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Hiya,
I went to Cedar City, Utah this weekend to judge Round 2 of the W.E. Rock pro rock-crawling event. Wow! What a great weekend!
Friday night I checked into my hotel and then went across the street to an after tech party. It was a combination of locals, the competitors, and staff/volunteers. They had a live band, food, drinks, alcohol, dancing, pool, darts, and just an all out great party!
Saturday morning I got up early and drove over to Three Peaks for the event, got all signed in and ready to judge. Because I judged in Perris, I was able to pick the course I wanted....I chose a "B" course because it has the most competitors on Saturday and the least on Sunday. Let me tell you, that was the best choice I could have made. It was so hot on Saturday and my course had a really nasty v-notch in it that was getting people stuck left and right, and/or rolling them. I was constantly calling for recovery to get them off the course for the next competitor. Needless to say, I was the last course to finish on Saturday around 4:30 pm, I think. However, Sunday was hotter and the class only had 9 competitors. I was done by noon...only 2 hours!! It was nice because it allowed me to go watch Becca Webster compete on her last 2 courses of the weekend.
After the competition on Saturday, Becca Webster's spotter, Mike Berard, took her "King of the Hammers" Jeep out to wheel with me. He took me out and put the Desert Jewel to the test. We found some pretty sweet places to play on and he spotted me thru some nice obstacles to show me just what the DJ is capable of. He also showed me how to do a rear-burn with the setup I have, which was quite fun! I really learned a lot from him and had a great time wheeling.
When we got back to camp, Becca had a nice dinner made for us, so went into the air condition toter-home to enjoy our yummy food. Later in the evening, Becca and Dustin both sign my rock guard on the passenger side for the nice souvenirs from their spotting the DJ. Pretty cool!
Sunday, after I was done judging, I took the DJ down to the t-shirt booth and cashed in my free coupon from Becca to get one of her new '08 Rock Diva shirts. I was able to get one in the same shade of green as the DJ! Then I drove over and found her ready to go on course A1. The first obstacle was a nasty climb and as she was bumpin' up it the front end slid off passenger and she rolled. It was one of the loudest, hardest rolls I had seen. She landed upright, stuck her hand out the window with a nice thumbs up, and then proceeded to the exit gate. Since she landed out of bounds, she was done on that course and needed to exit for the next person to begin. When talking to her, she said that was one of the hardest rolls she's been in. I can believe it! After that she had one more course to complete, A2. This time I got my camera out to video Becca on course A2. It was one of her best runs of the weekend with a score of zero!
After she was done, we hopped in the DJ and drove over to see another female competitor, Nicole Johnson, who is a rookie this year finish up her last course. However, we got there just a few minutes too late. She was done. So we drove around to see if anyone else was on any courses and came across a Jeep on it's side so we stopped to try to help recover it. After that, Becca drove the DJ over to the Shoot-Out area so we could drive right up to it and not have to park and walk....privileges with being a competitor!! One of the competitors needed recovery and when the guy driving Becca's Jeep was just entering the course a tire popped the bead. She backed it up and then had me pull the DJ over to air it up. That was when the fun began! She spotted me over this nice boulder to get next to her Jeep..it was a nice off-camber climb. Then we realized we couldn't do it without a hi-lift and needed to go back to her trailer. So she spotted me out of the course area which got the DJ pretty off-camber and teetering since her sway bars were not disconnected and the tires were not aired down. It was so fun!! Half the spectators ended up watching me since the competition was on hold while they recovered the broken rig on the course.
After everything was done, I played around on the course area while Becca was talking with people. She was within yelling distance if I needed help. I really got to test out the DJ on my own without spotter's, getting her all teetering and off-cambered. I only needed to call out to Becca one time asking her if I was okay to go forward because I had the DJ off-camber and teetering together...felt like I was gonna flop on the driver side. She said it's ok to go forward so I did...man what a thrill!!
She signed a couple posters for me and then I headed home. The next event was scheduled for Washington, but they couldn't get the permits so it will be held in Cedar City again, June 20-22. I can't wait to get back there. The terrain in Utah is just awesome to wheel on!!!
Here is a link to my myspace page. Under my profile picture is a link for "pics" and one for "videos". You can click on these to see the pictures titled WE Rock Cedar City May 08 and the videos taken. Enjoy!! Here is the link to myspace: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm...ndid=234061290
Juls
I went to Cedar City, Utah this weekend to judge Round 2 of the W.E. Rock pro rock-crawling event. Wow! What a great weekend!
Friday night I checked into my hotel and then went across the street to an after tech party. It was a combination of locals, the competitors, and staff/volunteers. They had a live band, food, drinks, alcohol, dancing, pool, darts, and just an all out great party!
Saturday morning I got up early and drove over to Three Peaks for the event, got all signed in and ready to judge. Because I judged in Perris, I was able to pick the course I wanted....I chose a "B" course because it has the most competitors on Saturday and the least on Sunday. Let me tell you, that was the best choice I could have made. It was so hot on Saturday and my course had a really nasty v-notch in it that was getting people stuck left and right, and/or rolling them. I was constantly calling for recovery to get them off the course for the next competitor. Needless to say, I was the last course to finish on Saturday around 4:30 pm, I think. However, Sunday was hotter and the class only had 9 competitors. I was done by noon...only 2 hours!! It was nice because it allowed me to go watch Becca Webster compete on her last 2 courses of the weekend.
After the competition on Saturday, Becca Webster's spotter, Mike Berard, took her "King of the Hammers" Jeep out to wheel with me. He took me out and put the Desert Jewel to the test. We found some pretty sweet places to play on and he spotted me thru some nice obstacles to show me just what the DJ is capable of. He also showed me how to do a rear-burn with the setup I have, which was quite fun! I really learned a lot from him and had a great time wheeling.
When we got back to camp, Becca had a nice dinner made for us, so went into the air condition toter-home to enjoy our yummy food. Later in the evening, Becca and Dustin both sign my rock guard on the passenger side for the nice souvenirs from their spotting the DJ. Pretty cool!
Sunday, after I was done judging, I took the DJ down to the t-shirt booth and cashed in my free coupon from Becca to get one of her new '08 Rock Diva shirts. I was able to get one in the same shade of green as the DJ! Then I drove over and found her ready to go on course A1. The first obstacle was a nasty climb and as she was bumpin' up it the front end slid off passenger and she rolled. It was one of the loudest, hardest rolls I had seen. She landed upright, stuck her hand out the window with a nice thumbs up, and then proceeded to the exit gate. Since she landed out of bounds, she was done on that course and needed to exit for the next person to begin. When talking to her, she said that was one of the hardest rolls she's been in. I can believe it! After that she had one more course to complete, A2. This time I got my camera out to video Becca on course A2. It was one of her best runs of the weekend with a score of zero!
After she was done, we hopped in the DJ and drove over to see another female competitor, Nicole Johnson, who is a rookie this year finish up her last course. However, we got there just a few minutes too late. She was done. So we drove around to see if anyone else was on any courses and came across a Jeep on it's side so we stopped to try to help recover it. After that, Becca drove the DJ over to the Shoot-Out area so we could drive right up to it and not have to park and walk....privileges with being a competitor!! One of the competitors needed recovery and when the guy driving Becca's Jeep was just entering the course a tire popped the bead. She backed it up and then had me pull the DJ over to air it up. That was when the fun began! She spotted me over this nice boulder to get next to her Jeep..it was a nice off-camber climb. Then we realized we couldn't do it without a hi-lift and needed to go back to her trailer. So she spotted me out of the course area which got the DJ pretty off-camber and teetering since her sway bars were not disconnected and the tires were not aired down. It was so fun!! Half the spectators ended up watching me since the competition was on hold while they recovered the broken rig on the course.
After everything was done, I played around on the course area while Becca was talking with people. She was within yelling distance if I needed help. I really got to test out the DJ on my own without spotter's, getting her all teetering and off-cambered. I only needed to call out to Becca one time asking her if I was okay to go forward because I had the DJ off-camber and teetering together...felt like I was gonna flop on the driver side. She said it's ok to go forward so I did...man what a thrill!!
She signed a couple posters for me and then I headed home. The next event was scheduled for Washington, but they couldn't get the permits so it will be held in Cedar City again, June 20-22. I can't wait to get back there. The terrain in Utah is just awesome to wheel on!!!
Here is a link to my myspace page. Under my profile picture is a link for "pics" and one for "videos". You can click on these to see the pictures titled WE Rock Cedar City May 08 and the videos taken. Enjoy!! Here is the link to myspace: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm...ndid=234061290
Juls
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