Tucker Smith blasting a huge Superman tailwhip over Titties, at Boozer Jam 2022 last Saturday, May 28th. Every jump has a name at Sheep Hills, this jump has been called Titties for 20 years or so, that's just what it's called, people, chill out.
I may be a homeless guy, but I'm not your typical homeless guy. I just retired a personal blog with over 136,000 page views, and started this blog. It was time to work in a new direction, on some new ideas. But it was also time for Boozer Jam 2022 to happen. I have an old iPhone 5 I use as a camera, and take photos of weird things I see in my life on the streets, and I shoot pics of BMX when I can get to events like this.
I made the trek from the San Fernando Valley last Friday, down towards Costa Mesa, home of Sheep Hills, and an annual event called Boozer Jam. This big BMX jam started in either 2012 or 2013, to raise money for medical bills for Mike "Boozer" Brown, who was paralyzed from the waist down in a racing accident in 2011 or 2012. The event has continued, but Mike's health declined over the years, and he died in 2019. Now Boozer Jam a memorial event in his honor.
Mike was a hardcore BMX racer, and a local and jump builder at Sheep Hills from the early 90's, when these jumps were first built. There's no huge prize money, yet several of the top riders show up every year for an epic day of real BMX. Riding, rooting on your friends, talking shit, drinking a few beers, and hanging and pushing each other. Like Steve Crandall's FBM DIY events over the years, and Trey Jones' Swampfest in Florideah, these are events for people who love BMX. No huge pro purses, no fancy bleachers, no worldwide TV networks covering the events. Old geezers like me who can't ride for shit anymore show to shoot some pics or video, and help document the days festivities. I also donated one of my drawings to the raffle that helps Boozer Mike's mom Cathy, who comes every year, and another BMX charity, I believe. Dogger (aka Jason German) and his posse do the work to put on Boozer Jam every year.
One of the most local Sheep Hills Locals these days, Mike "Hucker" Clark with one of his trademarked super nosedived 360s.
With no car, my trek to Sheep involved four buses and two trains, and sleeping out at a spot just outside of Orange County Friday night. When you live on the streets, people tend to develop, or amplify, their bad habits. For many people that's alcohol or smokable substances. Me, I've developed a bad 7-11 pizza habit. Yep, pepperoni grease is my favorite essential oil. For some reason, you can buy a whole hot pizza on EBT, but not one or two slices. So I walk into a 7-11, where I can keep an eye on my belongings, often thinking about a packaged salad. Really. A salad and a drink cost me about $8, and a pizza and a drink cost me $10. Pizza usually wins. So now I'm on the verge of sumo wrestler size, which made the hike from 19th & Placentia to Sheep Hills take longer than it should.
I got down there, and immediately sat my fat ass down to rest a while. Soon I was talking to Sean Ewing, who brought his drone out to get some footage, and Gardo Ronquillo walked up and tossed me a black LRG T-shirt in my size. Things were off to a good start. I know both of those guys from H.B. Tuesdays flatland sessions (where I also go to pose on occasion).
I got my drawing for the raffle out, and put it on the table at under the awnings, since Dogger was off, busy somewhere. I needed some paper weights to hold it down, and wandered off to look for some rocks, and changed into the new T-shirt on a back trail. There are no rocks at Sheep, so dirt clods had to do.
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BMX and MTB crazy man, Dylan Stark, with a stylish inverted 360.
At that point, I started watching the riders hit the various lines, and noticed Dogger and crew had built up the KOD line, as well as Titties, which is the main style jump now. Younger riders, and a few older ones, sailed through the Kiddie Pack lines. The really little kids rolled through the big "S" shaped Pump Track line, which I really wished existed back in the day, because I could have ridden at Sheep a lot more, had there been some smaller lines. I jumped Mike Miranda's hip jump and ditch jump, up there hill, where the condos are now, before Sheep Hills existed. There was also a tiny tabletop junp on the trail long the creek, which I hit on the way home from work in '88-89. I worked at Unreel Productions, Vision Skateboard's video company, which was up on the mesa, off of Whitter Street, a few blocks from Sheep.
In the early 90's, after the initial 3 Berms lines and The Bowl, the jumps were all pretty big, just to keep little kids from riding the place. As a freestyler, I never learned to jump a proper set of doubles, so after the first couple of seasons, I couldn't jump anything at Sheep. I'll roll by and hang out now and then, though.
In addition to original builders Hippy Jay and Hippy Sean (Duncan), and Boozer Mike, the POW House guys, like Chris Moeller, Dave Clymer, Todd Lyons, Alan Foster, Lawan Cunningham, and Jay Lonergan rode the place often. The next generation were the original Sheep Hills Locals (SHL) crew guys, Barspinner Ryan, Shaun Butler, Freddy Chulo, Josh Stricker, Marvin Lotterle, Jason and Adam Pope, and Brian Foster. And Dusty, He was there back in the day and his one magazine photo by Mark Losi got tagged as Adam Pope. Dusty gets no respect, so I'll give him some here.
In the late 90's, the early X-Games era, Cory Nastazio, Chris Duncan, Stephen Murray, and Christophe Leveque, among others, rode Sheep a lot. Mike "Hucker" Clark, and a bunch of others I don't know the names of, followed in the 22 years since. In any case, you had to be able to clear a decent sized set of doubles to ride Sheep in the 90's. Now there are lines for every skill level, from the littlest kids, to pro level riders like Hucker.
Cody McKenna was throwing these high, super stylish, seat grab archibalds throughout the day. Glad I caught one in a pic.
At this year's Boozer Jam, Hucker (Mike Clark), Tucker Smith, Dylan Stark, Cody McKenna, and Heath Pinter were the guys going the biggest. Cody went the highest over the KOD first set, and was pulling the super stylish seat grab archibalds (my name, not sure what he calls them), like you see in the photo above.
The afternoon progressed with a longest skid contest, which I watched from a distance. That was followed up by the bow-legged X-up contest, over the second set of Boozer line. That was Boozer Mike's favorite trick. That was followed by a jam over KOD, and the 4-5 riders hitting that were skying off it. I got a shot of Tucker doing a big Superman over KOD, and a couple others were doing tricks.
That led into the final event of the day, the Best Trick jam, over the newly rebuilt Titties jump, with it's HUGE landing. While the main jump pops riders up high, giving them time to get tricks and style in, the run up jump is gnarlier. It's a 20-21 foot, long and low jump, diving at warp speed into the trench before the main jump. Sheep Hills is all about pedaling. There are no hills, and no sheep. Riders have to start at the road, sail through the smaller line, around the berm, and then haul ass into the long jump which sets you up for the big Titties style jump. I saw Hucker 360 the long jump, then opposite 3 out, which is nuts. Then he tailwhipped the long jump, which should not be possible. Hucker's skills are nuts at Sheep. He was also pulling his nosedive 360's, tailwhip 3's, backflips, decades, and I heard guys telling at him to do a cliffhanger flip. He did bail one BIG flip, which might have been a cliffhanger attempt. It happened so fast, I wasn't sure what he was trying.
Tucker Smith was on fire all day, looking the most dialed I'd ever seen him. Cliffhangers, Superman no footer over KOD, double tailwhips, a big backflip, Superman tailwhips and I 360 whip, too, I believe, were in the mix. Dylan Stark I saw doing a super stylish 360 inverts, and a 3 whip, all on his big wheeled jumper. I know I missed some of his riding, while wandering around shooting photos. There was also a younger kid named Everett who landed his first backflip on Titties, sand another kid who landed his first 360 over it. So big props to them for that. When it comes to women riders, Jesse Gregory was there, and I saw her hitting the smaller lines early in the afternoon. I didn't see her hitting the larger jumps, which she definitely can do, so I may have missed her on those.
This guy needs to file flight plans before each jump, Cody McKenna getting as high as Sean Ewing's drone (to the left) over the first set of KOD. Evel Knievel would have been high fiving Cody after his runs, he was getting a few feet higher than even Hucker and Tucker on this jump.
With Hucker, Tucker, and Dylan all tearing it up, there was no clear winner for best trick. So Dogger went to the crowd, getting everyone to cheer for their favorite. Again, there was no clear winner. They all ripped. So a three way tie was declared for Best Trick, which paid $40 each to them for their efforts. Since both Hucker and Tucker had won best trick before, Dylan Stark took home the trophy, made from a bike chain welded to spell out "Boozer." That was followed by some sticker, product, and even a cash toss, and then the raffle for a whole bunch of cool prizes. A lot of people went home with signed posters of Hucker as well. By then everyone, rider or not, was pretty tired and covered in Sheep Hills dust, as dusk approached.
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Rebuilt after someone vandalized it, this is the memorial to Boozer Mike, in the middle of the second set of Boozer line, which Mike first built in the early 90's, and maintained it until his accident. Ride In Peace Mike, we know you were downing some cold ones in the afterlife, while watching the fun Saturday.
Boozer Jam 2022 was another great day of riding and hanging out with BMX people, ranging from about 2 years old to late their late 50's. Because it was Memorial Day weekend, there were a few less top riders than usual, perhaps, but those who were there shredded like an accounting firm before an IRS audit. It was a great day.
Besides Sean and Gardo, I talked to Dogger, Porta John, Super G, Adam Pope, Chris Moeller, and Marvin Lotterle, and met a younger guy named Richard, who'd been riding Sheep since the late 90's or early 2000's. I holed up in the shade near his crew, and talked their ears off with tales of "the old days." I also said "Hi" to old roommate form the 90's, Jason Ball, now the guy running the warehouse at S&M/Fit Bikes. When I asked what he'd been up to, he said he spends most of his time wither at work, or at Sheep Hills. Thinking about that later, Jason is one of the most local of Sheep locals, since he's been riding there consistently since about 1994, I think.
As things wound down, I hiked my fat ass slowly up 19th Street to the bus stop. I made it back up to the San Fernando Valley about 12:30 am, exhausted. Huge thanks to Dogger (Jason German) and crew for putting on another great Boozer Jam, and I hope Boozer Mike enjoyed from the afterlife, while drinking a few ice cold heavenly beers.
This is my #sharpiescribblestyle drawing that I donated to the raffle. I tried to pay tribute to the early days of Sheep Hills, and a bunch of the 90's riders' names are listed on the drawing. Dogger planned to get it scanned and make some copies, so hit him up if you're interested in one.
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