Southern California has often been described as one big parking lot. There are so many cars and streets and freeways and housing tracts that there are very little open spaces. The region has also been described as one of the most desirable places to live, and one of the best places to get outside. There are few other places in the country, let alone the world, where one can start off the day in the morning catching waves off the coast, driving a few hours inland to the desert for some off roading, and go up to the mountains for a snowboard session in the evening. It can be done here.

When dirt biking became popular in the early 1970s in Southern California, it was fairly easy to find a place to ride; you could just look for the nearest open field and ride there. When the sport made a comeback in the 1990s, the markup of the land had changed dramatically. In what were vast open fields that stretched for acres are now housing tracts, freeways, shopping centers and mega malls. The population has increased exponentially and places to ride that dirt bike have been severely limited. Books have been written on the subject of where to ride a dirt bike, but none have been offered in the way that Andrew Siminoff has with his Where to Ride Guide: Southern California Volume I. The former Apple Computer employee has taken his guide to the digital age, supplementing his printed descriptions of each riding area that he documents in Southern California with a bonus DVD that showcases the actual riding areas, the terrain, and other accoutrements unique to each location. Siminoff, who spent several years at Apple as partnership manager in Apple's Worldwide Developer Relations Small Business Channel, is no stranger to the technology, or to the promise of the DVD medium as a means of communication.

"There have been several books on locations to ride," said Siminoff.  "You basically get directions, and then a note about how many acres of open riding, or miles of trails or numbers of tracks.  As it is said, "A picture says a thousand words." If you can capture video footage digitally, edit it with voice over, add transitions and titles, you can give someone a virtual ride so they can experience the terrain before they get there. They can decide if it is too easy or hard for them or their friends. They can see and tune for terrain conditions. Add a great soundtrack and it is entertainment."

ActionStar Sports MXcam

The idea to supplement his ride guide with a DVD showcasing all the locations mentioned in the guide came about when a friend (former Apple Computer engineer Brad Patton of www.actionstarsports.com) of his turned him on to his version of a helmet cam, called the MXcam. The MXcam is a device that is strapped to a rider's helmet. A wire is then connected from the camera to the camcorder, which is housed in a backpack or waistpack. This enabled Siminoff to add the DVD element to his guide, giving the readers access to a first person video account of each riding area in the guide.

" When I saw his helmet cam, I had to have one," said Siminoff. "I started to gather footage, and my buddies and I would watch it in my trailer while camping just after riding.  Being very involved in the sport, people always ask me "Where can I ride?" I have shown them footage and told them about places to go.  Many people said "You should publish this," so I did."

Siminoff shot approximately 40 hours of DV footage using a Canon ZR10 miniDV camera covering 13 riding areas throughout Southern California. Final footage that made it onto the DVD was narrowed down to approximately 33 minutes. Siminoff did the majority of his rough cut editing in the field, using iMovie 3 on an iBook G4. During his excursions, Siminoff would shoot footage during the day and edit it in his trailer at night. Oftentimes the footage wasn't the quality he needed, so he would shoot certain scenes again the next day. He finished off his editing, adding titles, voice overs, transitions, and creating the DVD with iDVD on an 867MHz Power Mac G4.

Siminoff has a lot of positives to say about the DVD format, as his case shows that having an actual DVD showcasing the riding area helps a lot of folks determine if their riding abilities are up to par for the course. There have been many an instance when dirt bikers go off to the latest riding area, only to find out that the trails are too technical, too soft, or too rocky. The accompanying DVD helps to alleviate some of these challenges.

The author at Amago, one of the spots showcased in the guide

Siminoff's readers haven't communicated with him any potential issues with the playback ability of the DVD discs that ship with the guide. He did run into one problem in which he purchased DVD+ discs instead of the DVD-R discs that Macs require to burn a DVD. (That notion of two different DVD formats used to perform essentially the same function has often led to confusion in the marketplace, so much so that the big providers of DVD burners, such as Sony and Pioneer, have mitigated the confusion to an extent by shipping burners that support both formats). Nonetheless, Siminoff hasn't experienced any compatibility issues with the more than 300 enthusiasts who have purchased his guide. "People have watched the DVDs in home players, vehicle players and computers with DVD playback and I have not had a single problem," he said.

Version 2
Siminoff is already preplanning volume 2 of his guide. His first version has already sold more than 350 copies in the first two months since its release. He originally wanted to put the entire guide on DVD and go paperless, but he ran up against the limitation of where a reader could watch and read about each location. It would have been confined to a home player or via notebook computer. He does plan to use Final Cut Pro for volume 2 of the guide, and is hoping to add more to the DVD element. "Once everyone has DVD playback in their car along with GPS, I could map the riding areas on GPS and put the footage on the same DVD and your car could guide you to each area. Imagine that," he said. 

Siminoff views the DVD format maturing to the point that the ease in which to author a DVD has become apparent to him in the last year. He sees almost all aspects of creative society embracing the format for all kinds of applications. "The best part about the way that I used it was that I could index the DVD to the chapters of the book.  If you read about riding area #8, all you have to do is go to chapter 8 on the DVD. VHS would have made this too cumbersome. I was going to also offer VHS, but those days are over," Siminoff said. "Everything from kids movies to owner's manuals to video games are using the format. I got a Chrysler brochure for its new Pacifica on DVD.  They are slim so they are mailable, have a higher perceived value than VHS and are cost-effective to reproduce," Siminoff said. "Twelve months ago, I could not imagine burning my own professional grade DVD at home. [Today] I make a very professional label, author the DVD with chapter layout, etc.  The blank media prices are now less than $1 each. A few years back they were around $15-$25 each.  It is now affordable to do it, and nearly anybody can. The fact that the average person does not understand how easy it is adds to the novelty of my project."

Editor's note: Siminoff's guide can be purchased  at several motorsports shops in Southern California, including:  In San Diego area:  Fun Bike Center, San Diego Sportcycle, Precision Concepts, Motoworld of El Cajon, South Bay Motorsports; North County San Diego:  North County Yamaha, Escondido Cycle Center; Inland Empire:  Bert's MegaMall, 79 South Motorsports. You can also contact him directly for more information at andrewsiminoff@aol.com