Badlands Ditch
I discovered this beautiful three part ditch back in 1981. It must have been poured in the 1970’s and had other skateboarders riding her way before I did. But I was on a mission to mold her into a skateboard park. As you drive down the street you see a three foot triangle type ditch that funnel’s into a very tight half pipe. On the other side of the pipe there is a typical four foot ditch with semi-smooth banks but with a lot of dirt and brush on the ledges and bottom. These are the two parts that are visible from the street. Well I decided to take it further down under another tunnel and found the mother load. It was a smaller section with a hip that has a flat top for rolling in, doing rock n’ rolls, grinding etc… It was very dirty and ledges totally covered with dirt and weeds. So the next trip we brought our flat head shovels and brooms. Cleared the ledges and swept up all the trash and dirt. We found our new home.
The only real problem was parking. It is on a street where there is no parking and no real place to park for miles, so I got creative and drove over the second bridge and hid my car in a pile of trees. We would hike about 20 yards to the ditch. Back then there was a barbwire fence you had to duck through (currently removed) and water always flowing on the other side of the hip. So there were a couple extra hazards, but we rode on and honed our skills. My buddy John and I even figured out a cool doubles routine with me usually falling into the barbwire fence. But it was totally worth the fun we had there.
The current changes to the ditch are: graffiti, rougher bottom, new drainage pipe cemented onto the hill side & the fence removed. I only got to drop in last week when I took these photos but once it is cleaned and I put on my ditch wheels, I think the new upper pipe and extension will be ride-able. I have a lot of great memories from this place since we lived here from 1981 through 1985. It was in ’85 when I moved to
Randy A: ditchfreaks@yahoo.com
