Anyone who rode Red Devil BITD... lets bow our heads in a moment of silence............. I went by there today to take some pics that I told EMPI and a couple of other guys that used to live around here,I would. as soon as I pulled up my heart sank. its been bulldozed again.!! A man walking his dog said they did it a couple days ago.I remember bitd someone would get hurt jumping. then their parents would threaten to sue the city, so they'd knock down some jumps until everyone calmed down ,but it wasnt like today. I remember it seemed like right away there would be someone out there diggin to build the jumps back up. there wasnt anyone around to ask if it was another "some kid got hurt" story. so I dont know the big 'WHY'. Hey Serafin call ARROYO and tell him to get some of his CAL TRANS buddies to meet us out there with a backhoe and some bobcats !!!!! we can rebuild it in half a day.!!

I only went there once, me and Charles went on BART to union city..the tough part was the bike ride from South San Jose to Fremont. Man I would never let my kids do the things I did bitd.


NORCAL!

Ever notice that when they decide that a riding spot needs to be destroyed for the good of the human race they just unload the tractors and level it. But if someone wants to legally move some dirt in the field to build a a riding spot there has to be 5 years of environmental impact studies. Hmmm......

hey san jose,I remember talkin to charles about riding all the way there from my house in fremont,and how long it took. he just laughed and told me about how he and his homies used to ride to BART Fremont then to Union City station. all from san jose, !!!! I had friends that came from oakland and berkley to ride. but they didnt have to ride 20 miles to get on BART!!! and you're right about having kids in the year 2007. no way would my son be riding around like we did then.after school and gone till after dark,no cell phones, no pagers, maybe we'd check in with mom askin if we could stay out longer, but those days are over. I think thats why we see an old beat up bike at a garage sale or flea market,and just know some kid had some of the best times of his life on that bike.

We rode EVERYWHERE RodneyR those were the days for sure. We used to bomb down the firetrails at Almaden Quicksilver park, that was a good 15 - 20 mile ride too, and through the mean streets of San Jo..not some country roads. I'm sure we both got hit by more than our share of cars coming in and out of driveways etc..

Still today it would be worse, much worse.

Click to view attachment

Charles hasn't changed a bit..

By the way, uploading pics and this whole new forum totally ROCKS@!

Ah man !! That sux big time man. I'll call Jerry tonight and let him know about red. Jerry is in the process of building a r/c offroad track in Union City at a hobbyshop ( NorCal Hobbies ).

Chris: Charles still looks the same ( BLACK MAGIC !!! ) hehehe

Serafin you have the coolest pics from bitd!!! I bet they both still have as much style today. that would be cool, a side by side, then and now type photo thing!! S.J. you are so right about cars and bikes, I thought it was just me who had the "T - boned a car again" stories.!!! If you guys see Charles or Jerry tell them I said whats up.

That's too bad...RD was one of my favorite spots to hit...BUT...it's gone through some major changes over the years. I'll be surprised if it doesn't make its way back in some form soon...

that hella sucks for us in norcal........jp

I went to Red this morning since I was off from work today and im totally bummed out because I saw another set of bulldozers on the sidewalk getting ready to do more havoc. There are also " NO TRESPASSING " signs posted on the north and south sides of the park. I drove by really slow and noticed that it's totally all gone. I spent half my childhood days riding at Red Devil and it's hard to believe that it's no longer there. Red Devil was like a historic BMX landmark for Union City. Anybody that rode BMX and was familiar with Union City, California, the first words of conversation was " Ever ride at Red Devil ? " So long old friend

I saw them too Serafin, it didnt look good. I was hoping to see kids with shovels digging this weekend,like you usually see after the city or whoever comes in and knocks down some jumps, but not this time. I dont know how many times someone is talking about bikes from bitd and RED would always be the place we all remembered.have you heard what theyre going to do with the land??? more $600,000 two bedroom condos?!!

I don't know bro. They have that deep creek on the far side. Im thinking they are just gonna possible clean it up and remove all of the dead trees and weeds in replace for more grassland. The northside of Red has a small grass field. Maybe extending this grass area into the red ?

Jerry and I met up at Red Devil to check all of the destruction. Man, its hard to believe after all the man hours making jumps, meeting friends, practicing jumping, and just having fun is all now but a memory of what use to be. It was hard to pinpoint certain areas because the city really did a number on this place. The only thing that I can used to pinpoint areas of jumps were the trees for landmarks. I will be posting many unbelievable photos for those that rode there and remembered the Union City BMX meca called Red Devil.

There were 2 main entrances into the park. The southside coming from 7-11 to get big gulps and the main front jump where you go down the hill and up to the otherside.

Southside entrance:



Front jump entrance ( this hill use to be deep going down. It's all now covered, but you can still see where the trail leads to. ) The tree on the leftside is infamous for taking awesome photos as the riders came screaming down:

The infamous tunnel trail going down the center of the park was totally covered by trees and probably the coolest part of the park especially on those hot days. From the photos, you can still see the main portion of the tunnel if you were familiar going down the tunnel. Rumors have it that the devil burried somebody under the set of trees and there was a small area inside the tunnel where we hid away from hide and seekers. You always got this tingly feeling when you passed the burial ground !!!




From this point, you can see the set of trees at the middle of the photo where the tunnel started and ended. Back in the day, this whole area would be infested by trees and you couldn't see anything.

This photo is the heart of Red Devil. This was the main area where there were jumps and berms leading into the tunnel, the front jump, and the backside leading to the rocket. Anybody remember yelling out before blazing towards the front jump saying, " COMING DOWN !!!!!! " to avoid any head on collisions.

The famous back jump was guerentee to shoot you into some BIG air !! When BMXA was there shooting photos of Brent and Brian Patterson, they used this jump to capture Brent Patterson getting some serious air time. From what I remember, it was a black and white photo with all of us looking up as Brent got some hang time. The photos posted are remains of the hill and road that lead up to the back jump. Again, I used the trees as landmarks to remember exactly where the jump was located. Basically, you get up to speed on the fireroad, go down the hill which lead you up to the lip of the jump at full speed.

The road that lead up to the backjump with Jerry in tears:



Down below the hill:



The hill that you shoot down from the fireroad. Again, the trees helped me pinpoint exactly where it was located.

Here's a before and after shot of the doubles by the tunnel:

BEFORE:


AFTER:

Some of the last photos of jumps are just survivors of the demolishen. Im getting pretty depressed looking at these photos anyways. I know that if the city doesn't do anything, another generation will rebuild Red Devil.






Farewell my old friend. Farewell.

One last photo. From this point, you can see how much the city clearer out. Back in the day from this point, you couldn't see anything but trees. Now, you can see clearly across the park into the other side of the street. Sureal !!

There's a photo shoot of the Pattersons ( Brent and Brian ) that was used in BMXA. The photos that were taken were really nice and BMXA took alot of shots of the park along with the Pattersons getting some serious air. I believe that there was a cover shoot as well. I would be very interested if anybody has this issue.

Serafin, your photos tell the story.so many great times, riders, and legends, all plowed flat. I know its not as bad as the people losing homes to the so cal fires, but it is still a great loss. the before and after photos really slap you in the face if you ever rode at Red. I wish the city wouldve given everyone one last weekend to ride and tell stories and show old pics. before the demo,but they would probably had bmxers living in the trees and laying in front of the backhoes to protest !!! every time I pass it on 880 I look over and it still sucks. any word on what they are doing with the land or is that it just flatten everything and leave.?? I just re read what Ive written so far and had to smile...we could have been like the breakdancers in"BEATSTREET" trying to save our spot!!!

Jerry and I spoke about this and we think if the city doesn't do anything to the park, another generation will just rebuild for next year ( summer season ). But, as of now, I think it'll be pretty quiet there during the rainy season.

Just what we need, another stupid field of grass that some pencil pusher calls a 'park'.