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I realize a lot of you go out of your way to let me/us know you dont care, or that this or that sucks, is lame, and so on, but this thread is merely for the people who do care to see what we experienced this past week. This thread is here to share one of the better experiences I have had so far in life, being in JV for the 2010 King of the Hammers, and all the new people I met, and the great strides myself and others made for HMC in the process.
I am not posting this to brag or annoy people, I just want to share with the people that care to know or at least want to take part in the experience via our images, that is what pictures are for after all, right? So here is our trip to KOH 2010, hopefully something that has become a yearly occurrence from here on out, and hopefully a thread people can enjoy reading and looking at.
We arrived at JFK Monday morning to wait for our flight, security was quick oddly enough
Then we took to the skies, on our way to San Francisco for our connecting flight that would eventually take us to our final civilization destination of Ontario, CA (not canada!)
Goodbye cold NY
flying over the snow covered midwestern plains
Hello mountains! a welcomed sight after endless snow covered earth
We then landed in San Fran, and much to our joy, our connecting flight to Ontario was delayed for 2 hours...
we then called the rental place to make sure our rental was secured...
Steve on the phone, pretty pissed with Budget (who fucked our reservation)
We finally landed in Ontario hours later, minutes before the rental agencies closed
we rushed on the shuttle to find all but 2 rental places closed for the night (midnight)...we scrambled for the best thing we could get, which ended up being the star of the trip later on, the AWD mistubishi ENDEAVOR.
We arrived onto the already crowded means dry lakebed circa 330AM tuesday morning, stumbled our way to david smiley's RV amongst all of Hammertown and konked out.
We awoke to the grandest sight I had ever seen, Johnson Valley, CA.
I didnt get to hang out for more than a few minutes before it was off to work for me.
We hit up the Pirate event tent where i touched base with Lance and Camo from Pirate to square myself away for the week.
interviewing racers with Camo pre-day 1 of the LCQ
the gang being ridiculous
racers lining up for their last chance at a spot in KOH on LCQ day 1, lead by Larry Gipson
We then raced through the short run of desert up to the base of Backdoor where we would catch the opening action of the LCQ
The view from the canyon was something to be seen
the helicopter arrived and it was then you knew it had begun
Larry Gipson showed up to start things off, and didnt take long before he made a yardsale of his rig
flopped it over with the throttle pinned and sheered lugs in a hurry
the rest of the racers arrived one at a time to try their best at completing and qualifying, michael feagins arrived one-shotting backdoor with incredible ease, a rarity on the day
tear assing out of backdoor on the sandy wash climb
The day cleared up as the LCQ progressed to reveal the true beauty of johnson valley with some deep blue skies and some late spring temps
the spectators at backdoor lined up every available crest to watch the action
us at the top of backdoor
LCQ day 1 came and went, I spent some time editing the day's footage on Pirate's Macpro, a bad ass unit, didnt bog at all flowing HD footage on the timeline
After my work was done for the day, we took off leaving the lakebed behind in hopes of finding a dryer stay for everyone
unreal expanse
we checked into our stay for the night.......shady at best
upon waking, we headed back, gps tracking
arriving back at the lakebed on Boone Road
we took one look at the quickly growing Hammertown early in the week that day, it was expected to peak at 20,000 people come race day, and i have no doubt it reached that
LCQ day 2 brought some less than desireable weather in the morning upon us heading out to backdoor, evidenced by what i was wearing!
filming with Mike Badami from PinnedTV (the guys makin the KOH DVD.....that i told i wanted to work with Pirate instead...whoops! ) he really loved how light my cam was, and showed that by flailing it around as phil laughed from a distance taking pics
man i thought this was means dry lake! this guy thought so too...had to get winched out of the nasty shit on the lakebed near camp
it wasnt long before the racers were tearing up the whoops on their way into backdoor again
pretty brave dude takin pics, maybe he should get a better zoom
this guy showed up with a flat tire at the very start (BAJA CLAWS!) and ended up working his ass to the bone and qualifying at the end of the day
one of our east coast guys puttin on a show at the waterfall at backdoor
after sitting at backdoor for awhile, we moved onto the whoops section beyond the limits of the trail to get some speed runners, and then onto the trail known as Trap Door
the final speed stretch to the finish line for the LCQ
phil saw this baja bug, sweet
we figured we were good for the day, and came back to hammertown, only to my surprise finding AJ condon ready for lift off on the starting line, (one of our east coast guys) i figured itd be best to capture his run at back door, so we raced out there to narrowly beat him to the punch
something we learned is, if you like driving at backdoor, ditch the pitbull tires.
the day ended, i edited up pirates footage for the day and we hit the sack early
it was now thursday, which meant the UTV race and KOH race tech/contingency day...i dont have much interest in the UTV things, and it was my off-day from Pirate work, so we watched it for a bit then just hung out for most of the day, taking in the sights and talkin to teams
woke up to the views, sights, and sounds
and theyre off!
the grueling day of tech now began
pirate media van i was doing some work out of
sique jeepspeed, there were a few there
bigelow demanded photos with nicole with a ironclad shirt, so we delivered, of course!
racers lapping up HMC stickers! both sides
lucas's rig
charlie melchners
bigelows
AJ Condon's...claytons also, but i didnt get any pics
Hung out with Bruce (from RC) for awhile as always, and he still cant stay off the phone even when in cali
My media credentials/waiver sheet
we stopped and talked to the helo pilot in some downtime, cool as hell guy
and what would a desert race be without trophy trucks? one really getting it down on melville lake
our trophy truck for the week..the venerable ENDEAVOR. this car dealt with a lot of fucking shit hahah..it earned itself an epic pose
and then You know who, just cuz.
the sun then set on hammertown, as the tension set in for race day the following morning. racers would stage at 5am, coverage would begin at 630am, and lift off was set for 8:00AM
the sun rose again, oddly enough (love the d200's sunrise pics)
Upon meeting with Lance for the day, he asked what I had for transport, I told him a Mistu endeavor, and that apparently was enough for him to put me in something else
"You can take my ram, is that ok?"
Yes.
So I got to take Lance's tricked out 2500 cummins mega cab around for race day all around JV. 37" KM2s, what i was told was a 6000 dollar CORR suspension, i took early notice of the huge fox reservoirs up front...this thing was a true Beast.
We headed to start/finish to capture the take off of the racers before they dove head first into the hardest KOH to date, and arguably one of the hardest most tolling off road races ever
Shannon Campbell was mind numbingly fast off the line down the main stretch, i could not believe how fast this guy could go, the car is everything you expect and more
we headed straight for sledgehammer after that, as thats where Lance wanted me to film the events of the day...sledge was way later in the race, somewhere around mile marker 115, so we had a lot of time to kill in the meantime.
we got there to find bruce and the gang hangin on a cliffside..so we hung out there for awhile and shot the shit with the east coasters
Doug fist pumping and such
Bruce, rock cell god of the hammers
Kyle handed us a brochure/program, and much to my surprise a picture of HMC's and a mention was a full spread in the thing!
the view lookin out the canyon base of sledge
Brad Lovell and JR arrived eventually, and this is where the MADNESS began. I use that term as an understatement. Sledgehammer during KOH was unlike anything I have ever seen, and I feel it was that way for many.
The crowd descended onto the course to cheer the racers on
it only got crazier from then on out in there. the plaque line on sledge for those of you familiar was the epicenter of the tension
Casey Currie showed up in Shannons 08 champ rig and managed to get his rig flopped over in the V, while another rig showed up and hung up his roof on currie's front diff
The racers began to stack up in the canyon, edging forward for their opportunity to take the lead...sledge had become the great equalizer of the day.
The only thing I could liken the experience to was standing in the crowd at a rock concert, in a desert canyon, on loose boulders, while ultra4 race cars pushed their way down the center, spreading people like the red sea! it was tight, adrenaline rushing, and downright Dangerous. Did I mention fucking awesome to all extents of the word?
I think the image that will stick with me forever of this section was when Dean Bulloch pulled up into the fray. Bulloch is an old time long time competitor, seen the likes of many rock sports events, he is known as the Ice Man. Bulloch rounded the corner up to the plaque where he came upon the deadly parking lot of revving engines and cheering fans. He removed his race helmet, pulled a cig from his pocket and stared down the scene...i had to capture it and i was alone down there as far as my group went, so i resorted to the picture function on my HD cam
this embodied the idea and feeling of king of the hammers to me.
However, the image the embodied the feel and atmosphere of Sledge on that day, lies in this one. Taken by Nicole
the cheering of the crowd was insane, it was like sitting in a stadium, floor level.
"easy rick" mooneyham
the marlin crawlers f-toy, what a trooper this thing was
Adam Woodlee
spectators eventually came in an rolled curries rig over in a gargantuan effort and the trucks were on the move again, ramming each other, trying to weave through the madness of metal and man!
after a couple hours of this, we escaped to the outskirts of the race, into the final stretch of desert between the final rock section and the start finish line...10 miles or so of open desert.
on our way we observed the MASS EXODUS of people leaving sledgehammer and the rock trails in the area all via one strip of trail, it was rush hour in johnson valley for sure...another spectacle to be seen...pictures can only do a sight so much justice
we arrived JUST in time to watch jason scherer (last years king, and the fastest truck on the lakebed that day) fly by at full speed on his way to finishing the race..not quick enough to get pics or video, but next up was shannon campbell, the second fastest guy i would venture to say...he SCREAMS by at what must have been 80-100, its very hard to gauge speed in the whoops...
excuse the underexposed pics, they were taken in a blinding rush haha (thats how fast this guy is) i did get it on video though and it will be in the pirate edit when i finish it this week
one we got of Woodlee in that section
Something I thought was particularly cool, the rigs were traveling at such a speed that they only left tire marks on the top crests of the whoops
And it seems you cannot escape Rausch Creek no matter where you go, found this on the lakebed
our rigs sittin pretty
wheelin the desert at dusk/night is cool as hell! something i want to come back and do in my own rig for sure
we retreated to camp at the end of the day so as to not get lost at night out there..and awaited the final finishers before the 10pm cut off time. i stayed out long enough to watch doug bigelow cross the line behind his HIDs and do his finish interview under the lights
the next day i was previously set up to make a commercial for MasterPull at the reqiest of Matt Adair, some of you may know him as IXNAYXJ on NAXJA, hes the director of the off road division of masterpull...so we met up with him and a few of his other guys and headed for backdoor, and a huge sand hill, and a trail known as....Chocolate Thunder. This day we felt mid-summer like temps
The sandy wash dunes, purpose stuck for the video
during the winch demonstration
without typing too much, the day ended and we woke up the next day prepping to leave
our rental at trips end before the car wash...
our drive to Ontario
Yep, this explains itself, sorta
We hit the golden gate bridge in san fran
we took a lot of "Captain's log" video which ill post later after im done doing work
I am not posting this to brag or annoy people, I just want to share with the people that care to know or at least want to take part in the experience via our images, that is what pictures are for after all, right? So here is our trip to KOH 2010, hopefully something that has become a yearly occurrence from here on out, and hopefully a thread people can enjoy reading and looking at.
We arrived at JFK Monday morning to wait for our flight, security was quick oddly enough
Then we took to the skies, on our way to San Francisco for our connecting flight that would eventually take us to our final civilization destination of Ontario, CA (not canada!)
Goodbye cold NY
flying over the snow covered midwestern plains
Hello mountains! a welcomed sight after endless snow covered earth
We then landed in San Fran, and much to our joy, our connecting flight to Ontario was delayed for 2 hours...
we then called the rental place to make sure our rental was secured...
Steve on the phone, pretty pissed with Budget (who fucked our reservation)
We finally landed in Ontario hours later, minutes before the rental agencies closed
we rushed on the shuttle to find all but 2 rental places closed for the night (midnight)...we scrambled for the best thing we could get, which ended up being the star of the trip later on, the AWD mistubishi ENDEAVOR.
We arrived onto the already crowded means dry lakebed circa 330AM tuesday morning, stumbled our way to david smiley's RV amongst all of Hammertown and konked out.
We awoke to the grandest sight I had ever seen, Johnson Valley, CA.
I didnt get to hang out for more than a few minutes before it was off to work for me.
We hit up the Pirate event tent where i touched base with Lance and Camo from Pirate to square myself away for the week.
interviewing racers with Camo pre-day 1 of the LCQ
the gang being ridiculous
racers lining up for their last chance at a spot in KOH on LCQ day 1, lead by Larry Gipson
We then raced through the short run of desert up to the base of Backdoor where we would catch the opening action of the LCQ
The view from the canyon was something to be seen
the helicopter arrived and it was then you knew it had begun
Larry Gipson showed up to start things off, and didnt take long before he made a yardsale of his rig
flopped it over with the throttle pinned and sheered lugs in a hurry
the rest of the racers arrived one at a time to try their best at completing and qualifying, michael feagins arrived one-shotting backdoor with incredible ease, a rarity on the day
tear assing out of backdoor on the sandy wash climb
The day cleared up as the LCQ progressed to reveal the true beauty of johnson valley with some deep blue skies and some late spring temps
the spectators at backdoor lined up every available crest to watch the action
us at the top of backdoor
LCQ day 1 came and went, I spent some time editing the day's footage on Pirate's Macpro, a bad ass unit, didnt bog at all flowing HD footage on the timeline
After my work was done for the day, we took off leaving the lakebed behind in hopes of finding a dryer stay for everyone
unreal expanse
we checked into our stay for the night.......shady at best
upon waking, we headed back, gps tracking
arriving back at the lakebed on Boone Road
we took one look at the quickly growing Hammertown early in the week that day, it was expected to peak at 20,000 people come race day, and i have no doubt it reached that
LCQ day 2 brought some less than desireable weather in the morning upon us heading out to backdoor, evidenced by what i was wearing!
filming with Mike Badami from PinnedTV (the guys makin the KOH DVD.....that i told i wanted to work with Pirate instead...whoops!
) he really loved how light my cam was, and showed that by flailing it around as phil laughed from a distance taking picsman i thought this was means dry lake! this guy thought so too...had to get winched out of the nasty shit on the lakebed near camp
it wasnt long before the racers were tearing up the whoops on their way into backdoor again
pretty brave dude takin pics, maybe he should get a better zoom
this guy showed up with a flat tire at the very start (BAJA CLAWS!) and ended up working his ass to the bone and qualifying at the end of the day
one of our east coast guys puttin on a show at the waterfall at backdoor
after sitting at backdoor for awhile, we moved onto the whoops section beyond the limits of the trail to get some speed runners, and then onto the trail known as Trap Door
the final speed stretch to the finish line for the LCQ
phil saw this baja bug, sweet
we figured we were good for the day, and came back to hammertown, only to my surprise finding AJ condon ready for lift off on the starting line, (one of our east coast guys) i figured itd be best to capture his run at back door, so we raced out there to narrowly beat him to the punch
something we learned is, if you like driving at backdoor, ditch the pitbull tires.
the day ended, i edited up pirates footage for the day and we hit the sack early
it was now thursday, which meant the UTV race and KOH race tech/contingency day...i dont have much interest in the UTV things, and it was my off-day from Pirate work, so we watched it for a bit then just hung out for most of the day, taking in the sights and talkin to teams
woke up to the views, sights, and sounds
and theyre off!
the grueling day of tech now began
pirate media van i was doing some work out of
sique jeepspeed, there were a few there
bigelow demanded photos with nicole with a ironclad shirt, so we delivered, of course!
racers lapping up HMC stickers! both sides
lucas's rig
charlie melchners
bigelows
AJ Condon's...claytons also, but i didnt get any pics
Hung out with Bruce (from RC) for awhile as always, and he still cant stay off the phone even when in cali
My media credentials/waiver sheet
we stopped and talked to the helo pilot in some downtime, cool as hell guy
and what would a desert race be without trophy trucks? one really getting it down on melville lake
our trophy truck for the week..the venerable ENDEAVOR. this car dealt with a lot of fucking shit hahah..it earned itself an epic pose
and then You know who, just cuz.
the sun then set on hammertown, as the tension set in for race day the following morning. racers would stage at 5am, coverage would begin at 630am, and lift off was set for 8:00AM
the sun rose again, oddly enough (love the d200's sunrise pics)
Upon meeting with Lance for the day, he asked what I had for transport, I told him a Mistu endeavor, and that apparently was enough for him to put me in something else
"You can take my ram, is that ok?"
Yes.
So I got to take Lance's tricked out 2500 cummins mega cab around for race day all around JV. 37" KM2s, what i was told was a 6000 dollar CORR suspension, i took early notice of the huge fox reservoirs up front...this thing was a true Beast.
We headed to start/finish to capture the take off of the racers before they dove head first into the hardest KOH to date, and arguably one of the hardest most tolling off road races ever
Shannon Campbell was mind numbingly fast off the line down the main stretch, i could not believe how fast this guy could go, the car is everything you expect and more
we headed straight for sledgehammer after that, as thats where Lance wanted me to film the events of the day...sledge was way later in the race, somewhere around mile marker 115, so we had a lot of time to kill in the meantime.
we got there to find bruce and the gang hangin on a cliffside..so we hung out there for awhile and shot the shit with the east coasters
Doug fist pumping and such
Bruce, rock cell god of the hammers
Kyle handed us a brochure/program, and much to my surprise a picture of HMC's and a mention was a full spread in the thing!
the view lookin out the canyon base of sledge
Brad Lovell and JR arrived eventually, and this is where the MADNESS began. I use that term as an understatement. Sledgehammer during KOH was unlike anything I have ever seen, and I feel it was that way for many.
The crowd descended onto the course to cheer the racers on
it only got crazier from then on out in there. the plaque line on sledge for those of you familiar was the epicenter of the tension
Casey Currie showed up in Shannons 08 champ rig and managed to get his rig flopped over in the V, while another rig showed up and hung up his roof on currie's front diff
The racers began to stack up in the canyon, edging forward for their opportunity to take the lead...sledge had become the great equalizer of the day.
The only thing I could liken the experience to was standing in the crowd at a rock concert, in a desert canyon, on loose boulders, while ultra4 race cars pushed their way down the center, spreading people like the red sea! it was tight, adrenaline rushing, and downright Dangerous. Did I mention fucking awesome to all extents of the word?
I think the image that will stick with me forever of this section was when Dean Bulloch pulled up into the fray. Bulloch is an old time long time competitor, seen the likes of many rock sports events, he is known as the Ice Man. Bulloch rounded the corner up to the plaque where he came upon the deadly parking lot of revving engines and cheering fans. He removed his race helmet, pulled a cig from his pocket and stared down the scene...i had to capture it and i was alone down there as far as my group went, so i resorted to the picture function on my HD cam
this embodied the idea and feeling of king of the hammers to me.
However, the image the embodied the feel and atmosphere of Sledge on that day, lies in this one. Taken by Nicole
the cheering of the crowd was insane, it was like sitting in a stadium, floor level.
"easy rick" mooneyham
the marlin crawlers f-toy, what a trooper this thing was
Adam Woodlee
spectators eventually came in an rolled curries rig over in a gargantuan effort and the trucks were on the move again, ramming each other, trying to weave through the madness of metal and man!
after a couple hours of this, we escaped to the outskirts of the race, into the final stretch of desert between the final rock section and the start finish line...10 miles or so of open desert.
on our way we observed the MASS EXODUS of people leaving sledgehammer and the rock trails in the area all via one strip of trail, it was rush hour in johnson valley for sure...another spectacle to be seen...pictures can only do a sight so much justice
we arrived JUST in time to watch jason scherer (last years king, and the fastest truck on the lakebed that day) fly by at full speed on his way to finishing the race..not quick enough to get pics or video, but next up was shannon campbell, the second fastest guy i would venture to say...he SCREAMS by at what must have been 80-100, its very hard to gauge speed in the whoops...
excuse the underexposed pics, they were taken in a blinding rush haha (thats how fast this guy is) i did get it on video though and it will be in the pirate edit when i finish it this week
one we got of Woodlee in that section
Something I thought was particularly cool, the rigs were traveling at such a speed that they only left tire marks on the top crests of the whoops
And it seems you cannot escape Rausch Creek no matter where you go, found this on the lakebed
our rigs sittin pretty
wheelin the desert at dusk/night is cool as hell! something i want to come back and do in my own rig for sure
we retreated to camp at the end of the day so as to not get lost at night out there..and awaited the final finishers before the 10pm cut off time. i stayed out long enough to watch doug bigelow cross the line behind his HIDs and do his finish interview under the lights
the next day i was previously set up to make a commercial for MasterPull at the reqiest of Matt Adair, some of you may know him as IXNAYXJ on NAXJA, hes the director of the off road division of masterpull...so we met up with him and a few of his other guys and headed for backdoor, and a huge sand hill, and a trail known as....Chocolate Thunder. This day we felt mid-summer like temps
The sandy wash dunes, purpose stuck for the video
during the winch demonstration
without typing too much, the day ended and we woke up the next day prepping to leave
our rental at trips end before the car wash...
our drive to Ontario
Yep, this explains itself, sorta
We hit the golden gate bridge in san fran
we took a lot of "Captain's log" video which ill post later after im done doing work
next time gadget. 
Fight Team
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