Not quite a return from the dead, but close, too damn close. Our guest today, Kevin Carey, suffered a hemorrhagic stroke in December of 2017. He’s had a long road of recovery, but the future is bright. Kevin shares his history of wheeling, the Rubicon and military life with us on this Episode of Conversations with Big Rich.
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5:20 – part of the BMX craze
7:59 – Protecting the big names, Schwarzkopf, Martin
10:34 –Understanding vehicle dynamics started from investigating accidents
14:00 – he start of private security consulting
15:52 – he makes me uncomfortable driving
17:34 –notorious Pirates
19:51 – world champions
23:46 – wheeling with Veterans
27:51 –the Rubicon Trail is well cared for
32:09 –the Powertank connection
36:20 –I went to sleep and I never woke up
52:56 – What do I get for doing this?
58:53 – It’s not about mud flying, it’s about emotional interaction
We want to thank our sponsors Maxxis Tires and 4Low Magazine.
TRANSCRIPT
[00:01:20.530] – Big Rich Klein
On today’s episode of Conversations with Big Rich, we have Kevin Carey. Kevin is a past president of Pirates of the Rubicon. He was a big influence in Wheeling when I got back to Placerville, California, after being in Utah.
[00:01:35.500] And he’s worked with land use groups and veteran groups, been a competitor. So we’re going to talk to Kevin about his early days and where he’s at now. So, Kevin, thank you for coming on board and sharing your life history with us and our listeners.
[00:01:54.430] – Kevin Carey
Oh, thanks, Rich. It’s good to talk to you.
[00:01:56.500] – Big Rich Klein
Yeah. So let’s let’s get started right from the beginning. Where did you grow up?
[00:02:03.190] – Kevin Carey
Well, I’ll make it as quick as I can, so I’ll. Quickness is not a necessary thing. Yeah. I was born in 1968 in the I was born in the Bay Area. And my dad and mom lived at that time in Oakland and my dad worked in San Francisco shortly after that, a couple of years after I was born, we moved up to Westwood, California, which a lot of your listeners probably don’t know where that’s at Lake Almanor and Westwood.
[00:02:33.440]
And my dad, after being a stockbroker, decided he wanted to build houses. So we went up there and did that until I was a young teenager. So we lived up there and he owned a small bowling alley in Westwood. And Lake Almanor is really pretty up there, but I got to go back and visit. So that kind of that’s where I grew up as a young kid. And then once I was in my very, very early teens, you know, 12, 13, they sold that bowling alley.
[00:03:05.780] And my dad decided that it was a good idea for the whole family to move to Alaska. So Alaska, yeah, to Anchorage. And because we owned the bowling alley, my dad found a place he could get a job up there, and so we drove in my dad’s three quarter ton surburban up through California all the way through Canada on the Alcan Highway. Nice. And went to Anchorage, Alaska, and lived there for about a year. And then we return to the Bay Area and my dad got a job again and we bought a house in San Leandro.
[00:03:43.200] – Big Rich Klein
So when he was up in Alaska, did he work the pipeline?
[00:03:47.160] – Kevin Carey
No, he did. And he was working on managing a bowling alley. Oh, OK. of all things in Anchorage, you know, so did that. Then we move back to the Bay Area. My dad got back in business, stocks and bonds and we bought a nice house in San Leandro, which is right next to Oakland. Right. And and San Leandro at the time was really nice town.
[00:04:08.640]
And that’s where I went to middle school and then went to high school and graduated from there. So, you know, then the whole a whole nother part of my life story starts, you know.
[00:04:21.780] – Big Rich Klein
So when was your first exposure to the vehicles? We won’t necessarily get right into Off-Road, but
[00:04:29.220] – Kevin Carey
it was when I was young, my dad was always into Porsches and mostly Lotuses. So I noticed he was really into those kind of sports cars and used to autocross. So he had a couple of Lotus Europa’s, which are really cool cars. And then we had older cars, 56 Packard, 56 Tbird he bought my mom. So we always had a lot of vehicles around the fact my first car was a 1958 army I bought from a neighbor across the street from my house in his garage, that’s.
[00:05:04.670] Yeah. Yeah.
[00:05:07.100] – Big Rich Klein
So in high school in San Leandro, did you did you participate in sports or were you more of a social club member or just kind of did your own thing?
[00:05:20.490] – Kevin Carey
I had kind of all of the above, and I’m into sports, but it didn’t rule my life and I was really into BMX riding and freestyle BMX riding. So, I mean, like half pipes and quarter pipes and skate parks on a BMX bike. So I had a lot of really high end BMX bikes at the time.
