This was the first 2004 event of the year for CalROCS.  This was the first time I'd been to a CalROCS event, and it was put on with a high level of professionalism.  There was a lot of media coverage out there, so be sure to keep your eyes open for potential TV or magazine spots!  The trails were not easy, and the competitors were not easy on their rigs.  This quick write-up includes a large number of photos, two very long videos, and a little bit of text.  Y'all don't like to read much anyway.

One of JA's sponsored competitors, Jody Everding (RawX Racing) competed in the Stock Class.  Jody had a rough go of it on day one, but managed to have a great second day to put him in a good position.  A broken CV is what Kelly Marquis is working on in one of the photo's below...thanks to the many generous folks out there, they managed to scrounge up the right parts to get things back together so they could continue to compete.  Team RawX also helped to lug our videographer up the hill after busting his foot (more later)!


Seth Markowitz, a friend who had room on his roof for a JA sticker also ran in the Stock Class.  This was his 30th birthday, and his first-ever competition.  Great way to celebrate, huh?  The first quote I heard when I arrived after their second or third run was, "They started out just having fun, now it's more about winning."  Amazing how quick the bug can bite...  Tommy McElmeel spotted for Seth and they landed somewhere around the middle of the pack.  They were very happy with their performance, and I wouldn't be surprised if we saw this team in action again...


The famed JA videographer, Bud Boren, managed to break his foot climbing around on the rocks.  Apparently I was being paged on the loudspeakers, but had ventured back to camp to grab a sammy and didn't hear.  A friend found me and off I went...had no idea what I was heading up there for, until I heard someone say "broken foot" over one of the radios.  Still didn't even know who it was until I bumped into Derrick and Blair on the way up.  I showed up, and of course, Bud was his normal ornery self...something about his "new pair of jeans" and "reimbursement"...I dunno.  <grin>  Seriously, Bud was in pretty good spirits considering the pain he was going through.  The medical team at CalROCS did a stand-up job putting up with the old mountain goat.  For those interested, he's doing well...wandering around his massive garage in his wheelchair wondering where the his horse-of-a-dog went with his hamburger.


The volunteer recovery teams did a bang-up job as well.  Of the one's I know of on JA, there was Bob and Machelle, Todd, and Gary.  Donald was there too, but don't recall his JA username.  These guys worked their ASSES off, and strained their personal equipment all in the name of good sportsmanship...and a free t-shirt and sammy!

Finally... the videos.  They're long, they're big, but they're good...lots of great sights (and sounds, turn up the volume!)  If you're on a slow connection, you might want to right-click and save these to your desktop for viewing after they're completely downloaded.
Video #1 (NOT the rolls) - 20.3MB, 8 min 5 sec
Video #2 (the ROLLS!) - 6.6MB, 2 min 37 sec

Some selected photos are below.  The entire bunch of photos (210 of them) can be found by using the link at the bottom of this article.