USA Trip 2025. Part 7: LA28 location, Bike Park, One Ind. and Sk8park

Feb 03, 2025

Written by Bart de Jong

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On trips like these I wonder why I never really took the chance of living in the USA, like a lot of the Brits did successfully. Waking up to the sun every morning, how good would that be? The walk on the beach, would that ever get old? Mexican food all over the place, friendly people plenty to do, but most of all getting rid of the rain gear, the umbrellas, the Gore-Tex stuff as there is no need for it in SoCal. Would I miss not having 4 seasons? I don't think so. The mountains are only a few hours away, less than half the distance that we need to drive from The Netherlands to Austria. Next to direct family I would not miss much in The Netherlands I believe. I could do without stroopwafels and hagelslag and a frikandel speciaal (had one yesterday though). But no, I never made it that far and haven't even been close to making the move. It makes these short(er) trips special because you need to soak it all up.

After some breakfast at Scott's place we drove over to One Industries, one of Scott's clients at his practice. Amazing how that works out sometimes. Through Scott, Philip's been hooked up by the brand before and it was nice to meet the boss in person. We talked about helmets and motocross for a while (Juju had just won his first Supercross in San Diego) before Frank drove us over to his warehouse where Philip became even more sponsored. One Industries is a high-end brand that you should check out. It works for BMX racing as well.

Next stop was the Thousand Oaks dirt park. What a spot! It immediately made us miss our bikes. With a bit of time I think we could master several lines. The jumps looked mint. The pumptrack was also in good shape. We did not spot any rattlesnakes although warning signs were everywhere. Scott showed us some pictures of him catching (and releasing) some of them so yes, they are around. I hate snakes. The long winding downhill trail from the top was another nice feature of the dirt spot. If you're near or plan on a good dirt session, we can recommend Thousand Oaks Bike Park for sure. Free and public and it stayed out of trouble from the fires.

After a Mexican lunch (of course) we drove over to Sepulveda Basin, home of BMX and Skateboarding for the LA28 Olympic Games. The area just North of Los Angeles has been chosen for the two sports. It's away from the beach so wind could be less of a factor but it's out there and could be hot in the summer. We had no clue where to start looking for the exact location where the Park/Track/Street course would be built. There were two golf courses, a cricket field, lake and PLENTY of flat space that could be used to put on BMX and Skateboarding in the summer of 2028.Nothing to be seen right now but getting a little impression of the area was already a good thing. We were pointed in the direction of a little concrete skatepark called Pedlow Field Skatepark on Victory Blvd but as soon as we arrived we noticed signs that BMX was not allowed in the park. It had a few bowls, a snakerun, banks, ledges and some kickers. Any riding spot close to the Games in 2028 would be good for a session. Maybe it could be someone's mission to "let the bikes in" come 2028?

As we did have some time left we cruised over to LA to hit up the stores that were closed the day before. When we headed down to Newport Beach we hit traffic, and lots of it. If I would still ever make it to California/LA I will need to find a way to avoid all of that stop 'n go stuff in cars. Just a waste of time. Being 2 in a car helped (carpool lane), but only a little. Traffic sucks. But a good day all together.

-BdJ