We Built a Custom Mini Ramp for Josh Brolin in Santa Barbara!

Apart from following skateboarding and action sports we also love to follow the arts in general including entertainment like movies and TV. One of our all-time favorite movies is Sicario. You can imagine my surprise and overwhelming excitement when we got a message from Josh Brolin's team requesting a skateboard ramp for his new house in Santa Barbara!

Josh was working on a new property and wanted a skate ramp for him and his kids to shred whenever they wanted in the convenience and privacy of their own backyard. We exchanged a few text messages about the sizing he wanted. Then out of the blue Josh calls us! Talk about a surreal moment. He was so cool, rad, chill and just seemed like your normal average dude. No ego or requests for special treatment and discounts just because he's a celebrity. He called us because he wanted to support a local skate business and he said that everyone had told him to go to OC Ramps for the best backyard mini ramp. What an amazing review to get from one of our favorite actors!

We went over some colors and optional upgrades like building a guard/safety handrail at the top foundation options for the ramp and more. At the time he only had a dirt area and he was considering pouring concrete to make a pad for the ramp versus doing pavers or other surfaces. After he got a few quotes from some local landscapers and hardscapers he came to the conclusion that a concrete pad would be best overall.

Once we ironed out the details we began to prepare the ramp at our facility in Orange County. We pre-cut all the 2x4s, 2x3s and then started pre-drilling all the plywood sheets. He wanted his ramp to last as long as possible so the top surface is the premium Skatelite. This material we pre-drill and countersink in advance. It makes it so much easier to arrive on site and have all of this material ready to go versus setting up tables and drills beside the ramp and fabricating pieces there. We try to be as efficient as possible to minimize the construction time on site.

Coincidentally at the same time we had a customer place an order on our website for a very similar ramp the 12 foot wide half pipe directly after that customer placed the order. They messaged us asking if we offer assembly services up in Santa Barbara. We laughed and told the customer coincidentally yes we do and we happen to be there in about one week from now. Would that work for your schedule to assemble to which the customer said absolutely so now our game plan was to prepare two ramps almost identical and assemble them back to back when we drove up to Santa Barbara.

Once all items were finalized and prepared we loaded them into our big red truck and small trailer and made the trek up towards Santa Barbara. Since we had a huge 20 foot trailer we decided to unload the pieces at Josh's house first and then go over to the other house down the street and unload that ramp. The idea was that we would return the following day and build out two ramps in a single day which proved to be quite the task as we were assembling.

While at the ramp at Josh's property, all of a sudden I noticed some guy that looked like a contractor started to approach us and talk to us at first. I thought he was just some contractor on the job site that needed to borrow some tools or whatever and as he got closer we realized holy crud this is Josh Brolin. He showed up with excitement and was thrilled to see the ramp. We were about 99% done and working on the finishing touches nonetheless Tom Tom offered to do a quick demonstration on the ramp. Josh was fired up and excited to see Tom do all sorts of skate tricks. It was really cool conversing with him. He seemed very friendly and down to earth and again he mentioned how many times people have recommended that OC Ramps is the best in the business. I told him about our grassroots and bootstrapping beginnings when I was in high school in Huntington Beach. He was so stoked to be supporting a local small business and he could see that we are passionate about what we do. Once he left we were on cloud nine and running on adrenaline.

We finished up that ramp packed up and then moved a few miles down the road to finish the second ramp as we were building the second ramp we couldn't stop talking about what an incredible experience we just had with Mr. Josh Brolin. We talked about our favorite movies including Goonies from the 80s to Sicario and the Dune series. The second ramp that we built turned out to be for someone that sold an app to Shopify. It was a cool experience to chat with that customer and hear about their journey of being an entrepreneur and ultimately selling and working for one of the biggest brands in e-commerce in the entire world. Of course after we wrapped up this ramp we also packed our tools and before leaving Tom Tom had to jump on the ramp and do a quick five minute demo for our customers. They were thrilled with the ramp and loved to see it in action we were particularly pleased with this ramp because it looked like we built it in Hawaii. This section of the garden that it went in was covered in palm trees succulents and had an overall very tropical vibe.

After getting back to our Airbnb and kicking off our shoes - we were completely exhausted. Three workers building two ramps on two separate properties all in a single day! We went out for Mexican food that night and loved exploring Main Street (aka State St) there in downtown Santa Barbara the next morning we drove home with an empty trailer and a smile on our faces.

If you are looking for a custom mini ramp or even one of our standard ramp kits to be installed by the OC Ramps professional team look no further we are licensed in construction carpentry and engineering not only will we build the ramp for you we will have a great time doing it and do a quick skateboard demo to show you and your skaters what the possibilities are on these fun backyard mini ramps. Hit us up for your own private backyard skate ramp in California or beyond we love turning dreams into shred sessions! 🛹🚀