It was a hot and sticky day without A/C in Southern California as I drove from my house in Long Beach to meet up with the van full of BSD's in Los Angeles before we began to make our ascent towards Northern California and the greater Bay Area. I was picked up by Dave Sowerby along with Dan, Alex and Leezy in tow, I hopped in the van now refreshed by that endless rental car A/C and after a couple pit stops we make our way to Santa Barbra to pick up David Grant and Nick Castillo. Bobbing and weaving through traffic we make it to Dave and Nick as they await our arrival over at Cody Bowers' house. As we walk up the long brick driveway surrounded by palms and tropical plants I couldn't help but notice the sweet aroma of California's finest cash crop burning somewhere near, I wondered where?!
Finally, we are all set and packed for the long 7 hour drive north to our first hotel in San Francisco... There is nothing quite like a sunset drive up the west coast on Highway 101 with a full trip ahead of you, as the Pacific Ocean sparkles and the sun sinks, we make our way into the bay!
We arrive late night in SF and check into a nice little hotel, yet it has a strange sense of the 'anything goes' type of mentality. Eastern Indians run the place and the front desk smelled like curry, with a courtyard type of hotel where all the rooms lead into open air instead of opening into the hotel building itself. This gave way to mischief and antics throughout the duration of our stay! We had two separate rooms, one smokers section and the other, well, a non-smokers section, I'll let you decipher who went where. As we break into our first day in San Francisco, we wake up to a busy and sunny day, the hotel is right in the heart of the city which makes it easy to want to pedal from the rooms and keep out of the van. So we take on the day by pedaling out from the hotel and of course, I make the mistake of bringing too much gear, (which either way is always a worth while decision) as well as being weighted down with a hoody that was just way too hot for all the miles we were about to cover. We find ourselves pedaling all over the place finding some great spots, yet we keep it moving to be able to cover as much ground as possible. After taking a slight detour to the waterfront to snag a view of the Golden Gate Bridge and the lovely sights of a yoga class happening on the grassy bluff, we end up stumbling upon the famous China Banks! This iconic and historic street spot has been shredded for decades by bikes and skateboards alike, to see this spot still standing and ridable was just too good to be true! Even though we were eventually asked to leave, it didn't take away from putting tires on this staple SF spot...
The remainder of the day we took our time with what light we had left to explore some more and enjoyed the city colors on the side... Chinatown was good to us, Alex found that crank arm-tooth-pop out 180, Dan went in on the nose bonk dubs around the curve tooth 180 over just after he was getting hit on by an Asian women who was with her child and Dad. As we make our way home after riding a couple night time spots, we're all super tired and we decide to take it easy after a good meal and some drinks for the chillz.
The second day of riding begins a bit gloomier as the day before, no rain but no sun either, at least this time we we're shielded from the harsh sunshine and I had more of an excuse to wear my hoody. We decide to drive the van a bit farther than we'd like to pedal, to meet up with a couple locals Crazy Chris and his Son came out with us to show some support and some SF style like no one else could. We get out of the van and head on towards the first spot of the day, David Grant comes out swingin' with one of my personal favorites, a big ol' bottom bracket / derek duster / feeble thingy first go! We rolled up on this perfect 14 stair rail-ledge set up with a hefty kink and he didn't think twice, security came out and David took care of it straight off the end with all the juice.
David definitely set the bar for the day right away, as well as getting everyone hyped for breakfast! Not too far of a pedal away from spot one, we end up sliding through some fences and on to the top of the Highway 101 tunnel! Quickly crossing over the tunnel without causing a stir we arrive at this hip spot stashed away in the bushes out of sight from the freeway. Nice little spot to session, chill and start to feel the urge for lunch. A couple hours later we are back in the van and headed over towards Jackson Ratima's shop, accurately named BAYGAME. Doesn't take long to really feel the city once we show up to the BAYGAME shop, the street personalities, police presence and authentic grit are all just a small dose of what BMX encounters on any given day in SF. The Don Jackson is on hand to open up his shop and some spots close by while he kicks back with a broken foot.
After some good time in and out of the shop and some hood antics, we made our way back to the hotel and this time we were quite ready to hit the local pub!
Day three was definitely a day to chill, awe woke up to the classic San Fransisco rain, it teased us all morning through our walks for breakfast. Yet, the trip must go on, right?.. We were definitely stoked to get over to the famous 3rd and Mission ledge spot to see what kind of originality we can cook up. The whole crew took advantage of the spot and didn't let the drizzling rain stop the motivation for quite awhile. Nick was trying the most precise curved wall I've ever tried to shoot, he didn't end up with this one, hitting the face pretty hard possibly due to the rain. So we decided to keep the cameras dry and call it a day... We hit the grocery store and took a good amount of down time, most of the dudes were coming fresh off of other trips so even day three break-time was well received! This was our last day in San Fransisco, so, just as all the other nights before, as I forgot to mention earlier, a handful of us, if not all of us, went out to the local watering hole. Had a few drinks, maybe sang some karaoke, may or may not have catch a bird or two and oh yea a few more drinks...
The last four days of riding happening in San Jose, there was a fresh start and some more level streets to pedal. We didn't know how bountiful these new spots would be but we were in for a pleasant surprise, as SJ treated us nicely. Barely any need to pedal around town very much, it was quite swift in the way we would come across most of the things we rode but everyone delivered with some moves they really wanted! We had a chance to get a lot accomplished due to all the all the elements being on our side... We made it to the Reuben banks, celebrated 420, Dustin Dollin dropped in on a session, visited San Jose State University and rode downtown. Nick Castillo came in strong with some of the craziest curve wall destruction I've ever seen and have the honor of shooting and Alex battled a clip almost everyday we rode downtown.
Alex took on this hubba in downtown each day as he really wanted to put an original ALVX move on the list! So between battling the watchful eye of security, foot traffic and just flat out getting tired, Alex kept going back until he got it. On the second to last day, we went back for a final time wether he nailed it or not and within a handful of tries he walks away with the clip clean and happy! It's a shame you won't see the image here, you'll see it soon enough I suppose but you can watch it over and over again in the video below.
