Outskirts Overland Podcast
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Outskirts Overland Podcast
Off-Road Community : Inside Toyota Jamboree 18 and Razorback Ramble
Get ready to shift into high gear as we journey through the world of Toyota off-roading with special guests Jambo Bobbo and Jay from Razorback Land Cruisers. Together, we tackle the anticipated 18th Toyota Jamboree and the Razorback Ramble, bringing you the raw thrills of rock crawling and Stampede along with the camaraderie that defines these epic gatherings. From the strategy behind event planning to the exhilarating tales of competition and community, we've got the insider scoop on the events that set the bar for off-road enthusiasts.
Strap in for a wild ride as we tear down the trails of friendship, teamwork, and the unbreakable bonds forged in the dust and mud of off-roading events. Our guests share heartwarming stories of themed events that capture the essence of community, from 80s throwbacks to Pups and Trucks meetups. Discover the secret ingredients that transform these events from mere meetups into legendary experiences, where winning a trophy means glory, and the shared passion for Toyota trucks creates friendships that outlast any adventure.
Finally, rev up your engines for a deep dive into the role communication technology plays in keeping these events safe and successful, and a nod to the unique ways Toyota engages with its die-hard fans. We salute the off-road spirit that unites us all, celebrating the event photography, personal growth, and the laughter we share as we create memories to steer us through the journey of life. Join us, and let's get muddy together in the backcountry!
The Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, this is Outskirts Overland. Today we've got a really cool show. I've got a couple people on with me and I'll introduce them here shortly. I'm going to get through my house cleaning stuff here first. If anybody from Go Fast Campers ever listens to this, if anybody that does listen to it wants to reach out to Go Fast Campers and tell them I'm pimping their product, I would love to work with them. Please, please, please, help me out so I can help them out, so we can help each other out and get rid of this rooftop tent in my background.
Speaker 1:Secondly, toyota Trucks of Arkansas. It's a Facebook group that I have a couple friends that are curators of. It's a great Facebook group. If you're in the Midwest area, you drive a Toyota and you like cool people, go ahead and go over there on Facebook and check it out. So, without further ado, today I have a couple people on here. I have Jambo Bobo, who's with the Toyota Jamboree, which will be here in a couple of weeks, and I have Jay with Razorback Land Cruisers and the Razorback Ramble, and it'll be in June. So two events right up on, right up on coming up on us, on us. So first things first. I'm going to, um, I'm going to introduce jambo babo here and let him talk about the event, kind of what's going on with the event, and then following that, I'll let jay kind of kind of dive into what he's got going on. So, uh babo, what's up?
Speaker 2:hi, I am a guy who sits down at jambo and watches people have fun. Am I do? I does that? Am I nailing this? I feel like I'm nailing this. No, this event I don't know if anyone is even aware of it is a big event and it happens in East Texas at Gilmer. Barnwell Mountain Recreational Area is where we actually host the event. We are home of the largest Toyota off-road event in the country, the Toyota Jamboree. So this is our 18th year doing it. This year is May 2nd to the 5th, next year is the first week of May as well, and hopefully the following year is the same thing. This is how we do it. If you go any later, it's too hot for Texas. If you're any earlier, you got to worry about dodging big windy circle things.
Speaker 1:Ternerders for texas, if you're any earlier. You got to worry about dodging big windy circle. Things turners, I think, is as they called it. Yeah, and that's definitely not something you want to go through.
Speaker 2:An event full of you know vendors and stands and vehicles, trucks and canopies, knocking on wood that that isn't going to happen yeah, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you don't want that to happen, right so, so, yeah. So, as your events coming closer, are our sales for tickets still open for that event?
Speaker 2:So we we actually allow people to walk up and purchase tickets if they want. Ticket sales are still open toyotajamboreecom. If you're a vendor, you might not make it on the shirts anymore, but that still is open as vendors versus sponsors. Sponsors we've kind of locked them all in. Can't really put another logo on a shirt because we've already had an order on. The event is literally what? Like 10 days away, I'm stride.
Speaker 1:That's what I was like when you just told me that. I was like oh man, that's like tomorrow, like that's tomorrow.
Speaker 2:That's coming, I leave. I leave Saturday. I think I may have to take leave Friday, but I leave Saturday to get to Texas. I'm actually in Alabama.
Speaker 1:And just for basic stuff, the people that will listen to this later and they're not familiar with the Toyota Jamboree. You say it's the largest Toyota event, off-road Toyota enthusiast event. So what are we talking? How Toyota event, off-road Toyota enthusiast event. So what are we talking? How many rigs, how many sponsors, how many vendors, what's going on there?
Speaker 2:We get around 40 different vendors or sponsors that show up. We have. Last year, I kid you not, chris did a count. This was the funniest thing ever. He did a count and it said 777 trucks and he messaged me and he goes.
Speaker 2:I'm noting, and I was like, well, you, you may have messed up, because I don't care, that is the coolest number. I want to post right 777 trucks. And I was like so. Then later he recounted and I think we had an 810. Yeah, it's like, well, that's not a cool number, but it's not a cool number. But it may have been cooler to say we broke 800. And then he goes. I'll have to recount again because I keep adding, because he has like different charts for everything that we use to do a lot of our uh setup.
Speaker 2:But sponsors are on one, vendors are on another. Some of the vendors get a truck, some of the sponsors bring their trucks. So trying to tally them all up becomes silly, but that's what allows us to equate to the largest is the number of trucks. We have about 1,500 people that show up. I think last year's raffle was in a value of over $60,000. And this year we're doing a volunteer raffle, not just the general raffle because we've realized, even though we give shirts and tickets away to some of our volunteers, the problem is just because you have a raffle ticket doesn't mean you're going to win anything. That's just the reality of that right.
Speaker 2:All right so we're doing a volunteer raffle for our volunteers as well, so that we can give back to everyone who who's doing all this hard work for us. Because, keep in mind, this is a volunteer, I don't get paid. Uh, chris stares at me all the time when I ask to get paid, like what are you stupid? Nobody else gets paid. So I think the worst part about it is we'll spend all this time working up to it and then, as soon as we're done, we're like can you at least buy us dinner? Yeah, right, chris does do that. He'll buy you dinner before he takes it over, right? Yeah, all right.
Speaker 1:I'm going to hop to Jay real quick. So Jay is with the Razorback Ramble. It's an Arkansas-based event and I'm going to let Jay take it from here. What is your event? Where is it?
Speaker 3:at. Yeah, so the Razorback Ramble is actually held from May 30th through June 2nd. This is the 25th year that we're running it and so this is actually the oldest off-roading event in general just in the state of Arkansas. The Razorback Land Cruiser Club is actually the oldest club in the state of Arkansas as well, and so you know we're actually both same. Toyota Jamboree and the Ramble are both TLCA sanctioned events, which is, I guess you could call the mothership, which is the Toyota Land Cruiser Association, and so they actually sit down with events and kind of guide us and make sure that we don't step on each other's toes too much as far as dates go, and you know, if they are pretty close together, they make sure that they're on opposite ends of the country.
Speaker 3:So the Rainbow was actually held down in Hot Springs over at Hot Springs Off-Road Park Jambo Bobby and I were just down there. What two weeks ago down there for the Eclipse event had a good old time. We did a talk show down there about it, but it's pretty exciting stuff. Doing all this work leading up to it makes me appreciate a lot of what Bobby was saying at the Eclipse about all the event work leading up to it makes me appreciate a lot of what Bobby was saying at the eclipse about. You know, all the event work leading up to it, all the emails talking um. You know putting all the puzzle pieces together ahead of time.
Speaker 1:Right, and then then six kind of the same questions as far as tickets still available. Where can you get tickets?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so ticket sales are still available. We do allow walk-ups Same kind of things though After a certain point we can't really guarantee that you're going to get the shirts in on it. So we close registration here in six more days, on the 30th, and then after that people are still welcome to buy. We should have a couple extra sizes in shirts, but it's just in no way shape or form a guarantee. Um, you can get your tickets over at razorbacklandcruiserscom and there should be a tab up top that says, uh, the ramble on it perfect, perfect.
Speaker 1:So as we, uh, as we, as we look at these events, one thing I want to talk about that I think is is a big part of like this is outskirts, overland, overland's a big deal now, but this is for Toyota off-road enthusiasts overall. And one thing that I like about both of these events is they're not expos. So I think that's one thing. I want to make sure that everybody that listens to this I don't want to be partnering with expos. Ok, nothing against it, just not my jam, I'm about it, you know.
Speaker 1:So, as I bring these guys on um, I want you guys to talk about, like, what community comes. This isn't an event that that that off-road enthusiasts come to, you know, with tire shine, so let's talk about it. So so tell me first off, let's start with Jambo Bobby, Like what's what's out there for your enthusiasts that comes to your event, that they can take part in?
Speaker 2:So you say you're not a fan of expos. I wouldn't say we're an expo by any means, but at the same time we do have a vendor section right, and that vendor area allows for a lot of learning about new systems, seeing what's out there to purchase right. And our vendors also host a lot of our events, like the Stampede, which is a timed race event, one at a time, not a group race, right.
Speaker 2:And I hate to call it- a race, because that signifies that we've sanctioned something and we've actually got it organized and really well done. But everybody really does pride themselves in this event. We were joking about this at the other podcast where we talked about how there is no money in any of our events the Stampede, rock Crawl, blind Man's Bluff there's no money to win, actually, it's just a trophy to win. And yet we still have people that will be like no, no, no, no, no, no, no, he's got this size tires. You need to make sure he's in this class. You got this. And it's so funny how much pride these people have in this and it allows them to really build up and make this an event.
Speaker 2:That was never about the events, it was about the off-roading. But it's just turned into something bigger and bigger organically, and I think that's why Jambo is the way it is. Nothing feels forced. It's kind of like hey, like Thursday we sat around joking about what to do on Thursday because Blind Man's is on Friday, the group photo's on Friday, saturday is the Stampede and the Rock Crawl. So what do we do thursday? And we always laugh like. Nobody shows up thursday, except for people who want to make sure they got a good place to camp. But last year we had I think two-thirds of the people show up on thursday. It was just like three or four hours straight people coming into the park and we all looked at each other like we don't have anything to do. What do we do for thursday?
Speaker 2:And and we had already talked about doing like a pups and truck meet up. You know, come, check out each other's builds and, uh, bring your dogs and we can hang out and talk and I'll give the dogs treats and I'll pet your dogs. I love dogs, I'm a dog person, right, um? So so we did that and then afterwards we were like, would you guys like to see this again next year? And everyone's because we also let our photographers go around and take photos of the dogs and everyone's like we want more dogs and trucks.
Speaker 2:And we're like that has nothing to do with Toyota and Offroad. You know what We'll give it to you this year we're doing Thursday night pups, cups and trucks. We may have some cups with some beverages and some trucks hanging out so that everyone can rate them, and we're going to have cups next to the truck so you can put little tickets in and say what truck you do or don't like and then bring your pups around because we have Barks, and Rec is a business that's bringing out some really cool like off-road style dog stuff. I kid you not, I'll have to in a minute here. I'll have to step away and grab some. I didn't even think about promoting this.
Speaker 1:I had no care. Yeah, you're good.
Speaker 2:You're good. It's really cool. They have a dog bowl that looks like a tire. I'm like you have a dog and you need a slow feeder. I know what you're talking about the slow feeder insert, looks like the rim. I'm like yo, 100%, I'm sold. I bought them. I bought them, here's my money. And she was like, well, you're my first order. And I was like I don't care, I'm buying them, just give me the stuff.
Speaker 1:Take my money, it's hilarious and so Go ahead, go ahead.
Speaker 2:No, you go ahead, go on. So an off-road event where people hang out and sponsors and vendors show up to sell things to an off-road event that has a lot going on for three days right thursday, friday and saturday now they're booked schedules. I think we're doing a movie night. I think we're calling it wheels on real wheels and reels. We're going to play back to the future. That's going to be awesome. So after everything is going down, sunset and you're like what, what do I do? Now? We got a whole movie playing. Come, park your truck and watch and check it out.
Speaker 1:Right yeah, bring your camp chairs Hang out, so yeah, so yeah, that's what I say.
Speaker 1:And when I talk expo, I'm talking going to an event in a parking lot at a convention center, just essentially a marketplace. So that's not my jam. But so Jay's got Jay's got a S a very similar thing going where their events in an off-road park. I'm gonna let Jay take it from there too. It's definitely still it's a lot of the same Cause. Like it's again, it's Toyota Land Cruises of America event, but I'm gonna let Jay go on and talk about the Razorback Ramble as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So the Ramble, you know it's pretty much all-day wheeling if you want, if you don't, you can hang out at camp Friday and Saturday night. We do have some stuff programmed for it. So I know that we've got the raffles going. That's a big one everybody wants to know about. This year we're pushing I haven't tallied in a bit but we're a little over probably 25 grand by this point raffle prizes that have rolled in over this time um, you know, live band. We do have a like 80s tribute band coming in. I believe it's called the dusty rose brand band. If I'm talking over my head, uh, off my head there. Um, and I know toyota jamboree is doing the 80s night. So I mean that fits the theme.
Speaker 2:Nice, well, we're doing all 80s theme this year Like completely. Oh yeah, that's why I? Like the pink and the teal.
Speaker 3:Absolutely Need to pull out the mullets for that. I know Craig was sending out the mullet wigs, that's awesome, it's happening yeah perfect, that's perfect Double trouble, doing them at both events.
Speaker 2:Mullet, so double trouble doing both events.
Speaker 3:Mullet all day, dude, I swear I'll show up in a mullet at your event. If you're doing the same thing, I would love it let's do it.
Speaker 1:that's awesome. So, uh you, you were just talking, uh babo, and I'm sure this will be the same thing I'm a big advocate of when you go to any of these events which are more focused on, you know, actually being in the outdoors and meeting people that are using equipment and such things. I like the, the, the pup and truck, because that gives some of the newer people that are going to come to your event knowing there's going to also be experienced people at your event to kind of see what people are actually using, because you can get caught up on Facebook and really be getting sold, and so it's a great time for the community to get together and kind of see what everybody's doing and so it's a great time for the community to get together and kind of see what everybody's doing.
Speaker 2:I think that was why we wanted to do that on Thursday night is because you have like new people that show up and like, so what do I do? And then you just start getting them to introduce themselves to each other, and I've said this story so many times, so I don't, I don't.
Speaker 2:I'm going to wear it real thin right here, but I always run into people talking next to the showers and they're like hey, you're the guy that helped me with this and oh hey, you're the guy that did this for me like they've never met each other before, but now they're friends and and they're talking stories. And by saturday afternoon, when you go there thursday, people don't really like congregate together, but by saturday night, all these people are sitting inside a big pavilion. I think it's a, I don't know, it's 60 foot by something. It's huge now, um, and they're all just bsing and talking. We live on saturday night.
Speaker 2:We have to calm them down the rest of the time they're all kind of like okay, oh hey, nice person, by saturday it's oh my god, you, dude, you were right, we went down that trail. That trail was amazing. You're 100 and it just turns into this like real authentic community feel and we've talked about this numerous times at jambo where you know you spend all year doing this and you're, you're exhausted, and there's some days you look at each other and you go just listen I'm telling you what we need to do. And then that night, that saturday night, when you see everyone out there, sometimes you just kind of get like shocked by it and emotionally stopped in your feet and you're like, holy crap, we did it, we did a thing and it's really authentic for us.
Speaker 2:It has a lot of us wanting to do it every year, just because of those moments where we stop at the end and go, holy crap, we can do bigger, we can go, but what else are we going to do?
Speaker 2:How are we going to make this even funner the next year? And I and I think we talked about this too, jay like that's literally what I think drives our events so well is when we sit there and we look out in the audience of people just the kids playing, like at the eclipse. You know it was a small event together and you're not going to have another Eclipse for a long time, but still a lot of the people that got together for that were people that go to the Ramble or they go to the Jamboree. You know they go to these events, so they all know each other and they're all chatting with each other. Our families are playing, their kids are playing. I'm like this. This is that moment. This is what I do this for, so that I can make sure that everyone around me is just as happy as I am. It's key man.
Speaker 3:Right, that's small scale. I mean you know what? 50 rigs at most. No, we'll say like 50 people to 40, 50 people. But you know, over the course of the weekend you just saw people that had never met each other, people from Washington, all over the country that came in for this.
Speaker 2:And you know everybody made great friends out of it. You know absolutely everybody, and that's it was. It was definitely one of those real slow, authentic build-ups of like a community just grab, gravitating towards each other, and then we it all kind of climaxed, with us at the top of the, the ridge line watching the eclipse and everyone looking over at each other Like this was amazing, this was so, and that's what you build these small events or big events for is like there's a reason and a purpose behind them, right?
Speaker 1:Whether it's donating to a charity, like women rock, or you guys doing live, like lash, or or just us getting together to look at the eclipse, these, these moments that we, we get to cherish and say and look back holy crap, look what we were able to do, this was cool, a hundred percent Right, and that's I mean, that's been my experience at every event too is like even as big as people are in the space, like you're you meet so many people and like this guy knows that guy, knows that guy, like I metay, based off somebody running into him at work that led me to meet you and just like everybody's like it's, it's like this really huge extended family, even though you think it's such a big deal, like it's like at the end of the day, this is john and this is, you know, steven, and like you'll meet these people like and they're real people and they're real cool, um, and it is awesome donovan and I always joke about it.
Speaker 2:I was overseas with donovan and then we don't hang out with each other much anymore because he's still overseas and I'm stateside. But he comes to jambo every year as one of our media monkeys and we always joke about it. We, we get to see each other once a year and we're like are we just gonna? You know that mindset, is it just gonna be the same as it was? You know, you haven't seen someone in a year, but every year it's the same. As soon as he shows up, I'm like well, are you ready? We're doing it and we just get through it. Man, we just it's like you've never left each other. It's like last year didn't end and you're just back at it. It's, those are the real moments, right?
Speaker 1:right back in the element and one thing I want to talk about.
Speaker 1:You both can kind of organically talk about this, but, like I feel like some of these big events don't get enough credit, like this doesn't have. Jay did not organize this event, bobbo did not organize this event. This is a huge congregation of people putting on a huge event guys. So when we're talking about this, I really, you know, I want everybody to go look at these events. You know you're going to have a history on YouTube and Instagram of these events. Go look at them. These aren't cars and coffee where you can camp there, okay.
Speaker 1:So like what's it take? Like what's a team? Like you brought up your friend Donovan coming from overseas to do media, like in total, and both of you guys go ahead with it. Like what are we looking at help-wise? Like I know that Jay's got a board of people in his, but like there's volunteers galore too. Like I know. Like when we talk about like music festivals and stuff not that this is Coachella by any means, but like it's similar in a sense with like you got people running things. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:You want to take this first, Jay?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I mean, as far as, like our board let's say which would be, you know, your voting body that helps make, we'll say, primary decisions on it. We probably have a little over a dozen people that are on that. Um, and then, as far as setup, I mean we're not a monstrous event by any stretch of the imagination. You know we're probably 150 to 200 people is what we'll end up with this year, um, and that's, you know, success. I mean that's dang. You're packing the park out, yeah, um, but, um, you know, as far as, like volunteers, we'll even say, like sponsors, everything. I mean Bobby and I were talking about this not long ago that you're going to piss people off if you don't, if you try and start naming people.
Speaker 2:That's why I said go ahead, go first, bud. You're going to screw it up.
Speaker 3:Because I'll be honest.
Speaker 2:I'm literally. While he's saying all this, I'm looking for my list of volunteers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's probably huge, though I mean same with Jay's situation. We have about a dozen that are in the committee, in the staff right, and I'll screw this all up, but I'm going to try it right. Between Chris, matt and myself running the committee, we have Stephen Colleen, andrew Taylor and then John Agnar sometimes comes in, and then there's also the extras that have slowly gravitated into us more, which is Carol, my wife, chris's wife and other spouses Into Us More, which is Carol, my wife, chris's wife and other spouses. But then that doesn't even start to hit on the number of people who have come and gone from Jambo, who used to be in, and then our media crew, which is Ian Donovan, kevin, mike Curtis and Megan. Then you have the volunteers that show up every year, which I feel like is somewhere between 50 and 100.
Speaker 2:I have no idea how many people literally volunteer at Jambo, because they'll come in for a shift for two hours and then leave and then so on. Who's doing what and who's doing this? And now we have that's how it used to be big time. Now we have kind of our roles and our flow chart for what we are doing and I swear to you, if it wasn't for Chris, we wouldn't have these things and sometimes we would just be like I have no idea what's going on.
Speaker 2:But with Matt that does logistics, myself doing a lot of the communications and marketing, and then Chris doing the everything, we have so many roles between all of us and and and I kind of thought about this the other night steven and taylor a lot of times will get on the microphone with me, uh, and help with the raffle, but steven also does volunteer, taylor does safety for events and you you know what I'm saying Like, there's so many different roles that we have that I just don't know why or how we were able to get so many people who still, you know, put this much effort into it. I don't know what Chris did to our drinks, but he did something and for some reason, we have so many great volunteers that are helping make this happen.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, these events, they don't happen without them.
Speaker 2:No, it doesn't. And I don't know why we. I just I think about it more and more. I'm like how in the heck do we do this every year? I don't know how it just comes off so well. If we were getting paid, I'd be like be like, well, yeah, because so-and-so did their job and so-and-so did their job. But you know it's it's different. It's more like so-and-so stepped up because this fell through and then took care of that. And the next thing, you know, it just keeps working.
Speaker 3:It's a it's a well-oiled machine of accidents oh, you know, like none of the tlc events, anybody gets paid. But know, like the people that you're seeing putting this on that are promoting it, doing everything with it, they're working a full 40 plus hour work week and then on top of that they're, you know, putting in the same on the backend, making sure, you know, shirts get ordered. Are these sponsors getting credit? What are the tickets sold? Did the sale actually go through? Do we need to contact them? What's going on there? You know, did people we need to contact them? What's going on there? Did these people get their camping passes, did they not? Do we have a map of where everybody's at?
Speaker 2:How many times have you gotten a message, jay, from somebody at midnight and then you went oh crap, we really got to take care of that, because that happens so many times. Weeks before Jambo, someone is staying up late working on something and they just go oh my God did so-and-so do this. And then you wake up in the morning going ah what?
Speaker 3:We're not fighting so much crunch yet. So I mean we'll get back on that here in like two, three weeks, once we're getting down into crunch. But I mean we have multiple group texts that are going off at all hours of the night Like so-and-so pledged this, this is what we got. Do we have a final design on this? What's going on here? I mean that's constant.
Speaker 2:We have an ongoing joke about last year's event because Chris showed up with four lamination machines, 600 paper mats and all the material to laminate them. And he looked at me and he goes, hey, uh, so I know you, you brought your wife this year. Is there any way she could um, I don't know sit in one of the cabins and and do this all day today? And I looked at him and I said all day today or all week, I kid you not. It took her over two days to laminate all these maps. And I came in there and it was the funniest thing I'd ever seen because like, uh, it wasn't like that moment on Lucy where she's stumbling through everything, but it literally looked like my wife in here. All right, grab this, laminate, laminate, laminate, laminate, that'sate, that's done, that's done. I was just like a machine just going to town and it still took her two days to do this. So Chris has this ongoing joke. He's been saying all year hey, is your wife coming to laminate? This year? And every time, if?
Speaker 1:he knows my headset isn't on and she can hear me. Every time I'll hear her go, nope.
Speaker 2:That's a no for me, dog, yeah, and, and it's just what happens, because you know we get a last minute. Hey, I need a schedule change. And chris was like I was supposed to send these off to get laminated yesterday. I can't do that now, but they're like, man, I really need this and then we have to do it. It's like who's gonna get stuck with that duty? But I think this year, because of that, we're just gonna print twice as many maps for the same cost that it would be for the lamination and if they get wet, get another map, throw it away, use it for kindling tonight at the fire.
Speaker 3:Drive it out by the fire, use it for it.
Speaker 1:And also these events are put on by these groups. So we're talking about these are Toyota Land Cruiser of America groups. This is essentially a Texas chapter and an Arkansas chapter and this is PR man. Yeah, and I don't want to get you know too off topic, but like that's something that's an all year type of thing for people that live in these areas so you can get involved. These are, these are literal clubs. You can get admission to the to these clubs through Toyota Land Cru cruises of america and get a local chapter. You know to where you live. They have them in all 50 states correct?
Speaker 3:um, not quite. I mean, there's a registry of them, I think, and I'm going to butcher this, but I think there's somewhere in the realm of like 30 different chapters out there.
Speaker 3:Uh, that's not right, um, you're able to, you know, be just a tlca member. You can sign up for that. But then you know there's local chapters. So, like us in particular, let's say, I had a guy message in that's registering. He's from tennessee, um. But then one of our long-standing members we're talking, I think, around 20 years for andrew um. He did live up here but now he's in Faulkner, mississippi and you know he's still part of the club and, you know, does this every year with them and I know specifically because I'm so close to the Arkansas group of guys.
Speaker 1:You guys just had a couple events and, like everybody's talking about how awesome it is, I'm in Missouri in the land of nothing, so there's nothing for me, so I live vicariously through most people here.
Speaker 3:As far as community tornado alley man, tornado alley cruisers is up in missouri. Where's that out of? Uh, I believe it's in like the st louis area, if I'm not.
Speaker 1:That's pretty close to me then, so that's cool. But yeah, I wanted to bring that up because, like, although these events are awesome too, like you guys have other stuff going on with these events, like jay said, you guys still have full-time jobs. You've got prepping for the event. You've got cleaning up all the event. I mean it's a lot, well, and the vendors are cleaning up and everybody's cleaning up. There's a lot, there's a lot that goes into it.
Speaker 3:Really, I used to regna said kansas city. Thank you, g.
Speaker 1:I appreciate you.
Speaker 2:I used to have to drive from Maryland to do our event every year because I knew Chris, because I started just doing media with the event. So every year I'd drive it's about 24 hours straight to get there and then I would crash at someone's house, show up at the park and be like why are we doing this again? But now I'm in Alabama and I'm starting to meet a bunch of the guys out here in Alabama and I'm hoping to go to Mardi Kral, I believe, is at Hawk Pride. I'm going to screw that. It might not be Mardi Kral, but I know they have an event at Hawk Pride in October timeframe that I'm going to go to and bring the media truck to and take photos and video and kind of do exactly what Jay's talking about bridge those gaps between the different groups, right? I mean, that was the whole reason I brought it out there to Arkansas to begin with is you know, we're looking at this from a perspective of.
Speaker 2:We've spent a lot of years building our event to be more than just an off-roading event, to where we can go around, like our recovery team. The jambo recovery team can go to different events and help with recoveries, because not all events have people on standby to do recovery. We have four or six people, like always, on standby, and then we have I don't know another six or twelve trail leaders that come around to help with the same thing. So we have that assistance right. Uh, we also have a comms box that we can just put with the same thing. So we have that assistance right.
Speaker 2:We also have a comms box that we can just put in the back of a truck and drive to another event so we can have comms at the event. We're trying to build it to where, if someone else is having an event, we can help make that event safer, better, doing all of that good stuff for the other hosts that are doing this, because the more that that happens and the bigger that it gets, uh, the more that the community grows, and the more the community grows, the more that they invest into our events and the bigger our events grows. It's just like this trickle down effect. You just got to keep giving back to show more progress as it goes on so, yeah, that's, that's absolutely my experience as well.
Speaker 1:you know, know, I I started off um, I've been doing this alone for ever. Um, and I started going to a few events and now I'm part of, you know, about five different group chats of guys that just pop off with all kinds of stuff and we all live all over um, all over the place, like all over Mississippi, alabama, Louisiana, um, all over the place, like all over mississippi, alabama, louisiana, arkansas, I'm in missouri like all over um, we all these events and we'll even meet up and go together at times that's, that's one of my favorite things.
Speaker 2:Like I always chat in the discord that we have for jambo and I'm like, hey, have any of you guys started the convoy conversation? And it, and it happens where you'll have people that say, oh yeah, we're meeting up at such and such and that before or we're going here and or we're all going to show up at exactly 1 PM. And I mean you know that that just shows more people bridging communications between each other and and growing the community, not just at the event but outside of the event. Like you're getting at right, I can go somewhere now and they'd be like oh hey, fish, come hang out with us for a few hours. And there's more than just me running into a random person, it's a whole community I keep running into. I prefer that because there's always more fun to get in trouble in threes or more.
Speaker 1:Right, and there's a better likelihood of getting out of a bad situation with three or more as well. Actually, that's a. That's a big that's a big deal too, um for sure, for recovery purposes, never will alone hot springs actually has a.
Speaker 3:They have a facility rule that you're not allowed to wheel alone after dark but they keep the trails open until like 11. And I mean we tested that out just at the Eclipse event. I mean first day we sunk a ship in a five star mud hole on accident. So I mean the rules are there for a reason and I did confirm that Mardi Gr crawl is the one that's september 12th to the 20 to the 15th and that one's by the louisiana cruisers actually yeah, is that that's at hawk pride right?
Speaker 2:yeah, that's at hawk pride yeah I'm excited about that because I don't have to drive nine hours to get there and I don't have to work it, I can just hang out right yeah, that's the same reason. I'm excited about razorback ramble. We've all talked about it. The jambo crew is going to try going up there and just hanging out and enjoying an event from the other side. I'm curious how many of us are going to heckle you guys during your event oh, that's awesome, because I mean, you know we don't have to work that one, and I'm assuming y'all are going to do the same.
Speaker 2:You're going to show up to our event and just be like you're taking too long.
Speaker 1:You know, just holler at us no, that's perfect and you guys all work together too. Like, as far as these two events are concerned, like I have them both on because you guys, you guys like not work together, but like you guys are essentially a relationship within different groups as well. Like you said, you're gonna go and just enjoy the event, but that doesn't mean you guys are so also aren't talking, you know, with razorback land cruisers and vice versa, about, like, how things go and what's going on and how like. So that's also one thing that I came to find out, since jay's been more involved. Right, like this is all new for me and uh, I think that is about I freaking sweet is not even the right word because now you got like a network of events that all kind of talk to each other, and that is super cool because you're you're, you're trying to grow each other.
Speaker 2:And then if jay has questions, you can ask me. Or if I'm like, hey, you know, we're like with registration, I'm stupid, let's put it this way and I'm all, what am I supposed to put down here? What did Chris say we're paying for, what are we doing? Like, and he's just messaging me back and forth trying to get everything situated. But we can also just kind of shoot from the hip and ask you know, hey, are you guys doing this and how did y'all handle this problem?
Speaker 2:And those are the kind of things I want us to like grow more with events, because you know we sit around on teams no joke for hours on Wednesdays before the event talking out problems, talking out issues and trying to figure this out. And we're trying to build SOPs so that we can just say, hey, this is a standing operating procedure for something of this nature. This is what you're going to do and this is who you're going to talk to and this is how it should come out. If something deviates from that, we'll have to add this to the list of problems down the line. And I think the more we learn these things, the more we could just back and forth with these guys when we go to their event hey, did this happen to you and how do you deal with this? And that just makes the events run smoother. It doesn't help so much like grow the events as making them efficient, but the more efficient they are, the less trouble people run into at the events, the smoother it gets, the happier they are, the more people show up.
Speaker 2:So, like I said, a trickle effect. It keeps working that way.
Speaker 3:I'm looking at a list of 17, 18 different TLCA events. I mean, how cool would it be to have pretty much every single one of them on Jedi mind like.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, that exactly, but you know that's a lot closer than so. I'm going to go off topic here Well, not off topic, it's on topic but I'm going to talk about a different brand of vehicle. So up here in Missouri, my wheeling experience is lots of Jeeps. Jeeps are everywhere. And there's a yeah, well, my truck still runs.
Speaker 1:So we got that you know, we'll just leave it at that, whatever there's no death wobble occurring with the Toyota. I don't know what's that, you know we'll just leave it at that, whatever there's no death wobble occurring with the Toyota. I don't know what's that again. Anyways, but there's a lot of Jeeps and I do have done a lot of stuff with Jeeps, but even though there's all these Jeep clubs, they're like really independent, like a lot of times. Like Easter Jeep Safari is like a huge event, event and everybody knows about it, but like I don't even know who puts that on or what that really even is. And then there's Jeep Beach, you know, in May or March or whatever. Like these events don't talk. So that's why I wanted to also talk about again like Toyota's even doing something bigger, right, like with these groups. Toyota's doing a lot of things. And I wanted to also talk just to you, jambo Bobby. These are both Toyota based events, but Toyota's also involved as a manufacturer, correct?
Speaker 2:So this is really neat.
Speaker 2:In 2016, I'm going to butcher this name, so I should look it up first but it's Toyota Motors North America, I believe, is the division that came out to release the Tacoma in 2016. And now this year they're doing the same thing with the 6th Gen 4Runner and, as they put it, the lineup. I am so shocked by this, not because of you know, oh wow, toyota's bringing it out, but they came last year and checked out the event and afterwards in their heads they went yeah, this is the kind of event we want to first publicly put this vehicle out there, and that speaks volumes on the amount of work that our team has put together and I say our team because I will admit I am a fraction of the amount of work that puts all this together. The logistics that goes behind this is insane. And to get Toyota to high five us and say, here we are with our sixth gen, that's a, that's huge man. And then, on top of that, we get to see the sixth gen my guy, we get to see it.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. That's very, very few people at this point in time have put a hand on that in. In two weeks from now, that'll be a thousand people.
Speaker 2:You know like I'm going to have to ask, I'm sure, but I do want to touch that damn thing.
Speaker 1:I'm sure you'll, you guys will be able to go all over it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm sure you guys will be able to go all over it.
Speaker 2:It'll be a media vehicle 100 guaranteed we're excited to, to literally just have it out there, more or less, the fact that you know we're going to take pictures, our whole media crew is going to get all excited and take photos and videos, and then you know they're going to do their little. Hey, check it out. This is our I say their little, their big announcement of the truck, and we're going to get to just stand there and and and gawk in awe at the fact that this is happening with us as a toyota group. You know, as, as all of our hard work, you know it it brings us joy, like our baby has come and grown up. It's amazing, and she's 18 now, so it's really cool and I see toyota leaning in.
Speaker 1:You know I do the the overlanding thing more than just the wheeling, but I see toyota like leaning into our communities, like honestly, like Toyota and Lexus both. Even there's the new GX550 Overtrail, which is essentially the US version of, you know, your center and rear locked Land Cruiser essentially, but I think Toyota is putting a lot into it too, which also, which is also huge, like they're they're putting into these events. So not only are we, are we all part of this community, like the manufacturer wants to be part of the community as well.
Speaker 2:They've. They've come out to the event. They bring their own employees, they bring their trucks and they drive them on the trails. I think last year I kid you not there was a rollover. It wasn't one of their trucks, but it was somebody who came to Jambo on the trail with the Toyota group and the Toyota guys from Toyota Corporate literally helped him bring his vehicle back over. It was such a small rollover, it wasn't that big a deal. But the reality is it's like they get it. They're part of this community, they understand the off-road community and I don't know.
Speaker 2:Throughout all the years, you know, I've done media for drift, I've done it for drag and played around with autocross and all that. Very rarely do you see a manufacturer and its team of manufacturers and engineers come out to an event and hang out with the people and and that that is a huge, you know, like honor for us. But at the same time you're right, like as a toyota person, you, you grain up, you gain a bigger connection between that corporate entity because it it feels more real, because they're right there in front of you and if you have a question for them they'll ask, they'll answer them as soon as you ask. It's great to see. So it's not the same as most events, like a Jeep event or whatever. Have you ever seen Jeep come out there and hang out with the people while they're off-roading? But I've seen it with Toyota.
Speaker 1:And I've seen it with Toyota.
Speaker 1:And not only that there's going to be a bunch of industry leaders in product out there that are going to have a lot of product and they're going to have a lot of cool toyotas out there as well, and toyota also being in on the fact that the aftermarket exists and understanding that I mean they're even adding things to the new tacoma, like there's like six or seven blanks in that truck, you know, so you can wire up your own stuff. There's aux switches all over the place. I can't wait to hear about the six-gen 4Runner. See if it's the same. If they're kind of making it mod-ready, that would be phenomenal.
Speaker 2:And we have Dougie's and Tacoma Beast as our title sponsor coming out there. Dougie's is a garage, tacoma Beast is well, they're Tacoma Beast, they're their own animal of crazy, right. But you have, like you said, you have different vendors showing up, the Mellow, who's been around for so long, and then Icon and all these people that are showing up to this event to really showcase what they can do for these vehicles, and then Toyota's just standing by the side going, wow, this is cool, it's pretty magical, but at the same time it's going to be a blast.
Speaker 1:Well, and they're drinking out of the same cup. I mean, they're right there in it. You know what I mean and I think that is just what. I think that's amazing. You know, I drive a Toyota for a number of obvious, normal reasons, but the fact that Toyota and the aftermarket are so intermingled is just that is the best thing ever, in my opinion yeah, to see them hand in hand with us out there on the trails was crazy, dude.
Speaker 2:That that's something that I I didn't expect, because when they came in 2016 you know they came they released the tacoma. They had a short window and they're like, hey, we don't have enough time, but thank you for everything you're doing. And blah, blah, blah, and we were like, okay, it feels very corporate, but appreciate it, you guys are awesome. But the the, the lady who was doing the marketing for us, she was like, no, really, we, we don't have the time, but we wanted to make this happen for you guys and we were honored for that. And now this year, they're like, hey, man, we're coming out full force. Just like last year, we're bringing some people to come hang out and do the event. They, they have found that this, this community, is fun.
Speaker 2:The people that come to our events are the same that go to some of these other events, uh, and toyota is all about it. They, they see the same thing we do man, this wholesome off-roading, hanging out, jamming by music uh, I think this year, like you guys, we got an 80s, uh, themed band that's going to be playing friday night, so it's just gonna be a big festival and then wheeling until you're exhausted during the day. And having them there's is, yeah, man, that's epic, that's big right and another thing that'll separate us from expos.
Speaker 3:Is we actually feed our folks? You know it's an eat and meet, yeah that's awesome, that's part of your ticket on that. You know you get big old dining tables broed out. Everybody's going to sit down have a meal with everybody that you just got off the trail with. You know you're going to get some folks up there talk a little smack on the mic.
Speaker 2:All right, jay, from me to you. I saw how big your pavilion is. You've seen how big ours is right.
Speaker 3:I haven't been there. I'm going to find out here in about a week and a half.
Speaker 2:All right. When you show up and you see the number of tables we have, I want you to know.
Speaker 3:I hate it, I hate it so much because, just like you guys, we got to put them together and tear them down and for 800 people to sit, sit around. Do you know how many tables?
Speaker 2:that is, man I think you're talking 1500, unless you do it in shifts. Oh my god, we. I remember one year I was getting so frustrated because nobody, nobody wants to put the tables up. That just is what it is. It's the worst part about it. And then you got to set all the chairs out. It's the worst thing. You got to line them up and everything. But the biggest thing is you got to unstack them and fold the legs out and put them in place and unstack them.
Speaker 2:I was standing around doing some of the media stuff and setting up the speakers and running wires and I kept noticing nobody is setting up the tables. And it was like Wednesday night. I'm like, guys, they have to be up before tomorrow. Nobody was it and I just got so frustrated and I was like you know what, how bad could it be? And I want to say it's, it's, I don't know, a couple hundred, it's a few hundred tables. I just started going out there one by one doing them and I got about a third of the way done and next thing, you know, I, everyone is just standing around staring at each other like we all have to do this now, don't we? And then everybody dove in and we got them done real quick and they were just like why did you do that? And I was like cause it has to get done.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:But it's so many tables and chairs, like all of this stuff is a. When you start thinking about scalable and how, how big it gets and every year it's always more tables, always more chairs, always a bigger canopy it just starts to get into your head where you're like do we have enough time? We didn't have enough time last year, how are we going to do it this year?
Speaker 1:and one thing I wanted to ask both of you guys is obviously, um, with the cough thing happening, when that thing happened, when it did, you know, I'm talking about what, what, what that, what that do to these communities and what that do as far as growing the events. So, I mean as far as like COVID, no, not that a different thing.
Speaker 3:Well, the cough thing, I mean as far as, like you, like you know, the razorback land cruisers, I mean it kind of just made it go slightly dormant for a while, you know, and that's why, now that things have kind of, we'll say, regressed back into the new normal, which is honestly just as normal as it was before, um, you know, it's getting that revitalization getting back out there, um, letting people know that we're still there, um, cause, I mean it shut down a lot of stuff for a little while.
Speaker 2:We were under the impression that things wouldn't happen again, because in 20 it didn't, and then 21, you know, people showed up and we were like, oh, so it's no different. And everyone was like, no man, we're cool, uh, but it's funny that we've transitioned now three years away from it and it feels like it never occurred, because we're an outside event. There's, there's, there's so many people that know, hey, look, if I need hand sanitizer, I need hand sanitizer. It is what it is. But at the same time, um, you, you never see people uh, afraid of each other at these events, and and you're in the middle of the day, outside in the sun.
Speaker 2:So I don't know if anyone knows the physics behind that. Most bacteria doesn't last in the sun because of uv rays and all that good jazz. So it doesn't, it's not, it shouldn't be a concern. Uh, I think the only problem is, uh, if, if you are sick, please don't come. Stay home, relax, get some liquids in you, take a nap, do what you got to do, uh, but at the same time, I, I don't think I could, I don't think anything could stop me from missing Jambo. Well, and that was I had to wear a bubble. I would wear a bubble.
Speaker 1:I just was curious, with everybody being home for that amount of time consuming so much freaking YouTube about the hobby, if the following year just like exploded because there was so much more information out there than there had previously been and there was so much more information out there than there had previously been.
Speaker 2:And we also opened our doors to people who want to just overland and just come to park and camp and not necessarily go down the trails and go crazy, but just hang out and enjoy the event. So I think that helped us too, because we tried to just step open the market to people who really just like to hang out, and we had enough events throughout the day that we got. We're blessed to be able to do that. So it's it's a different mindset, I think, because I know pre-candid coffage we always had. Everyone was about wheeling. It's like nobody was about being up at the pavilion and then, except for dinner and hanging out with the vendors that they knew, right, and then you kind of had these frustrations where you're like hey guys, there's a new vendor over here, there's a new this.
Speaker 2:But we were also much smaller and people were very tight niche back then, and every year, though, we've been growing. I think a quarter of the people that show up are new people every year. So if you think about that, you have people who didn't know about Jambo last year. So when we're telling them, we have costume contests and all this stuff going on. They're like, oh wow, every year is like this and I'm like, well, technically, every year we add a little thing, so next year something new will be there, hopefully, if we have time in the schedule. But yeah, we kind of grow it bigger and bigger, so that's what people are starting to get accustomed to, and we've just changed a little bit every year never drastically remodeled, um, except for how we set the can't the canopy out because it got too big. But so it's just allowed us to make marginal gains and marginal adjustments to it and keep us from really getting hammered with those problems.
Speaker 3:Right. How many years have you been doing this, jambo Bobby?
Speaker 2:Nine ish, I think. Chris called me back in like, and I want to say, as jambo, 10. So yeah, eight, nine years I've been doing this with them. And he called me back then and was like, dude, you have got to bring your camera, people need to see what this is. So I showed up and I just went around taking pictures and just he, let me just do whatever I want to. And then I was like man, you know what you should do? He's like what? And I gave him some ideas and he's like those are stupid, shut up. And I'm like, yes, sir. And then over the years I got used to being told those are stupid and shut up that. Now I'm just like, hey, I got a stupid idea. And he's like let me hear it. And I tell him he goes wait a minute, that's an okay one, that's a good idea, that's awesome yeah, cause I don't know if that's good or bad.
Speaker 1:I know that Jay is in Arkansas and I do a lot of wheeling, overlanding, whatever. I do do a lot in Arkansas and I know it's grown there Like it's really grown there a lot and Jay goes out. I mean, how often do you go out, Jay? I?
Speaker 3:mean weekly, Probably like twice a month. Honestly, I know last week you were saying weekly, but usually about twice a month.
Speaker 1:I was just basing that off of how often you've been going out.
Speaker 3:Spring and fall it's usually a little bit heavier, but in the summer, like July, August here in Arkansas, there ain't a chance in hell.
Speaker 2:I don't get to wheel as much as everyone else and I kind of make jokes about it, but if you put me down a trail with you, I'll be fine. Uh, my thing, I'd rather sit behind the camera. I like taking photos. I like like, even at the eclipse, you know, everyone was like let's do this, let's do this, and I'm like I am definitely going to be prepped for that eclipse. I want to get shots of that, because that's what I love about it is capturing the moments that happen.
Speaker 1:And I actually talked on that on another podcast I talked about. You know, this is more or less something that I just said I'd get into because I've been overlanding for so long. I was like I have a lot to teach and whatnot. But I said that to somebody else. I was like almost doing this, like a lot of people like. So I'm into it because I like the overlanding and the off roading, but there are a lot of people like yourself that prefer the videography of the outdoors and this is the vessel to get up to that and that's and I think that's also a huge, a huge thing. I just talked about, you know, people getting into it because they're going to be, you know, digital nomads due to Starlink, and then you've got a bunch of photographers that do it and then, naturally, get into YouTube because it's, it's I mean, why not?
Speaker 2:Progression right, yeah, and and and our, our goals. You know, chris and I talked about this a lot, so I've I've known, I went to school with Chris years ago and and we've always talked. You know different stupid hobbies and interests we have, and he's pretty much the guy who taught me a lot of my media stuff. If I ever had a question because he went to school for it. I went to school to teach painting, I kid you not. But then I joined the army and I do a whole different thing now. So I would over the years I'd message him and be like hey, man, how do you do this in Photoshop or how do you do this? And he would just give me all these tips. And then after a while it turned into people were paying me to show up to events or paying me to travel with them, or I was shooting for everything.
Speaker 2:Driftcom, which is, you know, at the time was one of the biggest drift websites out there globally and I didn't even realize that it turned into that. But I was like I just like it, I'm sorry. And then everyone's like well, you need to keep showing up to these events. So when I got into the off-road community, I had a Scion XB that I ended up the second or third time I was at Jambo. I lifted it two inches, I put some big tires on it, some 10 mil spacers on it, a roof rack, and I went driving around in what we call the struggle bus and I had a blast. And then people would let me drive their trucks. They're like this guy knows what he's doing and I'm like I don't, but okay that's awesome.
Speaker 2:That's fantastic and then being on the media side of different recoveries over the years, I learned how to use a snatch block. I learned how to, you know, set up a winch properly. You know, I learned all these things just by watching. You know, john and Steven and all these guys do recovery so well in front of me and I'm like I think I know how to off-road. So I every now and then when I go to Jambo, I'll rent like a four runner or something back in the day and I'll drive down the trail and mean I never did that, no, ever did that, uh, and I would enjoy a rental off-road, uh.
Speaker 2:But then I got my own fj and I'm like somehow, like you're saying, you know, you just kind of transitioned into this. And the next thing, you know, I think chris and I have talked over the years how, how we want to do jambo and what we want to get to, and I think right now our goal is to get to the ability to, after Jambo, have time for us to record ourselves and go down trails and blaze new trails or check out parks that we've never seen and get the chance to broadcast it and show the world how fun off-roading is with the minimal amount of stuff necessary or we'll die. And then people will come across our bodies and be like they got some good footage well, they'll write a book about it and you'll just be more famous.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's how that works. That's, I'll write it.
Speaker 3:You know we're good so join the jam of recovery team whenever they're out at other events yeah, but yeah, I think that's I.
Speaker 1:I struggle with the fact that I've just I've done this hobby for 16, 18 years and I talk about it often on here like I just am not much of a media guy, I just suck at it. But, quite frankly, like all of the media people that got into it just look so much cooler, like it's. It's such an interesting thing to me that you know, when I started doing this, the iPhone didn't exist, like didn't even exist yet.
Speaker 2:I don't even want to admit to the fact that I know media is going to be a dying thing because I'm still going to hold on to oh man, the iPhone is going to kill people. Dying thing because I'm still gonna hold on to. Oh man, the iphone is going to kill people like me from doing this business. Because the iphone and and samsung and and even like my uh dslr, it's not a dslr anymore, it's a, it's a mirrorless, right, so it's not the same as it used to be and that mirror man.
Speaker 2:It has such diversity that I can literally set up my settings in it and then just run different custom modes and I go, oh hey, it's close to this time of day, Set that mode up and then just blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, take my photos. And then I go back and look later and I go, nailed it. And even if I didn't the dynamic range of modern cameras, I just go into Lightroom and I adjust the brightness or the shadows and I'm nailed. And I'm and I'm so sad about it because I did this for for drift, with a DSLR the Canon Mark two or Mark one and the 5d Mark two back in the day and I had to work hard to get those shots. And then Photoshop didn't have all these new features. Uh, just hey, I don't like that tree, they're deleted and you don't have.
Speaker 1:We didn't have that back then and I think you talk about media dying. I think that in in. I may be way off base in how I how I come about this, but I think media is so much more editing, slash filmmaking.
Speaker 2:Well, I think composition is going to go away. Where I think what you'll have is somebody will pay for this camera that knows to get the right angles. They'll buy this AI driven stabilizer that gets the perfect angle for you all the time, and then you just tell it what mood you want the shot to be, and it'll give you that mood.
Speaker 1:So kind of like when the gimbal came out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the gimbal made it easy as a matter of fact, we use the gimbal at the Eclipse and we didn't have a DSLR, but I have a DSLR gimbal. So Jay grabbed a GoPro, put it on there and the gopro's too light for it, so I just grabbed a random rocket duct, taped it to it and it just stabilized.
Speaker 3:it'll work, yeah I mean it works.
Speaker 2:Blew my mind on the shots because that was the first time I ever used one oh dude, they're so cool jay I have a hundred silver rig, but if you kept the the time, just pull out the dslr gimbal, just let it do its work, run around with it like a crazy person and that shot just stays perfect.
Speaker 2:It's very strange and and that's what I'm getting at is, once you get into the ai driven side of it, uh, to be able to say, okay, not only it gimbaled, but now make the shot line up just like this and then do this kind of tilt on this specific lens and it'll be more dramatic this way. Or to be happier, to be sad. You know it'll do all that work for you. So the person will just say I want it to be this exciting or I want it to be this kind of mood, and then they'll just let the video do it, and then they'll upload that to the internet and put the song of that mood and it's done, and we're all just go hey, five more seconds of my life gone. Next video, right?
Speaker 1:I think the reliability, like I think what I've noticed is you may be 100 correct and probably 100, I don't know but I think the reliability even even more recently, as you see, people push further into the backcountry with drones. There's a lot of restrictions on drones now and they break a lot. I see a lot more people. I think it got to a point and now I think drones have digressed to some extent due to regulations and equipment failures regulations and equipment failures.
Speaker 2:That's always our concern at Jambo and we even ask during the events or over the pavilion where there's hundreds of people and expensive vehicles please, you cannot fly there, because we don't want anyone hurt. We don't want because here's the thing you know, a lot of people don't know. If they're flying their drone and they're taking that footage and they upload it to the internet and they want to make a dollar off of it, you have to have a license, because if you hurt somebody because the drone decided I don't have signal because there's a power line right there, I'm shooting straight to the ground. That sucks, man, because now we have to hold you accountable and I don't want to have to do that. I'd rather it just be watch the footage afterwards and share the footage and show people what was there.
Speaker 2:Because we have a bunch of vendors that come out that a couple of them have drone licenses and we work with them, with our drone pilot who has his license, and we have them organize what altitude to be at for how long when they're going to land, who's landing.
Speaker 2:First there's a whole procedure you have to do like a runway and then, once we're done with that, there's no real air traffic controller. It's just a guy stand with each other, but when you're done with that, there's no real air traffic controller. It's just a guy stand with each other, but when you're done, the next guy can put up his or he can lawyer with his, and then if there's any problems, they already know the procedures to take care of it and then they have a license, so it's no concern for us. And they share their videos amongst each other and with Jambo, so we can have a lot of footage to showcase to everyone, so they can see it amongst each other and with Jambo, so we can have a lot of footage to showcase to everyone so they can see it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's, and that's exactly what I was even going to say too. Like it's it's also. Can I buy a drone? Yeah, and can I work a remote control car? Yeah, could I probably make it work? I'd say potentially I could, and that's exactly what my drone would sound like actually, and then it hits everything you know but but, but yeah, it's. It's way more involved with licensing and everything else. Ham radios are the same Like you could buy anybody could buy it but you're really not supposed to use it without some training, and I think that's.
Speaker 2:We do that at Jambo. I say training. We don't necessarily have ham radio training at all, but we do have a guy who's got his license and he's taking care of all the repeaters and the different radios. And then we have our own GMRS license for the event and, like, we go through all these logistics to make sure that there's no concern. And then we have a plan for it. And if you want your radio to be set up for our plan I think Andrew is going to do I'd have to look at my schedule on what days he's going to do it.
Speaker 2:I know Thursday he's going to do it. You just go over to him and he'll say what model do you have? He'll have that downloaded model already ready to go and then he can upload into your system what, uh, the programs are, and then you can walk away and go hey, I'm on those channels and you're on the repeaters and you're gonna have great cons because because that's the issue right when you have a park that's 1800 acres across a ridge line with all these valleys in between, you can't just have one radio, you go into everyone.
Speaker 2:You have to have a repeater, you have to. It just is what it is to get down into the valleys on the other side of one of the uh peaks. So the logistics of radios, I mean andrew's great, he's taking care of that, but that's one of those things. You have a person for every section of it at the event, so that you can right logistically manage it and that's a huge part.
Speaker 1:that's a huge part of off-roading, overlanding anything is communication. I mean that's enormous, that's huge, huge, huge.
Speaker 2:Yeah, especially. You know we have a paramedic on standby, so if anybody has a problem and they hit up the emergency channel, the paramedic is literally just waiting for something and he'll take off in a vehicle or he'll say hey, recovery team, we're going down this trail I don't know where that is and they'll drive them straight to it. Handheld units as well. Eric asked if they apply to handhelds. Technically it depends if you have like one of those go things that can be programmed. Right, we have a bunch of different connectors for some of the handhelds that can be programmed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and just from my experience, eric, if it's a two-way, then no, but if it's GMRS or better like a bow fang or a handheld or a GMRS handheld, I would assume if they have an expert there in communications, they'll they will be able to help you in that, in that capacity.
Speaker 2:I think both my radios are in my trucks.
Speaker 1:I can't really show mine are too, and I I yeah, it's, there's some, yeah for sure. But that's a great question, eric, and I'm happy that you're you're on here to ask that. That's exactly what I wanted to kind of occur here is if anybody had anything like that.
Speaker 2:I see Gallant made a comment about how his drone just dropped out of the sky His Black Bear Pass Exactly. I'm always like why are you all so strict about it? I don't know, have you ever been hit in the head by a drone?
Speaker 2:Because I got hit in my arm one year because a guy was driving way too fast by me and I I got cut in my arm one year because a guy was driving it way too fast by me and I lifted my arm up to keep it from hitting my face and it cut my arm up.
Speaker 1:Well, and they?
Speaker 2:default. Yeah, they go straight to home.
Speaker 1:That's what his was doing Correct and fast, I mean yeah.
Speaker 2:I want to say that was like 2018 or something like that. I had a scar on my arm for for a good year after that, the next jam that I came by and I remember it was still there and someone was like is that from that drone last year?
Speaker 3:I was like this is why we say well then, dj, you know, with the under 250 gram flights um, where it doesn't have the restrictions. I mean, they just kind of opened up the floodgates for anybody and my brother to get a drone and crash into whatever.
Speaker 2:That's the fear and people don't understand the RPMs behind those little bitty blades. They're not fans, they're blades, man. They hurt.
Speaker 3:Or just the liability. I mean, I don't know that the TLCA insurance is going to cover that.
Speaker 1:Yeah right, and that's it should insurance is going to cover that yeah.
Speaker 2:Right, and that's yeah.
Speaker 1:I think so too, eric. I think you'll be, I think you'll be solid brother, I think I think they'll have you covered. Um, all right, guys, well, we're kind of. We're kind of getting to that time where I like to, you know, wrap things up, so uh, any, but so any final thoughts from either of you guys? Oh, there's the. Is that the dog bowl?
Speaker 2:Yes, this is the insert for the slow feeder and it looks like a rim. And then this is the tire edge and the water bowl. This is the craziest thing ever. That is cool, and it's got little suction cups so you can put it in the back of your truck and it'll stick right, dude barks and wreck. This lady just nailed it it. She hit it out of the park. I have so many little things from her yeah, it is a puppy first aid kit she nailed it, they have uh no, it's.
Speaker 2:It's literally a first aid kit like a legit first aid kit, but it also has like a little water bowl that's collapsible and all this other stuff, and then of course, drop a tour like uh the shackle. You need a shackle for your puppy that's fantastic it's fantastic dude that stuff that people come up with as vendors and sponsors at this event and, and I tell them all you know, bring the craziest you got, because I'm telling you it's fun. That's how it's going to be fun.
Speaker 1:And it makes. It's always making something a little more comfortable and convenient for somebody. Yeah, Like go fast campers, like go fast campers. They're extremely convenient. If you guys ever hear me talking about you, anyway, they just open up, they go fast, it's fantastic, so fantastic. But anyways, guys, what closing thoughts do you guys got Talk about your events. We'll start closing it down.
Speaker 2:If you're excited to come to Jambo, know that we're excited to have you, but we're also excited to leave Jambo and go to Razorback so we can sit down and do nothing not nothing.
Speaker 3:You're going to go wheeling.
Speaker 2:That's your time to go wheeling but I'm not going to be stuffing all the swag bags. I'm not going to be taking all the money for the raffle tickets. I'm not doing any of that. That's your job. That day, we might just have to throw you on the mic then be taking all the money for the raffle tickets.
Speaker 3:I'm not doing any of that. That's your job that day. We might just have to throw you on the mic then.
Speaker 2:I'll ramble on forever up there.
Speaker 3:Oh, there we go. I mean, as far as what I've got to go with, it's kind of the same thing. I mean I hope you come to Ramble. I also hope you go to Jambo, come to any of the TLCA events that you possibly can, because pretty much all of those are nonprofit events that you know are supporting a good cause while you're out there having fun, and so you can actually see where that money is going to, you know, and it's not corporate America where you're stuffing somebody's pockets that never is even going to know your name. I mean, you can actually see where that money is going.
Speaker 1:You know, the staff there isn't making a single dollar off of it. We're doing it because we're wanting to have fun and it is for the people attending.
Speaker 3:Yeah, right, for the people that are coming. Yes, like it is for everybody else.
Speaker 1:At that point so, um, what's what's everybody's social media? Let's go ahead. Uh, baba, what's your social media?
Speaker 2:so I think I'm jamboBobo on Instagram, but really go to Toyota Jamboree on Instagram. On Facebook, I think we even have a TikTok. Now I don't push that one, I push my JamboBobo on TikTok. Realistically, toyota Jamboree is on everything, so come check us out. There's the 18th.
Speaker 3:And Jay. So our main social media group is going to be Toyota Trucks of Arkansas. That's where we pretty much broadcast everything. The Razorback Land Cruiser page is a private page, and so that's meant more for people on the roll call as far as that one goes.
Speaker 1:Right, I'd also like to pimp Jay's personal Instagram just because it roundhouse kicks everybody else. It's uh, it's walker lexus ranger, and that is what.
Speaker 3:That is the best guys.
Speaker 1:He takes the instagram cake from all of us. So, walker lexus, ranger it's that's pretty good, that's that's pretty good, like it's. So epic, that's just the best name ever. I saw that on the back of his truck the first time we were wheeling and I was like you win.
Speaker 2:Instagram the motorcycle that Chuck Norris rides on in that movie was my uncle's Just leaving you with that. That's awesome. Or in that show, right?
Speaker 3:Say hi, Say hi, Chloe Hi.
Speaker 1:Chloe leaving you with that, that's awesome. Or in that show, right? Oh, say hi, say hi, chloe, all right guys we're gonna hop off. We're gonna hop off. I appreciate y'all coming and I will have this up in podcast form for those of you that came on later. Whatever you'll be able to listen to the whole thing, I'll have have it up tonight on all the major platforms and I greatly appreciate you guys. Thanks for being here. Thanks for having us.