Thanks for checking out our first podcast! I felt it was only right to start from the beginning, so you listeners get a good idea of where we are from, and where the idea and origin of Chupacabra Offroad started. I think it was important to tell, as many of you grew up just like us, playing in the dirt and having a tremendous passion for it. For me, my passion lead to racing, and then pursuing a career in Powersports, and then starting a business. I have had this crazy idea, to create a business around a passion, and make a living. I’m lucky enough to say that it has come true, and I truly love creating Chupacabra Offroad from an idea, or lots of ideas, into what it is today. In August of 2020, I’m really focused on taking the business to a much higher level, which requires building a team, developing more products, and of course, creating content. It’s funny, the origin of the business was to create content and a community, and hopefully, you can see the ethos of that in what we do. I want to thanks my team, and people I’ve worked with to make great content, website, help handle customer service and product design. The silver lining of the COVID pandemic has been the focus on what is going to elevate Chupacabra Offroad in the future.

Thanks for listening, we know the audio can be improved, but we will get it right! Thanks to everyone that is a customer of our products, watches our videos and follows us on social. We plan on getting better at all of it, and we can only do that, because of you. I think there are some product categories that can be improved, and we can offer great products with great value, and innovation. Thanks for joining us on this ride, and we plan on taking this to the next level later this year and in 2021.

Transcription:

It’s not desert season without a campfire or chupacabra off-road now here’s your host nick olsen what’s happening everybody it’s nick olson thank you guys for tuning in to chupacabra our first ever podcast we’re calling this thing around the campfire and today I’ve got some integral members of the chupacabra team got andrew garvey here from el centro what’s going on guys and below we’ve got wes lefler coming to you guys live from vegas nevada how’s it going excited to be here so you know we looked out there and we kind of looked at all the podcasts in the marketplace and figured that you know itunes needed another podcast so we figured we’d create one you know there’s not enough but um we just um wanted to kind of share some of our stories here I think for this first one we’re going to launch this one on my birthday and I’m the one that created the brand but I thought it’d be fun to kind of go back to the beginning of all of our routes kind of how all we know each other and how we got all addicted to this passion of a playing in the dirt and off-roading so um I’ll start us off um that’s where I met wes speaking of las vegas that’s where I’m born and raised as well and growing up in the southwest you kind of like always had an inkling of being around like a desert lifestyle you know like as many of you guys probably know las vegas has a really rich history in off-road racing off-roading um I wouldn’t say the richest history in dirt biking there was the the world minis back when we were kids but basically you know off-road dirt you know desert lifestyle was really what it was when you grew up in the southwest like all three of us but as a youngster you know I started off as early memory my dad taking me down to fremont back in the day for the mid 400 back when they ran the net 400 on the other side of town compared to where they run it today but um that was kind of my early routes and um kind of growing up with a dad that was always into you know jeeps dirt bike type of stuff and as I got a little bit older my uncle got into dirt bike racing um that this is mid 90s so we’re talking best of the desert as many of you guys probably heard of that racing association well back in the day it was just bikes so you know before all the cars and all that type of stuff trucks and such so we would go and chase my uncle on all these races it was really exciting get together you know many times a year and my dad teamed up with them for a couple races you know like vegas arena all that stuff I think we’re talking like 96 ish so as a youngster going around being involved in all those races I always thought it was really interesting and exciting and then um as I got a little bit older um my kind of passion for dirt turned into two-wheeled dirt mountain biking so um it was definitely something that I could afford I got my first legit mountain bike when I was about 15-ish and instantly kind of became addicted to mountain biking and more so like the adrenaline type downhill type racing type stuff which I was into coming from like bmx hitting dirt jumps building jumps having fun with your buddies and stuff so that was kind of like my early days of of getting completely encapsulated and and this passion of playing in the dirt so fast forward a little bit you know got heavy into mountain bike racing and then um a couple years later I want to say yeah 17-18 I met I met wes and we had a group of friends that we all connected and I let wes tell the story that you know I went to a different high school but wes had a lot of the gang that we all became tight writing buddies and racing buddies were all kind of from a other high school so wes how did you get linked up with this dirt lifestyle and then and then the whole group yeah I was thinking about it today actually and realized how old I was it was 1997 everyone so a long time ago and met nick I was probably around September of that year we were all a big group of friends from a a different high school that nick went to but we kind of knew him from a bike shop that everybody in this crowd worked at no matter who you were you worked at this shop at one time of your life and we were racing um not downhill at that time we were racing cross-country mountain bikes I mean we were really into it you know and we had a race every other week that we thought was like the biggest thing ever here local series here in vegas which led us down the road to opening our eyes to bigger series back out in california and also let us on to leaving cross country because it wasn’t really that fun once we got riding into downhill um and once we got into the downhill scene it seemed like that was just life I mean we lived paycheck to paycheck with our jobs um saved every penny we could to buy this one part or to afford to go to a race or everything um I just remember that the the biggest treat for us after a race was being able to afford to go and eat olive garden and we we thought we had made it at that point going from eating you know dollar menu to we were able to have enough money to eat all the garden after our races and you know we did that for a few years we traveled a lot we were going down to what what is now the the south ridge down in fontana and we raced that series 20 years ago it was great we loved it made a lot of people um we actually had a little team that we had together we that wasn’t sponsored really by anybody um but we were the life of the party down at those races and we all just became really good friends which majority of us are still really good friends today um maybe not as many are in the off-road scene as much as nick and I are but but yeah we we went from there and I mean I’ll let nick continue on from there but yeah I mean I remember those days and how much fun we used to have just riding our bikes our bikes were worth way more than our vehicles at the time that’s pretty sad part yeah yeah the the southridge series still going on today don jackson one of those guys down in fontana which is cool and um the big series back then was norba I’m a little bit older than west but like right when I got into it mountain biking was really big espn launched espn2 x games was big a lot of corporate sponsors you probably remember wes like you know jeep acura coca-cola um you know cadillac brands volvo were into mountain biking it was really really cool for a while and then um you know it started to kind of fan off in terms of overall popularity being on tv and whatnot but it was fun we did a lot of racing up in big bear and like west ham we got into the downhill stuff because it was probably the closest thing to dirt biking and going fast and more aggressive and there wasn’t much of that in southern nevada really until bootleg canyon came along in boulder city so I meant a lot of road trips down in southern california and southern utah even and stuff like that so that was those good old days a lot of fun racing eating pop-tarts for breakfast lunch and dinner so andrew um were your first days I know you know eventually I’ll get in the store and then we met riding racing dirt bikes but walk us through early grom el centro andrew early dram el centro so I grew up here in pearl valley where now I reside um here but I started off as a six-year-old kid getting my first bike a kx 60. my dad taking me out to the desert and just having fun riding sitting by the campfire camping you know we did the desert lifestyle for the longest time by the time I got or when I was in the 8th grade I started racing dirt bikes out here ama just 38 started racing started riding a lot a lot lot more but it was just more of a passion than anything getting in the desert just being out there growing up here I’m so close to superstition ocotillo wells glamis I’m pretty much 20 minutes from octo wells or sorry superstition plaster city about 45 to an hour to octo wells in about 45 minutes of glamour so kind of grew up in the mecca of off-roading um I grew up going octeal wells of course shell reef all that stuff crossing the desert on a kx85 it just kind of stuck with me until until I moved to san diego after high school and that’s kind of where to chase my dream in the motorcycle industry which I spent about 10 years doing that and that’s where nick and I ran into each other I was working at motorworld at the time as an accessories associate pretty much just selling gear boots whatever you know him started talking to nick and we started riding moto together motocross paula and then we started racing and just became really good friends so yeah yeah so in between the time like from the mountain bike days with les um you know late teenagers early twenties kind of quit racing mountain bikes got burnt out on it you know um finished school then moved to northern california got a job with fox racing so um my first job in the industry I guess if you will and was a sales rep so I was up in northern california for three years which is where I met my wife and then my wife and I moved down to southern california in 2009 san diego right in the middle of the big recession as you guys would probably it was tough and stuff that people did in 2009 I think I was still in high school in 2009 but then um you know with the the market really shrinking because of the recession you know I was lucky enough to get promoted and moved to southern california where of course guys are going to ride moto no matter what at least still back then the scene as most you guys know they’re on motocross it’s temecula still in my opinion ground zero of course in the united states for motocross and motocross culture and um you know we made it through that tough year and then um andrew and I we started we met I’m just kind of like rubbing elbows and hey you ride let’s go ride you know we had paula my favorite track still to this day I mean I rode zaka station you know which a lot of people think is amazing and it is right that’s a hard one I have to I’d have to agree that zagat station is probably one of the best motocross tracks I’ve ever ridden yeah any any track you have yeah any track you have to sign in to get into and it’s like you go in and you’re like man this can’t be that good and then you get there and you’re like oh my goodness this is the greatest place ever for moto and I I suck their motto really so I’m gonna see class rider so zach is gorgeous but for me paula um it opened up like a few months after I moved to san diego and was like 30 minutes from my front door I lived in north county essentially and I was lucky enough to get a ride there for free for quite a bit and my wife got into writing we got her a little clapped out ttr230 off craigslist taught her how and um man those are some of the best days and then um all of our buddies um from vegas we would all hang out still even though we moved and get together a couple times a year to race and then I convince andrew after start riding andrew what do you think about doing a workspace man let’s go to speed world out and you know and surprise and let’s go do kahia and let’s go do paula let’s go do you know and all the races that are if you guys are familiar with works racing that’s pretty much all southwest havasu is brutal did that race several times and um got heavy into the moto scene myself just kind of working and living in the culture of fox which was an amazing culture at the time I worked for them you know think about before the recession but 0.50607 you know we had ricky carmichael and jane stewart you know we had to interact with these guys jeff amick was always around these sales meetings you know and um just that energy of a lot of people who even if they didn’t lie they’re really passionate about the brand and passionate about moto um it was an amazing experience work for those guys and really really enjoyed it and then that when andrew and I kind of linked up in southern california um I always rode 450s um the biggest mistake I ever made was my first bike was a 252 stroke and I never really learned how to how to carry momentum in a corner I wish I would have got a 125 but um either way I sold my 450s finally because I kept getting armed up about 250f and that’s when andrew and I first started riding heavy and I had so much fun on that bike I just pimped out a yamaha 250f with gucci forks and carbon hubs and all this stuff and we wrote paula all the time those good days good times good times but um you know we rode some moto for a while did some racing and whatnot and then um at the time wes you were you were you obviously rode mountain bikes growing up like we discussed but you got it heavy into um sand united yeah so um after my mountain bike days were over when I realized that that wasn’t gonna be it anymore I went and got into the quad writing don’t judge me I understand but you know I really I really enjoyed it I really enjoyed it you know like being part of a family that was mainly into quads and mainly into sand dune writing and stuff we spent I mean countless days and weeks in the sand dunes whether it’s coral pink or or over a dumont we also ended up doing a lot of trails like off-roading trails in in utah central southern utah the paiute trails which we would do hundreds of miles in three days and enjoyed that all on four wheels which for me like it was a really hard transition to go from four to two um I’m now being back to four but once I did that transition and you go through the learning curve riding a dirt bike there’s nothing like riding the dirt bike my first bike was I sold my I sold my quad trx 450 that was pimped to the moon I gave this guy an incredible deal I sold it in the parking lot of the thomas mac center here in vegas took that money immediately out to blue diamond which is on the west side of vegas valley here and gave that money to a guy for an arms an 07 rmz 450 and I was excited and then that bike ended up being nothing but a lemon I think I rebuilt it twice in like three months and um yeah from then I kind of found my way into getting some really nice bikes through a mutual friend we have that bp he would like to get a new bike every year and he was very meticulous more of a we call him track queen and you know I was able to pick up a couple of bikes over my time having motorcycles from ep and like I just loved it there’s nothing like a bike once you once you get it mastered and what you feel the freedom of riding a motorcycle off-road it’s just amazing it’s just you know I still miss it today um my garage though is full of four-wheel vehicles so I can’t really you know pressure to get another toy right now but I’m always thinking about getting another dirt bike for sure yeah man dirt bike life I as long as I walk and I always want to have out of my garage and um you know I just watched his moto I was watching from where the other day he’s thinking like geez I gotta get on my bike and in arizona getting skunked with no monsoon rains usually this time of year we’ll get some hard rains I’m not riding in the desert to get a little reprieve from the heat but I’ll get back on her soon but um you know talking moto you know during this whole process we’re growing up we’re falling in love getting married having kids um you know for me personally I didn’t have kids yet but um working for fox I kind of felt like there wasn’t a lot of upward mobility for me in the back of my mind you know I really wanted to start a business and rack my brain for years like coming from biking moto I just didn’t I didn’t think I could find an idea in which you know um I could start a business that would potentially work but um at this time now we’re talking 2012. I had a rented razer 900 took out the glamis once um gotta want a trip to go ride with ricky carmichael and ricky carmichael in florida had a four-seat razor 900 got to ride in it and I was like paying close attention to the side-by-side market because you know the off-road routes is like we all wanted to off-road but like none of us could really afford pre-runners you know let alone keep them up and you know of course growing up in the desert the terrain’s nasty and harsh so I had this wannabe pre-runner toyota with a three inch lift and front fenders and 30 inch tires and one day we thought oh we’re gonna go pre-run the snore track and we pre-ran and then I was ready to throw up after a half an hour it was so bad one of those things is like we wanted to go fast in the desert and four wheels it just you know afford it it wasn’t what it was but um I always felt like you know as the side-by-side thing started to mature I mean don’t get me wrong like in my dirt bike days you’d see guys that pimped out rhinos like at a best and desert race I’m like who would spend 40 grand on like it looked like a joke to me [Music] you know and then um they kept getting better and um better and I think the remember when I saw the video for the razer 900 release and it had trailing arms you know oh yeah I was like oh okay no yeah yeah um and then getting to ride in one I rented a two-seater and took it to glamour’s thing kicked like a banshee going through sand highway whoops and stuff but it still went everywhere we did some real dune rides which was rad and then um you know kind of fast forward and as I’m talking about my career an opportunity for polaris jumped up so I was lucky enough to get hired for polaris which was really cool because I was you know I really felt like the side-by-side industry is about ready to explode and keep in mind this is um September 2013 so in July polaris just launches the razer xp 1000 and if you guys have been around the sport everyone knows that car was the legit game changer in the side-by-side industry I don’t care who you are I don’t care if you don’t like polaris that car changed the game for sure 100 changed everything yeah my father lost one this is still an amazing car my dad’s got one and it’s got you know 30 3500 miles on it but I feel like you know that level of leap and performance I think went from 88 horsepower to 107 you know the wheelbase with bigger trailing arms and the 18 inches of travel and then seeing like you know right from the showroom floor with the 30 inch [ __ ] fires was like okay and I think a lot of people felt that and I remember I jumped on board with polaris and you know like literally my first event was the sand show before the four-seater got released and then that first camp razor when the four-seater came out the 4c razor xp 1000 was literally the best thing since sliced bread in the southwest I could still I could still remember your first one when you came out and you brought it out to vegas and it was kind of like you’re watching your first born kid like you you’re like really nervous like super nervous about letting anybody drive it and stuff like that and I’m like even me I was like I knew how much they cost I’m like I’ll just write passenger I’m good man you know I don’t need I can’t afford to fix a tire on this thing you know but then we put four adults in it and we went over the racecourse in gene yeah let’s go ride the midcourt bottom of the skid plate worse I’ve never done it again that metal skid plate into the transmission oh yeah so that was cool that was probably the best part of the job of polaris one of them for me was that the the perk was a demo vehicle you know and then a gas card to go use it enjoy it so that was really cool and obviously the sport you know has just exploded and so many people were probably like us you know and I grew up in the desert and you know life goes on or maybe you’re new to the desert or you want to share experience with your wife or your girlfriend or your kids you know it’s easy to see now if you guys have been around the market or even if you’re new to it that all these these motorcycle dealerships are now you know side-by-side dealerships they need so much more space they need like a car lot especially here in the southwest because they’re all selling 4c vehicles so um you know just the whole landscape of powersports has dramatically changed even from from 2013 it’s just so many guys like us who were like dirt bike you know hardcore junkies if you will and and just kind of wanting to get one or you know see what all the hype is about and it’s just been amazing the tran the transformation since you know I was in glamis in 2010 even to now yeah from when that first razor you know first razor was released you know the the 1000 is what I’m talking about when that was released to now in those seven little years it’s pretty crazy to think how far the technology has come from now because I mean I would if I saw a guy with one of those now I’d be like oh man you know right in time to upgrade you know like you’re missing out on this you’re missing out on this and all this technology that we deal with now is just amazing and it’s crazy to think where is it going to be you know in 2027 you know what are we going to be talking about you know I’ll probably still have my same turtle s and everybody be making fun of me thinking it’s a clapped out piece of junk but you know it’s it’s really really cool to watch and I think that you know as you look at different off-road sports and you look at side-by-side game it seems like it’s grown way faster than any other sport you know motorcycles around forever quads around forever but it just seems like the technology and the amount of money and support and companies getting in on this thing is just crazy crazy crazy crazy and I don’t see any sign of stopping anytime soon because people want them people buy them and you know it’s it’s something you can do with your family friends you know it’s it just makes more sense you know you can go spend 10 grand on a dirt bike or 30 grand on a razor but the 30 grand on a razor can be for four people your ten thousand on your dirt bikes for you and you alone you still gotta find something to do with your family and your friends yeah exactly going with wes’s wes’s 693 00:21:11,760 –> 00:21:12,480 idea you know a family of four you know two raptors and two kids quads you’re right there about 20 25 grand just in quads but you can buy a vehicle that can go do anything and put your family and still be safe and and still go have a lot more fun and be a lot smoother or ride yeah so andrew I know west’s story when he got a hook to the side by side but I want to hear your story first because we’re riding dirt bikes and then and um you end up getting a razor 1000 as your first car so how did that transition happen for you so basically um the transition happened when nick started working for polaris he hit me up one day and he was like hey I don’t have anybody to go out there with do you want to go drive go drive razors today I’m like I don’t have one at the time I couldn’t afford one so I was like sure why not let’s go so I think it was a temecula more sports madigan poker run is the first one we went out to nick had an ace he also had his turbo his the 2016 turbo on 32-inch tires and let me tell you those tires looked huge on that thing the orange one yeah orange orange 2016 I was like one of the first in the game with the 32s I was all about and then he had the [Laughter] had the nice fox internal bypass shocks sprung rebound everything so we go on a ride he’s driving his little ace 900 and he’s getting beat the crap I’m out in octo wells and I’m driving this thing and we come to a stop and my gran my my smile is ear to ear so pretty much he’s the one that got me hooked um I had driven a couple 800s back in high school when they first started coming out and it really changed the game then from going from a rhinos to even the 800s was a big game changer the 800s was a pretty good decent car and would you know take you across the desert at a pretty decent pace and um but yeah though the day nick got me was a hook line and sinker man he got me so after that I you know kept riding moto couldn’t afford one in the position I was in and then I I met my my wife back then she was my girlfriend of course but her father or her dad has his big into razors he’s got three of them at this at this point um so we started going out to the desert um started going glamis you know thanksgiving doing all the big stuff and and me and her finally pulled the trigger on a 2016 non-turbo two-seat um and that was my first razor and ever since then it’s it’s been a always evolving you know it never ends so you’ve got one of the most gucci razors in the whole southwest so speaking of hook line and sinker um I didn’t really you know I knew that day went out writing you you were ear to ear again and it was super fun but um I do remember a similar occurrence a little bit later on I know wes like I said was like he told you he was always into duning even did quad trips all up in oregon right one year yeah yeah we took we took motorcycles and quads up to oregon sand dunes I remember my family we were all in quads and they it was kind of like I had to ask for permission to bring my dirt bike at the time because they were like quad guys you know but yeah we did we did that and you know fast forwarding I can tell you the story same thing it’s all nick’s fault everybody can blame nick you know my my bank account can blame nick but but I guess I could also blame a lot of happy trips memories on nicto too so he kept telling us hey you know come on out you know I have I have these two cars you know because working at polaris he had the two-seater in the four-seater and it was right as the 2016 four-seater came out um there was two of them there at glamis on new year’s so we go out as a family I brought a couple quads with did the whole camp for fun trailer first time in glamis real quick like was this your first time at glamis and you’ve been like a san francisco life and whatever reason yeah vegas don’t really go to glamis it’s the weirdest thing but either way sorry first trip to class yeah so like glamis was always like we would I’d go to san felipe um for family trips down on thanksgiving and we’d go through glamis and it just there was something about it you’d always hear the horror stories of people dying and people getting killed you know so you always associated with it like don’t go to klamath so you’re gonna die and this was my first trip to glamis new year’s 2016 so 2015 turned into 2016 and like I said nick had just he had the two-seater um the orange one that andrew was talking about and then he just barely had picked up his four-seater turbo first one first turbo out and he’s like come out just bring lots of gas you know we’re gonna go have some fun so we took him up on the offer went out and um between that Wednesday and that Sunday something just changed there’s something fun about back then I mean it’s definitely not the case now is going down the drags in the in that four-seater and everybody has the non-turbo 1000s and there’s only I only saw one other one and people know how many people are there on new year’s only saw one of their 4c turbo and we were just dragging everybody like anybody in the sideways side I mean we were the kings of the dunes um kids loved it and it was so that was January I think it was march like 17 or something like that I took delivery of my first razor um and then again we drove down picked it up in san diego and the you know the first trip we went straight from there I put the harnesses in in nick’s driveway um you know and put the paddles on and we freaking trucked right to the glamous when dick glamazon spent two days in glam again in march and march it was brokerage and you know still have that same car um obviously it doesn’t look the same I mean I’ve done everything that I can think of doing to it I love that car um and about 6 500 miles later I can’t think of the endless trips and fun times I’ve had not only with friends but family and whether it’s off-road or mexico or anywhere that we’ve done in this thing it’s just amazing and I talk a lot about it with the wife sometimes and we just think man you know yeah we spend a lot of money and some people don’t understand the amount of money you spend on these things but we wouldn’t trade any of that for anything you know the amount of memories we have and now that the kids are getting older and they’re learning how to drive it’s you know and having two vehicles now it’s it’s amazing um so yeah I mean hook line and sinker and nick got me just like you got andrew like hey come out here it’s fun it’s going to be free you’re going to love it just bring gas and then oh here we go yeah I’ve never just also got andrew I do remember popping the tire of that 32 inch marginal I hit the sidewall and blew it out felt so bad I was like how am I gonna afford this tire that doesn’t that doesn’t sound like you at all andrew what what are you talking about I was nervous too in westeros one of the razors that first weekend because he duned you know and you people know how to do but your first time going through glamorous is a little nerve-wracking I mean we had a good group we have an amazing group that we do with and and they are so awesome they lead the best rides and um they can pick up the pace if there’s those of us that can do it and there’s they’ll go go chill out but wes was like right behind everybody the whole time it’s like his culture like their their crew they’re like right next to each other and I was like dude what are you doing this guy’s like in a va car and you’re like right in his dust like give him a break man and he did good that whole weekend and oh that was man that was that was cool to see you guys I can remember a couple close calls and I remember hitting one one pucker bush and that you know and then one which I with the kids in it then but other than that it was amazing like this fun trip like you said we have a great group of people that we go to the dunes with you guys all know who you are and man it’s fun to just hook on to them and go we have some of the best rides ever and jumping back into the whole glamis you know being afraid to go there thing it wasn’t until I went that first time that I realized that glamis is the ultimate sand playground there’s nothing compared I live in vegas do months I can be in dumont in an hour and a half I can be at other places even closer than that and I would much rather drive the five hours it takes me to get to klamas then drive the hour and a half to dumont it’s just hands down the best riding especially for side by side owners you guys all understand endless bowls I mean dumont’s fun and all but it’s just a lot of steep dunes and I think it’s more convenience but and I love me some glamos going going towards glamis is you know I grew up in el centro only 45 minutes away and and never once did my parents take me to glamis never once did they take me I didn’t go to glamis until I met my girlfriend now my wife now back in 2015 was my first time going to glamis and I only live 45 minutes away growing up that’s crazy yeah and now I’m hooked yeah and um 2015 I think it was a couple years later 2017 we all linked up with some other friends and we did the year before in 2016 I did this 500 mile baja ride with a couple that does tours baja bound and I was like guys you guys got to come to baja the worst mile in baja is like probably better than the best mile of most places I’ve off-roaded you know hard packed stuff so 2017 um the vehicles you guys just described we all went down there um parked basically right at the border in takadi and what’d you guys think of your first 500 miles in baja three day trip you know I was so nervous that first 20 minutes that we rolled into takadi right there and we got pulled over I was like I’m going to jail I I don’t know what’s going on I was freaking out I was like don’t go down to mexico much but I was freaking out I was telling my wife she was trying to tell me hey calm down everything’s gonna be fine so it was it was a great trip it was a little on the warm side but it definitely it just going from you know from the valleys over top of the mountains to the the coast and you can actually feel the air just go 20 degrees cooler was the best feeling ever um but you know some of those dirt roads just you know hauling the mail down it you don’t get anything better than that yeah I’d have to agree there’s just nothing like baja baja is the place and you know nick set it up and he had went the year before with the mortons and baja bound and you know I had become friends with the mortons um through other off-road means and and we all it just worked out we went and you know they’re a great group of leading um they know every every trail I mean and not just like by the trail name they know it by like hey turn left at the yellow fence post you’ll see it has a beer can on the top of it those type of directions and you know we put some miles in that second day out of the three days I think what do we do like 180 miles of baja ended up staying up at my sky ranch you know I knew at all these places and I knew about all these places but I was like hey you know I never really went to those places and on these trails and then it just doesn’t disappoint had a great time great group of people very few little mechanicals and yeah it’s a little warm on the warm side but I look back at those pictures and time that we had man I just can’t wait to get back down there and do another fun trip like that it was awesome we’ll talk about that more wes I mean yeah you said it was like your first time but you had been to baja a bunch because you were involved with a trophy truck race team as a pit guy so you’ve been down at this point in the mix of getting your razor I don’t remember before or after you get involved in off-road racing as a pit support guy yeah so back in 2014 um a good friend of mine was working for baldwin motorsports here in las vegas and asked me to go to the thousand so I was like yeah I have the time off sure let’s go and kind of similar to the story with getting hooked on the razor I got hooked on mexico and off-road being a part of a trophy truck team if any of you guys have done that it’s just amazing it’s completely different experience especially a higher end trophy trick team that’s well funded you go down there you you get experience so much so much all the time and and um it was shortly thereafter that I actually you know so that was 2014 so about a year and a half later that I ended up getting a side by side and at that point I made a bunch of contacts and you know people would help me to to learn more about how to fix my razor and you know accessories to get things like that but I spent a lot of time down in mexico and a lot of time chasing the race and knowing all these roads and all these things and just knowing the stories never racing never really going on too many of the dirt roads did a little bit of a pre-run stuff in in san felipe but that’s what I was most excited about with this trip that we went on because finally I could put all the talk to the side and be like okay I’ve been there you know mike skye ranch and staying at staying at horsepower and you know a really really good buddy of mine that was running the team at a time willie valdez who I owe a lot of my knowledge too because he you know he taught me a lot of stuff about baja it’s fun to come back and have conversations with him and tell him about this trail and that trail and he’s telling you yeah yeah remember when you get to here and there’s that big rock or you know you got to make sure you don’t go left because if you go left and it was just it just put it all together for me and you know as andrew is saying getting down onto the coast um going south and just flying on those roads and now knowing okay so this is what the race truck was doing this is the course that the race truck was doing and if I remember right you might correct me but they we went on a lot of the 500 course because it just it just got over like they just finished it down in erindara and stuff like that and we were able to actually ride on the course and it was just such a great time and you know I learned so much I still I still have that baja itch and still want to go down and still continue that obvious where society is now it’s kind of a little bit different with all the races getting a little bit you know getting canceled and stuff like that but yeah man I I can’t say it again I mean there’s there’s nothing like baja you know you can you could talk about all these different places and stuff it’s just something magical about baja you know I I know people that have been and they get a little nervous here like andrew was saying it was pretty funny what he’s talking about with getting pulled over seriously we were five minutes on our ride just crossed the border and you know if you guys know the the mexican police down there some of them just you know are just looking for tips well our tour leader wasn’t really keen on giving him a tip because we could have been out there in probably like two minutes but he was more like fighting it because he’d never been stopped before and I get it but you know after that it was smooth stealing and such a great time such a great time yeah for those of you guys that know baja you know we started off up in takadi we went into horsepower ranch outside of ensenada for day one day two was a long pole like west was saying 180 went off to the coast of arendera you know colinet then shot back across the state of mike skyridge we had a weird heat wave that weekend and guys don’t ever stay at mike skye ranch like it was the power shut off they didn’t have a fan there was no breeze the only thing good about staying at mike skye ranch was the tequila they make was really smooth I remember like pacificas at mile 150 I was like please I hope they cleaned that pool out I am just ready to do a huge cannonball no we couldn’t do that and we got there and it was oh man some funny stories about that is the fact that you know I was looking forward to the pool too but then there was a whole dirt bike crew that got there like two hours before us and they basically took a bath in it so it was terrible and then as nick said you know the power goes out everybody knows he runs off generator and light’s out of the love and it’s like prison you know they shut it down and I remember it being so hot and I think it was your dad nick that ended up like going to get one of the bath towels wet and put it on top of them to keep them cool for them throughout the night I got up in the middle of night and I’m fanning the door opening clothes trying to just cool off a little bit but then you get in the shower and you’re like oh at least at least a shower you know no ice cold like from a thousand feet underground ice cold or they put ice on it you know it was crazy but it was the experience you know the my sky ranch is you know it’s good it’s a good lunch spot yeah but you know the experience like you said I mean because of the side by side that we were able to go down there and click off 180 miles a day 500 in a week in three days with a belt failure a flat tire out of a group of like 10 cars it’s just we would never be able to do that yeah I think I bent to radius rod um and just how able how fast we’re able to go and and you know I’ve been on racedesert.com since I was a youngster in college like my dream is to have this v8 sand rail or a v8 pre-runner you know not a sand rail bike I want a real v8 pre-runner like a desert dynamics right I’m going to go down to baja it’s about 35-inch tires in my dream car and after running baja a couple times and they’re side by side it’s like these trails are a lot tighter than I thought they would be I can’t believe these big wide cars even wider than a 10 like a trophy how they even go through some of the stuff and now it makes sense why these little buggies just eat them up these 16 cars run so good and why side by side is like probably the best for sure the best play car vehicle you could want to go down there well your trophy truck teams now are pre-running the side-by-sides it’s because they can see more and you know the maintenance is easier and they can bring two of them for the price that they can bring one of their you know hundreds of thousands of dollars a pre-runner even if that half the price of a pre-runner yeah yeah so needless to say we’re we’re head over heels for this thing at this point you know in 2017 and then um right around that time is when I kind of figured I’m going to start figuring out how to start a business here at chupacabra off-road and um ironically I was listening to a lot of podcasts these technology podcasts like I think I had a logo made in 2013 and I was before we were gonna start to sell products I was gonna make an app I was gonna pay somebody to make an ios app for forty thousand dollars you know back in 2014 when everybody wanted to make an app right and um thank goodness my wife talked me out of that hair brain idea but um it’s funny like you see the content like we’re doing right now and in general the the first premise was to like take the community and put them together and have them help each other out because one thing I realized a lot of these products accessories these vehicles there’s no reviews on them you know andrew you’re gonna go spend two grand on tires well there’s not a hundred amazon reviews it’s like hey did so-and-so is this matt and this sport being so new it wasn’t like moto wasn’t like mountain bikes where these sports are so mature and we know exactly what we want our you know how our forts revolved and and this is a whole new marketplace where guys are spending a lot more money than the two-wheel game but they just don’t know what to buy and what’s good and it reminded me west of like the early mountain bike days when west and I were mountain biking there was the downhill bikes were getting weird and wild and went to four inches of travel to six to eight to ten to 12 and then it’s like okay that’s too much travel and these stupid tires and this crazy geometry and these wacky parts but it was like a really cool point in time where people were trying to make all kinds of random cool stuff and I kind of feel like that’s what’s happening now you see some of these products that are like they probably never work they probably won’t be around in five years but it’s like the market’s on fire so people are going to try to make cool stuff right so um you know then we start then I start the synthesis of like hey okay maybe building an app and hiring a technical co-founder is a little bit that’s kind of a hair brain scheme that we’re going to get so many users and um that translates into kind of testing this theory of the business of like hey if we start selling products on amazon amazon is the way most of us now want to buy or it’s kind of governs our buying conditions for anything right because we’re checking amazon for the best price and we also have the reviews and like you know mark cuban said on on shark tank you know trusted curation is the future so I started launch there’s large chupacabra with one mirror on amazon you know and started collecting reviews and then I just kind of snowballed um into a couple products and then basically just quit my job and went at it full time um fast forward to January 2018 so from there it’s like okay we gotta we gotta be you know creating content we gotta let people know who we are you know as we hopefully build up more sales and sell more products so we can launch more products in the meantime you know we’re not gonna sit on our hands and hope people find out about us we’re gonna start creating content yeah it’s crazy how fast it’s moved I mean this train is really going down the tracks fast and you know I could still think about um you know when you said you were doing that and you were launching the products and things like that and I couldn’t believe how fast it picked up and it you know it’s just a just a testament to the side-by-side community and how much people are interested in this because it’s not you’re not the only one that offers these products you know and for them to choose your products or chupacabra products in general it’s you know there’s got to be you know a good brand behind it but there’s a lot of different selections so it’s just the numbers are crazy I mean I can’t remember what you used to say but um that first year or the second year of the the polaris the original 1000 na car in san diego alone your the number was just crazy on how many they were sold in that first year and you figure what’s the first thing these people do once they buy it they start buying more stuff for it they start buying more accessories for it things to make it personal and and their own car and man open the floodgates yeah they kind of become the new harley davidson everyone’s going to accessorize them you know for their personal taste but also just for the basics man I mean before the x3 you know your your choices for a high-end side-by-side was a red razor or a blue razor you know and you needed a roof right andrew you needed tires you needed a lot of these seats yeah harnesses fire extinguishers coolers intercom you the list goes on and on you can accessorize these things to from mild to wild you can spend you know five thousand dollars and you’ll have a decent looking car well I like to say plain and simple but still super reliable on the trail or you can go spend thirty forty thousand on one of these things and make it super gucci and and it’s still gonna perform just as good as that you know spending five thousand dollars on on accessories you know spring kit wheels and tires you know you’re still gonna be able to do you know 50 55 miles an hour across the desert one of these things I remember back then you think about like wouldn’t it be crazy if honda made a sport side by side or or kawasaki could you imagine and yamaha too I actually had to call out andrew that that day he talked about when we went out to the desert in oconto andrew was like hook line and sinker I’m gonna go buy a yxz it was like I was been out for like three or four months and it was like oh my gosh you can shift it you can shift it it doesn’t have a belt it doesn’t have a belt and then I drove one it’s the biggest hunker crap I’ve ever driven hey let’s not be near yamaha I mean let’s think about it for a second if it wasn’t for yamaha do you think you would we shouldn’t be here like right now I mean I know I mean they took the brunt of it I mean nick and I we know somebody that was part of one of those you know infamous you know rhino incidences and things like that and imagine if those incidences never happened where we would be I think that’s I think that slowed it down you know going back to 2005 2004 and then they started having the you know the recalls or the the unsafe vehicle things imagine if those never happened I mean we got to give we got to give yamaha a little bit of credit I mean yeah would I buy a white credit I think but but man they started this they don’t started it and you’re like you’re talking earlier we have friends that they had 35 000 rhinos you know I mean we’re talking stereos and edelbrock carburetors and everybody put the bench seat in the back which was completely unsafe and then the cage you know shocked you know kings yeah they’re putting king shocks on these things so they can get extra 29 inch tires one and should travel and pay three grand for a set of shocks just to get an extra one inch of travel and I had family that had one and custom paint like it’s crazy the things that they did to these things and then your top speed was like 35 miles an hour 40 miles an hour but at that time I can still remember riding in that thing and thinking oh my gosh I want one of these so bad I envied I envied my brother-in-law with his so much like man I wish I could afford one of these and I mean I kind of maybe exaggerated on the price a little bit but we’re still 20 grand once he got it all done with a cage and everything and thinking 20 grand and now you can’t bat an eye on any and you side by side for 20 grand you know so definitely proof of concept that’s what the people wanted they wanted a you know two to four seat vehicle they could go have fun in the desert with that was reliable and um it’s funny you talk about all those prices and value you remember like working at polaris and we had all this sales data right like twenty two thousand dollars four seat one thousand that was like really what made a lot of sense for a lot of customers right like at the payment that they could afford and and all that type of stuff so then the x3 comes out it’s like oh man here we go you know they take it to 72 they take it to right 154 horse I remember the four seater coming out of 30k and I’m like wow man that’s that’s pretty steep and um they sold every single one because you know at that point people like look it’s already got a long travel kit on it right it’s already got more power it looks amazing it’s already got nice seats it already has a roof like they could see the value in it coming from you know if there were ogs back in the 800 or rhino days it was like and then you know then this kind of reinvigorates this awesome can-am polaris battle which you know polaris had the far apprehended until the x3 came to town what was that 2017 right yeah and that 2016 four-seater 28.5 is what the price market was on it our price point on it and now you know they’ve come out with better cars and more you know you know bougie cars with better stuff like the turbo s and things like that but and now that same car that you would have got in 2016 is now a lot cheaper but you know polaris on the market they could have set the price whatever they wanted people were going to buy to buy them because banks are ready to finance and people are ready to pay 25 percent interest so they don’t care people don’t care way cheaper and a lot easier to own and operate than a pre-runner yep oh 100 yeah for sure you can take it anywhere you want to go capable you can finance them you can put insurance on them and hey that’s all you need right if you live in arizona drive it to work so if you guys are watching this video listen to this podcast obviously we’re preaching the choir you guys got into this probably for the same reason as us and we could talk all day about how much we love our vehicles um real quick um what’s what vehicles you have these days and andrew yourself all right so in my garage right now I have that original 2016 um 4c turbo and you know it’s all done up and you know done so many things to it you know most of the necessity things that I wanted but you know it’s really set up to be a fun car you know doors cage light bars everything that you know everybody else you know looks to get and then I also have a 2020 turbo s4 um you guys might have seen it on the chew copper post it’s the digital camera one super excited about it I love that car it’s just so fun it’s just amazing to have both of them to see how far like I’ve talked about the technology that’s come and yeah who knows what I’ll get next I mean I was playing around the idea of getting rid of the 16 and maybe getting something else you know another one to have in the garage but we’ll see where it goes but yeah this side-by-side game is crazy and I don’t see it slowing down and I’m happy with what I have um especially right now that new turbo s is cherry pretty nice so starting off with me of course that 2016 non-turbo um you know put a put a cage seats it did a lot of other stuff arms wheels tires you know the whole nine yards a year later turned around and traded it in and got a 2017 turbo two-seater again nick got me into that turbo game went out to arizona was a good car went out there to go see him he had his 2017 four-seater and as soon as I jumped in that thing and I he took me for a ride I was hooked the power difference between the 110 horsepower and it was at the time the 150 168 168 yeah I was like oh my god this thing is this thing is crazy powerful so went down to coin and coin power sports here in el centro and traded it in um I got out of the game actually for about a year um I started a new career and and I moved up north and that’s when nick hit me up to actually join chupacabra and he needed some help with it and he knew I was super passionate about this sport um after that he kept handing me hey when he coming back down to the southwest when you come back down the southwest finally moved back here last year 2019 and as you know now my car is the one of the two turbo twins the blue one of course um but yeah I love that thing um also in the works as we speak is a 20 was it 2019 no I think it’s a 2020 x3 um join the dark side join the dark side as you’ve seen in some of our videos starting to build that as a race car we got a lot of videos coming soon with that showing the progression of that build really looking forward to releasing that that car once it’s finished I think you guys will really like it but it’s definitely it’s definitely a money pit this sport and I I wouldn’t change it for the world you know some days I’m like ah it sucks I it’s so much money but when I get a finished product it’s I love seeing it you know especially you guys when you guys comment on our pictures and be like oh my god you know you made me get that madame madigan cage um you know people hey asking me questions about how I did the wiring on the car you know I love talking about that stuff so if you guys have any questions about any of our cars don’t hesitate to ask yeah and you know money pit is the sport’s pretty darn affordable until you get into the race world so if you guys have seen us on social or follow the YouTube channel you guys might know I have a race car um I gotta go work on it tomorrow morning where andrew and I are meeting up with queen racing and havasu to get that thing tuned put a fresh motor in it and if you guys watch the channel pay attention for a while um a year and a half ago I was at an event tyranidal soul and I won a raven with the raffle with 50 dollars of raffle tickets yeah rather be lucky than good so and it was a two-seater I sold it about the fourth year that I had today the 2019 turbo s so I’ve got to tell us tell us what side by side you’ve owned since you know since you bought your first one when started with polaris and you owned a couple you know a couple aces and you owned a ranger also I believe right yeah so just working with polaris one of the best parts of the job was just having access to demo vehicles on a trailer and a gas gas car like you said to go enjoy them so you know started off in 2013 I got the 2014 razer 1000 the white and red one um and then like it’s 48 the cool thing was you get like a ranger an atv and a razor so um I had a you know an atv and a ranger and then the next year 2015 I got the blue um four seat 1000 the voodoo blue that was a cool car um got it all well lights on did a bunch of fun glamorous ships actually took that that car to pismo one time um and then that year was the first year players came out the little ace 570 and I was like a big fan of the little ace because you know like dirt bike guy and um it was a fun little car I mean your your back would be all super sore like kind of going through there it with andrew but that was fun and then 2016 the two seat razor turbo the orange one like we discussed as well as the four seat polaris let me get two razors because I lived in the predominantly razer you know sales market which was really rad and then at the time that an upgraded accessory the the cool high low speed compression adjustable fox shock so that was really cool I’ve always been a suspension nerd from a mountain like this and um you have to go testing with wayne israelson who you’ve probably seen on some of our videos I was back when he worked for fox I got to meet him through the polaris connection so it was like a no-brainer when it came to like tuning our cars and shooting our race car like getting spent a little half a day with wayne like this guy is the truth he won the mid 400 rob mack a couple years ago um the guy’s just been around in his whole life and just an amazing tuner and a cool guy above all so that was really cool I learned a lot over these years I’m like learning hey man this car has bought them out a lot in gladness and stuff you know so getting better at it each year trying different accessories and then 2018 um got the next year 2017 raise your turbo in the 2018 the fourth year that 168 car you know players on the 2016s and the 17 was really dialed you know that had a little extra pep and no cooling issues at that car I put a cool madigan cage on it was a good-looking car and and got the shocks a lot more tuned in and then um [ __ ] polaris got a 2018 razor for turbo which I started the YouTube channel a couple of years ago had the the bfg kr2 desert tires those tires are awesome the real budget build that sdr cage or everything on it was like you know no electronics or nothing just like an awesome probably the best car for the value I’ve ever owned I just did a spring kit so the shocks are okay but for what it was I took that thing to moab and it ripped you know mexico that car was such an awesome car and never had one issue with it you know stock clutching stock motor with those bfgs just it was money it was I was almost sad to see that one go and then um that became um after I sold that then it became the money put in to get the race car going and the race car got built late 2018 and then marac I thought I had this crazy pie in this guy dream that that race car was gonna be like a super pre-runner we were gonna put a roof rack on it and we were gonna take it to baja we were we’re gonna go take it to glamis like I didn’t even know what I was thinking you know it was like this dream like I think I saw someone took a a utv race card and took it to glamour so I’ll do that and then I’ll you know I’ll have the big gas tank so I’ll be taking on big trips and it’ll you might do it all and I had a rack made for the back for a cooler and it’s crazy that I even took that car on arizona peace trail man like I had so many issues with that car and I got it running and I took it on this trip and I’m surprised it made it yeah I know I blew one fuse the fuel pump you know get on the gas hard and then lost the fuel pump 10 10 amp fuse but um now it was a little harsh for that trip as you guys could imagine and then um like I said got lucky and won that that raffle because I probably would have sold the race car because I could really only afford to have one car you know I think it’s important to put the money in the business and grow the business and add more products and add more staff you know so we can grow and um that’s where we’re at at the moment um I did put a deposit down on the new speed so I am a believer selling one or both of the razors at some point this year or next year um I think I’m gonna keep the turbo s because we have some chips coming up you know like even with with kobe throwing a wrench and everything um there’s a mexico ride coming up um rocky point I’ll go if I tell you guys about my friends are doing you know we’ll be at glamis probably camp razor no matter what I’m assuming unless we bail out last minute we’ll probably be there you know so I want to have the speed in my garage before I sell the turbo s you know um and then with the race car um I love it but you know I’m not sure what the future holds because it’s been so much money again so much time and resources to get that thing going but we definitely plan on getting that thing hopefully after this week she’s gonna be running good and we’ll be gonna say here um you know later this year September October November after tomorrow after you get this thing tuned and you’re dialed that dude’s a genius like and you know I think he’s gonna get you guys set up I think every all the bugs all the little things quirks that we found on your car the race car are now gonna be gone and I don’t know you need to get a couple good races in and then oh yeah yeah you know hopefully hopefully we’ll be at utv worlds this year yeah I mean we’re just learning so much honestly the race cars taught me so much all those cars I just mentioned hardly had any issues with all of them so you know when you understand some of the wiring issues and we have had you know weird stuff happen like my starter the bolts are holding on and it breaks like so many times that car has left me pushing it but I’ve learned so much and now I’m that guy on the side of the trail that can probably help with a lot of razor stuff maybe not so much but um I haven’t told you guys I talked to mark queen he wants me to run race gas I went and bought 15 gallons today so we’re mixing that 50 50 because the car is a lot easier to tune it’ll just make your car run a lot cooler yeah we got the oil cooler now so we have two more quarts of oil and then I just got some tensor 33s and methods so we’ll talk about that you see a video but those guys did take care of us with a sponsorship deal so reached out to a couple companies we really liked it damn so it made sense to get the tires on before queen tunes the clutch and all that you know so we got eight freshy tires and as if you guys have been following challenging my engine I’ve had those car those tires on our cars and really liked them but they were you know probably a little quicker than bfgs but as a whole they seem to work really well and the race car feels a little skaty in the front end so they might still need to do a steering rack in the front I hope not but um you know then we’re just gonna put a new rack in it that’s it yeah yeah so andrew and I are ready man we’re gonna try to do like ama district 38 a little small race and and hopefully she runs way better than she ever has we get up over 90 and and the car stays cool and then that goes well here in the next few weeks so we’ll try to make a run at utv worlds man and enjoy the boots of our labor of so many trials and tribulations of getting this car running in her glory because you know ever since we got it wrapped it was a pretty car but you know we wanted to run good and now she’s looking good from the inside out andrew rewired her and got the switch bros the car is like you know I don’t it’s progressed 100 should be competitive and the suspension is so good now compared to what it was it’s and man that thing is it’s so different guys if you ever get a chance to ride on one you just gotta really like strangle that thing and like push it really really hard it doesn’t start working good until you start going really fast it’s pretty amazing what the side-by-side race cars can do nowadays and it’s sad is that it’s just getting faster and faster it’s it’s crazy so much in the last year the production turbo class is it it’s crazy how fast how fast we’re going now it’s crazy scary yeah that’s a whole other podcast we’ll save we’re out of time but um wes is big into utv racing andrew’s working on it or andrew isn’t it he and I together so as well as he’s working on a few cars so we’ll definitely get into the trenches of a couple good racing episodes for sure but um thank you everyone thanks so much for tuning in if you guys have been still on you know thanks for supporting the the brand and the channel and we’ll get a lot more in a lot of different topics go ahead and leave us a comment let us know what you think any topics you want to hear us discuss we’ll get into some of the the live feed you guys ask us questions on the fly and you know it’s fun we love the community we’re super passionate about it we like 2025 01:01:19,839 –> 01:01:20,480 creating content that we don’t think anybody else is really doing or at least has our own flavor you know like there’s room for everybody I think in this community we’re all like all of us youtubers or whatever you want to call us for all like different flavors of ice cream you know and and there’s something for everybody and we just kind of live off of what we’re into which is southwest you guys heard the backstory of our roots and what we’re into you know we’re ricky racers right now and may or may not be for the the foreseeable future but love all of it man we just can’t get enough of it and yeah again appreciate you guys for tuning in um thanks guys for joining me tonight and look forward to this is fun man we gotta keep yeah we gotta keep yeah this is a good time people it’s fun just chit chatting especially with with cove man we if I missed a lot of trips already this year that we probably would have connected on whether that be you know I was telling these guys we got to go to moab it was one of the best places I ever got to go and cancel twice so now we got sand show hopefully in arizona if it doesn’t get cancelled we’re gonna be a legit brand we’re gonna have our own booth this year we’re getting displays made new product launches been working on a lot of new products guys it’s been slow but I’m telling you we’re on some cool stuff now so and if that gets canceled we’re doing a meet and greet ride doing something down there with somebody or something because yeah enough’s enough yeah yeah I mentioned to get back out so miss going on some good rides with you guys and now the weather’s gonna break here hopefully here pretty soon hopefully yeah for sure all right appreciate it man thanks everyone for listening and have a good night all right you