Episode 208 features Wrong Seat filler, Chris Rea talking about life, bikes, and commitment

Wrong seat filler, Chris Rea, shares perspective on what it takes to be lucky. Listen in as one of the Lost Boys shares how going all in (on whatever you’re doing) has an impact on life. Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app.

4:25 – my dad had to pull me out of t-ball because I was too competitive 

9:45 – for my sister and I, sports were life.             

13:24 – if you want to play football, you’re 100 pounds. 

21:41 – my first foray into offroading was a high school club called Unauthorized 

28:36 – in 2005, I realized I was going nowhere and I was going to be nothing, so I joined the military

32:52 – if there was a rule, it was black and white as far as I was concerned.

41:14 – one of my favorite things is that Tracy Jordan is still scared of me

54:17 – I’m just here to stay fit so I can beat my dad

1:05:48 – I’m just some random guy who’s been really lucky to work with amazing teams

Special thanks to 4low Magazine and Maxxis Tires for support and sponsorship of this podcast.

Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app.

All Automotive with Matt Clawson
Automotive related topics. Anything from owning an repair facility to racing. Anything...

Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

Transcript

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[00:00:00.200] - 

Welcome to Conversations with Big Rich. This is an interview-style podcast. Those interviewed are all involved in the off-road industry. Being involved, like all of my guests are, is a lifestyle, not just a job. I talk to past, present, and future legends, as well as business owners, employees, media, and land use warriors, men and women who have found their way into this exciting and addictive lifestyle we call off-road. We discuss their personal history, struggles, successes, and reboots. We dive into what drives them to stay active and off-road. We all hope to shed some light on how to find a path into this world that we live and love and call off-road.

[00:00:45.280] - 

Whether you're crawling the Red Rocks of Moab or hauling your toys to the trail, Maxxis has the tires you can trust for performance and durability. Four wheels or two, Maxxis tires are the choice of champions because they know that whether for work or play, for fun or competition, Maxxis tires deliver. Choose Maxxis. Tread victoriously.

[00:01:13.030] - 

Have you seen 4Low magazine yet? 4Low magazine is a high-quality, well-written, four-wheel drive-focused magazine for the enthusiast market. If you still love the idea of a printed magazine, something to save and read at any time, 4LOW is the magazine for you.  4LOW cannot be found in stores, but you can have it delivered to your home or place of business. Visit 4lOWmagazine.Com to order your subscription today.

[00:01:39.550] - Big Rich Klein

On today's episode of Conversations with Big Rich, I'll be speaking with an off-road enthusiast, An old rock crawling judge, a rock crawling spotter, KOH tech guy, right seat navigator, Navy veteran, bicycle racer, husband and father, you guys have all probably guessed it by now, Chris Rea. Chris, thank you for spending some time and coming on here after work and talking about your life.

[00:02:08.070] - Chris Rea

It's an absolute honor to be asked to do this, Rich. Thank you so much.

[00:02:12.410] - Big Rich Klein

So let's jump right in. We go back, well, you just brought it up in our little pre-talk, but we go back like 20 years to the day, almost. But we'll get into that. So let's start even earlier than that. Where were you born and raised?

[00:02:29.700] - Chris Rea

So I'm a SoCal, born and raised kid, born in a city called Tarzana, California, which is in the valley, just outside of Los Angeles. And then when I was about five years old, I moved to Simi Valley, California. That's pretty much where I spent the rest of my life before college.

[00:02:49.920] - Big Rich Klein

Simi Valley. That place has been, I don't know if you'd call it notorious, but it's well known for a couple of trials that happened there.

[00:03:01.310] - Chris Rea

That is correct. Yeah, and I got to live through that. 1994, the Rodney King trials, the police officers that that beat him. We're tried in my city, and that was my first taste of being on lockdown because the entire way in and out was blocked with National Guard.

[00:03:25.560] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, we even we even shut down our our Sears store that I worked for at the time because when the riots all started after that, it got crazy. And I was in the Bay Area, and we were figuring everybody was going to be a target. But hey, that's life. So let's go about talking, how old were you when you moved from Tarzana to Simi?

[00:03:53.220] - Chris Rea

I was five years old. Five.

[00:03:54.720] - Big Rich Klein

So that's, Simi is where you really have memories?

[00:03:59.100] - Chris Rea

Yeah, it's basically That's really the only thing that I know other than very short memories in Woodland Hills, where I went to church with my family and my grandparents. My grandparents lived there, so that's where I did a lot of my growing up, too. But It's all in that same general vicinity.

[00:04:17.520] - Big Rich Klein

Let's talk about those early years. What activities did your family do?

[00:04:25.480] - Chris Rea

Right when I was five years old, you know me well enough I know my competitive edge, but it was even worse when I was a kid. So I started with T-ball, and my dad had to pull me out of T-ball because I was just too competitive at five years old. And so he put me into BMX racing because I couldn't blame anybody but myself if there was a problem. I was the only one on the bike, and I was the only one that had any say of what I did. So I raced bicycles competitively. I played pretty much every sport except football. Growing up, I played T-ball. I got back into baseball around six or seven and ended up on the All-Star team, played soccer, ended up on a travel team that won all sorts of awards and raced bicycles until I was about 12 or 13 years old. And then I looked myself in the mirror and that was the tail end of the night or the mid-90s. And that was when we had this drop in BMX racing, the sponsors were starting to walk away. We were starting to just not see a lot of money in the sport.

[00:05:39.100] - Chris Rea

And I was like, okay, well, I'm going to be... I need to set myself up for college or a job. So maybe BMX isn't the right thing for me. So I transitioned wholeheartedly into soccer at that point, which looking back, sucks because the three guys that represented the United States at the 2000 Olympics for BMX were Donnie Robinson, Mikey Day, and one of the other kids that I used to race against and was competitive with. So one of those what-if moments.

[00:06:09.410] - Big Rich Klein

You bring up that name Donnie Robinson. He used to race up in Napa as well. And I think he might have lived up in there at the time. That he did. Yeah, because Little Rich never raced against him, but they were racing at the same time on the same track. And the kid was just... He was a tiny guy, but man, he flew.

[00:06:31.150] - Chris Rea

Yep, that was... Donnie and I were built about the same size. To give a little bit of perspective to those that don't know me, when I entered high school, I was 4'11 and 100 pounds. So you could think about me when I was nine or 10 years old and racing with Donnie, just how tiny we were. But yeah, we had to be very methodical. And we had to pass based on thinking rather than just raw power, which was what a lot of the kids, especially at 12 and 13, that's part of why I ended up having to get out of the sport is because at 9 and 10 years old, everybody's pretty much the same size. But then when you get to 12 and 13 years old, the kids that hit puberty early, like Bubba Harris, that's the third guy. Bubba Harris was the other guy. He blew up to 6' tall by the time he was 15 years old. I can outsmart somebody on the bike pretty well, but I can't outmuscle somebody that has me by almost a foot of height and all kinds of weight and everything like that. Right.

[00:07:51.570] - Big Rich Klein

That makes sense. So you got into soccer and-Yup. Club soccer?

[00:07:58.380] - Chris Rea

Yeah, I played travel soccer for a We had a team called the SAS Kickers out of Simi Valley for a long time, basically from ninth grade on, and played high school ball for a Royal high school. I went to the quarterfinals of CIF two years in a row.

[00:08:13.880] - Speaker 1

With the travel team, we were notorious for playing a man down, if not two men down, and we would still be competitive in the league for the end of season Championship.

[00:08:28.920] - Big Rich Klein

Was it just because of injuries or just not that much interest?

[00:08:31.970] - Chris Rea

So the crap part is, is Travel Ball is mostly summer, especially once you get into the high school ages, because you play travel up until Thanksgiving, and then Thanksgiving to Basically, April is high school ball, and there's specific rules and regulations that say that you can't do both at the same time. If you get caught, it's like that lead into college where you have to play by their rules, unfortunately. There was a lot of mist time there. But that was it. And then because it's summer, people going on trips, people going on all sorts of stuff. And so we typically played at least a man down, if not two.

[00:09:26.780] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, that's why I never got into any of those sports, Little League, baseball and that stuff that played through the summer because I'd rather go out and go water skiing and camping and hiking and that stuff than play sports. But that was my life at that age.

[00:09:45.470] - Chris Rea

For both my sister and I, sports for life. If we weren't playing sports, we weren't doing it. I know it's probably hard to believe. Again, you know me pretty well, but I'm not the most social person. I'm not really good in social interactions. And part of that is because literally, if I wasn't at a sports event, I was with my family. I didn't really do a lot of friend things. Those were the only two things. It was like if... And once I hit about 12 years old or 13 years old and I was full of tilts into soccer, I was actually refereeing, too. And I became one of the youngest FIFA level seven referees in the country at the time, and was refereeing college games before I was 14 years old.

[00:10:35.890] - Speaker 1

Wow.

[00:10:38.960] - Chris Rea

So again, always into rules and regulations, and that leads into more of our other conversations.

[00:10:47.110] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, it sure does. So then what student were you? Were you a good student or were you always looking out the window?

[00:10:55.640] - Chris Rea

So I was the mixture of both. Four 8.0 GPA through high school, basically. 1,300 plus on the SATs. But I was always the class clown, the guy that didn't have to focus on homework to get good grades. Just was able to get it done. I was the bane of the existence for most of my teachers in that regard. Right.

[00:11:24.540] - Big Rich Klein

So did that cause troubles? Did you end up in detention often?

[00:11:29.290] - Chris Rea

No. So it was... I don't know really how to explain it. They all understood that it was just me acting out and trying to not be the kid that always had the answer. And so they let me slide a lot, and especially because I did so good on everything else, test and all my homework was done on time and everything like that. The little act out or the slide joke or anything like that, they never really had any reason for me to get into tension.

[00:12:01.980] - Big Rich Klein

Okay, good. I guess not playing football because of your size, 5'11, 100 pounds as a freshman, might be a little undersized.

[00:12:14.350] - Chris Rea

Yeah. So I actually went... And the reason that I have 4'11 and 100 pounds burned into my memory is because I actually did sign up for football. It was my first time for really being able to play football, and I was super excited because I love Playing flag football growing up and everything like that before high school, I was always one of the toughest people to get a hold of or tackle. And so anytime we played, I always love being running back and I always loved being a wide receiver. And I had good enough hops. I had a 36-inch vertical before I was a sophomore in high school. And so I could play those positions well. But when I showed up for the physical, the preseason physical for her freshman year, I stepped on the scale and the lady started at 150 pounds and started working her way down from 200 down to 150 because that had been what all the kids before me had been at. And then when she got to 150 pounds, she went, oh, that's weird. And so she put the scale. It was back in the day before we had digital scales.

[00:13:24.210] - Chris Rea

She put the scale to the 100 pounds and then started at 150 and worked her way down from 150 to 100. And the scale still hadn't leveled out. So she put the scale back to 50 pounds and then started working her way up to 100 pounds. And around '98, '99, it started leveling out. And she looked at me and she goes, You're 100 pounds. And I go, But the scale. And she says, If you want to play football, you're 100 pounds. And I go, but the scale. And she says, if you want to play I said, Okay.

[00:13:50.750] - Big Rich Klein

Let me go out and eat a burger.

[00:13:52.690] - Chris Rea

Yeah. But I had a real good friend by the name of TJ that I'd grown up playing baseball with, and he played for the rival team and the Rival High School team, and he was a year older than me. And I was telling him in between that physical and the start of Hell Week, I was like, oh, yeah, I'm excited. And he's like, dude, you need to just pull out. I'm like, what do you mean? He's You're going to die. I was like, you're going to die. I was like, what do you mean? You're the same height as me. He's like, Yeah, but I got 60 pounds on you. And I'm like, That's fine. They can't tackle me. He's like, You don't understand. You're used to playing just your local kids. These are going to be the best of the best of the entire city. And so they're going to hit you. And when they see little kids like you, their whole goal is, how can I hurt him so that he is slower so that I can catch him next time? And I said, well, I guess I don't want to play football anymore.

[00:14:47.610] - Chris Rea

And that was when I went and signed up for the soccer team.

[00:14:49.900] - Big Rich Klein

There you go. Yeah, I can remember. I was 5'8 and 168 in my freshman year.

[00:14:59.830] - Chris Rea

Yeah. And you would have been one of the guys that was just trying to absolutely break my neck off, because if you didn't break my neck off, you knew that I was going to run for a shutdown.

[00:15:09.050] - Big Rich Klein

True. So then you're in high school. Are you working at all or just concentrating on sports in school?

[00:15:20.060] - Chris Rea

So every weekend, I was refereeing soccer matches. And that was an amazing... That was my- And those are big. During school. Yeah, well, it's all cash in your pocket. So as a 14 year old, I'm bringing in $300 every weekend. And then every summer from seventh grade on, in between seventh and eighth grade, I had a job. My parents And so my clients always instilled a pretty decent work ethic in me, and they always required me. They would provide me the very basics to do whatever I wanted to do, whether it was BMX, whether it was soccer. If there's a $40 cleat, you get a $40 cleat. If If you want an $80 cleat, then you have to find the extra $40. Right. So the only way that I could afford to have the nicer equipment and give myself a competitive advantage that I needed because I was so small physically, I would have to find ways to come up with that money.

[00:16:17.700] - Speaker 1

And whether that was saving up all of my birthday money and three or four weekends worth of stuff so that I could buy equipment, that's what I did.

[00:16:29.940] - Chris Rea

I had to buy my first... I didn't have to buy my first car, but I had to pay to get it running because it had been parked from 94 to 98, 99. And so that's when you're 15, 16 years old, a thousand bucks or 2000 bucks is a lot of money to save up. Oh, yeah. So you can get tires and fuel line and all that stuff.

[00:16:55.160] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, I bought my first car and put every dollar into it. I wanted it. There was fiat that I wanted. And my dad said, well, you got 600 bucks? And I said, no. He goes, how much you got? And I got 300. And he goes, well, my good friend, your uncle Ken, he said that he's got that old Volkswagen Bug, and he only wants 300 bucks for it. I bet you can get that. So I bought a 54 oval oval window Volkswagen Bug for 300 bucks back in 1972?

[00:17:33.990] - Chris Rea

Yeah.

[00:17:34.940] - Big Rich Klein

Or '71, '72, something like that? Yeah.

[00:17:37.350] - Chris Rea

I don't know if you remember, I used to drive my first car out to the events.

[00:17:43.230] - Big Rich Klein

What was that?

[00:17:44.820] - Chris Rea

It was the 1971 Volkswagen Squareback, which was the worst of the worst because it was an automatic and it was fuel-injected. So it was zero to 60 on an uphill, never.

[00:18:00.770] - Big Rich Klein

But yeah, no.

[00:18:03.110] - Chris Rea

My dad bought that '71 Volkswagen Squareback when he was in college in 1977, put over 300,000 miles on it. It was on its third transmission and second motor when they got it because he had literally driven it from Denver, Colorado to Miami, where my mom lived, all the way up to Washington, Mount Rushmore. Literally, he did the entire country in that car before I got it. And then he parked it in '94 when he finally bought his first new car.

[00:18:33.740] - Big Rich Klein

Wow.

[00:18:35.560] - Chris Rea

So it needed battery, it needed tires, it needed fuel lines, every single window seal. It had the removable tape deck. So I had to take the tape deck with me everywhere I went in '98, which was really embarrassing. But I had wheels. And when all my other friends in high school were like, Hey, you want to go to the movies? I'm like, Sure. What time do you want to be there? They're like, Oh, I don't know. Hold on. Let me ask my mom. I was able to hop in my car and drive.

[00:19:10.120] - Big Rich Klein

Right. Yeah, there was a lot of freedom, man. I tell you what, I was so happy that I had my car about a year before I got my driver's license. So it was game on, fixing it up and doing what I needed to do so that it was drivable. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:19:28.750] - Chris Rea

I've probably spent just as as much time on a tow truck as I did behind the wheel in that car, though. I could never keep it running for the life of me. It didn't matter what I did. It always seemed like something that I'd get one thing fixed and the next thing would break, and it was, all right, well, I guess I'm riding my bike for the next week or two until I can get the money from referring soccer. Right.

[00:19:49.040] - Big Rich Klein

So then you graduate high school.

[00:19:52.020] - Chris Rea

Yes.

[00:19:52.760] - Big Rich Klein

Did you do prom and all that stuff?

[00:19:55.350] - Chris Rea

Oh, yeah. Our prom was freaking lame. We We had to take a Metro link from Seamy Valley down to Anaheim. Took three hours. No partying, no drinking, no nothing. It was the lamest thing ever. And then we did the dance, and then we had to take the Metro link back. And it was forced. You had to check in, check out. It was bad. But we had a ton of fun at the event, and then the after parties were tons of fun. Anybody who knows Seamy Valley, we all met at the DelTaco and figured out where we were going to go party and partied there until that party got broken up. And then we met back at the DelTaco and figured out where the next one was. And that went till four in the morning.

[00:20:40.910] - Big Rich Klein

Did you party a lot back then, senior year?

[00:20:46.200] - Chris Rea

So I didn't party a ton. I would go to the parties, but I was always... Because I always had soccer, or soccer was my life at the time, I either had a varsity game or I had a club game, or I was refereeing at seven in the morning every Saturday. I'd go out and I'd have fun, but I didn't really drink a ton. I didn't really do the... I tried to be social, but it wasn't what I was when I was in college. We'll put it that way.

[00:21:18.740] - Big Rich Klein

It didn't come really easy.

[00:21:20.810] - Chris Rea

No.

[00:21:23.050] - Big Rich Klein

You have a close-knit group of friends?

[00:21:26.410] - Chris Rea

It was pretty much the soccer team. Then I had a girlfriend Pretty much every year from junior year on. And so we would hang out with her friends or my friends.

[00:21:36.440] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. Did you go cruise your Volkswagen Squareback? Yeah.

[00:21:41.360] - Chris Rea

I mean, that thing got to do some things that it's not supposed to do. One of my first foray in the off-roading, there was a high school club called Unauthorized. And it was called Unauthorized because in the hills of Seamy Valley, it's surrounded by ranchers' property and forestry roads and all that stuff. But you're not... It's 100 % illegal to go back there. And I don't advocate it now, but at 16, I didn't know any better. And so we used to go back there and go four wheeling and everything like that. So we had the window stickers and we had the bumper stickers and all that stuff. And I credit one of the kids that was in that group, Luke Ware, with a lot of my love for... He's the one that got me into rock crawling in general. Before that, I was just a pre-runner bro from SoCal with the fiber glass fenders and that stuff.

[00:22:42.820] - Big Rich Klein

You had the Volkswagen when we met, you said. So that was after high school, college?

[00:22:55.840] - Chris Rea

Yeah. I tried to go into the Naval Academy. All right. That was my first interaction with a recruiter lying to me. When I was about nine or 10 years old, I was diagnosed with asthma, and it was later found out that it it was an asthma, it was allergies to grass. But because I had been prescribed an inhaler, the recruiter told me that I had to fill it out and say that I had asthma. I was like, But that's an automatic disqualifier for the academy. He No, it's not. You'll be fine. I said, Are you sure? Everybody tells me that this is an automatic disqualifier. And he's like, No, it's not. You'll be fine. And so I went through everything, got my letter of recommendation from my congressman, got my SATs up, made sure my grades were good. I got a letter of recommendation from a rear admiral who is number 52 in the entire chain of command for the entire country. Write me a letter of recommendation because he was friends with my grandpa. And so I had everything squared away. And I was like, the perfect candidate. And I got the email that said or the letter that said, basically, you're not allowed to come because you had asthma.

[00:24:10.510] - Chris Rea

And I went to my recruiter and I was like, what is this? You said it wasn't going to be a problem. He's like, you had asthma? I said, no, I told you this. He's like, well, then why did you put it? And I was just like, you got to be kidding me. So unfortunately, child of the '90s, born in the '80s, raised in the '90s. If you didn't And especially in Southern California, if you don't go to college, you're not worth anything. No fault of my parents, no fault of my grandparents. Just that was society. And so I went to my backup school, which was up near your neck of the woods at UC Santa Barbara.

[00:24:47.370] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, okay. I went to college in Santa Barbara, but not to UCSB. I lived in Ila Vista for a while, and then Galita, but I went to Brooks Institute of Photography.

[00:24:58.530] - Chris Rea

Yeah.

[00:24:59.110] - Big Rich Klein

Back back in the late '70s, early '80s. Anyway, so what did you study?

[00:25:06.540] - Chris Rea

Mechanical engineering. Okay. And I picked that solely because when I did the on-campus, like freshman orientation, they had an SAE Mini Baja bug, and I was like, I can go build off-road cars? And they're like, yeah. And I was like, okay, cool. I want to do that. I'm going to be a mechanical engineer.

[00:25:29.630] - Big Rich Klein

So then you got through college?

[00:25:34.910] - Speaker 1

No, no, no, no. No? No.

[00:25:37.500] - Chris Rea

I got through the first two years of college. And by get through, I mean, I had a GPA. But my last semester that I was still a student, the first go around, I got a 0.94 GPA. I got a not pass in weight lifting because I was too drunk to go to the final.

[00:25:59.710] - Big Rich Klein

So you succumbed to the Isle of Vista curse.

[00:26:03.310] - Chris Rea

I did. So it goes back to what you were talking about, though. In high school, I was social, but I had a very regimened schedule with sports, with school, with parents checking in on me and everything like that. And that was all that I knew. When I got to college and it was fair game, oh, I can be drunk and go to school and not really care. I'm a good student, and I'm smart. I don't need to study for seven hours to do that. I can I'll do that in an hour, and I'll be fine. And that worked for the first semester or first quarter. And then the second quarter, the grades got worse, and the third quarter, grades got even worse. And by the sixth quarter, the UC Santa Barbara dean said, You will never get your degree from this college as long as I am the dean.

[00:26:47.500] - Big Rich Klein

Wow.

[00:26:48.590] - Chris Rea

Yeah. So after that, that summer, I was working at a off-road shop in Southern California, owned by a guy, a by the name of Tim Haight. It was called Bronco Alley. And he built high-end early Broncos and full-custom buggies. Anybody that's been in the industry long enough will remember the Barbie Bronco from Texas, owned by a guy by the name, if I remember right, Lee Novakoff.

[00:27:20.460] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, yeah, I know Lee.

[00:27:20.500] - Chris Rea

He was one of the first full body Bronco buggies other than JR's Fat City Bronco. Right. So I was working with him, and through him, I got to meet a guy by the name of Rusty, and Rusty invited me out to this event called Carnage for the Cause in 2003. And that was my first real taste of true rock crawling.

[00:27:49.140] - Big Rich Klein

So that was the one in Johnson Valley?

[00:27:52.820] - Chris Rea

Correct. Yeah, that was when the 10 Benders hosted it, and it was the raced teams of five up backdoor. Start at the before what used to be the gatekeeper and doesn't exist anymore, and go up both waterfalls and then up the top of the sandhill. When the last car crosses on the backside of the sandhill, your time was up.

[00:28:13.110] - Big Rich Klein

Right. That was 2003?

[00:28:15.080] - Chris Rea

Yeah, 2003. And then because of that event and my interactions on pirate four by four is what led to you and I meeting in person at Boulevard Brawl in 2004. Right.

[00:28:29.920] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. Cool. Cool.

[00:28:36.020] - Chris Rea

So, yeah, and then basically between 2004 and 2006, I was floating jobs, living on my dad's couch. And in 2005, I realized that I was going nowhere and I was going to be nothing. So I needed to do something with myself. And because I had a calling to the military previously, I got that same calling again and ended up joining the military. And I went to Went to the US Navy and became a nuclear reactor, not a nuclear reactor operator, but I worked on nuclear reactors that power aircraft carriers, and I became a chemistry and radiological specialist. Okay.

[00:29:16.010] - Big Rich Klein

And you didn't glow at the end of your service?

[00:29:19.010] - Chris Rea

No, I still don't glow in the dark, unfortunately. I tried.

[00:29:22.420] - Big Rich Klein

So what was it like going from partying to naval life?

[00:29:30.180] - Chris Rea

So the first six months of naval life were back to high school for me. It was regimened school. You had to be in uniform in school at 7:00 in the morning till 3:00 PM. You had after-school activities that were required, and it was back to that same thing. And so even though the nuclear power field is touted as the most difficult academic program in all the military outside of the academies, I excelled there. I was in the top 10 % of my class in every class. But as soon as you were past about six months, the partying just went back to... It was as bad or worse than college because I didn't have rent, I didn't have clothing costs, I didn't have anything.

[00:30:21.900] - Big Rich Klein

Except a wad in your pocket.

[00:30:24.670] - Chris Rea

Yeah. I mean, our normal Friday night was a $300 bar tab in 2007.

[00:30:30.050] - Big Rich Klein

Jesus. That rivaled mine back then.

[00:30:34.460] - Chris Rea

Yeah, and that was every night. And then the beauty of that was, I was actually... The nuclear power school was in Charleston, and I don't know how the stars aligned, but every four-day weekend I got happened to be a We Rock event. Nice. And so I actually got to come back and do We Rock stuff the entire time that I was on the East Coast.

[00:30:56.040] - Big Rich Klein

Wow. Okay. Yeah, because I remember you being at at a lot of those events.

[00:31:02.430] - Chris Rea

Yeah. I got the Judge, Siquachi, two times Angelico. I got to burn a beehive in Rosh Creek with Josh. Yeah, and then I got to do the Houston finals, too.

[00:31:21.760] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, cool. Excellent. So then you get through the military without killing your liver or getting thrown in the brig. Am I correct on that?

[00:31:41.380] - Chris Rea

Yeah, I had a couple of close calls. That's for sure. One in Thailand and one in Jacksonville, Florida. But unscathed, no NJPs, no masting, no none of that. So I don't know how it happened, but I- So on paper, you look like a good boy. I got out of the military with no STDs, no divorces, no kids, and no jail record. So I don't know how I did that.

[00:32:12.220] - Big Rich Klein

You were just smart enough.

[00:32:15.420] - Chris Rea

Yeah. But again, stars aligned. And because I actually got injured while I was on a deployment on the aircraft carrier, and that ended up with me getting been put on a limited duty for the last two years of my service, going through a couple of surgeries, trying to get it fixed and everything like that, and it never worked. But because it being on limited duty, it allowed me to go to things like the Reno Stampede for Alpha 4, and become the Ultra 4 Chief Tech Inspector.

[00:32:47.700] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. I remember that. You had a lot of controversy going on, too.

[00:32:52.700] - Chris Rea

I think there's always controversy. There's never not controversy, but I think that one thing everybody can attest to, whether it was as my time as the lead marshal for Wixom or whether it was my time as the chief tech inspector. If there was a rule, it was black and white as far as I was concerned. And it didn't matter. It didn't matter whether you were Shannon Campbell or Casey Curry or whatever. You got the same rules applied to you as anybody else. Right. And I vividly remember a a heated exchange with the Lovell brothers in New Mexico. At the nationals in Albuquerque in 2009, I believe it was. Shannon Campbell, the way that Shannon Campbell and I met was a cone call in globe, Arizona, in the first ever We Rock event. And he walked up to me at the next event and said, I don't know if you remember me, but I'm Shannon Campbell. And I said, Yeah, I remember you. And he said, Well, you're the judge, and you called a cone on me, and my spotter made Little Rich overturn it. I just want you to know that we looked at it and we hit the cone.

[00:34:06.930] - Chris Rea

And so I'm never going to question another one of your calls again.

[00:34:09.720] - Big Rich Klein

Rich overturned it?

[00:34:11.940] - Chris Rea

Yup.

[00:34:12.710] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, that little bastard.

[00:34:16.640] - Chris Rea

Well, it was Shannon Campbell's first event, and it was the river running through my course, and I didn't have a secondary judge, and there was a lot of mitigating circumstances, and I don't fault him for it at all. But the going full circle at the Houston Nationals were in the shootout with Shannon Campbell, and he's trailing by six points. He's got two bonus gates left, and he goes and gets one bonus gate, and he thinks he got it. And Lance Clifford is a spotter, and they're cheering and hooting and hollering, and they come back down, and I'm like, no, you hit that cone. You still need 10 more points. And Lance is getting up in my face and everything like that. And Shannon is right there next to me, and he goes, Lance, stop. If Chris called it, it's good. We're going to go do that next cone. And they went and cleared that gate and won it.

[00:35:09.320] - Big Rich Klein

Nice. It's good that you have that memory that you can remember all those little instances.

[00:35:16.640] - Chris Rea

Surprisingly, my memory is not what it used to be.

[00:35:20.880] - Big Rich Klein

Get used to that.

[00:35:22.780] - Chris Rea

Yeah, especially because of all the traumatic brain injuries that I've had. I have probably averaged one concussion. I I know for sure I've averaged one concussion with memory loss every year from 2013 to 2020. I've noticed that things, especially in the last five or six years, have started to really jumbal up. I forget a lot Just a lot of the things that I should know.

[00:35:48.410] - Big Rich Klein

How old are you now?

[00:35:49.980] - Chris Rea

I'm 40. Forty.

[00:35:50.940] - Big Rich Klein

Okay.

[00:35:51.650] - Chris Rea

Yeah.

[00:35:55.570] - Big Rich Klein

You're out of the Navy, you're working?

[00:36:04.740] - Chris Rea

No. After the military, I went back to college. I took it as a personal vendetta. Because the dean told me that I would never get my degree from UC Santa Barbara, I said, I'm going to get my degree from UC Santa Barbara. Nice. My last six months or a year, I took a couple of classes at a community college up in Bremerton, where I was stationed. Then I applied for reinstatement to UCSB and I got back in. I went and got my degree from... I actually got my degree in September of 2015.

[00:36:37.670] - Big Rich Klein

Okay.

[00:36:38.730] - Chris Rea

Almost a full 15 years from the date that I started.

[00:36:44.320] - Big Rich Klein

Hey, you got it.

[00:36:46.600] - Chris Rea

Yeah, exactly. If I ever see that dean again, I'll be able to hang my head high and know that I did what she said I could never do.

[00:36:56.940] - Big Rich Klein

There you go. So after that, you started working.

[00:37:02.980] - Chris Rea

Yeah. After that, I... Well, after I graduated, I flew down to Australia for eight weeks and was a mechanic and pit crew and navigator for Ben Napier.

[00:37:18.690] - Big Rich Klein

That's right. Because we saw you down. No, no. Were you there when we were there?

[00:37:24.980] - Chris Rea

Yep. You and Kelly came down in your white Land Rover or whatever it was with the rooftop tent. And you guys sat and watched me and Brooksie and Ben and nick thrashing on the cars for the We Rock event that was down there. Yeah.

[00:37:38.620] - Big Rich Klein

Getting ready for that rock crawl. Yep. Yeah. So I did that. And then I was getting ready for that rock crawl.

[00:37:40.410] - Chris Rea

Yeah. Yeah. So I did that. And then I was getting ready to fly back to the United States. And I was like, hey, I haven't been to the Baja 1000. And the Baja 2000 is in two weeks. So I'm going to put a post on Facebook and see who needs help. And JT Taylor called Dibbs. And so I went down and helped. That was the year that him and Greg Cutrell and Jason Sheer and and Moni Ham and that whole crew ran the Class 11. So I got to be a mobile pit for 300 miles behind the Class 11 bug in a Razor 800.

[00:38:17.620] - Big Rich Klein

So you were idling while they were racing?

[00:38:20.970] - Chris Rea

Very much so. And then whenever they got a flat, I got out to change it. When they got stuck, we pulled in front of them and I I was the one waiting through the waist deep silt to get the strap hooked up and we'd pull them out. And it was 40 plus hours awake and some of the most fun that I've ever had, and I can't wait to get back down there sometime.

[00:38:44.210] - Big Rich Klein

I love Baja.

[00:38:47.020] - Chris Rea

I did my bachelor party down there. That's how much I love it.

[00:38:50.650] - Big Rich Klein

Nice. Now that I'm on the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame Board of Directors, I have a feeling that I might try I'm going to make it down to the 1,000 this year and see what I can do, see if I can help somebody or if PCI does a weatherman, I've been been asked to come along on that with those guys if they do the weatherman. And so we'll see. But I have a feeling I'll get down there.

[00:39:22.520] - Chris Rea

You would be good at the weatherman. You've got the great radio coms. And even when things get very hot and chaotic, you always have been nice and calm and able to keep your wits about you.

[00:39:36.850] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, I plan on being up there partying. I'll let everybody else run the radio coms. I just want to be up there in the action.

[00:39:44.960] - Chris Rea

I mean, I wouldn't complain about that.

[00:39:46.280] - Big Rich Klein

Although I can't party anymore, alcoholic-wise.

[00:39:49.180] - Chris Rea

Oh, okay.

[00:39:51.580] - Big Rich Klein

So then, let's talk about those early years of judging. And besides Houston, and that was Spring, Texas, I guess. Wasn't the Pit, was it? No, it was Spring, Texas, along the creek bed there or whatever it was. All the concrete in the trees and stuff. What do you remember most about some of the events?

[00:40:19.720] - Chris Rea

So I remember in Roush Creek, Shannon Campbell, nick carried two 12-foot logs.

[00:40:29.780] - Big Rich Klein

He made the slide. They were like six.

[00:40:31.590] - Chris Rea

He made a skateboard grinding rail. And it was this nasty 15-foot undercut drop-off bonus line, and everybody had avoided it. And then nick literally comes out of nowhere with these trees on his shoulder and sets them down. And Shannon Campbell drives up to it and literally just grinds down it and never misses a beat.

[00:40:56.180] - Big Rich Klein

Man, the East Coasters, I remember that the East Coasters just came unglued and were just saying it was cheating, that you couldn't do that. And I had to pull a copy of the rules out and write it all to show them right here. It says, yes, you can. And they were just livid. I remember that.

[00:41:14.280] - Chris Rea

Yeah. One of my favorite things, little checkmark or notch on my bed post is the fact that Tracy Jordan is still scared of me. Anytime he's on my course, Those of you that are those listening that were around We Rock between 2005 and 2009 would recognize my voice as the voice of judging. One of the only people that can be heard over of an LS on full tilt pipe, Five minutes remaining, one minute remaining.

[00:41:55.610] - Speaker 1

Cone.

[00:41:56.790] - Chris Rea

None of the drivers on my course ever had to worry about, Oh, I didn't hear that.

[00:42:03.000] - Big Rich Klein

And if they claimed that, they were lying.

[00:42:07.520] - Chris Rea

Yeah, exactly. But one of my most vivid memories is that first globe event and having to cancel the first day because we literally couldn't get competitors down to the course because there was 40 plus inches of rain. Yeah. That whole first season, it wasn't world extreme rock crawling. It was weather enhanced rock crawling, because even that next event in Moab, we had rain, sun, snow, and sleet all on the same weekend.

[00:42:44.110] - Big Rich Klein

Exactly.

[00:42:45.260] - Speaker 1

You know?

[00:42:49.720] - Big Rich Klein

Saquatchi.

[00:42:52.410] - Chris Rea

Saquatchi was one of the muddiest events that I've ever been at.

[00:42:55.110] - Big Rich Klein

And it was on a hillside.

[00:42:57.080] - Chris Rea

Yep. And it's also the only time I've ever watched a spotter shoulder check their car.

[00:43:01.720] - Big Rich Klein

How many cars were having to winch just to get to the start line?

[00:43:07.460] - Chris Rea

Every single one on my course. Yeah. Yeah, every single one had to winch to get past the start gates. And once they got past the start gates, it got into a downhill and they could build some momentum. But that was also where... So the rule has always been, you get a warning, or at least it used to be, you get a warning if your spotter is touching the car. And there was a cone and a tree on a downhill section on that Saquoche course that I was judging. And nick Campbell literally shoulder-checked Shannon's car at the tire as he's driving. Shannon drops down the course and Nick's standing right next to the tree, and he literally shoulder-checked the tire at just the right time, knocked it around and made it miss the cone. And he was the only competitor that missed the cone. And I looked at nick and I said, nick, that was the dumbest, smartest thing you've ever done that I've ever seen. And he said, what? I I saw you shoulder check that car. He said, no, sir, I slipped and just happened to hit the car. And I said, you don't have to worry about it.

[00:44:09.550] - Chris Rea

You get one warning. So I had to give you a warning about it before I can give you any penalties for it. So he smiling and laughed and went on to his next course.

[00:44:21.270] - Big Rich Klein

That's pretty awesome.

[00:44:23.440] - Chris Rea

And then obviously, nobody can talk about the early days of We Rock without talking about the Jellico rodeo.

[00:44:30.740] - Big Rich Klein

There you go. Enlighten us.

[00:44:32.060] - Chris Rea

So do you remember when Little Rich caught a Roman candle in his mouth?

[00:44:37.390] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, yeah, I remember that.

[00:44:40.730] - Chris Rea

So I have two vivid memories from Jellico.

[00:44:42.940] - Big Rich Klein

Flaming ball in his mouth.

[00:44:44.550] - Chris Rea

Yeah. Flaming. Little Rich is one of the few that has ever had fiery balls in his mouth in Jellico. So that's that's vivid memory number one. And vivid memory two, I think it was the... I want to say it was the '07, but it might have been...

[00:45:02.080] - Speaker 1

It had to been '07, when Eric Miller was competing in the stock class in his gold yellowish orangeish YJ or Jeep.

[00:45:12.460] - Chris Rea

And he had bashed his front fender so bad that they were just sharp metal. And he was trying to crawl up on something and his spotter told him to stop, and he didn't stop and slice his spotter's forearm almost right down the road, not across the tracks. And I had to haul ass out on a four-wheeler to get to the ambulance and get a medic on the back of the four-wheeler because it was going to take them 15 minutes to get down the road to this kid that was potentially going to bleed out.

[00:45:47.590] - Big Rich Klein

Right. I remember that. And that's when we made the rule that we had to... The body couldn't be all tore up like that.

[00:45:57.490] - Chris Rea

Yeah, exactly.

[00:45:59.660] - Big Rich Klein

Because Eric Miller used to be not so nice to vehicles.

[00:46:04.870] - Chris Rea

I mean, I don't know if he's still nice to vehicles, but they just look prettier and are more capable than that Jeep that he had back then.

[00:46:12.220] - Big Rich Klein

Right.

[00:46:14.120] - Chris Rea

I tell you what, that kid can freaking drive. And I call him a kid, but he's only a couple of years younger to me. Right.

[00:46:20.730] - Big Rich Klein

You're all kids.

[00:46:23.160] - Chris Rea

Yeah, that is true.

[00:46:25.430] - Big Rich Klein

So then, talk about Boulevard. That was a trippy event being right there on the border. The guy's property was Mexico. The property line went to Mexico.

[00:46:42.150] - Chris Rea

That was one of my favorite event sites out of every event site that I've ever been into in my life. That event site was just so cool because of the varied terrain and the bushes and everything like that. It was trippy to see Border Patrol chasing people through the event site. But it was my first foray into anything rock crawling. And the reason that I was there is because I answered a call on Pirate 4x4 from Bigrich that said, I need volunteers. Does anybody know how to announce. And I said, Well, I've done plays and I've done live TV and I've done all sorts of other stuff in my life. Sure, I can put a microphone and talk. And we realized very quickly that that was very wrong.

[00:47:28.060] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, I remember. Now you bring that up, you went dead silent. It was like somebody stitched your mouth closed.

[00:47:37.440] - Chris Rea

100 %. So I was in such shock of seeing everything live that I had only seen on hauling or crawling DVDs or in magazines that I was just like, I can't even think right now, let alone talk. I'm just amazed at this. And so I like Jeff. And again, this is full circle how I meet everybody. That was the event that Jeff Noel was announcing as well. Jeff Noel and I became friends at that event. And he was great at what he did. I just sucked so badly that it was like, Why did we even give this guy a microphone? And we tried two more events, and then finally we realized that no, Chris, you're an awesome volunteer, and we love having you, but you can't announce. Go, Judge.

[00:48:30.280] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, I remember that time frame.

[00:48:31.880] - Chris Rea

And that was where I could finally talk.

[00:48:34.200] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, that's right. Because I think I even came up one time and said something like, as an announcement, you're supposed to talk.

[00:48:42.380] - Chris Rea

That was at Donner.

[00:48:45.820] - Big Rich Klein

Was it at Donner?

[00:48:47.180] - Chris Rea

Yeah.

[00:48:49.000] - Big Rich Klein

There hasn't been too many times that I've taken volunteers out of the job and found them something else to do?

[00:48:59.140] - Chris Rea

That was 100 % warranted. I was surprised that I made it that long. But at BD Nevada for the Cal Rocks Championship that year, because that was 2004, before W-Rock, we did Boulevard, we did Donner, and we did Cougar Buttes. And I think it was only a three event. And then the Cal Rocks Championship was beating Nevada.

[00:49:27.020] - Big Rich Klein

Right.

[00:49:28.710] - Chris Rea

And that was where I started judging.

[00:49:32.340] - Big Rich Klein

So we didn't do Goldendale back then?

[00:49:38.830] - Chris Rea

You might have. I just might not have been able to get up for that event. I know I did Goldendale in 2005 because I still have a picture of me out partying in the Goldendale area with my Navy delayed entry program hat on. And I know for a fact, that was where Bruce Deller's brother said, The best pickup line I've ever heard in my entire life.

[00:50:01.310] - Big Rich Klein

Okay, let's hear it.

[00:50:03.910] - Chris Rea

So you got to remember, I can't remember what his accent really was, but he was like, hickish. And so I remember him walking up to my friend Deborah and looking at her and going, Hey, you want to play truck driver? And she just looks at him all quizzically, and he goes, Yeah, you back it on up and prepare to take my load. And both me and Deborah looked at him just completely… We had no idea what to say because I'm 20 at the time, 21 at the time. Yeah, I'm 21 or 22 at the time, and she's 19, 20 at the time, I think. And we're just like, We have no idea what to say to this guy right now. Because at the time, I didn't know that it was BZ's brother. I just thought it was some random dude that walked up to us.

[00:50:57.230] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, Craig. That's funny. That's funnier now.

[00:51:01.180] - Chris Rea

Yeah. Bruce BZ, who's one of my favorite competitors ever, and his old spotter, and nick Campbell going into the gay bar in Jellico, Tennessee, is another amazing story.

[00:51:19.600] - Big Rich Klein

They didn't know it was a gay bar?

[00:51:21.310] - Chris Rea

No, they didn't. They sat down, got a drink bought for them, and then immediately left.

[00:51:29.190] - Big Rich Klein

When When George and BZ went over to Australia to compete, Lance Clifford and Tracey Jordan were telling everybody, all the Australians, that George was gay, was a poofter. That's awesome. He couldn't understand why everybody was coming up to him and acting different. Yeah, that's hilarious. Yeah, it was classic. Anybody that didn't know George, George was extremely well-built, cut, very, Very muscular and almost a bodybuilder-like, bodybuilder-esque.

[00:52:21.600] - Chris Rea

George was the... He's the guy that they modeled for Greek statues.

[00:52:27.680] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, there you go.

[00:52:29.920] - Chris Rea

Him and Jason Berger would get along really well as far as physical fitness goes. Right. Absolutely.

[00:52:40.200] - Big Rich Klein

So then you get into bike racing.

[00:52:46.070] - Chris Rea

Yeah. I had the history of BMX. And then while I was in the military, my dad had prostate cancer. He got diagnosed with prostate cancer. And so he started doing a lot cycling as a way to stay in shape and basically keep his physical fitness for everything. And then he did fundraisers for the leukemia and lymphoma Society. And so I was like, well, I'm going to pick up a bike so that I can ride with my dad because that's a fantastic way for me to spend time with him because you go... His bike rides are three, four hours. And when I'm in the military, I come on leave, I get three days maybe. And if every day that my dad's gone for three hours, that defeats the purpose of being able to see my dad. So I'm like, well, I guess I got to get a bike and I got to start riding. And so I got a bike while I was still up in Seattle. And then when I was going to UC Santa Barbara, I started looking it up because I was tired of my 60 year old dad just beating the crap out of me on this bike.

[00:53:54.950] - Chris Rea

He was so much faster than me. He's leaving his 30 year old kid in the dust. And I was like, well, I got to find a club to go ride with so that I can get fit so that when I go home, I can beat my dad up these hills. And found the UC Santa Barbara cycling team and got on to that.

[00:54:11.300] - Speaker 1

And then after a couple of rides, the coach looked at me and was like, hey, you're going to race, right?

[00:54:17.360] - Chris Rea

And I'm like, I'm never going to be one of those spandex wearing, legs shaved cyclists. I'm just here to stay fit so that I can beat my dad. And he just laughed and he said, okay, sure. And sure enough, two months later, three months later, I was in my first race, and I got second place. And I got that first year, I moved up two categories. My second year, I won the state championship for the category or my divisional championship, because there's no true California Championship. There's a Northern California and a Southern California, and there's not one combined. So I won the Southern California State Championship, and then I won four races consecutively that same year, which, as far as I know, still hasn't really been done. All solo, no teammate.

[00:55:11.130] - Speaker 1

And then I ended up taking 30 second at College Nationals.

[00:55:17.700] - Chris Rea

And I went full deep dive into it and tried to get a professional contract. I actually ended up sixth at a Red Bull event in San Antonio out of over 150 competitors.

[00:55:32.890] - Speaker 1

And I got third place in the Pro one, which is the highest category in the Southern California Championships in 2016 as well.

[00:55:45.890] - Big Rich Klein

Wow. I didn't realize it was that accomplished.

[00:55:49.790] - Chris Rea

Yeah, I got told by three teams in 2016, you're 32 years old. There's no point in us giving you a contract because The money that you're going to want is going to pay for two 18-year-olds. And I said, yeah, but you could pay me what the 18-year-olds make because I have my military retirement, too. And they're like, No, we don't want somebody that old. And I said, All right, cool. So I basically told myself when I graduated college, I was like, I'm giving myself one year to get a pro contract. If I don't get a pro contract, then I get to go get a job and be a real adult and go there. And so I gave it my all. Like I said, I got third place in state championships or divisional championships, and I got sixth place at a Red Bull event, and I still couldn't get a pro contract. So I was like, well, it's time to use my nuclear background and my mechanical engineering degree and go get a real job.

[00:56:53.220] - Big Rich Klein

And you did that doing?

[00:56:56.380] - Chris Rea

So I got into manufacturing. I don't use anything that my degree is in. I don't do calculations of any kind. I don't do aerodynamics or fluid flow or anything. I got into the very practical side of the mechanical engineering, and I basically become a manufacturing engineer and process engineer. One of the titles that I got given for a little while was optimization engineer.

[00:57:24.790] - Big Rich Klein

That sounds fancy.

[00:57:26.540] - Chris Rea

Yeah. So basically what I do really well And it plays into my navigating too, is I probably have at least some form of OCD, some whatever perfectionist, anal retention, whatever you want to call it. And so I have a very good ability to watch somebody do something, notice every single step of that process, and then be able to say, okay, well, you did 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, six, seven. What if we did seven in front of four and five after six? And now, instead of a process taking two hours, it takes an hour. And so when you're in the world of CNC machining or manufacturing of any kind, if you can optimize processes like that, you save companies money and you justify your salary. And so I'm pretty good at that. That first company that I worked with was a bearing company, and they produced 4,000 pound bearings for gas plants in Eastern Asia for Chevron. And when I got a hold of the program, we were able to produce six bearings in a 10 hour shift. And by the time that I was done optimizing it, we had 10 bearings in a 10 hour shift.

[00:58:58.820] - Big Rich Klein

Very good.

[00:59:00.310] - Chris Rea

So.

[00:59:01.120] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah.

[00:59:02.030] - Chris Rea

And then now I've done nine facility layouts where I draw the whole thing up in 2D and then basically play Tetris for a couple of days and find ways to optimize storage and manufacturing layouts and everything like that. And one of the layouts I did up in Portland, Oregon, increased storage capacity by 60 % without touching a single square foot manufacturing capacity, and basically saved the company about $2 million over five years because they didn't have to go lease a new building.

[00:59:39.910] - Big Rich Klein

Very good. Very good. So you're still doing that type of work now?

[00:59:47.610] - Chris Rea

Yeah, I actually work for a company called American Security Products. We do gun safe, smart safe, and all that stuff. Okay. If anybody is in the space knows, I'm going for my Lean and Six Sigma black belt so that I can do Kaizen events and all that stuff. Basically, right now, I'm doing a complete facility layout I've written a report on how we make things out for this place so that we can optimize and minimize our contamination. I've written 50 plus procedures on how we make things and optimize those, develop key process indicators, and all that really fancy talk that nobody really cares about.

[01:00:31.800] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. Let's talk about being in that right seat and how that all fell into place to where you're one of the guys that people look for either to help their program or with downloads, that stuff, or with actually being in the seat and navigating during the races?

[01:01:06.290] - Chris Rea

That goes all the way back to 2004 meeting and hanging out with Dave Cole. I was always the broke college kid. I never had my own money I never had my own rig. So I got to sit in the right seat pretty much exclusively and just take in anything that I could learn about tire placement and working with Rerock and learning recoveries because nine times out of 10, the lead judge for the course was responsible for getting any broken cars off of their course. So I got to learn that through Wixom.

[01:01:43.240] - Speaker 1

And then around 2009, 2010, I was down for a New Year's trip.

[01:01:52.410] - Chris Rea

And Ben Napier just bought the bomber car and was living in Chris Ridgeway's van on the Lakebed for like 30 days. And Jeff and Dave Cole were testing out the idea of an LCQ and a qualifying course. And so they said, hey, Chris, do you want to go ride with Ben and tell him where the turns are. And I was like, I can definitely do that. I've been doing that for the last seven years here at the Hammers. And it turns out that I didn't know how to tell corners because I didn't understand the zoom on the GPS. I didn't understand the closing distance. I didn't understand the speeds that we were at. So it was a really rude awakening to a wrong seat, as I like to call it, wrong seat filling. But then when I got out of the military, I was in a lull between starting College back up, and Ben was getting ready to race Vegas to Reno. And so I said, Hey, do you need any help? And he's like, Yeah, I could use some help prepping. And I was like, sweet. I'll come down and prep. I don't care.

[01:02:59.460] - Chris Rea

Anything I I can do to work on a race car. And then about two days before the event, he said, hey, do you still have a helmet and head and neck restraint? I was like, I can get one. He said, okay, make sure you have it just in case. And then the day that we showed up the second contingencies, he's like, hey, go get your helmet and head and neck restraint. I need you to go get your wristband. And so basically, always being the guy that's willing to do something and say yes and help has led me to a lot of really amazing opportunities. So I got to a race with him then. And then in 2013 was my first king of the Hammers. I got asked by a competitor to navigate for him, even though I was the Chief Tech Inspector, and I had to clear it with Dave Cole. And he said, yeah, that's fine, as long as you don't do tech on a 4500 car, and we have other tech inspectors that can do those cars. I said, okay, cool. And so I got to a race with George Evans that year, and I ended up racing with him for two more after that.

[01:04:03.170] - Chris Rea

And then just, like I said, always being able to say yes and happening to be in the right seat or the right place at the right time. 2013, Glenn Helen, Lauren Healey's in his two-seat IFS car, and he still has a seat and belt mounted. And I see him lining up for the LCQ, and I say, Hey, Lauren, we know you're going to smoke everybody in the LCQ, so do you want somebody to sit in the seat with you and sing you songs and keep you company? And he goes, Sure. You got a helmet and head and neck straight? And I was like, Well, I do, but I was just joking. And he's like, Well, I'm not. Go get it. And so literally, I ran and stripped naked while I was running into my car, grab my stuff, get it on, and get back into the seat, and I I really got the seatbelts buckled before we started the race. And I got to do the LCQ with him, and I was like, okay, that's cool. Thanks for that amazing ride. I know you got to go take the next race seriously because it's the final.

[01:04:57.960] - Chris Rea

And he's like, dude, we're starting 37th 38. I definitely want somebody in the seat with me. I was like, okay, cool. And so we charged from 37th to third place.

[01:05:10.980] - Speaker 1

So just being my normal OCD self has always led me to diving in way too deep.

[01:05:21.600] - Chris Rea

And so when I started, I got asked to race with Tony Pellegrino. Well, I didn't get asked to race with Tony Pellegrino. I asked if Tony needed a co- driver drunkenly at a Thanksgiving event, and he called me back two weeks later and said, if you're serious, I need a co- driver. And I said, sure. And I didn't really know how serious you could take that wrong seat until that year. His normal navigator is Brian from All German Motorsports.

[01:05:47.940] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, yeah.

[01:05:48.470] - Chris Rea

And that guy is a professional. Professional wrong seat, gets paid to go down to Baja, race class 10, class 1, trophy trucks. Like epitome of good notes, epitome of everything. And He took me under his wing and showed me what was capable. And that was the first year that I ever had waypoints on a GPS other than what was provided by King of the Hammers. And so when I saw what that was capable of, that next year, when I raced with Jesse Combs, I brought that to the table and said, I know what I can bring to the table. And so that was when I started messing around with waypoints and GPS map editing and everything like that. And now, over the last five plus years, I've become one of the guys that is sought after to say, Hey, how do I set up my GPS? How do I edit this? How do I do that? What do you recommend? And I still don't understand why, because I've always thought that I'm just some random guy that's been really lucky to work with amazing teams. I don't think that I have some innate ability that anybody else can't do.

[01:06:55.570] - Chris Rea

It's just that I've been very, very fortunate to work with the different teams that I've been working with, and they've helped me get the finishes and the results that I've gotten.

[01:07:05.790] - Big Rich Klein

Cool. Excellent. Let's talk about family. I don't even know if I've met your wife yet?

[01:07:16.780] - Chris Rea

And I've known you for so long.

[01:07:18.180] - Big Rich Klein

You were like one of my kids.

[01:07:20.730] - Chris Rea

Yeah. For a long time, you were basically a second father because of how much time we spent on the road going out. I mean, that road trip home from was not something to write home about.

[01:07:38.810] - Big Rich Klein

Was that the trip after Nationals?

[01:07:42.210] - Chris Rea

That was the first We Rock Nationals in Columbus, Ohio.

[01:07:45.600] - Big Rich Klein

I was pissed off that time. But we won't get into that.

[01:07:51.290] - Chris Rea

Yeah. But no, I was very fortunate.

[01:07:55.310] - Speaker 1

So in this time frame of me not caring about work and just trying to be a professional bike racer and living in my dad's house and being 32 years old and no job, no money, no nothing.

[01:08:08.700] - Chris Rea

This amazingly beautiful redhead who has a master's degree, is a college professor, owns firearms, owns her own race car, owns her own dirt bike, owns her own trucks, and is seven years younger than me, finds me on a dating website and starts chatting with me. I didn't have to do any pursuing to get that initial conversation.

[01:08:32.690] - Big Rich Klein

That's probably why it worked.

[01:08:36.050] - Chris Rea

Probably because I literally was like, I have nothing to bring to the table. I'm living at home. I'm a professional bike racer with no money. I have nothing to give you. And she was like, But you know how to change your own oil? And none of the guys that I've dated since I got back from South Carolina knows how to do that. I said, All right, cool. Well, I can change your oil for you. And so we started dating in December of 2015. We moved in together in June of 2016. And then we got engaged on Perfect Day, which for those that don't know, Perfect Day is June 28th, and it's called Perfect Day because those are the only two perfect numbers in the calendar. They're called Perfect Numbers because the sum of their multipliers is the number. So 3 times 2, 3 times 2, and 6 times 1 is 6. So 3 plus 2 plus 1 is 6, and the same thing with 28. And then we got married in 2018, and we had our first daughter in August of 2020, hooray COVID baby. And then we had our second daughter in March of last year.

[01:09:58.320] - Big Rich Klein

Very good, very good.

[01:10:00.750] - Chris Rea

Yeah. And honestly, she is my saving Grace. I wouldn't be able to do anything that I do out of King of the Hammers without her. I wouldn't be in the position that I'm in without her because she was my financial backing while I was racing bikes. She paid the rent, she paid for the food, she did everything because she- You had to have brought something to the table besides oil changes. Well, I can cook real good and I can clean real good.

[01:10:33.350] - Big Rich Klein

Hey, you do what you have to do to be a kept man, you know?

[01:10:36.420] - Chris Rea

Exactly. But like I said, if it wasn't for her and her belief in me, I would not be here today. I wouldn't be having this conversation with you. I honestly don't even know if I'd be alive. There were some really dark days because of the military times and because of everything else that had gone on in my life. She literally brought life back to me and made me think I had a future.

[01:11:01.480] - Big Rich Klein

That's awesome.

[01:11:02.850] - Chris Rea

That's awesome. And Avery is turning four, and I'm getting her on a bike as soon as I can. We went riding last night for the first time. Patricia is named after my grandmother, so I get to see my grandmother and her every single of the day, which is awesome.

[01:11:25.120] - Big Rich Klein

That is great. So one last thing. What would What would be your recommendation to somebody that sits there and watches stuff from home and wants to get involved?

[01:11:40.870] - Chris Rea

Find a local team and do whatever it takes. It doesn't matter whether it's sweeping. It doesn't matter whether it's doing the nitty-gritty grinding, changing tires, filling fuel jugs. The most tedious job is where you have to start. The only, literally the only reason that I've gotten to the point that I'm at today is because I've never thought that any job was below me. Whether it's... And a perfect example For example, that was this year, I got to actually ride in a spec trophy truck. And we're in line for the prolog at King of the Hammers, and the car is in neutral, and we're just pushing it through because there's no point in moving the car forward 15 feet by driving it, and you don't want to leave it idling. And I'm out of the car, and I see the two teammates, the two pit guys, get out and start pushing the car, and I run over there, and I get behind the car, and I start pushing the car. And they both looked at me and they're like, what are you doing? And I'm like, I'm helping you push the car. They're like, but you're the navigator.

[01:12:56.540] - Chris Rea

And I said, yeah, so? It And I said, we haven't seen that before. And I said, well, that sucks because it doesn't matter whether you're the most important person on the team or the least important person on the team. When it comes to being a navigator and being a driver, we can't do what we do without all of the people that do everything else for us. From the kid that cuts the zip ties and sweeps them up to the guy that is responsible for rebuilding the motor. Like, those are the people that make my job possible. And so to ever think that you're above doing something like filling a fuel jug or changing a tire or pushing a car, like That's my one piece of advice, is never feel like you're above those jobs.

[01:13:49.470] - Big Rich Klein

Excellent. With that, I want to say, Chris, thank you so much for spending this time after work and before you get your family time. I know you want to get out there and get your daughter on the bike again tonight. But I just want to say thank you so much for all the time that you spent with us over the years. I wish you all the luck in the world.

[01:14:14.810] - Chris Rea

I really appreciate that, Rich. I hope you understand that I truly think that without you and your son taking me under your wing back in 2004 and allowing me to be part of your family and grow and flourish in the Cal Rocks and the We Rock days, that I wouldn't be here today. And I hope you understand how much I appreciate being on this podcast, because I still I'm flabbergasted that I even got asked, because you got guys like the Mcmillans and the Rod Halls and all of these different Ormhoff and Duckees that you could interview. And to take the time out of your day to interview me and ask me my story just really humbles me. And I really appreciate you as a person. And I can't wait for the next time that I get to see you and Well, excellent.

[01:15:01.710] - Big Rich Klein

Thank you so much. Kind words.

[01:15:04.460] - Chris Rea

Have a fantastic night, Rich.

[01:15:06.780] - Big Rich Klein

All right, you too. And you take care and have a great life.

[01:15:11.680] - Chris Rea

Thank you. All right. Bye. Bye.

[01:15:15.350] - Big Rich Klein

Well, that's another episode of Conversations with Big Rich. I'd like to thank you all for listening. If you could do us a favor and leave us a review on any podcast service that you happen to be listening on, or send us an email or a text message or a Facebook message, and let me know any ideas that you have, or if there's anybody that you have that you think would be a great guest, please forward the contact information to me so that we can try to get them on. And always remember, live life to the fullest. Enjoying life is a must. Follow your dreams and live life with all the gusto you can. Thank you.