Welcome to the Official SoCal BS/ Shenanigans, Tundras and What’s Happening Thread

Last time I was in sand it wasn’t good for me haha

 

Me too. Sand is nothing but bad news… at least from my experience

 

I had a good excuse tho lol trying to pull a trailer with quads abs got dark couldn’t figure out the right path haha

 

Our view from last night!

Missed my Tundra family

 

Yes, @831Tun and I did the run October, it was one of the best times I've had with my truck. A bunch of the BASTRDS are signed up to go on the May run.

 

Ladies and gentlemen we have a new off road driver. She did great!

 

Glad you made it out OK! Were you just on flat sand or in the dunes?

I purposefully haven’t posted my story on here because I don’t want to be a downer, but if people want some (deep) story time I’m happy toshare my experiences in hopes it helps someone

 

Nice! The one in May is a longer run too. Yep! Def the best experience for me. I’m still having withdrawals lol. I will definitely do it again.

 

Alright, Kim!!

 

We love stories. We’ll be very sorry if someone was seriously hurt or died… but we’ll be very entertained about most— even horrible— damage to trucks and equipment. But both kinds of stories teach us valuable lessons. So if you’re willing to share, you’re welcome to!

 

Sweet... I was in big bear skiing with the Scouts

 

Nice. Congratulations!!

 

Sure! More than willing to share and I hope someone can learn from it. And, in advance, this will be a pretty sad one.

I'll go ahead and put my little soap box speech at the beginning here and get it out of the way at the start. I am sure many will disagree but this is just how I feel. While everything in life has an inherent degree of danger involved, recreational vehicles definitely take it to a higher degree. This degree of danger becomes exponentially higher when you're not in control. I suggest to people that if you're going to be involved with a rv/powersport; that you be in control. My personal experiences include the one below and I've also broken a friends nose who was riding with me on a jetski after I jumped a wake. I don't like to tell people what to do, but I do advise them to be in control of the situation.

The story: It was early in spring, 2015, and had just rained the night before. We were at Gordon's Well and had a nice day on the dunes before. I had rented an ATV in Yuma and a gentleman my friends and I met up with at the Dunes had a nice, I believe Predator, sand rail. I owned an ATV when I lived back east but had never been to the dunes before. I decided that morning when I woke up that I would ride in the sand rail and let my buddy who had a bike take my ATV for the day. So there was the sand rail sitting family style with all seats filled; we will call them: driver, pass, rear drive (me), middle and rear pass. And there were the two tailing ATVs.

Driver had about 20 years in the dunes, had his pilots license, etc. He mentioned a few times during the morning drive that the sand felt different after it had rained and the vehicle was handling differently. We eventually made it over to Test Hill and did a couple launches off it no problem. We decided we would go for one more jump off the top of test hill before we head back to camp to get ready for lunch. Predator went off the jump and landed fine, except instead of stopping, driver decided to attempt to drift a u-turn to head back up the hill. (For those who have never been to test hill at Gordons Well, there is a landing/congregation area followed by a berm with an access road below followed by the all american canal shortly after.

Well, the sticky sand didn't allow for the tires to break free as they normally would during the u-turn and the sand rail hit the berm mid-way through the u-turn and sent us into a barrel roll over the berm. We landed on the access road below on the drivers side and I distinctly remember seeing the lower control arm break free and thinking "that's not good". That was my last memory before I woke up strapped in my 5-point harness under 25ft of water at the bottom of the all american canal. I was able to get out of my seatbelt and remember the swim to surface taking what felt like an eternity. The canal is pretty murky but there was enough light coming through to let me know which way was up. Passenger (8y/o boy and son of driver) got out unscathed, pass rear suffered a broken nose and bruising, and middle - very heavy bruising. Driver never made it out.

Now comes complete chaos. Once up and on the bank of the canal, I was able to rest on my knees and heels but wasn't able to climb the bank due to slime build-up. Luckily a few good Samaritans witnessed what happened and were there and one threw me a tow strap I was able to hold on to and get out. I was in pretty bad shape having difficulty breathing and my vision starting to fade to black. Middle was calling my name asking for help out of the canal but I couldn't even help myself. During all this the two ATVers that were in our group tailing us were diving in the canal trying to get to the driver knowing time was short. They held some guilt for some time for not being able to get to the driver as they jumped right in with their motocross boots which they felt limited their diving ability. It's a 20-30' canal, with murky water and a strong current. Odds were not in their favor.

To wrap up the story, someone was able drive out and get cell service to call 911 and a medevac was there for me within 15-20 minutes and ambulance for Pass, Middle and Pass rear. Flew 40 minutes to palm springs and spent just over a week in the hospital. 13 broken ribs, 1 fully collapsed lung and the other partially, broken eye socket, torn ear and unable to move my left arm. Someone wisely ushered the boy away from the scene until the ambulance came and to this day he does not recall a single moment of it. He's doing well, likes working on cars, and active in sports. Smart kid.

And finally my thoughts on the Dunes: Shortly after all this I got a call from the random gentleman who stuck by my side until I was in the helicopter (really really appreciate this guy!). He said it was his first time back to the dunes after his friend had been killed going off a razorback 2 months prior. He said he knew the scene all too well. Once back in the office, my then employer's CFO called me into his office and he told me his son was decapitated in Glamis. A boyfriend of a coworker of mine was set to go to the dunes the week after I got out of the hospital. My coworker begged him not to go using my story as a reason; he still went and ended up shattering his right arm. My wife's ex-boyfriend's friend was also killed in glamis. I get the thrill of cruising across those dunes, but had I known these stories prior; I would have just stayed home.

Hopefully someone gained something from this..

 

@dittothat im glad you are still with us. Sorry to hear about the driver. I totally understand why you want to stay away from the sand now.

I'm afraid of Glamis. I have heard of too many stories of close calls. Glamis has a bad reputation for people who think they can do anything and will not stop to try and show off. To the point they don't care about anyone's safety.

 

Thanks @nishibot
Completely agree with you. After doing some research on dunes; the numbers are pretty remarkable. My surgeon said patients like me were "his bread and butter"

I still like sand. Dunes.. not so much

 

@dittothat as you implied, that story was harder than I’d anticipated. I’m glad you’re alive, and sorry for your loss. By loss I include that trust you once had that ‘we know what we’re doing and we’ll be fine; watch this’. But I’m ok trading that belief for continued lifespan. Thank you for writing out this cautionary tale.

I’ve never been injured playing, but had a few close calls— bad judgement that got me/us/someone else into dangerous circumstances which, I am grateful, luck when I was younger, and now friends-working-together-to-figure-out-a-safer-solution, have got us out. But yeah, I can skip the dunes. And I feel as you do, about being in control. Horrible experience; good cautionary tale. Thank you for sharing.

 

@eccracer104 How was the Superstition weekend?

 

Wow that was one hell of a story. Mine was nothing close to yours.
My incident happened down in Baja. I pulled my truck in to the sand with trailer attached and I was fine. We have to go thru some dunes to get to the water. As it got dark the current was coming up to the point that it was at our feet. I take full responsibility on this.
We started throwing everything in the truck and loaded the quads( I was panicking as I’ve seen videos of trucks getting sweeped by the current). It was Pitch black by then, so I turned on all my lights and my first instinct is to go as far as possible from the water. Well I did that for sure but went in to super soft sand lol.
Once I was buried, we unhooked the trailer, was able to get the truck free for about 20ft and sunk right in as the dunes where super soft. We got a good laugh that’s for sure and we where all safe. I got made fun of by the family but that’s what a vacation is all about, having memories! I told them they owed me beers for the memories I gave them haha.

PSA!!**** BD ditch lights, BD fog lights, and light bar don’t help you get unstuck

1st picture shows the dunes behind my truck.
2nd shows the ocean
3rd shows trailer unattached
4th well that one was the wtf… how do I get out hahaha

 

For 2 week after I got home I had so much trouble focusing on work because all I could think about was going back to Baja.

 

It was a great time! Best part was finding some rocks to crawl on, then adventuring our way through the sand and up and over the mountain.

 

Lol! I might head to KOH this weekend and hit some dirt. I hope it helps lol .. they just sent these pics below Brought back memories all over again haha

 

Damn dude that’s buried! hahah. Probably wasnt fun at the time but you must get a good laugh about it now. Would a sand anchor and a winch even get you out of that?

 

That’s not even your truck homie. Don’t be lying haha

 

I didn’t think she could fly

 

I love the fully tucked picture.

 

Is Anyone going back out this weekend

 

I'll be in OW but will be only riding the bike while I'm out there. Truck has a sticking caliper I'm waiting on parts for.

 

got ya.

 

Yep, will be pretty low key. I'm headed out Friday after work. You're welcome to come out if you'd like.