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Someone's been building....

surfinguru

surfinguru

Turbo Monkey
Oct 24, 2003
1,269
0
Santa Cruz (the land of a thousand worthless tree
and it's not good. If you recognize it cool, but I'm not going to name drop the location for obvious reasons. I really don't want to step on toes here, so don't get me wrong, I'm all for the idea, and I would be all over hitting this IF it were built right. Seriously, who in their right mind would build this using dry-rot wood? Come on guys, there are so many downed trees laying around right now, maybe spend the time to do it right and find a more suitable location as well (ie - not on a main trail with high visibility from both below and above the stunt?!?!) The way it is right now, someone's going to hit that and eat absolute sh*t. There's already several broken rungs by the time I came by. I REALLY hate to criticize, but poor construction on this caliber of stunt is only going to bring on more heat for us. I'm really conflicted on building wood work on this mountain. Boxed in dirt jumps with boxed in landings are one thing, but woodwork has proven time and time again to be an issue up there. I'm inclined to offer help splitting wood, building etc. if someone wants to build this stuff in a more *remote* location. As it stands, I value my personal well being more than hitting this piece of *work.* <rant off>

 
surfinguru

surfinguru

Turbo Monkey
Oct 24, 2003
1,269
0
Santa Cruz (the land of a thousand worthless tree
Thanks for the support guys. I thought long and hard last night before submitting this post. (Touchy subject I know...) It really is a shame we don't have more lattitude for building these kinds of things, because we all know, given the chance, our mountain could have some really world class trails/features built up.

However, when I first saw this hiking up the trail this weekend, I was immediately conflicted. The initial excitement of a new stunt quickly turned to apprehention as the high visibility of it became overwhelmingly clear. Additionally, since the recent enforcement being put on by the "Man" has been elevated for the last 6 months or so and the use of questionable materials, the logical side of me was seriously deflated.

Like I said before, if something like this is going to be built, let's make sure 1) it's safely built and just as importantly 2) put it somewhere that's not so easily visible so it'll be around for a while. What's the point of putting all that effort into something and have it torn down in a VERY short period of time.

So with that said, I've got some ideas on how to get around some of the woodwork issues if anyone wants to PM me.
 
kidwoo

kidwoo

Artisanal Tweet Curator
Aug 25, 2003
42,146
13,340
Squirtin ketchup n' mustard on charred flesh
I find crap like that all over the place around here. The guys that know what they're doing make it obvious when something isn't "finished" but stuff as half-assed as that doesn't need to be there.

I have absolutely no problem whatsoever tearing it down and I do so every single time I see something like that. In lieu of the obviously better solution of talking to the people who put it up, it at least guarentees that unridable crap doesn't create an eyesore and give authorities more fuel to oppose built up features. There's actually one area where I kept ripping down things that were straight up dangerous from a construction standpoint that the guys actually built something bomber after a while. Building something challenging to ride is completely different from building an eyesore that's likely to hurt you by collapsing.

It's pretty obvious that thing can't be ridden. I'd just kill it.
 
H

HarryCallahan

Monkey
Sep 29, 2004
229
0
SC mtns
I think you guys are on the right track. At least from what you've posted, you guys all have the skills and judgement to recognize that as a problem, both structurally and location wise. If somebody lacking those things gets hurt, it will be bad for more than just them.

My impression is that there are several things that can turn up the heat on a trail: noise, complaints, or someone getting injured. And that last one guarantees there will be a lot of folks out in the woods at the injury site.
 
OGRipper

OGRipper

back alley ripper
Feb 3, 2004
10,654
1,129
NORCAL is the hizzle
"Conflicted" is a good way to describe the feeling I get when I see properly built, fun and challenging stunts on a highly visible portion of a multi-use trail.

But I wouldn't be conflicted about tearing down that stupid thing.

I'm sure the builders would say we are all just not core enough to appreciate it. :rolleyes:
 
surfinguru

surfinguru

Turbo Monkey
Oct 24, 2003
1,269
0
Santa Cruz (the land of a thousand worthless tree
HarryCallahan said:
My impression is that there are several things that can turn up the heat on a trail: noise, complaints, or someone getting injured. And that last one guarantees there will be a lot of folks out in the woods at the injury site.
Click to expand...

Bingo! And therein lies the issue with woodwork up here - injury. What isn't evident in the picture is the landing zone. There's a nice size rock (medicine ball size?) that's 85 - 90% exposed with a big ass point sticking up right in the prime landing zone. While the concept of the stunt is kick ass, the execution is severly lacking.
 
goin' medium

goin' medium

Chimp
Jul 31, 2003
93
0
Newark, CA
It sucks, but that thing has to come down. Someone put a lot of time and effort into that thing, and had a pretty cool idea. I admire them for actually trying to make the trails better, if only they had better direction. The way it turned out they have an unsafe stunt, that needs to be torn down. Either other rider have to take time that could be used building good features (best case) or Rangers come out bringing more heat to the whole area, and pissing them off. If you want to make the trails better, learn how to do it right, build trails that will last.

If you want to know how to build trails check out the free trailbuilding school on January 27th-29th. Here's a link
The class is put on by IMBA and ROMP. I went last year, and they have studied trails all around the globe, and are willing to share the lessons learned. Pretty cool, and the new IMBA is fully free-ride friendly.

This afterschool special brought to you by,
Scott
 
markk

markk

Chimp
Dec 15, 2004
42
0
Santa Cruz
It really is too bad that thing wasn't built better. It would be a killer line. The landing is actually quite nice save for the rock, but that could be avoided by the skilled among us. I checked it out last saturday and it was already un-ridable. I bet it's down by now. As far as visibility goes it's actually not very noticable unless you know where to look. It's not like you can see it from a road or anything. If it were rebuilt to last and had a little camo would that change any minds? I'm not planning to do so, just wondering...:oink:
 
paulbug

paulbug

Chimp
Oct 6, 2004
50
0
California
The sad fact is that the stunt was likely built by the younguns amongus, who may never see these posts, or don't have the maturity to give a crap. I work at a camp near Felton which has a small stunt area frequented mostly by teens who sometimes put junk like that together. Recently someone brought some 2x4s and 2x6s and built some solid stuff. I was pretty impressed. Probably one of the kids' dads. Anyway, they don't usually have good tools, and they'll grab their dad's hammer and a few nails, grab junk forest stick, and think that their creation is the best thing since suspended 2-wheeled vehicles.
Hope it's down by now...if not, my buddy and I do a lot of "good deeds" in the forest such as tearing these things down.
Remember the trash toward the bottom of magic carpet that's not there anymore? That was me and my buddy. Know the seesaw on the next trail system over? We hope you've enjoyed it.
PM me if someone is needed to rip it down.
PB
 
M

matt12

Monkey
Aug 17, 2004
512
0
Napa, CA
Why are you guys tearing down that stunt? My friend and I built it to IMBA standards, its super sturdy. We spaced the slats like 6-12" apart and used only the finest wood we found on all the rotten trees.

I don't get why you're tearing it down.

Just kidding, thats a major piece of crap. I think I could do a better job if I was missing a hand and only had a hammer and some rope to work with and I'm only 16.:p

Somebody should tear that down before somebody sees it or somebody attempts to ride it and it breaks resulting in the person breaking.

I'd volunteer to knock it down and move it with you guys, but I'm kinda far away...

Good luck with keeping the idiots from building crap.
 
IronJim

IronJim

Monkey
Sep 26, 2004
789
1
Santa Cruz Mountains
paulbug said:
The sad fact is that the stunt was likely built by the younguns amongus, who may never see these posts, or don't have the maturity to give a crap. I work at a camp near Felton which has a small stunt area frequented mostly by teens who sometimes put junk like that together. Recently someone brought some 2x4s and 2x6s and built some solid stuff. I was pretty impressed. Probably one of the kids' dads. Anyway, they don't usually have good tools, and they'll grab their dad's hammer and a few nails, grab junk forest stick, and think that their creation is the best thing since suspended 2-wheeled vehicles.
Hope it's down by now...if not, my buddy and I do a lot of "good deeds" in the forest such as tearing these things down.
Remember the trash toward the bottom of magic carpet that's not there anymore? That was me and my buddy. Know the seesaw on the next trail system over? We hope you've enjoyed it.
PM me if someone is needed to rip it down.
PB
Click to expand...
what camp do you work at? redwood camp?
 
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