The Kenter Fire Road is a short fire road ride that goes along some water towers off of Kenter Ave in Santa Monica, CA. Most people do the ride as a there and back type road and for the most part it's your typical not too exciting fire road ride. But there is a trail off to the side that connects into the fire road at the top and bottom of this particular section making for a fun loop. When you climb partway up the fire road you have the option to take the "whoops" section back down for a much more exciting ride. This part of the trail is mostly singletrack and consists of a bunch of whoops or humps in the trail that you can jump or ride over to add a little excitement to your day. The whoops are pretty consistent throughout the trail and will keep you on your toes since the trail has a downward grade to it allowing you to get some pretty good speed for the most part.

Kenter Whoops Trail, Filmed and Rated by Jim Bernstein Review Date: 6/3/2013 Trail Ratings  Fun Factor:  Technical:

Once you get past the whoops you will encounter the jump section of the trail where there a quite a few man made jumps mostly consisting of gap jumps designed more for jump style bikes or BMX bikes. These jumps are pretty big and not made for just your average rider with no real jumping experience. Fortunately you can ride around them and there are some smaller jumps mixed in just in case you don't want to feel left out.

Kenter Whoops Trail Video

Kenter Whoops Trail Review

Overall the Kenter Whoops Trail is a pretty fun ride even though it's very short. The whoops and jumps part of the trail is a little over a mile and the whole loop is about 2 miles. The good part is that this means you can do it multiple times in one day. The fire road ride up is a little on the steep side and when it's hot outside it can take its toll on you if you are doing it a bunch of times. Riding the whoops trail back up to the top is much easier but you risk getting in the way of people riding down so if it's crowded don't even think about it.

The whoops section is pretty fun but the spacing between them makes it hard to have too much fun. They are too far apart to make doubles out of them but too close to really jump off of because you come up on the next one right away. Plus some of them are on corners making it hard to get the right approach for. Then again they were not man made (we don't think) so you can't really complain. Once you do it a few times you will get the feel for it and each time will be a little more fun.

The jumps section near the end is what many people come to ride since it's a nice collection of well made jumps and there is one after the other. Most of them are on the large side and require you to clear a gap and land on the ramp on the other side. If you come up short you are in trouble and if you go too far and miss the landing it may not be a good thing as well. This trail review would have got a 5 for the technical aspect but since it's more about the whoops it gets a 3. Plus you don’t have to do the big jumps to ride this trail since there are ways to ride around all of them. There are a few smaller jumps and table tops around the area as well if you want to at least try and jump something. If you go on a day where you have some good riders taking the jumps it can be fun to hang out and just watch.

Kenter Whoops Traill Pictures

Directions to Kenter Whoops Trail

To get to the Kenter Fire Road Whoops Trail take the 405 Freeway to Sunset Blvd and head west towards the ocean. When you get to N. Kenter Ave make a right and drive up around 2 miles to the top of the street. There will be a fence there making the start of the fire road. Parking will be limited since it's a residential area and we are sure many of the residents don't like to have all the cars parked in front of their houses.

Then you will start riding up the fire road and past the end of the whoops\jumps section. You can either stop there and check out the jumps or continue up the fire road to where the whoops section starts. When you get to a short concrete wall on your left, that will be where the whoops trail starts. Once you go through the whoops and past the jumps you will be dumped back out on the fire road for another round.

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