Scene reports: January 2005: Spot check

I'd been to quite a few tracks in the LA area but had never been to the Bellflower facility. It not only had a BMX track but also trails. When I looked around the corner I saw a pile of wood that happened to be all ramps. Turns out that the skatepark had to move for a bigger paintball field right next door.

The Bellflower sports facility looked pretty professional. It was clean, gated off, had bleachers and a nice parking lot. A safe place to drop of the kid for an afternoon of BMX riding. The track is kind of skinny and could use some work for big races. It had asphalt turns and plenty of jumps, none of them too crazy. Pros go there for gate practice. They ride for free. This means as an amateur you have to sign up at the front gate for practice or the local race.

The trails section could use some work. The rain that fell down in LA in January has already reached the annual rain quota. It also washed away part of the jumps. Now is actually the time to fix them things. It's nice to have gated off jumps so no 50-s can get to them and destroy the jumps. A little work can get them back up.

As far as the skatepark goes, it's gone. Bummer.

Bellflower is 30 minutes North-West from Santa Ana. Just get a map and look it up. The sports facility should be on a local map too. It's huge. Just watch out for lost paintballs.