The Shredaholics: 2017 visit Wetlands Trails in Huntington Beach with Brandon Semenuk and more

Digging through the video treasure trove/trash bin that is YouTube yesterday, I came across this video.  I was looking to see if anyone had built up the old Bolsa Chica trails by the Slater ditch in Huntington Beach.  In the search, I found that this freakin' amazing place is nearby, though not at the two places the mediocre trails were in my days in H.B..  But there were some small jumps in this area, and BMXers had been riding here since the late 1970's, on and off, and MTBers since mountain biking started spreading in the 1980's.  I know this area well, I've ridden here from about 1987 to 2003, I've wandered all the Jeep and foot trails, and shot a lot of wildlife video in this area.  I once sat and shot video of two coyotes wandering around the wetlands for about 45 minutes, until my battery went dead, 100 yards from these jumps.  So it was really cool to see an amazing trails area has sprung up in this weird little part of Huntington Beach that has so much history with bikes.

In fact, the quick Slater Ditch section (aka Cancer Ditch), in my 1990 video, The Ultimate Weekend, which you can see at 9:53, was shot at the pump house on the canal, a little over 400 yards away, as a snowy egret flies (lots of them in this area).  That's Randy Lawrence in the white tank top, and Keith Treanor in the black T-shirt, flatlander Andy Mulcahy with the fisheye mug shot, and Sean Johnson talking, and Alan Valek in the background.

There were BMX photo shoots in this area with riders like Greg Hill and Harry Leary (so I've been told) in the late 1970's or early 1980's, Chris Moeller and crew jumped here a bit in the 80's, the quick section I shot in 1990, Paul "Flush" Fernandez jumped off a U-Haul truck, and another guy flipped a beach cruiser at the old jumps in the background in The Offspring Video around 1994.  Then came Victor Salazar's amazing "Promised Land" edit in 2013.  "Promised Land" is one of the best videos I've seen in a really long time, both in riding and in video editing and production..  Do you want to make amazing bike videos?  Study, "Promised Land."

Two years ago, 35 or 40 years after the first BMX photo shoot took place in this area, the Shredaholics guys shot Brandon Semenuk, Josh Hult, Kris Fox, Anthony Napp, and Drew Bezanson here.  I guarantee you none of the guys at the session in this video had any clue of the history of BMX and MTB in that little area.  That's where my old, fat ass comes in, I add some context and history to videos like this, and remind all you young guys that you're part of a long line of ever-improving shredders.

I just figured out that the jump that Paul Hernandez does off the top of the U-Haul truck is the hill right by where the Wetlands Trails are now.  The last time I road there was in 2003, and I wa sdoing 180's right at the top of that same trails down the hill (less ruts in 2003), and then doing half-Cabs into that hill, dropping a couple feet then riding the rest.  Crazy all that happened right there.

Thanks to Jason German for correcting me on a couple factual mistakes in the first go.

After the Wetlands Trails session, the Shredaholics head south, and join the locals' session at Agla Norte skatepark, inland of the 5 freeway, between Carlsbad and Encinitas.  Pretty cool video, and I was glad to find this video, and then get the shout out for Salazar's "Promised Land" edit.  OK, you've got a few clips to watch people, enjoy.  Oh, and you know where to look for BMX bikes and components, right?

Block Bikes Online BMX Store

Don't forget, the I'm jumpin' it T-shirts are available now.  Buy one before Ronald McDonald shows up at our office with a baseball bat.  Follow the link above to get one (or 10).