The 2021 WE Rock schedule just released, Big Rich brings you another new competitor’s perspective on competitive rockcrawling. Hear Jason Childs talk about his journey to get started, why he choose to jump straight into the Unlimited class, and what it is really like.
Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to Conversations with Big Rich on your favorite Podcast Player
If you are interested in competing, check out the rules on www.werocklive.com; the schedule and call if you have any questions. I’m happy to help.
2:35 – learn about the classes in WE Rock
9:47 – I really wanted a Samurai
12:15 – why don’t you go to Supercrawl?
14:32 – Do you really want to do all that work?
16:18 – The start of the new car
20:29 – I’ve always been competitive
28:15 – I still have so much to learn
36:48 – That’s how you learn from the best
38:06 – Bonus, a quick lesson on competitive skydiving
We want to thank our sponsors Maxxis Tires and 4Low Magazine.
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TRANSCRIPT
[00:01:20.250] – Big Rich Klein
With last week’s episode and this week’s episode of Conversations with Big Rich, I’m trying something a little different. We are interviewing new competitors to WE Rock. The idea behind this is to give other competitors or future competitors who may be our listeners a chance to hear what it’s like from two guys that are just starting and what their experiences were and why they did it the way they did.
So far this year with this podcast, we’ve been talking about the history of rock crawling and four wheel drive motor sports, so we thought we’d change it up a little bit and discuss WE Rock rock crawling and how we can help new competitors get started. That’s the idea behind these two podcast last week and this week. For more information on WE Rock itself, you can go to WEROCKlive.com. We have rules for all of our classes, plus we have contact information for myself, the rule book, so that you can study the rules, if you like.
And just to let you know your first time out, we suggest that you come to the judges training sessions, which are typically Friday night and Saturday morning, and we’ll post those specifically for each event. But it’ll give you a chance to see what the judges are calling and how the event is actually scored. To give you an idea of what we do class wise, we have three pro classes for buggies or vehicles and we have three sportsman classes for buggies or vehicles.
And we offer a UTV class and actually two youth classes for five year old to eight year old and then nine to 11 year olds. The sportsman classes, starting with the smallest or least capable of the three classes, would be our sportsmen C. Sportsmen C is more of a full body. Thirty seven inch tire size maximum and no rear steer. Also like suspension on whatever the vehicle is being claimed to be. We have a sportsman B class, which is a little more complicated because it can be basically our trail rig class and you can go up to 40 inch tires on a single seat or forty twos on a two seater.
And then we have our sportsman a, which is an unlimited buggy trail, buggy class, it can be single seat or for a two seat. It also allows rear steer, although you do get pointed as a penalty for using the rear steer on course. You only get the penalty once per course, and that’s more of a strategy than it is anything else for that class, then we get into our pro classes and the pro classes are mod stock, which is a thirty seven inch and under tire size class, and it’s a full body and like suspension class.
Then we have our ProMod class, which is up to 40 inch tire two seat, front engine, no rear steer, and then we have our unlimited class, which anything goes. You do not get pointed for rear steer as a penalty in unlimited, but there is a penalty for using rear steer and the spotter rope on the same course, you can use one or the other without penalty. The sportsman classes run on what we call our C courses, and the C courses are tamer, but still a challenge even for those unlimited trail buggies.
There’s multiple lines and bonuses. So even if you’re a sportsman C competitor on thirty sevens, you may be running on the same course as a sportsman a but you’ll have lines designed for you to be able to get through as well as lines available for those unlimited buggies. You can find videos of rock crawling on our YouTube channel, which is We Rock Live. We promise that if you come out the first time, we will treat you kindly and we won’t we won’t kill you.
I guarantee it. We’ve never we’ve never done that yet in 20 years of rock crawling. So come on out. Enjoy yourself. Get to know everybody that’s out there. The pros are more than happy to help the sportsman. It’s a way for them to get to know everybody and for yourself to get to know everybody, we camp on site at all of the events. So bring a motor home, bring a tent, sleep in the race trailer.
Whatever you’re comfortable doing, we always have porta potties on site, sometimes running water. I believe that you’ll have a really good time, even if it’s your first competition and you’re worried about what’s going to happen, don’t be come on out, enjoy it. Watch look at the courses, walk the courses, talk to the pros, talk to other sportsmen and come out with a good attitude and enjoy yourself. It really is a great lifestyle.
[00:06:56.450]
Thank you for joining us on this episode of Conversations with Big Rich.
Today’s guest is Jason Childs. He’s a newer competitor, you would say to Rockcrawling. He jumped right into the WE Rock Unlimited class last year with a Jesse Haines fabrication buggy. And we want to talk to him about his decision to jump in not only the competitive rockcrawling, but the highest class there is and the class with probably the toughest competition at the moment. So sit back and enjoy this. All right, Jason Childs, thank you so much for coming on board and being part of conversations with Big Rich and maybe giving us a little bit different perspective on rockcrawling, not so much from the history side of it, like guys who have been competing for 20 years or competed 20 years ago or so, but basically a newbie’s idea of rock crawling in what interest you had getting into it.
So let’s start at the very beginning and, you know, tell us where where you’re from, where you grew up and how you got started.
[00:08:06.050] – Jason Childs
Well, kind of started. I mean, as a kid, I was born in Sacramento. My dad had take me hunting every weekend, every day, if he could. And that was our off roading to start with. We deer hunted, drove around, hiked a billion miles, never really saw anything. But then as as I grew up, I kind of moved all over. My family was heavy machinery, mechanics, and they worked on the pipeline and big rigs at Patkar and a few other place
So I ended up living in Fairbanks, Alaska, Puget Sound, Anticortes, Washington. I mean, pretty much everywhere. And that work took us. It was kind of like the military life. Ended up in NorCal because of the temperature. I mean, as my my stepdad, my dad or my basically my parents got a little older.
The warmer temperature was easier for them to acclimate to. And that’s kind of where we ended up and it just stuck. So I had an old forty three Willys m.b that I probably drove way too many places that I shouldn’t have beat it up for a while and life kind of took its course and got away from it for a little bit and got a little older and I wanted a Bronco so I built a seventy two Bronco and I put a fuel injected 5 0 in it and had some fun there.
It was thirty eight swampers back then and had just had a good time. Then I was told that we wanted a house and I was like, you want a house. And I was told to sell it for the down payment. So that’s where that went. And I got away from it for quite a while then kids, family. And I was like, this is time.
I have to get back out there and started looking around and was told, no two doors, no scratches. No, I wanted a Samarai. I wanted a roller. I just wanted something to beat up on and ended up with a four door JK. READ MORE
