Episode 200 with Todd Young, fabricator, promoter, rockcrawler and Pirate

Our favorite pirate, Todd Young, shares life in the hood, work, rockcrawling, and unexpected life changes. This is a great one, if you’ve ever had a chance to be around Todd, you’ll appreciate that he tells it like it is. Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app.

3:57 – My dad was always a brawler, So I was born with the expectation that you solved everything with a good fistfight. 

10:58 – I kind of fell into the weld shop, they had us welding right away             

19:20 – I don’t do rules and politics very well, at I stage I got fed up and wallpapered the whole back wall of the shop with all those memos and stuff 

30:12 – I got into a six-foot snowbank and slid off the edge, and that 4Runner wasn’t nearly as capable as I thought it was

38:42 – So off we go to Goldendale, and sure enough, Big Rich and Little Rich are throwing the biggest rock crawling soiree…and I’m like, that’s my kind of people right there

45:59 – Next thing I know, we’re rounding up rocks and culverts and throwing some fun crawls in our backyard for our local rockcrawling club

53:27– Well, ditch the bike and I’m going to shoulder roll this wreck out; I hit a lot harder than I thought

59:33 – My whole world was shrinking, the doctor goes, I’m just going to throw this out there, not to alarm you, but we can cut it off and I’ll have you back to work in six, eight weeks.

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

Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app.

Transcript

[00:00:05.370] - 

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.

[00:00:46.430] - 

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.

[00:01:12.890] - 

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.

[00:01:42.520] - Big Rich Klein

On this episode of Conversations is a rock crawler, a promoter, a black belt, a family man, and a guy that enjoys a good time. Anybody that knows him knows who I'm talking about right now. And that's Todd Young. Todd, great to have you on the podcast. Let's rock and roll and see what we come up with here.

[00:02:03.040] - Todd Young

Hey, Rich, I really appreciate this opportunity. Been looking forward to speaking with you for some time, and always good to talk about the sport and what's going on.

[00:02:14.760] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah. So let's jump right in. And where were you born and raised?

[00:02:20.180] - Todd Young

Nampa, Idaho, about. About 8 miles west of Boise, the capital.

[00:02:26.770] - Big Rich Klein

So you never really wandered out from there for any time, and you just lived in that area your whole life?

[00:02:32.680] - Todd Young

Born and raised in pretty much the same area my whole life.

[00:02:38.930] - Big Rich Klein

Okay, so what was it like growing up in Nampa at that time? I know that there's a real dichotomy in that town of haves and have nots.

[00:02:53.760] - Todd Young

Yeah, for sure. Where I grew up until I was about 13 years old. Grew up on the north side of Nampa, which anybody that knows Nampa knows. That's kind of the rougher part of town. And believe it or not knives being pulled. And I actually seen a few guns pulled. And it was a rough neighborhood for a young kid. It was tough.

[00:03:19.640] - Big Rich Klein

And so what was it like for you personally, growing up in that kind of a situation? Were you able to concentrate on school, or was it like dog eat dog?

[00:03:37.520] - Todd Young

Well, I was overwhelmed. I was definitely overwhelmed later on, diagnosed with ADD and all that nonsense. But I had a hard time focusing on school, and a part of it wasn't my environment. I had a great household. My dad was always a brawler. So I was born with the expectation that you solved everything with a good fistfight. But in those days, it wasn't about fistfights. It was about knives and guns. And it started to get real serious real fast and definitely overwhelming.

[00:04:13.320] - Big Rich Klein

And so did you get a chance to participate in any school activities besides the knife fighting and fist fights?

[00:04:24.060] - Todd Young

I did soccer. I really enjoyed that. That was probably my best sport until later on, martial arts. I tried my hand at basketball, and I did a little bit of baseball. Ended up sliding into first base and baseball. So if you think about that, you can overrun first base. You don't have to slide into it. But I chose to slide into it and break my ankle.

[00:04:50.100] - Big Rich Klein

That's not good. So then, was the martial arts kind of a way to help you focus? Did that happen?

[00:05:02.680] - Todd Young

Oh, yeah. No, that was a saving grace for me. My dad noticed that I took a great interest in martial arts films and movies and stuff, and he saw that I had some interest there. And one of the gentlemen that he had gone to school with years before was offering up some martial arts class. And so at the age of seven, he got me into martial arts, and that was a big turning point.

[00:05:27.680] - Big Rich Klein

And you're still in martial arts today, correct?

[00:05:32.340] - Todd Young

Yes. We're coming up on 42 years in September.

[00:05:38.910] - Big Rich Klein

Wow. Okay. And you lived there for, like you said, the first 13 years in that area?

[00:05:47.720] - Todd Young

Yeah, in Nampa, first street north. I lived there for time. I was born till 13, about 13/14. We moved out in the country about four or 6 miles south of town. And that was a great change for me because different demographic, different crowd, didn't have to worry about the neighborhood as much.

[00:06:10.110] - Big Rich Klein

And that means a completely different school.

[00:06:13.840] - Todd Young

Yeah. Well, it worked out perfect because at that age, you go from the middle school to. Everybody goes to their respective junior highs in our area. So that put me at south junior High, which was a much better school than west junior high would have been.

[00:06:31.140] - Big Rich Klein

Because of going from a rough area to more of a civilized area, you might say. Did you have a problem. I know that some kids can get into being a bully. You never seem to be the type now, but did you ever have that or were you more of like the guardian?

[00:06:55.820] - Todd Young

No, I definitely had my bully situations. I tell story on top of story. But growing up on the north side of Nampa, I had knives pulled on me. I did see a few guns and then pulled on me directly, but enough to scare a person. But by the time we moved and I got into junior high, things were good. But I chose to be a skater with long hair. And somehow I was a skater with Mc hammer pants and bangs that were down below my chin. So you can imagine what kind of attention that drew from the jocks and the football players and basketball players and all that.

[00:07:35.020] - Big Rich Klein

But you could definitely hold your own.

[00:07:37.660] - Todd Young

I could hold my own. But there one situation in point. I was in 7th grade and I had the whole 9th grade football team hunting me down before, after, and during school to give me a whooping.

[00:07:56.480] - Big Rich Klein

Was that just because of your looks or did you do something that caught their attention?

[00:08:03.380] - Todd Young

Well, I'd been at a dance, dancing with a gal and some kid was. I don't know if he was a family member or an ex boyfriend or what, but he was standing there watching us dance. So we move on the dance floor and change positions and continue dancing and there he was again. So by about the third time we moved, I had enough. And so I just gave him a nice shove to get him out from in between us. And next thing you know, it turned into I hated all Mexicans. And some good friends of mine, believe it or not, were on the football team and they caught the rumor. And so then rumors spread and next thing you know, I got the whole 9th grade football team hunting me down.

[00:08:46.960] - Big Rich Klein

Wow. Hopefully that got resolved without too much bloodshed.

[00:08:52.660] - Todd Young

Yeah, it wasn't bad. We did have one organized meet up at the local gravel pit. Me and one of the loudmouths. We squared off and by the end of it, he was bleeding. I was bleeding, but I think I gained a lot of respect by that one. So we didn't have any more problems with the 9th grade football team after that, right?

[00:09:14.990] - Big Rich Klein

Sometimes that's what happens. You got to stand your ground and prove your point.

[00:09:20.860] - Todd Young

No, for sure.

[00:09:21.810] - Big Rich Klein

And that carries on later on in life. Maybe not physically, but just emotionally. And that willingness to just to go the distance.

[00:09:35.600] - Todd Young

Yeah, no, we teach that and preach that in martial arts. You talk your way out. And if you can't talk your way out, you try to physically get your way out. And if you can't physically get your way out, then you have to fight your way out. And unfortunately, sometimes it has to come to that. Fight your way out.

[00:09:51.430] - Big Rich Klein

Right? So then high school or that junior high and into high school, things were a lot better from that point on.

[00:10:01.960] - Todd Young

Yeah, I had a few run ins with some once you're the new guy in high school, and of course the big boys got to prove their point. And so we had a few scuffles there, but shoot. By my sophomore, junior year, it was pretty much known that just leave the goofy guy in weld shop alone and you won't have any troubles. And by then, I was so involved with martial arts, I really didn't have time for after school sports. So it kind of worked out in the best in the long run. I do have some regret. I wish I would have had the opportunity to do some high school football and maybe some basketball. Looking back, watching my kids do it, I realize I missed out on a bunch, but I did have my martial arts family, and that was huge.

[00:10:51.530] - Big Rich Klein

Right. So then in high school, you spent a lot of time in shop classes.

[00:10:58.220] - Todd Young

Yeah, no, I kind of fell in the weld shop. We did a vocational rotation, and I was signed up to be a mechanic because my dad had been a mechanic. And that just made sense, even though my dad had preached to me for years not to be a mechanic. But they did a rotation, and I come across the welding shop while shooting. Even in the rotation, they had us welding right away. And I'm like, well, this is way better than the mechanic teacher tells us. We're going to do one year of classroom, and then we might get in the shop half a day by our sophomore year. And I'm like, well, this ain't the pace I want. I want to be hands on. I want to be hands on. Now I got lucky. You got to pick your classes, and there weren't many spots left. And ironically, through a fellow martial artist who had taken classes from Mr. Flowers in the past, he put the good word in for me and got me into that weld shop.

[00:12:00.740] - Big Rich Klein

Excellent. And so you did that all through high school in welding?

[00:12:04.520] - Todd Young

Yes, did that all through high school. And by my senior year, weld shop was three periods, and then I was a teacher aide, and then I was a teacher assistant, so actually had 5 hours of weld shop by my senior year.

[00:12:23.000] - Big Rich Klein

Were you able to get english credits for welding?

[00:12:27.160] - Todd Young

Yeah. No. Ironically, my weld teacher found out I was struggling in some of the english classes, and so he had to talk with the english teacher. And the next day, she handed me Cliff notes on the book that we were working on, and she goes, this is where I get all my questions from, and it'll be a lot more streamlined for what we're doing in this class.

[00:12:51.100] - Big Rich Klein

Perfect. It was nice that they understood.

[00:12:56.380] - Todd Young

Yeah, no, I did have a good network of teachers and instructors through high school. It was great.

[00:13:03.880] - Big Rich Klein

And you had a lot of support from your family, from your mom and dad?

[00:13:07.860] - Todd Young

Oh, for sure. I was where I was supposed to be when I was supposed to be there and doing the things they knew. At 16, I was drinking and doing what young men do. They weren't naive to it. They were young themselves. And it got to the point, if they were leaving town, they checked with me and see if they needed to round up any booze for the party on the weekend.

[00:13:37.200] - Big Rich Klein

There's some similarity there, my friend. There's some similarities. So then after high school, what happened?

[00:13:49.860] - Todd Young

I couldn't wait to go to work. I'd been in the kitchen at a local italian restaurant from 14 until, shoot, 18 years old. I'd worked my way up to a head chef. But about halfway through my senior year, I got a position at a local airplane facility, avid aircraft. They built kit planes, fabric planes, and I got to go in and do some paperwork, and I got to go in and clean up around the weld shop, and I got to help in the shipping department after school. Got a couple of hours in, but I had my foot in the door, and I had my eyes on that weld shop. So as soon as I graduated, sure enough, I went full time.

[00:14:36.240] - Big Rich Klein

And how long were you there?

[00:14:38.880] - Todd Young

Two years. A little over two years. Unfortunately, there was some stiff competition in the avid aircraft. Where I work was in Caldwell and here in Nampa, there was a place called Kit Fox, and those two had been direct competition for years and years and years, pushing one another. Well, eventually some new companies down in Florida came out with even better product and better planes, and they put both of us out of business.

[00:15:12.380] - Big Rich Klein

And so then what did you step into next?

[00:15:16.060] - Todd Young

Well, it was real interesting to be that young in the workforce and to have to try to collect some unemployment. And it took about three weeks of trying to collect unemployment, and I decided that wasn't how I wanted to live. So I went and got a job with a local Grinder company, place called Diamond Z. They build the big tire grinder, log grinders, you name it. These machines are amazingly impressive, and I worked for them for about two and a half years.

[00:15:51.800] - Big Rich Klein

And so you were in production welding at that time.

[00:15:56.510] - Todd Young

Yeah, big machinery welding. I went from minute 23 wire to 45 flux core vertical up, and I even got into the fuel tank department, where I was welding fuel tanks together with 6011 and having to make them seal and hold pressure and hold ball of wax. So my welding skills, definitely the material that I was welding on had gotten bigger, but my skill level definitely had to improve.

[00:16:28.280] - Big Rich Klein

Okay, and you said you worked there for, what, two and a half years?

[00:16:33.800] - Todd Young

Yeah, about two years there. And a friend of mine, good friend of mine, we still stay in touch today. He was working over at a local truck repair shop, place called Tec at the time, truck equipment corporation, and he was just loving it. He was learning hydraulics and electrical, and every time I talked with him, he just raved about the place. I said, well, you ever get a chance, get me on over there. Well, they took on a big contract building the two ton bail wagons. They had 18 of those to build, and they were shorthanded. So sure enough, he got me in the door, and I went on as a welder, and that just progressively snowballed into the same stuff, electronics and hydraulics. And the next thing you know, I'm specializing in stuff I never had any idea I'd specialize in.

[00:17:20.900] - Big Rich Klein

Interesting. It's interesting that you had so many jobs at such a young age, but all of them gave you a wealth of knowledge, correct?

[00:17:34.200] - Todd Young

Oh, unbelievable. Unbelievable. After the bail wagon thing, and that lasted about two years, building those 18 bail wagons, our crew had the opportunity either to go on unemployment or stay there. But you'd be doing dump trucks and flatbeds and plows on the front of pickup trucks. And so I thought, well, shoot, I've got enough of this knowledge of these bail wagons, I can probably figure out how to put a dump truck together. So I went right on the floor doing dump trucks and plows and, man, everything. One thing just led to another, and I got a job. They handed me a job putting an underhood compressor on a new pickup truck. And to put this compressor on, you had to take about half of the top of the motor apart. And I was like, well, I'm not a mechanic, but this is kind of fun. So the next thing you know, I'm turning wrenches and welding and hydraulics, and I was kind of liking the turning wrenches. So even though my dad had fought me about it my whole young career, I kind of wanted to be a mechanic a little bit.

[00:18:49.940] - Big Rich Klein

And that's what you do today, isn't it?

[00:18:52.680] - Todd Young

Yeah, we mainly do mechanics. I still fabricate a lot. Year before last, we did 78 flatbed installs. It goes in waves. Last year we did like 15 service body installs. So it depends on what's popular in the area. But, yeah, we do mainly mechanics now.

[00:19:17.150] - Big Rich Klein

And are you working for yourself or are you working for a company?

[00:19:20.540] - Todd Young

So I worked with that company for a total. Now, they did some ownership changes and they did some name changes, but it was a grand total of a little over eleven years. And I just got tired of politics. I don't do rules and politics very well. I actually had a three ring binder. And keep in mind, it's one of them fat three inch three ring binders that was clear, full of memos and do's and don'ts of the company and policies. And I saved all of those and I put them in that binder. And finally, at one stage, I worked at the, in bay of the 16 bay shop, and I'd kind of gotten fed up with a few of the recent policies. So I wallpapered the whole back wall of the shop with all of those memos and stuff. And needless to say, the owner and the manager, they were a little upset with me.

[00:20:15.420] - Big Rich Klein

So then your employment changed there?

[00:20:20.860] - Todd Young

Yeah. No, we had had a two year spending and wage freeze, and they came to us, it had gotten so bad with company meetings. They actually would pay me double time to stay out in the shop and work while the company meeting would go on because I was stirring up so much crap. So they literally paid me double time to stay back and stay working. But they went from a spending and wage freeze to they were going to start charging us for the insurance that we were currently getting because their premium had gone up. And so my vantage point was not only are you not going to give us more pay, is you're going to start taking pay away from us. And they didn't see it that way. They thought that they were being plenty fair. And I decided, well, I'm not going to play the game. I'm going to try my hand at doing my own thing.

[00:21:20.580] - Big Rich Klein

And by this time you were.

[00:21:24.180] - Todd Young

Yep. No, I've been married for a couple. You know, Marissa, my wife, everybody knows her. They wonder how she puts up with my shit. And sometimes I wonder the same thing. But she was always supportive. And I'll never forget, we were sitting in the hot tub one night and we were chitchatting, and I'm like, man, I needed to make the next step, but I'm nervous. And she's like, well, you got the knowledge and you're friendly enough, and she goes, you're successful at whatever you want to do. So if you want to venture out on your own and try your own thing, nothing wrong with giving it a shot. So, sure enough, that's what I did.

[00:22:07.520] - Big Rich Klein

And so now you're employed by yourself.

[00:22:11.200] - Todd Young

Employed, yes. March will be, or, excuse me, may 3 will be 22 years self employed.

[00:22:19.950] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. And so you stayed in the same, though genre of business. You're still mechanicking and welding and hydraulics and everything?

[00:22:32.100] - Todd Young

Yes. I opened up a company called top line truck, and. And we started off early on. We were mainly mainstream truck, upfitting a lot of septic stuff, a lot of dump truck stuff. Well, one of the local. All the local guys got bought up by a big company called Knife river here in the northwest. They came through, and they bought up all the local guys. Well, that kind of put the halt to a lot of our dump trucks or a lot of our service bodies and flatbed stuff, because knife river had a shop of their own, so we had to step up and make a change. And believe it or not, that's kind of when we turned the page and started doing mechanic repair here at the shop. And it was kind of filler work, but now it's pretty much mainstream.

[00:23:20.200] - Big Rich Klein

Perfect. Okay. And so let's talk about your family life, and then we'll get into how you got into wheeling. So, you and Marissa, how old were you when you got married?

[00:23:35.980] - Todd Young

This is a funny story, but we started dating. I was 23. I had a house of my own, had land. I was adult. She was 16 years old when we started dating. So the big joke is, I was down at the junior high sticking licorice through the chain link fence, and she was the only one that came in to get a bite of that licorice, and I snuck in a kiss. So she hates it when I tell that story, but it sounds good. She was actually one of my karate students, and she had been in class when she was 14, and she was just a kid. I paid no attention. Well, when she came back when she was 16, she just wouldn't stop talking and hanging out after class. And next thing you know, I'm giving her a ride home, and one thing led to another, and I'm 23 years old, knocking on some little girl's front door to take her out to the movies.

[00:24:41.200] - Big Rich Klein

How did that go with her parents?

[00:24:44.180] - Todd Young

Well, I found out after the fact, of course, her dad had a real good sense of humor, but no bullshit double barrel shotgun, leaned up against the chair in the living room put the old fear factor in me, and it worked. I was going to have her home by eleven, but I had her home at 1030 that night.

[00:25:01.990] - Big Rich Klein

Smart man. Smart man. So then you started dating early. Was she 18 at least when you married her?

[00:25:13.980] - Todd Young

Yes. I got engaged. I asked her to marry me Christmas when she was 17. And that following November, we got married when she turned 18.

[00:25:30.840] - Big Rich Klein

Okay, good. All right. So then you have kids?

[00:25:39.220] - Todd Young

Yeah. Four years later, we decided to start having kids. We try to play it smart, enjoy my middle years, her younger years. Keep in mind there's seven years difference there, right? We enjoyed a little bit of those younger years and stuff. And then we decided when we were a little financially secure that that'd be a good time to start having kids.

[00:26:05.740] - Big Rich Klein

And you have a daughter and a son, correct?

[00:26:10.540] - Todd Young

Meya and Theron.

[00:26:11.640] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, exactly. Now she's on to college.

[00:26:17.920] - Todd Young

Yeah. That's been a hard pill to swallow. Nobody on either side of our family in the, in the last few generations has been lucky enough to go to college, so could have been learning curve for us, for sure.

[00:26:35.560] - Big Rich Klein

I remember both your kids when they were very young and coming out to events and they were quite rambunctious would be a word to use, which I attributed to you being their dad because you were always rambunctious to say the least.

[00:26:57.760] - Todd Young

Oh, for sure.

[00:26:58.770] - Big Rich Klein

But they've grown into great kids. I mean, rambunctious doesn't mean they're going to be bad by any means. But your daughter has been quite the athlete. And what's Theron doing?

[00:27:20.420] - Todd Young

Theron? He's the same. Anything he touches, he'll turn it into magic if he's got interest in it. That kid can out skateboard most of the pros. Back when I was skating, he would have made me look like a fool. He can jump on a scooter. He can jump on a dirt bike. We got a go cart that he flips around in the shop. Anything motorized or with wheels on it, he's pretty amazing.

[00:27:53.280] - Big Rich Klein

Awesome. And.

[00:27:56.720] - Todd Young

What is she, Mia? She's going to school for a business degree, which she could get a business degree pretty much anywhere, but she got lucky enough to get a little bit of a scholarship through Idaho State University. That's over in Pocatella. That's about 4 hours away from us. But she's on the track team. She's got a pretty good long jump and she's actually pretty fast. She's realized at the college level she's not as fast as she thought she was, but she's definitely getting better. Second, they do indoor meets, which I didn't realize was a big a thing as it is. But during the winter, they do indoor track meets. A couple of weeks ago, we got to go down to her first event, and she got third place at her very first college level long jump. So that's pretty impressive. And she's definitely inspired to run faster in her sprint. So she's a sprinter and a jumper.

[00:28:53.120] - Big Rich Klein

What did you think of that indoor track facility there at ISU?

[00:28:58.020] - Todd Young

It's amazing. I'd seen a little bit on television, but not really paid that much attention. But when you see in person, it's impressive that the distance one time around the track is 200 yards, whereas your full size track is 400 yards. So they downsize all the events a little bit because it is indoors. So the 100 sprint, which is her specialty, becomes a 60 yard sprint. So it kind of changes your mental game a little bit on how you approach that, because you're not running as far, but you still have to be quick, right?

[00:29:36.720] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah. Rich ran there when he was in high school. It was a simplot games or something like that, it was called. I was really impressed with that place, and the noise from running on that track was incredible.

[00:29:53.560] - Todd Young

Yeah, no, that's crazy. Especially when they do those long distance run. They got 30 guys on there. Holy moly. Sounded like a herd of elephants.

[00:30:01.500] - Big Rich Klein

Exactly. So then let's talk about how you got into offroading. How did that all transpire?

[00:30:12.220] - Todd Young

Well, like all of us as a young kid, if it had gasoline, we wanted to go do it. But I tried my hand at mudding and whatnot. And that same gentleman that got me the job over at the truck equipment place, he had a Toyota forerunner. And I just thought that thing was neat as shit. We had gone up on a little snow wheeling trip, and that thing just could go anywhere. And had a little four cylinder in it. And I was pretty impressed with the mileage he was getting and the places that thing could go, and it seemed like the ticket, so I couldn't wait to get myself one. So my dad's ex partner over in Washington had one for sale. So I scooped it up, and, man, I got that forerunner, and I thought I was an off roader like nobody else. So following weekend, I bought that thing, and I headed for the hills, and it was about this time of year, and I got into about a six foot snowbank and slid off the edge. And that forerunner wasn't nearly as capable as I thought it was. Five and a half hours of digging with a dirt shovel.

[00:31:14.840] - Todd Young

And new girlfriend that wasn't very impressed. And we were back on the road, headed back home. And a week later, I decided I needed to upgrade my forerunner. And found a new girlfriend. Because that one wasn't too impressed.

[00:31:33.380] - Big Rich Klein

Did she help dig, at least?

[00:31:36.920] - Todd Young

For a short time. Then she was just cold and pissed off. But my dad, he took notice that I was kind of getting into the off road thing. And they had a group that they'd go hang out with. Some friends of theirs over in Washington. And they'd go hang out with the Yakima Ridge runners. And they would do a thing over there called the Jeep bowl. And I had heard about it. My parents talked about it for three or four years. And they're like, we got to get you over there sometime. Well, by the time I was old enough to drink, they invited me over. And I went over one weekend, and I was hooked. If it was four wheel drive, I wanted to be part of it. Those guys had mud pit. The Yakima Ridge runners had a private spot over there. That they leased from the indian reservation. They had a hill climb. They had a mud pit. They had obstacle courses. They had everything set up. They had camping on site and showers. And I was on the search. My life goal after that. Was to find something like that closer to home.

[00:32:41.170] - Todd Young

Or make something like that closer to home. I wanted to be part of that world.

[00:32:47.280] - Big Rich Klein

And so, what transpired from that?

[00:32:52.000] - Todd Young

Well, as you know, you can't wait to get a rig. Just solely dedicated to wheeling. I didn't want to tear up my forerunner. Because it was still my parking lot queen. I beefed it all up and everything. But you're young, and you spend all that money. You don't want to go out and tear it up. So my dad's ex partner had mentioned these samurai things. And we had actually gone over and picked one up from him. And got it running and cleaned up. It was a hodgepodge looking thing. The fenders didn't match. The hood didn't match. Top was torn. But we wanted a hunting rig. And we went out hunting in that thing a couple of times. And, man, we had a blast. And we were impressed at where that thing could go. And we got an idea in our head. We can fix these samurais up. And we can go show them jeep guys over at the jeep bowl how it's done. So, sure. Shit, here we are. Mechanics, fabricators, hydraulic guys, let's throw some v six Chevys. And some samurais. And go WHOOP up on the jeep guys. Well, we knew about torque and horsepower.

[00:33:59.610] - Todd Young

We just didn't take in consideration axle size.

[00:34:02.650] - Big Rich Klein

Right, because those samurais are very undersized.

[00:34:09.640] - Todd Young

Yeah, well, needles say, a 43 Chevy builds tremendously more torque than a 1.3 samurai engine, right?

[00:34:21.260] - Big Rich Klein

So how much did you blow up that first time?

[00:34:24.460] - Todd Young

Well, I was doing good until my dad got stuck at the bottom of the hill because he didn't want to weld up his front end like I had chose to. And so super swamper boggers, stock samurai axles with a welded front end. I crawl to the top, he gets stuck at the bottom, I turn around, hook onto him with the winchline because we got a whole group of jeeps behind us now poking at us and making fun. So I try to pull them backwards up the hill and I explode both front burfields in one shot.

[00:34:58.040] - Big Rich Klein

So then what was the next step after that?

[00:35:01.720] - Todd Young

Well, after they teased me about my dad having a stiff winchline and trying to push me up the damn hill, we went home and we started buying. At the time we thought we were buying big boy stuff, but we were buying Dana thirty s and Dana forty four s and trying to figure out how to narrow and stuff those under the samurais. And they were pretty good for a while.

[00:35:24.160] - Big Rich Klein

And then you finally found 60s.

[00:35:27.360] - Todd Young

Well, it was kind of interesting chain of events. Extreme magazine had come out and I.

[00:35:35.560] - Big Rich Klein

Got a copy of that xom.

[00:35:37.560] - Todd Young

Yeah, and I got a copy of that. And I started seeing those buggies in there. And I thought, you know what, I'm a fabricator and I'm tired of tearing fenders off the samurai and windshield frames. And we were starting to get pretty aggressive. We were breaking stuff on a pretty regular basis. But man, it was sure a lot of work putting that samurai back together every week to go wheeling on the weekends. If I had just a tube chassis off road rig that I could just beat the shit out of and not have to worry about putting it back together, that would be a lot better route. So I start building this tube frame off the pictures I'm seeing in the magazines and anything I can find on the Internet. And so I'm about three quarters away through that. And some clowns out of California came up. They were going to move up here and put in a off road shop just down the road from one of the biggest off road shops we had heard about him. And so Shane Yoast and Pepper show up to town for one of our off road events.

[00:36:46.550] - Todd Young

And of course they're trying to sell their business and everything. And sure shit, there's one of the buggies I've been copying shit off of at this event. It's Shane's old razor chassis, okay? And I said, well, hey, I'm building a buggy real similar to yours. And they kind of laughed me off and didn't really take me that serious. And I said, well, this, that, and the other. I go, but I'm lost at a bunch of this stuff. I said, I don't know about shocks, and I don't know about axle size and gears. Well, hey, we'll come over and take a look. So they got moved to the valley, and they get settled in about a month later. And I finally talked them into coming over to the shop, and I showed them what I got started. And they were like, holy shit, you weren't kidding. You're not messing around. I said, well, like I say, what I got, I've got. But the rest of it, I don't know. And I'd like some pointers in the right direction. Well, you know Shane, he was one always willing to talk and thought he had all the right answers.

[00:37:49.050] - Todd Young

He sat there and he helped me out. He got me hooked up on some tires and axles and really fast discovered that Dana thirty s and Dana 44s weren't nearly as strong as those Dana 60s. So there we go. We're in the buggy world with Dana.

[00:38:07.070] - Big Rich Klein

Sixty S. And is that about the time that you started spotting for him?

[00:38:14.280] - Todd Young

Yeah. No, it was an awesome time because the sports growing, everything's going nuts. Magazines are coming out of the woodwork. And I got Shane and Pepper. They're both excellent talkers. And they knew everybody in the industry and said, hey, there's an event coming up over in Goldendale. And Shane was going to spot for Hal Frost, if you remember old Hal.

[00:38:41.140] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, yeah.

[00:38:42.400] - Todd Young

And he was going to spot for Hal. So nobody was going to be able to spot for pepper. And Pepper wanted to drive the new deliverance car that they just finished building. And I could spot for him. I didn't have a clue what spotting was about, but hey, what an opportunity. So off we go to Goldendale, and sure enough, big rich and little rich, those assholes, they throw the biggest rock crawling soiree, I guess, is what to call it. We had parties in the park. We had video screens in the park. We had party in the park. We hadn't even been to the comp site, and I was already overwhelmed.

[00:39:20.060] - Big Rich Klein

Your add kicked in.

[00:39:22.090] - Todd Young

Oh, yeah. And your son, little rich, comes up and you play in flip cup and I'm like, I guess. And he pulled me right in. He's like, okay, here's how you do it. And it was off. And I'm like, this is my kind of people right here. And I'll never forget, it was Saturday morning. You're standing on the back of a flatbed pickup truck answering questions and telling the rules. And keep in mind, I'm still trying to take in what the hell I'm supposed to even be doing, what I can and can't do. And I don't have a clue what a spotter does, be honest with you. And you're up there, and my daughter this, that, and the other. And if I catch any of you assholes looking at her, we're going to have problems. And I'm like, that's my kind of people right there.

[00:40:14.780] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, lord. The old days. Yes.

[00:40:20.460] - Todd Young

Yeah. I'll never forget the fact that you had all of these buggies that I've been looking at in magazines and watching videos on the Internet are in downtown Goldendale, driving around town. I mean, that was back when the city was on board. And, man, there were people driving up to McDonald's, getting fast food and competition, rock crawlers. It's just like, holy shit, where in the world does this ever happen? And, I mean, I was amazed, fazed in days.

[00:40:55.260] - Big Rich Klein

And from there, you were hooked.

[00:40:58.220] - Todd Young

I was hooked. There's no doubt about it.

[00:41:01.420] - Big Rich Klein

And was that the same year, or is it later, a year or two later that Moab came around?

[00:41:11.600] - Todd Young

That was the same year. That was the same year. I had gone full bore with Shane. Shane and pepper kind of had a little bit of a falling out. I think it was just. They were kind of going in different directions. And the four wheel drive shop didn't make kind of money. They were hoping it was going to, so they were going in their different directions. Well, I got to jump on Shane's coattails. And that following season, it was a go. We were going to compete all season, do all the events, and I was going to be the spotter, and we were going to bring on sponsors. And he was already hooked up with Crane High was. It was go time. So globe, arizona. And then everybody went from globe to moab. And that's when Moab happened.

[00:42:08.030] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. That's the first time I remember, you know, the other events. There's just so many people there. I didn't get the chance to get to know everybody, but I think it was a night at.

[00:42:26.020] - Todd Young

Yeah, yeah, no, that had a lot to do with Marissa, my wife. We had a few drinks. And it was funny because before we walked into the bar, shane tells us, okay, guys, we're sponsored. We need to act respectful. We've got our race jerseys on, we need to sit on our best behavior. We're going to act like adults. We walk in there and we're not in there ten minutes. And shane's hooping and hollering. He's got his race jersey off and he's introducing me to everybody in the rock crawl industry. And I'm trying to take it all in. So we're having a few drinks, we're feeling pretty good. Some song my wife likes comes on the speaker and she jumps up on the bar and starts dancing. And your son's like, all my dreams have been answered. He's watching her dance and this, that and the other. And she about falls off the bar. Little rich catches her. He goes to set her down, thinking all of his dreams have been answered, all in one shot. And I come over like, babe, are you okay? And he's like, what? And she's like, yeah, that's my husband.

[00:43:42.710] - Todd Young

And you can see the disappointment just drain out of rich's face. But, yeah, we did everything but act like adults and act professional, that's for sure.

[00:43:54.100] - Big Rich Klein

That happened in those days. The whole rock crawling scene was that way. It didn't matter where we went.

[00:44:00.900] - Todd Young

Oh, for sure.

[00:44:03.640] - Big Rich Klein

It was a different time. We thought we were rock stars, didn't we?

[00:44:08.440] - Todd Young

Oh, man, it was drilled in our head. It was the fastest growing motorsport in the world. And it was going to be all that in a bag of penis within a few years time. All you had to do is hold on tight and it was all going to pay off.

[00:44:24.530] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah. And we held on tight and it was a great lifestyle. Let me just put it that way.

[00:44:33.860] - Todd Young

Yeah, no, it's definitely stories to tell. Definitely stories to tell.

[00:44:38.850] - Big Rich Klein

So then I know that you ended up becoming a promoter and putting on events yourself under the term xrox, Idaho.

[00:44:49.310] - Todd Young

Xrox, Idaho.

[00:44:50.270] - Big Rich Klein

Xrox. And when did that all start and how did that come about?

[00:44:55.240] - Todd Young

Well, thanks to you and your son, you created that addiction in us. And I had a couple of hippie looking guys come over to my shop one day and they said, hey, you're that guy doing all the rock crawling stuff. I said, yeah. And they're like, you need to come by my place. And it happened to be Tate and another good friend of mine, old Kevin Miller. They were doing projects and building up jeeps and stuff over at Tate's shop. And you got to come over to my place, and I'm like, well, what do you got at your place? And they go, we got a culvert. And I go, you got a what? And they go, we got a culvert. I go, what the hell is a culvert? Goes, we got a big round culvert. We drive over with our jeeps. You got to come check it out. And I'm like, what kind of clowns is this? So sure, shit. I go over, yep, they got a culvert, and they're driving over it in their jeep. And that's when I first met Tate and Kevin and Tate kind of took to rock crawling like I did, and I said, hey, you need to come check out one of these events.

[00:45:59.120] - Todd Young

So he came to one of the we rock events, and he was hooked just like I was. And he goes, you know what? He goes, I can get more culverts. And I go, well, get more culverts, but we're going to need rocks, this, that, and the other. So next thing you know, we're both. We're rounding up rocks and culverts. And we had thrown some fun crawls in the backyard for our local rock crawling club, and that was fun. But Kate agreed that, hey, these are fun, but let's go to the next level. Let's throw big events that maybe we can get some other competitors to come to. So we wanted to be like big rich, so we started inviting people and putting on little shows, and, yeah, it just evolved. It went from zero to 100 in about two years time.

[00:46:46.380] - Big Rich Klein

And what did you think of your experience being a promoter?

[00:46:53.660] - Todd Young

It's like with anything, you always think, well, I got this way and I do this different and I do that different. But when it comes back to the fundamentals of rock crawling, I mean, there's only a couple of ways to do it. We left some stuff out, flow, of course, and things like that, and we picked up some stuff from Glenn doing the Kelneva events and stuff with the extra bonus lines and switching some of that stuff up. So we kind of came up with our own set of rules. But when it all came down to it, it's the same game. It's just what little different quirks you put on it. But hats off to anybody that throws an event, especially a motorized event, I don't care if it's dirt bikes or rock crawlers or speedboats, you're going to throw a motorized event. It's not the weekend of. It's two and three weekends before, and it's sometimes two and three weekends after.

[00:47:46.890] - Big Rich Klein

Absolutely. And that's just for the event itself. That's not all the planning that goes into it.

[00:47:52.420] - Todd Young

Yeah, for sure. And once you get to that level, as, you know, advertisement and word of mouth and not stepping on toes and not over scheduling on somebody else's event, and that's just where we ran into so many complications. Down the road was once everything started to grow and you had Oregon putting on events and Utah putting on events, and then the we rock events that we were always trying to avoid and therefore, time period, we had all that going on. And it was, it was definitely a dancing game, trying to avoid other people's dates and plan a good date. That worked for people.

[00:48:36.960] - Big Rich Klein

Right? Yeah, it's not easy. Still isn't even with less amount of events, because there's enough people doing crossover. It doesn't matter.

[00:48:47.520] - Todd Young

Yeah, no, for sure. I couldn't even imagine.

[00:48:52.260] - Big Rich Klein

So then along the way, you were riding motorcycles and following Tate, I believe. And did you always ride motorcycles, or did that come along a little later?

[00:49:09.000] - Todd Young

Well, when I was a little kid, I had gotten into, believe it or not, when I was three and a half years old, my dad got me a little Suzuki 50, and we had training wheels on it, and I'd zip up and down the driveway. About two or three weeks went by of that, and I was over at my grandparents crosstown, and I got my grandpa to take training wheels off my bicycle. And so I'm three and a half years old, and I felt pretty good. I ride my bicycle without training wheels. So I come home and I march up to my dad and I said, dad, take my training wheels off my dirt bike. So he took training wheels off my dirt bike. And man, I thought I did. For years, I ripped up and down that driveway and even living on the north side of nap, I'm sure our neighbors really loved us. But I'd rip up and down the driveway on those dirt bikes, and I worked my way up to a Suzuki 80, and by the time I was 16, it was time to jump up to a 125 or concentrate on mini trucks and girls.

[00:50:09.730] - Todd Young

Well, mini trucks and girls were a lot more important then. So I kind of got out of the dirt bike scene when I was 16. Well, later on, married and kids and family events, and I go up with the family and brother in law, and I got Tate yapping in my ear because he's got off to the side of his rock crawl course that we had built. He's got a full on motocross track, so he's yapping in one ear. And we go up camping with Marissa's brother and family, and he brought up his dirt bike, and we need to run down, check on the kids. They had a bike that wouldn't run or something. So he goes, hey, jump on my bike, run down and check on those kids. And I was like, well, shit, I haven't been on bike in years. He goes, well, just don't crash. So I zipped down, and, man, I had a blast zipping down and checking on those kids. So I couldn't wait to get home and I'd buy me a dirt bike. So I went from zero dirt bikes to two months later, I had five dirt bikes.

[00:51:04.850] - Todd Young

I had one for everybody in the family and two for me in case one broke down.

[00:51:11.120] - Big Rich Klein

And that led to you becoming a pirate.

[00:51:18.720] - Todd Young

Yes, sir. Yeah. About a year and a half into it, we were single, tracking, rock crawling, martial arts, doing family sport going. We had it all going on, and we were taking it all just as serious as we could. And big heron hound dirt bike race was coming up that weekend, and all the top riders were going to be right in my backyard, and we're going to go out and check them out. While all my buddies were not available and friend of mine was going to be out there camping, they were going to check the races out, too. So thought, well, I'm just going to go ride around, find out where this guy's camped at, and maybe have a beer with him or whatever and say hi. So I'm riding parking lot to parking lot and exploring some new trails and found some new rock crawl trails out there, and I was feeling pretty good about my skill level that day. And I get down to this one parking lot, and I noticed that there's a red Duramax down there, and that's what my friend was driving. So I putt down there, and I get close.

[00:52:27.210] - Todd Young

It's not my friend. And I thought, well, shoot, I've been riding. I looked down at my odometer, and I put on about 45, 50 miles on this old XR 400 and thought, well, I put a pretty good ride in for the day, and I'm not finding anybody, and it's getting busy out here, so I'm in the main parking lot, hemingway butte, south of Nampa. Keep in mind the big race is tomorrow. So you got all these kids out there riding, all the pros out, warming up. I mean, this place is a madhouse. So I putt through these little kids thinking, I'm riding back to my truck and maybe call it a day. I'm 3 miles up the road and I don't want to crash into anybody. So I'm being observant and I start grabbing gears, kind of picking my route, and I notice everybody's diving off the butte. And I didn't want to ride up the butte and crash into anybody. So I'm looking, seeing what I'm going to do next, and I kind of get my game plan in my head. And I look down, there's a rock about size of a milk crate.

[00:53:27.180] - Todd Young

And I thought, well, I can go around it or I can ride over it. And I'm like, shit, I'm all geared up. I've been riding all day feeling pretty confident, so I'm going to wheelie over this rock. Well, the front tire, it didn't pop up like I expected it to. It mogled over and the back tire bucked me and the bike went flying. And I was about 15, 20ft in the air. And I thought, well, ditch the bike, get rid of it, and I'm going to karate shoulder roll this thing out. So I karate shoulder roll and wash out on the ground. And I'm sitting there, the whole parking lot comes running over. And I thought, man, what are all these people doing running over to me? And they're like, man, you hit hard. And I was like, no, I'm fine. It knocked the wind out of me, but I'm good. I'm peeling my helmet off and stuff, and one guy looks me right in the eyes and he goes, you hit really hard. And about that time I realized my tool belt that was wrapped around me was scattered from me to the bike.

[00:54:22.230] - Todd Young

And I'm like, well, shit, I hit a lot harder than I thought. So everybody kind of disperses and I kind of talk it off, and guy goes, well, let me help you up. And he grabs my hand and I go to get up and I'm like, some bitch, I got a broken leg. So, long story short, I get them to load me up in their truck, drive me down to my truck. Luckily, it was automatic. I didn't need my left leg. So I back up, go back to parking lot where I wrecked, get those boys to load my dirt bike up, and I start heading for home. Well, by now, my brother in law is headed out to the desert because I'd called him, told him I had a broken leg. He meets me halfway, he's like, son of a bitch, I thought you had a broken leg. I'm like, I do. He takes me to the emergency room, they take my boot off and my leg just flops to the side. It was broke pretty bad, so we should have gone in for emergency surgery then, but didn't. Monday morning, I go in, I had so much damage that I had a bunch of trauma blisters.

[00:55:23.450] - Todd Young

So luckily the bones didn't come through the skin. But with that, all the trauma inside created blisters on the outside. So they had to bolt me together from the outside, hold me together for a week while the blisters went down. So they go and do surgery. They went into surgery, lost, counted about 34, 38 screws. Somewhere in there, three plates. But I'm a fabricator. I thought, shit, we guessed it this up. We bolted it back together. I'm good to go. A week later, everything looked good. Two weeks following that was fully infected. Going up my leg, not good. So I went in and they're like, man, this just got serious. And I'm like, yeah, tell me about it. The whole outside incision on the outside of my leg, about 14 inches long, was just mucus. The skin had been eaten and everything else. So they were like, what did you have for breakfast this morning? I said I didn't have anything. They got, good, because you're going across the street, we're going to do emergency clean out. So whole whirlwind of time, but I go across the street and we do this emergency clean out.

[00:56:40.840] - Todd Young

And I wake up and keep in mind my hair is screwed up and my whole world is just blowing up. And doctor walks in and he goes, how was that? And I go, man, that sucked. He goes, good, because we're doing it again tonight. And I go, what do you mean we're doing it again tonight? And he goes, there's so much infection in there. He goes, I couldn't get it all. And I go, well, what do we got going on? And he goes, I'm going to try to get as much I can. He goes, but I already had to cut the nerve for the top of your foot, so you're going to have drop foot. He's explaining all that to me and I'm just like, holy shit. So we go in for the second clean out and I wake up from that and here comes the doctor again and he starts breaking it down for me. And I'm like, well, what do we got going on? And he goes, those plates are saturated with infection. He goes, not only infection on the outside, he goes, but the inside is twice as bad. And I go, well, what do we do from here?

[00:57:37.160] - Todd Young

He goes, well, we're going to do a wound vac on you. So we're going to put this machine on there, and we're going to suck all the crap out of you. We're going to put you on a bunch of antibiotics, and we're going to try to eradicate this infection. It'll probably take three to four months to eradicate this infection. And then he goes, I'm probably going to have to fly you to Salt Lake, and we're going to take some of your butt cheek, and we're going to put it on your leg. And I'm like, whoa, wait a minute. He goes, well, that infection is eating so much of your skin that you're going to need some skin grafts to replace that skin. And I'm like, holy shit, what do we got? I got martial arts tournaments coming up, and I got kids in soccer and sporting events to do and dirt bikes to ride. And he goes, well, if we can eradicate the infection and we get some of your butt cheek on your leg. He goes, in three to four years, you'll try to walk again. I go, what do you mean, try to walk again?

[00:58:37.810] - Todd Young

He goes, well, he goes, I can't take the place out till we get rid of the infection. He goes, then we're going to give you an external fixator. You'll be in that external fixator for about two and a half to three years. He goes, and then once we get rid of the fixator, her, she'll start trying to walk again. I go, what do I got? He goes, I'm going to tell you what my customers that have kept their legs tell me. It feels like it's going to look like, and it's going to be about the size of a football. I said, what, my foot? And he goes, yeah, it's going to feel like it's full of glass shards. He goes, and every now and then, that big old football, one of them glass shards are going to come up and remind you that it's there. And I'm like, pain? He goes, yeah, pain like you can't imagine. I go, okay, but after three years, I'm 100% right. And he goes, oh, no. I said, you're going to try to walk again. I go, what am I going to be doing between now and then? He goes, you'll be on crouches or you'll be in a wheelchair.

[00:59:33.210] - Todd Young

And I'm like, my whole world is shranking. I got a business to run. I got kids, I got sports. Or he goes, I'm just going to throw options out there. Not to alarm you, he goes, or we can cut it off and I can have you back to work six, eight weeks. And I'm like, holy shit. And Russell sitting there next to me, and we had already kind of discussed because we knew things had gotten serious. We had talked about it, and she looks at me, and I look at her, and I go, well, I might have to amputate this. And he goes, well. He goes, I don't want to persuade you. I'm not here to persuade you, but I want to just let you know what your options are. And I said, well, I said, I'm active. I've got shit to do. And he goes, well. I go, what would you do? He goes, funny you asked that question. He goes, your head nurse and your last clean out looked over and saw how bad your infection was because he asked me the exact same thing. He goes, I didn't bat an eye. I told him I'd cut it off tomorrow.

[01:00:38.840] - Todd Young

And I go, but you don't understand how active I am. And the doctor goes, well, he goes, I ride mountain bikes up my cascade. He goes, and I snow machine in the winter. And he goes, I do a little UTV in and stuff. He goes, I'm probably not nearly as radical as you are. He goes, but without a doubt. He goes, I'd cut that thing off. He goes, but there again, I can't persuade you to do anything. And I go, well, I don't even know what's next. He goes, well, he goes, might I suggest you talk to a prosthetic doctor? And I go, yeah, I think that'd be a good idea. So funny as can be, he goes, over in the corner, he takes his cell phone, he calls this doctor, and I'm thinking, oh, shit, I'll see a specialist in a week or two or whatever. He goes, all right, well, Mark will be overseeing a little bit, and I'm thinking, okay, well, he's going to come over from his office or whatever. So about 45 minutes goes by, and here comes this big guy, 310 pounds, and he comes walking in street clothes.

[01:01:37.480] - Todd Young

He goes, hey, I'm Mark from Cromilo's orthopedics, blah, blah, blah. What happened? I go, I was riding a dirt bike. And he goes, where were you riding at? And I go, oh, Hemingway butte. He goes, I was just on my way to Hemingway butte to go ride myself, and I'm looking at this guy, 310 pounds, 64. I'm like, you don't ride dirt bikes. He goes, bullshit. He goes, I ride OMC, the local motocross track all the time. He goes, you're out of south Nampa. And I go, yeah. And he goes, you know, Tate Elquist? I go, well, Tate Elquist is my spotter for rock crawling. He goes, oh, I ride motocross with him all the time back in the day, and I'm like, son of a bitch. So sure. Shit. And I'm like, well, hey, mark, here's what I do. And this, that and the other. He goes, I'll tell you what. He goes, I'll have you doing everything you did before. And I go, yeah, but you don't understand this rock crawling thing. I mean, I got rocks to climb on and jump around and this, that, and the other. And he goes, I'll tell you what.

[01:02:32.680] - Todd Young

He goes, if they don't make a foot for it, I'll build you a foot for it. We'll figure a way out. And I said, all right. He goes, but you need to make sure this is for you. And so I got out of the hospital, I went home, and I did a week worth of homework, and it sounds pretty dumb, but I want to see people doing simple shit. Like you can see people running the blade runners and all that in the Olympics, and you can see people climbing rock walls and this and that. But I want to see somebody kneel down and take laundry out of a dryer. I want to see somebody going one direction and turn around and go the other direction. I want to see how proficient those things were and see if it was doable. And so, man, I hunted the Internet, and I searched, and I found a video on just the dumbest shit. But I'm like, okay, daily life is doable, and I'll figure the extreme sport stuff out. So I called the doctor up, and I said, yeah, I'm going to go ahead and amputate. And that nurse, she started bawling on the phone, and I'm like, are you okay?

[01:03:33.500] - Todd Young

And she goes, that's the best thing you could have ever done. She goes, you just made my day. And I go, what's that supposed to be? She goes, you're a great guy in a terrible situation. She goes, but I see these guys been in here for seven years, eight years. She goes, one guy comes in, he's been trying to save his leg for 13 years, and he's in misery. He's addicted to drugs. He's lost too much weight. He's just out of shape. His life's gone terrible ever since. He's trying to keep that stupid leg. And for you to call me up and tell me that you're going to amputate. She goes, that's the best thing I've ever heard. And it just felt good to hear that from somebody that was in the industry and knowing what I was facing.

[01:04:20.630] - Big Rich Klein

Right. And so then they scheduled the surgery fairly soon.

[01:04:27.660] - Todd Young

Yeah. So that following week, I went in and they brought out the chainsaw and hack, hack, hack, and she'd gone. It still makes you nervous, though, when you're going in to have a leg cut off, and the doctor comes in and he puts an x on your leg. And I go, what's that for? And he goes, it's just. So I make sure I get the right leg. So you're a little nervous going into operation, knowing you're getting a leg cut off, and they might screw up and get the wrong one.

[01:04:53.800] - Big Rich Klein

So the operation went well, I take it. I remember seeing it on the Internet that you were in recovery or in the hospital and had just had the surgery. And I looked at Shelley and I said, okay, I need to send him a gift. And so we searched the Internet and had it delivered.

[01:05:20.700] - Todd Young

Oh, yeah. No, it was the best gift. And you of all people, I knew it was going to be something good. I just didn't know you were going to go to that extreme. But keep in mind, my shit is still casted straight. I had to be casted for four months straight and hopping around on crutches. And they gave me one specific thing not to do, and that was, do not fall on the end of your cast and sure shit down at the rec center with the kids, swimming, blah, blah, blah. I go to lean down to get a drink drinking fountain, my crutches wash out from underneath me, and I pogo stick this son of a bitch right into the floor at the rec center. And it was one of those moments that just. You feel like you failed yourself, you failed the doctors, because you did the one thing you weren't supposed to. So I go crutching out of this rec center, and I get the front door, and Marissa's bringing the car around. She pulls up, and I got tears coming down both sides of my face. And I'm like, babe, I just screwed up.

[01:06:22.740] - Todd Young

And I told her what happened. She goes, well, you got a doctor's appointment. Two days. They'll check it out. So I went in. Everything was fine. But, I mean, it was just one of those. I'd been through so much, and I was doing so good, and, man, it hit me like a rock that I'd screwed it all up in one swoop, I did the one thing they told me not to. So we're fighting through all that. I'm on crutches, the whole ball of wax. This package comes in the mail, and Marissa goes, hey, this is from big rich. I go, well, shoot, I know there's some events coming up, maybe send it out of schedule or something. And she goes, no, this is a bigger package than that. So she brings it in, and I didn't know what to expect. I figured it rules or something for a car or new requirements or something. I open this thing up and, son of a bitch. It's a pirate outfit, Halloween costume. And I'm like, that asshole. Inevitably, it was getting close to fall time, so, sure. Shit, it was all planned out. I was going to be a pirate, and I actually built a peg leg and the whole ball of wax to go along with it.

[01:07:34.920] - Big Rich Klein

Nice. Awesome. I hope it brought a smile to.

[01:07:39.100] - Todd Young

Your face and then some. Yeah. No, it was good to know that I had the support of that rock crawling community out there, because you realize real fast, and when those life threatening or life changing experiences happen, you realize that money and material things aren't nearly as valuable as friendship and family. And it definitely hit home that I had a family in the rock crawling community.

[01:08:08.980] - Big Rich Klein

Yes, and you always will. So then you continued to rock crawl, and you actually came out and won at goldendale.

[01:08:23.480] - Todd Young

Yeah. I had had my prosthetic for two months, and I can't even talk. We did the Cedar City event, and I was kind of up in the air on how well I'd do, and blah, blah, blah, driving the car and getting around and moving around. But I was given everything as much as I could, 100%. I did Cedar City, and we did pretty good. And then we turned around, and it was going to be Goldendale. And Tate and I were on a pretty good roll, and things were working good. And, man, we just had an amazing weekend, and we were ahead of Jesse Haynes, which was always one of those personal goals. Like, if we can be ahead of Jesse Haynes on day one, then we're sitting pretty good. And sure enough, we were. Jesse was unfortunately having a rough weekend, but it put us in pretty good standings, and we got to that shootout, and all we had to do is complete the course. But there again, that asshole big rich set up these gigantic boulders on this course that nobody had run these rocks before. This, that and the other. The only saving grace was I got to watch everybody else go before me, and we picked our lines, but it was a scrape and a scratch and a throttle assault.

[01:09:55.020] - Todd Young

And we got through that with, I think, 10 seconds on the clock where I would have dropped a second place. And we came through with that first place. And, man, what a feeling to pull off a first place after everything I'd been through in the last couple of years.

[01:10:08.370] - Big Rich Klein

And then to do it at the place that you first got the no.

[01:10:14.610] - Todd Young

To be at Goldendale at the most extreme conditions of. There was no questions. I had done it and I'd earned it, and finally got to stand on that top pedestal on the podium.

[01:10:32.260] - Big Rich Klein

And congratulations on that. That was a good weekend.

[01:10:36.440] - Todd Young

No, it was a good weekend and very memorable. And you and the landowners and everybody just made it special.

[01:10:44.460] - Big Rich Klein

Awesome. So what's happening in your life now?

[01:10:50.440] - Todd Young

Just living. I mean, trying to find time to play and go and do it. Just fell into place at the right time. I'd been shopping for property in the hills for years and not serious, but finally came across a good deal, and I ended up with two properties in the hills and actually looking at a third now. But me and Marissa decided we're going to build a cabin up in the hills. And so we started into it, and sure, shit, that's when coronavirus hit. So events went to the wayside and businesses were closed and business was slow. So it worked out perfect. Her and I, we did everything except the physical pour of the concrete. We actually dug the footings, but her and I and a handful of friends here and there, we put that cabin up in eight months, from bare ground to finished product in eight months.

[01:11:49.980] - Big Rich Klein

And that's a log cabin, isn't it?

[01:11:52.190] - Todd Young

Yeah. It was a kit out of Canada. So you basically have your structure, but as far as electrical and plumbing, you got to engineer and design all that yourself. And we had fun doing it and. Sure learned a lot. And it was one of those things that was meant to be. Everything came together. We bought a lot of craigslist and marketplace cabinets and whatnot, and we were on low budget, and, man, it just came out sweet. And that's kind of our go to now.

[01:12:27.240] - Big Rich Klein

Most excellent. Love to hear that. So what grade is Theron in now?

[01:12:35.260] - Todd Young

He's 9th grade.

[01:12:36.480] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, he's 9th grade. Okay.

[01:12:38.700] - Todd Young

Excuse me. No, 8th grade. 8th grade. Sorry.

[01:12:40.910] - Big Rich Klein

8Th. Okay. So he still has four more years.

[01:12:44.780] - Todd Young

Yeah, he's three after this, so we're counting them down.

[01:12:50.480] - Big Rich Klein

Perfect. Tod, anything else you want to talk about?

[01:12:57.520] - Todd Young

No, I just. Great appreciation for everything you guys are doing. I'm not on Facebook all the time. I'm not a big social media guy, that'd definitely be my wife's job. But everything everybody's doing in the off road community, I mean, from ultra four to the dirt bike guys to the rock crawlers, I mean, just what an amazing family of people. And to see that some people are getting awards out there for their years of time and service and the people behind the scenes keeping the trails open and trying to educate the public on how to properly use lands and land issues and try to keep as much open as we can. We all see it locally and nationwide, these closures, and it's a shame, but one bad seed causes more problems than 10,000 people can fix. So I just encourage people to educate yourself and be aware of your surroundings and your impact on your environment. But hats off to all the behind the scenes guys and promoters like yourself and people trying to keep these sports alive and doing what they do well.

[01:14:21.260] - Big Rich Klein

We appreciate hearing that. And boys, appreciated your honesty and friendship out at the events and look forward to seeing you again.

[01:14:31.520] - Todd Young

Yep. No, we're going to hit two or three this year, and Mia's actually been hitting me up. She cannot wait to come home and she doesn't care where we go, she just wants to go rock crawling. She says every time she smells a diesel truck or smells some race fuel, she just automatically goes into rock crawling mode. So the agenda this year is to hit a couple of events and we're going to drag her along and make a family event out of it.

[01:15:00.490] - Big Rich Klein

Excellent. Can't wait to see you guys. Thank you so much for spending the time and coming on the podcast and talking about your life.

[01:15:11.980] - Todd Young

Yeah, definitely. And make sure you tell Shelly I said hi and give her a big hug and kiss for.

[01:15:20.940] - Big Rich Klein

Marissa for us. Thank you.

[01:15:23.420] - Todd Young

All right, thanks, Rich.

[01:15:24.660] - Big Rich Klein

Ok, bye bye. 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.