Current president of Terra Del Sol Jeep club, Bill Kassler, on episode 84. TDS hosts the annual Desert Safari on state parks lands near Ocotillo Wells. They are gearing up for their 60th anniversary, Bill shares what their plans are. Stay tuned, it’s going to be a good one.
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3:17 – the beginning of On Any Sunday was any day in SoCal
6:21 – motorcycles kept us out of trouble
13:17 – I did some trails and I was terrified
23:37 – the history of the club
40:34 – yeah, we draw a crowd!
43:54 – you have to have a casual attitude towards body damage
1:00:43 – here’s a story that stands out about Bo
We want to thank our sponsors Maxxis Tires and 4Low Magazine.
TRANSCRIPT
[00:01:20.670] – Big Rich Klein
On today’s episode of Conversations With Big Rich. We have Bill Kassler. Bill and I have known each other for quite a few years. We’ll get into that. But he is also the reigning President of the Terra del Sol Jeep Club, which of course, does their big event called Desert Safari every beginning of March or so.
[00:01:43.110] – Big Rich Klein
But we’ll talk all about that and his history. So thank you for coming on, Bill, and hope you enjoy this process.
[00:01:52.470] – Bill Kassler
Well, thanks for having me big. I appreciate that.
[00:01:55.470] – Big Rich Klein
Yeah, no worries. So let’s just jump right in and find out some history about yourself before we get into the club. And so where were you born and raised?
[00:02:10.050] – Bill Kassler
Well, I was born in San Diego, California. And except for maybe two or three years, I’ve always been here in Southern California, in the San Diego area. My dad was ex-military Navy, and so I’m a Navy brat. And so that’s where I’ve been. And it’s been wonderful.
[00:02:35.850] – Big Rich Klein
So he was stationed down there in Coronado then?
[00:02:40.290] – Bill Kassler
Well, he retired just before I was born. Okay. So he got a job with civil service up in Bremerton, Washington, and he hated the rain. And my mom said when she could see through my skin, it was time to go. So we moved back to Southern California, where my dad got another job with civil service and worked all over 32nd street here and Point Loma and all of the bases in San Diego.
[00:03:10.350] – Big Rich Klein
Okay, great. And so what was your early childhood like down in the San Diego area?
[00:03:17.970] – Bill Kassler
Well, typical. We spent most of our time outside riding bikes. We were on the cusp of BMX stuff, so we had ramps out in the street and on the driveway that we built to do jumps. And the biggest trick on a motorcycle or a bike at that time was a cross up. So we would do that and played outside anything we could do. Games, riding bikes, you name it. In fact, the beginning of on any Sunday. That was any day around Southern California with us and our friends on our bicycles.
[00:03:59.650] – Bill Kassler
Awesome. Yeah.
[00:04:01.330] – Big Rich Klein
That’s a great movie. I had a friend that I went through Boy Scouts with, and he left and moved down to Southern California somewhere at the time. We were just in getting ready to go into high school or first year in high school, and he got into BMX writing down there, and it was relatively new and fresh at that time. I’m a little bit older than you, I believe. And we were riding bikes, but nobody had what you would call a BMX bike. I mean, the coolest bikes that came out were the Schwinn, like Apple crate, Orange crates.
[00:04:42.430] – Big Rich Klein
Those bikes. But that had that big wheel in the back and the little wheel up front. So not quite the same.
[00:04:49.030] – Bill Kassler
Yeah, we were fortunate enough to get one of the very first BMX bikes around. It was a heavy steel frame and everything, but we made the best of them and learned how to Bunny hop and had a lot of fun on them. And I did have a few friends that got into the racing. We kind of never really did. I was never aggressive enough to race, but I sure liked watching it, and I liked playing like I was racing, but I didn’t like being so close to the other riders. READ MORE
