Safety Clinic May 2011

Safety Clinic May 2011Hollister Hills SVRA Everyone was there (pretty much)

I took Friday off so I could enjoy the sunshine and dirt of Hollister before the clinic. I rolled down to Hollister by around 11am. Darell, Robert, Ashley, Brian, and I went out to finish marking the trails in the early afternoon. I jumped in and out of Brian's jeep all day long with out a glitch. Half way through marking, Brian and I switched. He was kind enough to let me drive his jeep and he jumped in and out hammering the markers into the ground.

Friday afternoon, Myself, Gary, Greg, and Brian went the old O course to play around. I needed to see how my new axles, brakes, and suspension was working to make sure no lines were stretched and that everything would checkout for trail leading on Saturday. We had some fun playing around. We got air under all four tires of Brian's jeep. We got Gary hung up on some logs for a good 20min. And I got to stretch my new axles out and make sure 4 wheel drive worked.

Friday night rolled around and I found myself going to Grillin' & Chillin' with Tom, Andy, and Ellen. We had a great dinner. My sober mind realizes I owe them each 2+ dollars for the balance of my bill. (Sorry, by Friday night my math skills weren't working too well).

Saturday clinic started early. Everyone jumped into action and the well oiled machine was moving full steam ahead by 7:30am. I spent the morning doing Safety Inspections and parked my jeep at the front of the Yellow line.

After the students had been shuttled off to the classroom I decided to prep my jeep for the day. As I aired down my driverside front tire I noticed some bolts seemed like they were backed out of my hub. Well, sure enough the entire hub was loose. Upon some disassembly, it was clear that every single bolt in the hub had sheered in half, nothing was holding the hub on. Thankfully, I had a drill and bits, Tom had easy outs, and we got 4 of the 5 broken bolts out of the hub. I even had some WARN hub studs thanks to Jay from a few months earlier. Tom and I swapped in those studs, bolted the hub back together and I was good to go for trail lead all before the students even came back. Little did I know that fixing my jeep might not be such a good idea.

We had a nice lunch and then headed out to the O Course. I was trail lead for the yellow group, a group that besides myself and mid-gunner was completely comprised of Toyotas. I demoed the Frame Twister to the students and then proceeded to park my jeep. Upon parking my jeep I jumped down to jog back to the Obstacle and watch/ take pictures of the students running through it. Well... I didn't make it. As soon as I jumped out of my jeep I landed on the ridge of one of those dried ruts and my ankle rolled over and make a nice 'pop' Needless to say, I crumpled. First aid was not far away, Michael (one of the students) grabbed ice, and I told him where my first aid kit was with my ace bandage. (Good teaching moment as to why we pack first aid kits). I sat for about 20min icing my ankle then decided the show must go on. I tightened my boot tight and led the group over to the stair step.

I led my yellow group for about 2-3 more hours until we came down to Area 5. At that point, my ankle was throbbing and Robert and Ashley had kindly volunteered to bail me out and take over as trail lead.

A huge thank you to Mike Sickles for the Advil (I owe you a new bottle), Darell for the beer, and Jim for the shot of Jameson. The club really came to my aid and even helped me load up my jeep and truck.

I had a great dinner and chatted with folks a bit more. It then became clear to me (finally) that I wasn't going to be jeeping Sunday now that I hurt my ankle. The Advil and alcohol was wearing off and it occurred to me that sleeping in my bed at home was going to be much better then waking up with a stiff ankle at Hollister the next morning. I quickly gathered my things, and left around 8pm.

Sunday at 11am I got an x-ray and the saw the doc. Nothing appears to be broken. She said it looks like I tore a tendon, but probably no surgery. As of today I am slightly walking on it. It is still hugely swollen, nice black, blue, red, purple, green, blue colors. But I should be fine.

"almost" Lastly, I want to say I am very blessed (lucky) to be part of a such an amazing club, with amazing people. Sitting back and watching clinic "happen" is a sight to see. Everybody gives so much, and everything is down with such care and passion. Despite all of the work going on, people were still willing to help me out when needed. My friend Jarrett who came down for the day to be my co-pilot was blown away by effort, organization, and execution of the clinic. He works with a lot of volunteer organizations and was very impressed by the scope of our clinic.

My apologies for hurting myself and not being able to be a better part of the after clinic ED4 hospitality. I would have loved to talk to more of the students and been a part of their checkout process and personally welcomed them to join our club. That said, I know everyone else in the club was able to do that.

I am very lucky to be president of such a great club, you all make it easy.

Thank you, CJ Arnesen

Safety Clinic / May 2011

Hello all, I am Vidas Mickevicius, prospective member of ED4. I am traveling right now, so that only now I have access to my laptop to prepare this report.

I attended with my son Lukas who is 18 and will go to college this fall. We arrived on Friday at 3pm. After dropping off our stuff and airing down at Area 5 we went on some trails: Truck Hill, Fremontia, and White Rock. Then we went back to Area 5, set our tent and joined people around the fire for potlock dinner. It was real fun to meet so many 4wheelers in one place sharing their stories and talking about their rigs. To my surprise, I found so many wine enthusiasts at that dinner - thanks for sharing some really good wines!

I took ED4 Safety Clinic in 2002 and did not intend to take it again. But I learned that my duties (as prospective member) in this Clinic are just to help cleanup after the dinner on Saturday, so that I had full day of Saturday to do something. I talked to my son and we decided that he would take the Clinic. I checked with CJ and he said that registration would start at 8am on Saturday, and that walk-ins were welcome. So I registered my son Lukas for the Clinic. Lukas had experience in driving our TJ with manual in the city and some light offroad, but most of his 4x4 experience was "theoretical" - wheeling on the passenger seat and spoting for me. This Clinic was a real good practical experience for Lukas. Also theoretical part in and around the classroom was very useful and fun - instructors did perfect job keeping us all engaged! All trail guides were very knowledgeable and nice people - and I want to thank them all again. Our group had predominantly Jeeps with manuals! I rode along with my son but allowed him to make decisions on his own. He did well, I think. On staircase he wanted to use lockers and crawl slowly. I convinced him that this was his time of learning how to drive without lockers and become a good Jeep driver. Lukas learned what means the right momentum and spin control while crawling slipery stairs. His first attempt failed but second was perfect. After Saturday dinner and cleanup we left because my son had things to do at home on Sunday. Else we would have stayed another night.

We both had very good time. The trails were fun and not dusty as usual for this time of the year (effect of California cooling - I guess ;-) and weather was perfect. Our only concern was poison oak. Lukas had a bad case of poison oak just prior to this Clinic and he was still on medications. We took extreme precautions not to touch Jeep and wash our hands and faces whenever possible. It helped.

Overall this Clinic was very good. Organization was perfect. I can imagine that distributing 40+ rigs on trails is logistical nightmare, but everything worked like swiss watch. I was very happy that there were so many young people in this Clinic. It is important for our hobby (or passion) to have young people to get involved and help to promote a positive image of 4wheeling. Once again, thanks to all organizers!

See you soon, Vidas