Maurice "Drob" Meyer to take a look at it, since he's a lifelong San Francisco BMX freestyler, original Curb Dog, a Skyway factory team member BITD, and all around epic human.  After checking it out, and giving it a thumbs up, he reminded of this photo sequence that Spike Jonze shot of him at The Embarcadero.  This is classic 1980's EMB BMX freestyle, and appeared in the May 1989 issue of FREESTYLIN' magazine.  He dug it up, so I could add it here.  As soon as he mentioned it, I could visualize the photo, it made that much of an impression when the magazine first came out.  

BMX street was just beginning to turn into its own thing in 1989, and this sequence combines several things happening at the time.  First there's Maurice, who was riding the crazy streets of S.F. from his early riding days, a city full of big hills and amazing urban terrain.  In my mind, NorCal riders pioneered street riding, followed closely by San Diego riders.  Then there's the Embarcadero, this public park plaza that just looked like it was built to be ridden and skated, back in the 80's, when there were no real skateparks left from the old era, and before the later parks built in the 1990's and 2000's appeared.  We rode the streets, wherever we were, because that's what we had.  

Then there's young Spike Jonze, who shot this sequence.  Spike was an East Coast BMXer/skater kid who hopped in the Haro Tour van in 1986, and became a roadie for Ron Wilkerson, Brian Blyther, and Dave Nourie.  Spike landed at Ron's house in Leucadia, and soon landed a job at FREESTYLIN' magazine in early 1987, where he started shooting photos seriously, guided by veteran photographers Bob and Windy Osborn.  For  little added spice, there are the zine covers at the bottom, art direction by FREESTYLIN' magazine editor Andy Jenkins, and his sister Janice, the magazine's art director/graphic designer at the time. 

When this photo was published, the first wave of BMX freestyle popularity was just beginning to crash, major bike companies were starting to pull their money out of BMX racing and freestyle, and throw that money at mountain bikes, the new trendy thing at the time.  All of us young people in our late teens and early 20's, who had become hardcore freestylers in the previous few years, were about to witness the "death" of BMX freestyle. That was the collapse of the age of wearing uniforms and helmets to ride flatland, and the rise of street riding in shorts and T-shirts, and rider-made zines, videos, and companies.  This photo sequence encapsulates that time of the cusp of the transition from 1980's fad sport to hardcore lifestyle sport of the early 1990's.  Thanks Maurice for reminding me of this photo, to flesh out this post about The Embarcadero's influence on both BMX and skateboarding.  

So now you know some background of an epic spot from back in the day, and learned a few vocabulary words.  Go ride or skate, and make the most of your local spots.  43.

The Studio City Monster Wall

Way undervert, but huge and and burly as fuck.  The Studio City Monster Wall.  #steveemigphotos

Disclaimer

I teased this one the other day, with a photo on Facebook, and quite a few people were trying to figure out where this wall is.  This gigantic banked wall is one I actually rode fairly often, back in the early 1990's, when I worked on the American Gladiators crew, and lived in North Hollywood for part of a year.  It's only a couple of blocks from the CBS Studio Center, where I worked as a crew guy.  Yet this huge wall, at least 25-30 feet high, is totally hidden from view of the thousands of cars that drive by it every day.  

It's probably only 60 degrees, but it rides like a much steeper, undervert wall.  It's bumpy, textured concrete, with a really solid concrete driveway below.  You could probably do a little on a skateboard there, but BMXers or mountain bikers are who can really have fun with this thing.  

This is behind a shopping center, so there are delivery trucks rolling through now and then.  It looks like you could just haul ass and go 12 feet up this thing, but it rides way different than it looks.  I could get about 5 feet up the steeper Blues Brothers Wall in Huntington Beach, when I used ot ride this thing, 30 years ago.  I never got more than 3 1/2 or 4 feet up this wall.  It's a hard THUNK when you land.  I'm sure some of today's BMXers and MTB riders could do much better.  It would be a lot of fun with a small launch and landing ramp.  As crazy and cool as this looks, to the best of my knowledge, there has never been a magazine photo or any video of anyone riding it... anywhere.  It's literally 15 minutes from Hollywood Boulevard, but no other BMXers or MTBers ever found it, I guess.  I forgot about it, when I went back down to Orange County.  When it did pop up in my thoughts, I figured some other riders would find it some day.

The location is near Ventura Boulevard and Laurel Canyon, in Studio City, in the San Fernando Valley.  There's a small shopping center on the Southeast corner of that intersection (towards the hills), and an older, larger shopping center, that wraps around the small one.  The big shopping center is now anchored by Trader Joe's, their address is 11976 Ventura Boulevard.  This gigantic wall is behind Trader Joe's and the other shops.  As with all business area spots, if you go ride here, be respectful of business owners and employees.  I had many solo sessions here back in the day, and never got asked to leave.  It's a place to hit alone or with 1 or 2 people, get a little session in, and then move on.  Don't bring a whole posse, make a mess, leave trash, or be destructive.  

Here's a wider shot of the wall, with a car back there, for perspective.  Yes, this thing is freakin' HUGE.  #steveemigphotos

Other than a bunch of fun little solo BMX sessions here, in the early 1990's, I do have two stories about this spot.  While one time in about 1997, I decided to get back into production work, after a couple of years as a furniture mover.  I paid to go to a semiar on how to find work on movie crews.  Halfway through the lecture, I realized I already knew how to find work, I'd already worked on 300 TV episodes. I just needed to do the same thing with film crews. The seminar was to make money off dumb college kids who graduated from film school.  Four hundred people, at $40 a head, that's $16,000.  

So I walked out, and drove to the McDonald's in Studio City, to have lunch, in the Monster Wall shopping center.  I turned around after getting my food, and almost knocked over Charlton Heston, best known as the star of Planet of the Apes, and many other movies.  He was having lunch with his grandkids.  I also saw Geena Davis there once.  The McDonald's is gone now, and a yuppie sandwich shop is there now.  

Later, in the spring of 2000, I went to a book signing of The Legacy of Luna,* by Julia Butterfly Hill, the woman who lived in a redwood tree for about two years, so they wouldn't cut it down.  After meeting her and reading her book, I dropped off my taxi for a week, and took a little solo road trip up to the see redwoods in northern California.  That was one of the best weeks of my life.

I had been living in my taxi at the time, so when I got back, I was living in my Datsun 280Z, until I picked up a taxi again.  I got back to Huntington Beach, after my trip, and went to Dennny's to eat.  While I was eating, I heard a couple of guys talking about making some movie, and they needed skateboard ramps built.  It was just a weird coincidence.  So I introduced myself, said I was a BMXer and old skateboard industry guy.  I walked away with a job two build two skateboard launch ramps in 48 hours, and try to find a rail, for $500.  

I rented a Uhaul truck, bought the needed tools and plywood, and went to my old apartment on 15th street.  My former roommates and neighbors let me borrow their driveway and electricity, to build the ramps.  Both were 4 feet tall, one with a 6 foot, quick transition, and the other with a 9 foot, mellow tranny.  The producers wanted a ramp skateboarders could "jump a bunch of barrels" off of.  Apparently they had seen some old 70's skateboard video of Tom Sims or something.  This was 2000, before YouTube and web video.  I really didn't know what they wanted, but I knew skateboard and BMX ramps.

It was getting dark on the second day, and I still wasn't finished with the ramps.  So I packed up the Uhaul, drove to Hollywood, then over the hill to this bank, which I happened to know was lit all night.  I finished the ramps about 2:30 in the morning, then got a little sleep in the truck cab.  In typical production crew fashion, I woke up after about 4 hours of sleep, and delivered the ramps to the location, a church in Hollywood.  I offered to hang out and move the ramps around for them, which scored me two free meals with the crew, and access to the craftservice table all day.  

Later that day, Powell Peralta skater Chet Thomas showed up, with a couple of other skaters.  He ollied a dumpster, and the stars of the movie, sitting in their VW Thing, off my ramp (36:41 to 37:43).  The movie was the absolutely horrible Christian movie, Extreme Days, which came out in 2001, and I managed to see in the theater.  I'm pretty sure it's the only Christian movie with a three minute fart lighting scene in it.  A producer kept the mellow ramp for his kids, and I donated the other one to a little skatepark in Seal Beach, as I recall.  And I made $500, thanks to the Studio City Monster Wall's secluded location and lighting at night, which gave me a good place to finish building the ramps, close to the movie's shooting location.  

For those of you wondering the other day, after 30 years, I'm letting the secret location out for this wall.  It's big, it's burly, and it's never been in a video, The Studio City Monster Wall is waiting...  

* Not a paid link.

 

The Mangey Moose Bank

The Mangey Moose Bank in Tarzana.

Disclaimer

This is the bank I was staring at when the idea for this blog popped into my head last week.  It's about a four foot high brick bank, about 30-35 degrees steep, maybe 20 feet long, then it wraps around the corner and mellows out.  There's a chain link fence at the top, a fence ride on a bike is possible.  

This is at a bus stop I use from time to time.  It's next to a sidewalk about six feet wide, and is plenty smooth enough to skate or hit on a bike.  It's nothing amazing, just a cool bank that rarely, if ever gets sessioned.  The location is Reseda Boulevard at the 101 freeway, in Tarzana.  That's in the San Fernando Valley, north of L.A..  This bank is on the northwest side of the bridge, by the westbound on ramp to the 101.  

These brick banks are by most of the on and off ramps of the 101, across The San Fernando Valley, but vary in size and shape.  This is one of the best of the banks, by shape and size.  Is the Mangey Moose Bank worth a long drive to ride and skate?  No.  But if you happen to find yourself west of the 405 in The Valley, and are up for a little bike or skate session, it's there.  It gets shade much of the day, which is cool, literally.  

It was about 100 degrees the other day, which is why I sat down under the bridge, to cool off, across the road, while in the area.  I was thinking about ideas on how to jumpstart my life, and all the things I'd really like to do, while spacing off, staring at this bank.  The thought popped out of that mysterious place thoughts come from, "I could make videos again, taking riders to new and little known spots, to see what they do could."  Tricks have progressed for decades, but there are all kinds of new and unknown spots to ride and skate that are yet to be sessioned.  Plus there are lots of classic and well known bike and skate spots that have stories to tell.  

Then I thought it out, since I'm homeless and don't have a decent phone or video camera right now.  How would I start this idea?  A blog.  So here it is, the blog looking at bike, skate, art, and other interesting spots.  We'll see where this idea goes.  

The Mangey Moose.  It's pronounced "main-jy," with a "j" sound, since it looks like it has mange.

So where did the name for this bank come from?  On the other side of the freeway, the south side, by the eastbound off ramp of the 101, there's this weird little lawn area behind a chain link fence.  The whole thing is about the size of a living room, with a bunch of trees, well manicured lawn, a fountain, and this fucked up moose statue.  No antlers, and it's worn and beat up.  This little lawn area is an advertisement for a lawn and garden shop nearby.  It's just weird.  I don't know if this moose was one of those target moose for archery, or just a moose statue somebody didn't want any more.  We don't even have moose in California.  It makes no sense.  I saw it from the bus riding by, time after time, and started calling it the Mangey Moose.  It looks like is has mange.  So even though the bank is on the other side of the freeway, I call it the Mangey Moose bank.  

So here's the first bike/skate spot that you've never heard of in this blog, the Mangey Moose Bank.  Nothing spectacular, but it's there, Reseda Blvd. and the 101, if you're nearby and up for a little bank session.  There's parking on the streets nearby.  This bank would look cool in photos, though backlighting might be an issue.  

 

There will be new bike, skate, and art spots in the blog... like this secret place- The Monster Wall

The secret Monster Wall.

Disclaimer

This is a completely unknown spot, that I found and used to ride my bike on, in the early 1990's.  Location is a secret.  To the best of my knowledge, this wall has never been in a magazine photo or ANY action sports video.  But I just wanted to let people know that there will be new, and virtually unknown, bike and skate spots on this blog, not just posts about classic old spots.  This is the Monster Wall, it's at least 25 or 30 feet high, and pretty bumpy.  But ridable.  In the 90's, I could get about 6 1/2 high on the slightly undervert Blues Brothers Wall in Huntington Beach, at my peak.  That wall is quite a bit steeper than this one.  I don't think I ever got more than 4 feet up this thing, maybe 3 1/2.  It's gnarlier than it looks.  Stay tuned for more new and little known spots as this blog progresses...