By Dave Wilsey

A phone call from Frye is not uncommon for me, but a call from him asking me to winch with him is, so I jumped at the chance to join him.  Borrowed my parents’ mini van and made the trip to Buena Park to meet up with the crew.  From there, we backtracked along the 91 for a few minutes until we parked in the dirt lot of a park, just adjacent to the 91, slightly east of the 55.  The crew for this session was myself, Frye, Brandon Rau, Zac Boyd, and Brenden Kenney.  The wash goes along the 91 for several miles and I frequently drive by this spot daydreaming of winching it.

The spot is about a 10-minute walk from the parking lot, along a bike trail that parallels the wash.  We all made the walk first to scope everything out before taking all the equipment.  On the way back from this reconnaissance trek, Rau somehow lost control of his skateboard sending it careening over the edge of the wash.  Zac tried to save it.  The sidewall along this wash (except for right at the winch spot) is like a concrete cheese grater.  When Zac dove to stop the skateboard, there was blood.  Injury before the winch was removed from the car…Awesome…but it did prevent Zac from trying the wall.

Once we finally got to the spot, the winch was situated atop the side of the wash, on the edge of the bike trail.  The water below the wall is about 3 feet deep with a large grain sandy bottom, large enough grains to wreak havoc inside a wakeskate shoe.  Frye made his test run to dial in the speed of the winch, then hit the wall several times.  As I moved around taking photos, I kept glancing up to the bike trail, expecting someone to try to bust the fun, but it never did happen. Many bikers and walkers did stop to check out the action.  Having not been busted, I wouldn’t say it is a low bust factor…maybe we just got lucky that day.  (Rumor is on a later mission the fuzz did catch on.) It is a highly visible spot, both from the 91 freeway and the bike trail.

Once Frye and Rau had both hit the wall several times each, we packed up and made the trek back to the parking lot.  Frye and Rau wanted In N Out and Zac wanted some Neosporin.  Fun session.

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