Words and photos by Sean Bendon.
In the 1980’s a former Swiss intelligence agent moved from the hills of Switzerland to the hills of Southern California’s Temecula Valley. There he purchased a massive property which overlooked the valley below, and included a massive warehouse and a private airstrip – some would call it a compound of sorts.
JT Bendon, fs lipslide
According to my brother’s landlord, the Swiss man sold his property to the CIA during the Gulf War so that they could secretly makes arms deals with a select few Middle Eastern countries from the obscure location in Southern California. Eventually the conflict in the Gulf ended and the CIA had no need for the compund anymore, so they sold it to an older New Zealander who my brother now calls his landlord. That’s essentially how the ramp got its name. The story of how they got it up to their property may be just as wild.
Raymond Martinez, kickflip fakie
One day in September 2020, JT (my bro) and his friend Brian were browsing Facebook Marketplace when they saw a free mini ramp up for grabs. The only catch was that it was in Laguna Niguel (Orange County) and they had to go get it themselves.
Raymond Martinez, ollie
The trip required two 12 hour days of driving to Laguna Niguel to disassemble the ramp and haul it back to Temecula Valley with their boss’s massive truck and trailer. They quickly realized they couldn’t get it back in one trip, so they sawzalled the mini ramp into four smaller pieces and drove two pieces back a day.
Dakota Cannon, JT Bendon, Zaul Lizalde, triple rock
The ramp itself is nearly 5′ tall, 16′ wide, and 26′ long from end to end with heavy 2” coping and a shape reminiscent of a dish like bowl from the ’70s skatepark boom in Southern California.
My brother even tried to take one of the return trips with the ramp pieces in the fast lane on the 91 highway and got a pretty fat ticket for having a trailer in the FasTrak zone. The ramp was sticking off the sides too – sketch.
Martin Lopez, fs slash
Once they got it back to the compund they had to get it past the dirt road,though their massive gates, and up the steep ass driveway.
JT Bendon, fs smith
JT and a crew of homies leveled out the backyard to make it work with the dimensions of the ramp, and added a few additional ribs and supports to the mini since they had to chop it up so much for transport. They relaid new wood and masonite on top since the previous owner let the thing wither away, and within a short period the ramp was ready to rip. In the last six month they’ve had to resheet it twice more due to the rain damage and fix a few supports, but overall the ramp has stood strong.
Martin Lopez, bs lipslide
I got the chance to go visit my bother in early March of 2021 and skate the “Compund” for nearly nine nights in a row. I wanna give a huge shoutout to JT, Brian, and all the other homies who came out and showed me a good time. It’s not a perfect ramp, but like the property it sits on, time can’t change the history it has had.
