The Pismo Beach Weekend was supposed to start on September 8th. However, that wasn’t soon enough for Luke and Rebecca. They met up with Patrick on Thursday the 7th in order to get an early start setting up the ROC campsite. Justin and Gina also thought it was a great idea to start on Thursday and spent the day out on the dunes with Luke and Rebecca.
On Friday the 8th, Patrick promptly got stuck while towing his Trick Raptor out to the ROC campsite. It was Luke who came to the rescue, pulling both the Trick Raptor and trailer the last 50 feet to the campsite with his mighty 5.4L Raptor! Raully was fashionably late, and once he and the Rally Raptor crew showed up they quickly finished setting up the ROC Campsite. While Raully and the crew welcomed those who arrived to the campsite, Patrick continued to have bad luck with trailers, as the BBQ trailer he brought out for the group dinner had a tire blowout on the freeway. After a 90 minute delay, the tire was replaced and the BBQ trailer was set up at the campsite. As the day rolled on, more and more members arrived to set up camp and socialize with their drink of choice. Raully and Delaney worked hard at the campsite to sign in and greet those still arriving and checking in. Many of the other ROC members decided to head out to play in the dunes, During the time out on the dunes, some of the ROC members found a nice sand bowl to ride and an incident occurred in which one of the ROC members, Steve, blew out a power steering line. Fortunately, Steve was able to make it back to the campsite. Later in the afternoon, Raully and Patrick led several Raptors out to the dunes and the first stop was the drag strip where Raully and Amete launched their trucks for a little air time. The group explored more of the dunes, hit some bowls (not the good kind of bowls you find at a Blue Oyster Cult concert) until it was time to regroup at the campsite for the Friday night dinner, which was at Old Juan’s Cantina. ROC members must have sensed great Mexican food and booze, as more members showed up just in time for dinner. A party room was booked for 30 people. All in all, there was great food, booze and awesome times spent with both old and new friends at Old Juan’s! As the night rolled on, members continued to arrive. With the Forged Off-road crew running late, it was up to Tim to bring the trailer out to the dunes in his nicely set-up Chevy Silverado. All didn’t go well, though. Tim lost 4WD and got stuck. Fortunately, the trailer was leveled so they called it a night with the setup and found the ROC campfire for some drinks and socializing.
On Saturday morning, even more people showed up for the event. As it turned out, Saturday ended up being the busiest day of the weekend. After eating gigantic and delicious breakfast burritos, Raully led half of the group of Raptors to the dunes where they mobbed the drag strip. They then continued on to Competition Hill.
In the meantime, Patrick stayed behind with the Forged Off-road crew of a bit in order to help work on Steve’s Raptor. Shortly after Raully departed, Patrick led the other half of the group to the dunes to meet up with Raully near an area that is known by locals for catching some serious air. Everyone who wanted to jump had a chance to do so. Those who did not jump chose to take pictures and videos. This was where @420motors got most of his awesome drone clips! Additionally, our newest ROC member, Marcus, aired out his stock ’14 Raptor like a pro, memorializing his skid plate into the dented skid plate Hall of Fame! As much as everyone didn’t want to stop jumping, Raully and Patrick were finally able to bribe everyone into leaving the jump site and drive toward a huge dune bowl for some more serious action, as well as a nice group photo! After a few group shots of the 25+ vehicles who came out for the weekend, it was time to head back to the ROC campsite for lunch. Thuy, Gina & Helengrace made hotdogs for everyone on the BBQ trailer. Shortly after lunch, Raully and Patrick had a game of “Hide and Seek” where ROC members had to find them hidden on the dunes. Both Raully and Patrick headed out with a 15-minute head start to the dunes and once out of sight, quickly headed away from the back part of the dunes to the more populated areas where most of the rental ATV’s hung out. Helengrace released the hounds after 15 minutes and everyone headed for the back part of the dunes. While most headed for the back part of the dunes, Justin (Gen2 Raptor) and Tim (Terrain Raptor) headed in the opposite direction. Justin found Raully pretty much as fast as Tim found Patrick, within 5 minutes! The first people to find Raully and Patrick would win prizes during the sponsored raffle later that night. At the end of the game, everyone met at the jump site once again to have more fun! Matt from Forged Off-road sent the Forged Off-road Raptor into the air with Justin Long in the back seat. (This picture summed up the whole weekend). On one of the final jumps, Raully sent his Raptor about 6’ in the air, and upon landing he bent his third method rim; thus, giving him a flat tire. After a quick Rally.Raptor Chase Team tire change, he was back on the dunes with a zip tied finder and a bent skid plate. As soon as the ROC group headed back to camp, some of the girls were anxious to shoot back some pickle back shots (pickle juice and whiskey- EW!).
Our campsite was massive. We had roughly 7 trailers and over 27 vehicles! That night, Patrick began the BBQ, which consisted of 41lbs. of Santa Maria style Tri-Tip, marinated chicken from Forged Off-road, freshly caught Alaskan Salmon, thanks to Steve, homemade beans and salsa from Matt Luis’s awesome grandma, grilled green onions, garlic bread and potato salad. Making the feast was a community effort, with Thuy and Mark Evans helping out with the grill. While dinner was still being made, Raully was taking anyone brave enough to get into his Fox 4.0 equipped Raptor for a quick high-speed run on the whoops section. Hitting up to 90 miles per hour during this section, Raully didn’t know that one of his passengers, Steve, had an opened beer can with him and it exploded everywhere; however, everyone was laughing so hard and created a new story to tell. Many thanks to the ROC ladies for helping with dinner, setting up the buffet table and making sure nobody went away hungry: Gina, Anna, Rebecca, Helengrace, Delaney, Van Tran and Lori. After dinner, raffle tickets were drawn and sponsor prizes were handed out. The prizes included: Evil Manufacturing tie rods, R1 Concepts rotors and brake pads, SVC off-road supplied pedal commander, Forged off-road sway bar, silicone vacuum lines, Booze, and a gift card from Raully’s sponsor, Mcdonald’s (LOL). With everyone full from the awesome dinner served by ROC, everyone circled the massive campfire to enjoy the cool night with an ice chest full of adult beverages brought by Raully and Delaney.
On Sunday, it was time to pack up and head home. Raully had to crawl under his truck to bang on his starter, just as Orville showed him. Patrick and the Forged Off-road crew stayed behind to see each member off, and to ensure nothing was left behind. The camp was left cleaner than it was when we got there, and with a late lunch at Beach Burger at the dunes, the great weekend came to an end.
