Andrea's Angle: January in California
February 06, 2026
I’ve been trying to experiment with a new style of writing. It’s been a nice change of pace living in California for the past month, and I want to bring something different to the table beyond traditional race coverage. There are lots of sites already going into detail about what’s happening in the race - we even have our own data-driven breakdown on the site. So consider this my scattered musings from a chill month dotted with Supercross weekends.
Hello and happy 2026! Scott and I have spent the past month living in San Diego, a great home base for the first three rounds.
We started off the new year immediately sick… Scott’s still hacking up a storm 30 days later. Not exactly the kickstart to 2026 I was hoping for after a kinda lazy holiday season.
But enough complaining! Being in sunny California while New York is blanketed in snow and facing record low temperatures is beyond a privilege. We had a pool day in January for crying out loud!
I’ve been going on sunset runs or driving out to the cliffs to watch the sun dip every few days… words cannot describe these precious moments. Never gets old.
It’s also been nice to not be moving around as much; I can actually buy a bottle of Sriracha and not feel immensely wasteful. For context, over the past few years we would normally follow the Supercross races across the country, and stay in each city for about a week before moving on. I love how the first few races are consistently in California - please never change that folks up above!
Anaheim I
I can’t quite remember how Anaheim 1 felt last year, but this time around I felt some first race jitters! With Jett out with an untimely off-season crash, I had a feeling the 450 class would be even more chaotic than the normal chaos A1 usually brings.
The Santa Ana winds were in full force and the dirt was just blowing off the track and creating a thick layer over everything. I have generally felt like there is a layer of dust over me this month. Thick and a bit heavy. I’m brushing it off and trying to get back to my old habits, but feeling a bit stagnant.
I’ve also been quite scattered… I’m starting to plan our wedding and it’s exciting but all consuming. I found taking notes helps me focus on the race in front of me.
Also, press conferences got an update this year! They’re now post-race media scrums with one rider at a time, kind of “mics in face” outside the locker room style. For the first two races, they had the 250’s go right after their main event. I was a bit bummed that I missed out on two apparently great 450 main events due to these changes, but appreciate the folks over at Feld making adjustments when it was clear this wasn’t working.
San Diego
San Diego is such a wonderful city. You’ve heard me go on and on about the sunsets… it’s just a nice, relatively even temperature all year round with mostly sunny days. How could one not be happy here?
We feel that this lends itself as well to the food scene - a lot of the food in San Diego is just okay. We’ve been on a mission to prove ourselves wrong though, and have had some decent sushi and Italian food.
This is where LA is superior in my eyes - there are immigrant populations putting out great food that the little brother of San Diego just can’t compete with. Before A2, I drove to Little Seoul in Garden Grove to get some spicy bibim-naengmyeon - cold noodles - at Mo Ran Gak. Theirs are maybe a bit sweet for my liking, but still a tasty treat on a warm day. Scott is rarely in the mood for Korean food while I always am, so this was heavenly.
Anaheim II
On a Friday morning, we headed back north on the I-5. This was beginning to feel routine.
It was so nice to watch the racing in its entirety this weekend, as the post-race scrum was moved to after the 450s. And the cherry on top was watching Sexton win. You could almost feel the weight lift off him. Much of his career as of late has been defined immense speed tangled up with mistakes at the worst possible moments. That frustration, the overthinking, the excuses and not fully feeling comfortable… it’s so relatable.
They’re still ironing out some of the kinks in this post-race scrum format. As a swarm of us media hurried over to the set up, Deegan and his entourage were already walking away from a completed interview. That felt so Supercross… blink and you’ll miss it.
Musings
I had a recent realization of something pretty obvious - I am addicted to my phone. So lately, I’ve been yearning for the analog. There’s this popular “trend” right now on social media where girls are talking about their analog bags - a bag full of puzzles and crafts you can reach for instead of your phone.
Weirdly enough, going to live Supercross races is kinda good for this as it gives me time away from my phone and fully immersed in the action in front of me. It feels analog to hear the revving of engines, to see the mechanics tinkering with parts in the pits. To look into the stands and see people’s eyes glued to the track, excitedly yelping while watching a battle for first. As a full time remote worker in tech, I am on a screen all day and it’s a nice reprieve.
If only I wasn’t migraine prone … the fluorescent lights and my weak brain do not make a good match. And then I end up on my screen searching for two hours for the right FL-41 glasses that don’t make me look goofy. Let’s just say I’ve made a lot of returns over the past few weeks.
The California rounds always mark the start of a long, fast-moving season. This year, they also reminded me to slow down and be in the moment.
I’m sad to leave California and its nearly perpetual sun. We were able to watch planes land from our Airbnb… there was something so rhythmic and calming about that ritual. But we’re on to the next, driving out to Glendale for another Supercross round and then off to Seattle for four months. Finally settling in to a more normal life, I can’t wait!
See you next week,
Andrea
