USA Trip 2025. Let's get started! By BdJ

Jan 29, 2025

Written by Bart de Jong

Read 34 times

What's typical about the first night on every California trip coming from Europe is that you wake up early the first morning. The 9 hour time difference does that to you. 6am in Newport Beach, is 3pm in Helmond. You can't just switch instantly. But hey, the sun is shining, the beach only a minute away. Although chilly (8 degrees celcius) it's the perfect set-up for a little run/walk on the beach. I'm not a big runner any more but having these conditions outside of your doorstep would turn me into a daily runner, at least I thought so. Instead of heading in the direction of Huntington Beach I decided to head towards the Newport Beach pier. I tried to avoid getting wet feet from the waves coming onto the beach so running in a straight line wasn't much of an option as I wanted to avoid walking in the deep beach sand. Boy did it feel good. Considering being in the cold and wet only 24 hours ago and now walking on the beach, in the sunshine, palm trees everywhere....

A good Vacancy Coffee and a shower later we started off the day by heading to Sheep Hills. Normally the spot is under water in the winter time for a while but since it had not rained since February 2024(!!!!!) the trails were still rideable. My first time to Sheep was back in 1990. Considering it's now 2025 makes this spot legendary. After soaking up the energy of the dirt jumps the day continued with a quick visit to 3Bros Racing in Costa Mesa followed by a FOX HQ visit.

Their shop always has some interesting sports memorabilia on display and we checked out their pump track and pit bike track in the back. Just imagine getting to work there, and ride the tracks, or go to their gym.... some companies know how to do it right.

We googled for the Cult Crew address and connected the phone to the Nissan Rogue through Apple Carplay. We were going to use all that T-Mobile data that we had purchased. It's well recommended. Being online and available is a must, or at least it saves you much time and frustration. Next to meeting up with Robbie Morales we also got to catch up with Neal Wood and talked BMX business for a bit, combined with Supercross expectations. Always good to see the people at Cult.

We have been called crazy but Taco Bell in California hits different than it does in Eindhoven. So after In 'n Out on day one, we chose Taco Bell for lunch on day 2. There are so many options for food, it's not even funny. Visiting people/companies we do on the fly without a set plan. Showing up unannounced and unexpected might not be ideal, but how often do plans go south or you're running late making people wait. Sorry about just walking in, but at least we made the effort to show up.We parked at The Building next and waited for Timmy Ball to wrap up his phone call. Timmy had just returned from Fids' funeral in the UK and was back at work creating the goods over at S&M. He mentioned Chris Moeller was in the office so we walked into his office (also unannounced) and ended up having a tea and talk with the Maddog himself. Always entertaining.

Over the past years we haven't heard of companies "crushing it" in BMX business. It seems everyone sold out during covid, but then is still sitting on stock that they're trying to sell. We decided to stop by Cheap Goods BMX Shop in Costa Mesa to get the scoop from Gabe Weed himself. Being in business making ends meet is where it's at right now.Passion for BMX goes a long way. Giving up is not an options. Times will turn around. Make sure you're still there for it. Cheap Goods BMX serves the local scene. Support your local.

As if the day wasn't busy enough yet, the screening of RAD the movie was on the schedule for the evening. The Rivian Theatre in Laguna Beach welcomed BMX fans to come watch the 1986 BMX film and had invited actor Bill Allen for a Q&A hosted by Dan Hubbard. 40 years later and the movie is still cheesy, but it got a lot of people on bikes back in the day. That jet lag was kicking in. Time to head back to Newport Beach for some zzzzzzz.....

BdJ