This is my part filmed in San Diego.
Enjoy!
This is it! Moritz’s Welcome to Wethepeople edit filmed and edited by yours truly.
My edit will be dropping sometime in the next 1 or 2 weeks.
We both worked very, very hard on this, Enjoy!
SD to LA to NY
We spent the last week in San Diego as if we were on holiday without riding. This meant we actually had to think of stuff to do which is really hard when you’re used to just going riding every day. We had such a good time here and the last week was a perfect way to end it in a chilled way.
We went to Mission Beach and even bought an american football to throw around on the beach like real americans. We sucked at it though, I hope not to many people were watching. It was really warm, around 28 degrees so we decided to swim for the first time in Cali. There was this sick roller coaster right on the beach so naturally we hit up that badboy too. Can a day get much better?! Yes it can, if you finish it off like we did, with beer, pizza and a Will Ferrell movie. Sickkk!
We decided to go to LA a day before our flights leave so we could check out Downtown real quick.
Our plan was to get up at 6 in the morning and take the first train from SD to Los Angeles so we would have as much time as possible. Since it was our last night however, we played some drinking games with Doug and his girlfriend, Carli the night before. So obviously we overslept two hours.
Still in zombie mode we headed out to the trolley station to begin our long journey to LAX. Everything went smoothly with the train and all, we arrived at Union Station in downtown LA at around 1pm. We then went on to take the Bus to LAX since our hotel we had booked in advance for 25$ a night was supposed to be close to the airport. After waiting at LAX for a shuttle forever and then taking the wrong one, ending up at the Marriot with a bunch of snobs we decided to take a cab.
We got into the taxi in a pretty classy area full of hotels. As we were driving along things stopped looking classy. We were obviously entering a bad neighborhood. There were gangsters everywhere, as well as run down houses and cars full of graffiti. Now we saw why the hotel was so cheap. We hadn’t realized that it was in Inglewood, an area famous for gang violence. Google it!
Check out the safety instructions we were given in the hotel brochure.
A quick research on the Internet recommended not wearing blue or red clothing on the streets since the are has Bloods and Crip gangs. Of course i was wearing red shoes and Moritz a red t-shirt.
The mirror in the seedy room had burn marks on it and our window overlooked the hood.
We decided not to go back to downtown LA to be safe. When the shuttle came this morning to take us to LAX we were quite relieved!
Moe is on the plane back to Germany right now and I am waiting for my flight to New York City to board. I have another 16 days there before I fly home. Stoked!
Last Days
We went on a roller coaster by the beach today. As you can see, it was quite a lot of fun!
Beachhh!
We got to go to Home Ave ditch the other day, such a fun place!
The day after tomorrow we are taking a train to LA for a day, then Moritz flys home to Heidenheim an der Brenz and I go on to New York City.
5-0
We were riding this school in La Mesa when the cops pulled up. They kicked us out and strongly advised us to get out of that area because it was to sketchy for us. We landed in the hood without even noticing… Americuh!
Everyday Struggles
We’ve had quite a streak of bad luck since the last update riding wise. We pretty much got kicked out of every spot we found before we were done with it. We are staying in a friend of Moritz’s Apartment now, close to the San Diego State University. SDSU has tons of spots but it is impossible to ride there during the week. We tried on Monday, but not only was every spot crowded with students, we also got kicked out by a police officer. He asked us for our IDs and tried to tell us in german that we were supposed to leave. It sounded something like “iche stuttgart gewesen bla bla woolen diesenscheiße nicht haben bla bla” … Pretty funny! He told us that there are security cameras everywhere and if he caught us again we would have to pay a 150$ fine and he would confiscate our bikes… If he wanted to intimidate us he sure as hell succeeded!
We rode UCSD on Friday, I have never seen so many spots in one area!
This school is right by the place we’re staying at… Winning!
It really has been warm man!
Been eating alright!
Vagabond Days
We spent the last 4 nights in a Motel called Vagabond in Mission Valley, Northeast of San Diego. It’s exactly how you picture and American Motel from the outside but far less sketchy then it sounds. For 25$ a night we got free waffle breakfasts and were able to jump in the pool every morning before we went riding - that’s living alright! Conveniently there were quite a few spots close to the motel, since mission valley is full of Shops, Malls and industrial areas. There was only one problem… The traffic! Pretty much every spot we filmed at here was right next to a very busy, big road. We needed the road though either as a run up or to stop after doing something. So it would always be one try, wait for a few minutes, then have another go, wait for a few minutes etc. Not only is this really annoying, it’s also hard to concentrate on the trick when you have to constantly check for cars while pedaling up to the spot.
On Tuesday we rode this bank to bank spot next to the same road. We both had a few ideas and wanted to film there. We were hoping to get it done quick and then move on to some other spots we had seen on the way to In n’ Out the night before. It didn’t work out that way. We spent the entire day there trying to get clips. The traffic was a problem but the spot was also much harder to ride then we had expected, since the ground was really rough and bumpy. In the end we got 3 clips on it though, so who looks tougher now, spot?!
We really worked hard the last days so we’re chilling today, looking for a new place to stay. Homeless all over again!
Homeless
We haven’t been riding much since the last time I updated the tumblr because I hurt my shoulder so instead we have been riding our scooter a lot and just exploring the area.
Two days ago we decided to visit Coronado which is a peninsula in the San Diego bay. There is a bridge that goes across but scooters are prohibited. Unfortunately we didn’t know and went over it anyway which was really scary because we were so slow and the cars were going highway speed but we made it alive. We wanted to go chill on the beach there so we were wearing shorts and had no jackets with us - a big mistake! We didn’t want to go on the bridge again so we had no alternative but taking the much longer route over land. This meant going south towards the Mexican border just to turn back north and drive up to downtown SD. By the time we left it was already starting to get dark and really cold. In the end it took us 2 hours!
Today we had to leave the hostel we had stayed at. Originally we had planned to stay with a friend of Moritz in Mission Valley but he had to go on an emergency trip to San Francisco. We were homeless! We spent the whole day sitting outside of places that had WiFi trying to find a place to stay. After hours and hours of desperately looking we got to stay at another friend of Moritz. We looked like gypsies sitting on the sidewalk with all our bags and this old guitar we found… Check the picture!
Coming Friday marks my third week in sunny San Diego, California. I might write some updates now and then so I can look back at them later and remember what actually happend.
My buddy Moritz Nußbaumer has been out here since November, doing a language course. I saw it as a good opportunity to visit the US for the first time in my life. We have been staying in a hostel downtown since I arrived. A day typically looks like this: Moritz comes home from English College at around 1pm and we make pasta in the communal kitchen. While the water boils we make a plan for the day. After lunch, normally around 2pm we head out to ride street. We mostly check out schools and places like that, because this is famously where most spots can be found. So far we had to cycle everywhere or take the bus/trolley, which is quite tiring and takes away energy we need for actually riding. Now we have a scooter though, and are planning on getting another one, which will make life much easier. We then try and film something. Often the spots have already been destroyed by the SD crews, making it difficult to think of something that is worth filming on them (see clip) or we can’t decide which setup to ride and keep looking until the sun goes down. This is the biggest problem, it gets dark at 5. This means we often don’t manage to find a spot we like and get the tricks before it’s dark. The spots are amazing though, especially the rails and ledges - perfect. It’s been raining the last couple of days which is good because we need to let our bodies heal up anyway.
We spent the time zooming around on our 49cc scooter we got for only 300$ from craigslist, mostly on missions to find San Diego’s best burger. So far, In n’ Out wins, especially considering how cheap yet delicious the burgers are. A huge bummer is the age restriction of 21 years for alcohol and clubs/bars here. We have been able to buy beer in germany for 4 years and suddenly we have to ask someone to buy it for us if we feel like a cool one like little kids. Weird! That means most evening are spent watching two and a half men or looking for spots to ride the next day.
June this year I broke my foot really badly. I spent 5 months pretty much lying in bed not being able to do anything, at the height of summer.
Before my injury however, I had booked a flight to Tel Aviv, Israel, with two friends of mine. And I’m glad I did! I started riding again on that trip, what a nice way to get back into it! Israel is amazing. We traveled all over the country with the Israeli riders and saw the most amazing landscapes, sites and spots. The video is a result of the time we spent. Enjoy!
