Proline by the Fire 2020 | 5/16/20

[Col_Sanders]

The trails I found were poorly marked and hard to follow. No numbers on the markers and since they intertwined, I'd get mixed up. Didn't even see the renegade rock runner trail since it was on the other side.

Proline used to have killer deals at the event but this year they weren't selling anything but shirts. Only great deal I saw was at RPP for the ar45 straight axle kit. Wish I had bought two.

And what happened to the swag they were talking about? I got a sticker sheet, a button, and a little plush toy.

[soze]

Originally Posted by Col_Sanders

The trails I found were poorly marked and hard to follow. No numbers on the markers and since they intertwined, I'd get mixed up. Didn't even see the renegade rock runner trail since it was on the other side.

Proline used to have killer deals at the event but this year they weren't selling anything but shirts. Only great deal I saw was at RPP for the ar45 straight axle kit. Wish I had bought two.

And what happened to the swag they were talking about? I got a sticker sheet, a button, and a little plush toy.

Sounds a bit like there was a post "Horizon Hobby" takeover effect going on...

[Browneye]

Horizon bought Proline too? Had not heard that...Axial sure, but Proline?

Talked to the young fellas next to us at camp, they were from the Sacramento area, had been to AxialFest earlier in the year. They liked it...no other details. I don't even have a axial rig any more...oh well. And I didn't even hear their event kicked off this year. It's a LONG drive for us to Donner Pass - 500 miles.

If the industry thinks it can survive by posting on FAKEBOOK I think they're fooling themselves. I would say about a third of people simply don't participate on those platforms, so they completely miss out on a good percentage of their audience.

[smog]

Originally Posted by Browneye

Horizon bought Proline too? Had not heard that...Axial sure, but Proline?

Talked to the young fellas next to us at camp, they were from the Sacramento area, had been to AxialFest earlier in the year. They liked it...no other details. I don't even have a axial rig any more...oh well. And I didn't even hear their event kicked off this year. It's a LONG drive for us to Donner Pass - 500 miles.

If the industry thinks it can survive by posting on FAKEBOOK I think they're fooling themselves. I would say about a third of people simply don't participate on those platforms, so they completely miss out on a good percentage of their audience.

Sorry to hear PLBTF was on the underwhelming side. As it goes, Horizon is distributing their attention over more and more so its not surprising that quality of there efforts is suffering.

Did you come across any other Ascenders at the event? Though things really have changed that much with out of the box scalers, it seems the Ascender is quickly becoming ancient history. The sub-section for it here rarely gets bumped.

[Browneye]

I didn't really try to look close at what platforms people were running. There were rigs of every sort and type.
Another slightly disappointing observation were the children driving trucks with their parent(s) - they would mow down the trail flags and never bother to put them back up. One kid got the marker ribbon wrapped around his car wheel and pulled it all out, then left it where it lay instead of putting it back where it belonged. Dad just sat there fiddling with his rig, telling them to move their trucks up the trail. I lost count on how many flag wires I re-set.

I skipped the awards and raffle - there was no 'fire' - we are under wildfire bans. We made a bbq steak dinner instead, with a fine cabernet. LOL

I have three Vaterras left - one is the original yellow C10 RTR I bought way back when. I got new Rock Beast scalers as the old ones were dry-rotting, it has weighted front wheels, and the extended rear, and crawls with the best of them.
My comp rig is the second kit I built, has all the upgrades - vanquish front axle, ssd knuckles, HH motor, 1080 ESC, and still kills it. That rig has lights for night running, and we did the long Renegade trail on the north end of the park - way fun. The hills were crawling with headlights.

I'm thinking about building another sorca comp rig, so looking at kits again. Maybe the SSD one would be the ticket. Or the element. And go from there. I think I'd get one of those truggy bodies from that welding guy - can't remember their name - nice stuff though. (EDIT: SMF RC Works - way cool truggy cages)

[soze]

Originally Posted by Browneye

I didn't really try to look close at what platforms people were running. There were rigs of every sort and type.
Another slightly disappointing observation were the children driving trucks with their parent(s) - they would mow down the trail flags and never bother to put them back up. One kid got the marker ribbon wrapped around his car wheel and pulled it all out, then left it where it lay instead of putting it back where it belonged. Dad just sat there fiddling with his rig, telling them to move their trucks up the trail. I lost count on how many flag wires I re-set.

I skipped the awards and raffle - there was no 'fire' - we are under wildfire bans. We made a bbq steak dinner instead, with a fine cabernet. LOL

I have three Vaterras left - one is the original yellow C10 RTR I bought way back when. I got new Rock Beast scalers as the old ones were dry-rotting, it has weighted front wheels, and the extended rear, and crawls with the best of them.
My comp rig is the second kit I built, has all the upgrades - vanquish front axle, ssd knuckles, HH motor, 1080 ESC, and still kills it. That rig has lights for night running, and we did the long Renegade trail on the north end of the park - way fun. The hills were crawling with headlights.

I'm thinking about building another sorca comp rig, so looking at kits again. Maybe the SSD one would be the ticket. Or the element. And go from there. I think I'd get one of those truggy bodies from that welding guy - can't remember their name - nice stuff though.

I had 3 Ascenders, and I'm down to 1 now. I keep it just because I like the rig, but it was hard to keep 3 when Horizon decided to slash Vaterra. I believe you're talking about Scale Metal Supplies/Andre. Very cool guy, and he's local as well.

[CODYBOY]

Originally Posted by Browneye

Horizon bought Proline too? Had not heard that...Axial sure, but Proline?

Talked to the young fellas next to us at camp, they were from the Sacramento area, had been to AxialFest earlier in the year. They liked it...no other details. I don't even have a axial rig any more...oh well. And I didn't even hear their event kicked off this year. It's a LONG drive for us to Donner Pass - 500 miles.

If the industry thinks it can survive by posting on FAKEBOOK I think they're fooling themselves. I would say about a third of people simply don't participate on those platforms, so they completely miss out on a good percentage of their audience.

Hi Chris did you miss us??? I know Marcia and I missed not being there with our "Camp Out Gang". We ended up having to cancel our cross country for various reasons, main one was the new variant of covid!! Planning on being there next year!
Having said that we are planning a trip to Orange to see friends and family. We will be at Orange Land CG from Oct 12TH to 15TH. Kind of the center hub of people we would like to see. We will be in our motor home with no tow behind so will be kind of dependent of everyone to come see us.
And nice write up on your PLBF experience. Hopefully we will get to visit with you guys about it in a couple weeks.
Ernie

[Browneye]

Sounds good - would love to see you folks. Ping us again when you get closer.
Looks like that's during the week, so maybe we can have lunch or something. We're both still working...and working...and working. LOL. Retirement can't come too soon.

Danny K's makes a mean burger - they're right next door. I don't know how you got a space in that park - I've never heard they're not completely full. The campground over next to Disneyland closed sometime back. Surprisingly, there's not much to choose from close by here.

Pancho's isn't far either, local mexican fare.

[rockhugger]

Hey Chris, Sorry Nate and I missed you guys this year. Camping with you Ernie, Casey... and all the other friendly folks that meetup with us every year is the whole reason Nate and I make the trek.

I would have taken a underwhelming PLBTF any day over the overwhelming life changing events I've been dealing with lately. I hope that things level off soon for me so I can get back to planning fun things with fun people.

Ya'll take care out there, I'm not on here very often lately so I'll check back when I can.



Paul

[Browneye]

Originally Posted by rockhugger

Hey Chris, Sorry Nate and I missed you guys this year. Camping with you Ernie, Casey... and all the other friendly folks that meetup with us every year is the whole reason Nate and I make the trek.

I would have taken a underwhelming PLBTF any day over the overwhelming life changing events I've been dealing with lately. I hope that things level off soon for me so I can get back to planning fun things with fun people.

Ya'll take care out there, I'm not on here very often lately so I'll check back when I can.



Paul

Do tell...overwhelming life...??
Everything is so humdrum for us we can hardly stand it. Hopefully you're managing.

Our three pomeranians have all passed on from old age. The oldest now nearly two years ago - Gracie the white pom, had her for almost 18 years.

So now we just adopted two maine-coon mix cats, 18month old males, they're fussy and fun at the same time. PLBF was our first trip in the RV with them. I made a 'catio' that hangs off the drip rail of the coach, they have an entry passage thru the co-pilot window. They just love it. It took some time getting use to the moving RV, but they're all acclimated to it now.

We haven't been anywhere since early this year, and we moved my youngest to Seattle mid-summer. Empty nesting can become rather mundane. Two more years to retirement.


I notice all the folks that posted early in this thread never commented, obviously didn't make it to the event.
There's always next year - hope y'all can make it. The more the merrier.


Kitty catio...one lady at the event asked if we had chickens in there. I thought yeah, we could have fresh eggs every day. LOL Dear lord...

[DRED805]

Originally Posted by Col_Sanders

And what happened to the swag they were talking about? I got a sticker sheet, a button, and a little plush toy.

I checked in on Friday afternoon and all I got was a 2020 pin and a sticker sheet. "Each Registrant will receive an Exclusive, Limited Edition Prize Pack Valued at more than $50!" is what was advertised. I want the other $47 worth of exclusive limited edition prizes!

[JSterrett]

Originally Posted by DRED805

I checked in on Friday afternoon and all I got was a 2020 pin and a sticker sheet. "Each Registrant will receive an Exclusive, Limited Edition Prize Pack Valued at more than $50!" is what was advertised. I want the other $47 worth of exclusive limited edition prizes!

I would have rather had the pin than another plushie just like the one they already sent out…

All of the public figure types with big social media followings are singing ProLine’s praises, so the odds of ProLine rectifying this issue are probably nonexistent, lol


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[DRED805]

Originally Posted by JSterrett

I would have rather had the pin than another plushie just like the one they already sent out…


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I would have given it to you. You can have it if you want, but i don’t think it’s worth the cost of shipping.

[raul shabinguez]

Wow I'm kind of surprised about the feedback I'm reading. Was I at the same event?

Full disclosure, this was my first PLBTF, so I can't compare to years past. The only thing I can compare it to is Crawlapalooza (used to be better), and RC4WD scale challenge (money grab). I also don't make friends easily and traveled from Oklahoma solo! Which had me way out of my comfort zone.

Because I was alone for this trip, I kind of forced myself to participate in as many of the events as possible, and I am glad I did.
I did the sorcca comp on Friday which was hot and slow. But every comp I've attended is always slow! They had over 60 entrants. Many, maybe half had never comped before! The courses were challenging but fun, and I enjoyed watching some of the true compers make it look easy.
GPS treasure hunt was a fun. It was a lot of work. Plenty of tough terrain to tiny truck through.
The ultra 5k was a blast as well. I placed first in the 1.9 category!
Night run on Friday was epic.
I did all the silly little games to get the swag patches to pass the time.
They even had an entertainer/juggler guy out there all day Saturday giving everyone a show.
Lots of big raffle prizes (I didnt win).
The tacos were damn good too.

Maybe since I'm not from the area, I was just blown away by the place. Beautiful views, awesome rocks, and plenty of places to just make your own trails if need be. That alone made the trip worth it. I'm also a veteran. The ticket price discount was considerable and I very much appreciated it. No other event I've been to offered that.

Also all the volunteers or people running the event stayed hooked up. They gave plenty of effort during the event.

If you don't like people, or heat, or walking around on rough terrain.....I completely understand why you wouldn't like to attend an event in southern California in September, that's on a mountain side, with over 700 participants. My question to you would be, what were you expecting?

No running water was a bummer. Port a potties aren't fun.
The swag definitely was lacking. Compared to what I would expected. At least a T-shirt, otherwise the event didn't happen right?

I plan on making the trip again in future years. Hopefully I can convince some of my running buddies to come with me. That would make it even better.

[HumboldtEF]

Well I'm bummed I missed the event too, would have been great to see you guys.

My local terrain is nothing like Horsemans park so it is truly awesome for me to run there, like being a kid in a candy store. For those who can go there anytime they want I'm sure its a bit less impressive.

To be honest the event is a bit draining for me, its very hot with little shade to be found the drive to get there is longer than the event itself; but having a great group to hang out with has made it worth it. I wish it was a longer 3 day event, that would help me justify the drive a bit.

Hey Paul, sorry to hear you're dealing with drama. I hope you get back to normal soon!

[Browneye]

We could always make it our own 3-day event. They don't chase you out, and/or you can arrive early.
It's the best crawling terrain I've seen yet. The local clubs have events there all year long - Turkey poker run, halloween night poker run, sorca comps, trail running meetups, etc.
The south parking area is actually blm land and it's not gated, so free access year-round.

[JSterrett]

Originally Posted by raul shabinguez

Wow I'm kind of surprised about the feedback I'm reading. Was I at the same event?

Full disclosure, this was my first PLBTF, so I can't compare to years past. The only thing I can compare it to is Crawlapalooza (used to be better), and RC4WD scale challenge (money grab). I also don't make friends easily and traveled from Oklahoma solo! Which had me way out of my comfort zone.

Because I was alone for this trip, I kind of forced myself to participate in as many of the events as possible, and I am glad I did.
I did the sorcca comp on Friday which was hot and slow. But every comp I've attended is always slow! They had over 60 entrants. Many, maybe half had never comped before! The courses were challenging but fun, and I enjoyed watching some of the true compers make it look easy.
GPS treasure hunt was a fun. It was a lot of work. Plenty of tough terrain to tiny truck through.
The ultra 5k was a blast as well. I placed first in the 1.9 category!
Night run on Friday was epic.
I did all the silly little games to get the swag patches to pass the time.
They even had an entertainer/juggler guy out there all day Saturday giving everyone a show.
Lots of big raffle prizes (I didnt win).
The tacos were damn good too.

Maybe since I'm not from the area, I was just blown away by the place. Beautiful views, awesome rocks, and plenty of places to just make your own trails if need be. That alone made the trip worth it. I'm also a veteran. The ticket price discount was considerable and I very much appreciated it. No other event I've been to offered that.

Also all the volunteers or people running the event stayed hooked up. They gave plenty of effort during the event.

If you don't like people, or heat, or walking around on rough terrain.....I completely understand why you wouldn't like to attend an event in southern California in September, that's on a mountain side, with over 700 participants. My question to you would be, what were you expecting?

No running water was a bummer. Port a potties aren't fun.
The swag definitely was lacking. Compared to what I would expected. At least a T-shirt, otherwise the event didn't happen right?

I plan on making the trip again in future years. Hopefully I can convince some of my running buddies to come with me. That would make it even better.

Speaking for myself, I wasn’t trying to say the event was bad, just a little underwhelming (for me). We have pretty great terrain nearby, and a fairly large local event that’s pretty similar, even if they don’t pull the same big sponsors. Having 700 people doesn’t really make the event “better” in my opinion. Here’s some pics from the local event (Jefferson State Jamboree) I went to the prior week…












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[Browneye]

^^I would MUCH rather do that.

We are still contemplating Rogue River Valley for a retirement destination. I can build a brand new house, bigger than what we have here, on a huge lot, for HALF.

CA just has WAY too many people.

[JSterrett]

Originally Posted by Browneye

^^I would MUCH rather do that.

We are still contemplating Rogue River Valley for a retirement destination. I can build a brand new house, bigger than what we have here, on a huge lot, for HALF.

CA just has WAY too many people.

This was just over the border in Montegue CA, but there’s a ton of great (and different) terrain within reasonable driving distance. Kinda funny about the retirement thing. We’re actually considering leaving because the housing market has gone insane… I guess it’s all a matter of perspective


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[Natedog]

As Paul said, wish we had made it there this year, missed seeing Chris, Ernie, Casey and everyone else and crawling chatting, but life has been very busy this year. Hopefully this coming year things are less busy and we can roadtrip down and hang out with y'all again!

Chris, your catio looks great, meow!

Edit: Still have my four Ascenders and they're just as reliable and good crawling as ever.