Calabazas dirt park official opening. By Lloyd Ramsay

Aug 20, 2007

Written by Bart de Jong

Read 12042 times

Calabazas dirt jumps in Cupertino, California have been around for years. A lawsuit shut the whole place down a while back after someone hurt themselves riding there. Last weekend was the official re-opening ceremony and I walked away with loads of dirt up my nose and a free towel ( new bike rag ) from some new Disney movie. Don't ask me what the marketing connection is there. The folks from Red Bull were in attendance and handing out their product to keep every kid there awake for the next month.

Very confusingly the park was closed the whole time the ceremony was going on and the only riders allowed to ride were some racing team. Some of the riders standing around me said "fuck that" and jumped over the fence to the back section of the park and started to ride. They eventually let everyone in and soon the place was filled with dust clouds and smiles.

The layout of the whole course has safety in mind across the board with no doubles and mostly step ups. Although it does not cater to the dirt jumping purists it is a great venue to encourage more kids to turn off the idiot box and ride a bike. Who knows where they got the soil from but it has more rocks in it than South Central on a Friday night. The park covers a fair amount of real estate and caters for all skill levels.

There are so many amazing riders out there throwing down crazy tricks in photos already so in the spirit of the day here are some bar hump pictures and people having fun. I'm going to use Fatbmx as my own personal dating service and say that the girl with dark hair and tan shorts working for the city : You are hot.

If you are ever in the Cupertino area drop by and don't let the fact that there is no shade there phase you. Don't forget your helmet and the sign also says that "no racing is allowed". Hopefully other cities realize the value of such a venue and follow suite.

Lloyd Ramsay