Hi,

I did a search, but maybe my search kungfu is not strong...Can any of you recommend a good day/weekend 4x4 class in the Bay Area. I thought there was some that did their classes at Hollister OHV, but I couldn't find any that taught beginners. I only saw one that taught other instructors or emergency personnel. Any recommendations will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

Check out Esprit de Four. They have a "safety clinic" at Holister Hills OHV that I think is what you are looking for. ( Safety Clinic) I did it this past May and thought it was a great course and a day well spent.

Thank you. I just registered for their Sep 16 training.

No problem. Hope you enjoy it.

If anyone is doing a search for a 4x4 training or intro to offroading in the Bay Area, I highly recommend the Esprit de Four 4WD Safety Clinic. I just got back from the Fall class yesterday at Hollister OHV park and it was excellent!

The clinic is a combination of 1/2 a day class room instruction and 1/2 a day hands-on driving. There is even a BBQ at the end if you want to pay a little extra. In our class, we had about 35 vehicles ranging from a Porsche Cayenne to heavily modified Jeeps. There were about 50 students which included women and a few teenagers so everyone and anyone should feel invited to this clinic. They even cater to two drivers in one vehicle if you want to take your spouse, kid, or buddy to learn with you. The day was extremely well organized and they have about 30 of their club members volunteering and helping with the instruction.

When you arrive, they do an inspection of your vehicle. Then they split our vehicles up in groups of 10. After airing down, you get shuttled to a building for the classroom instruction which consists of slides and live demonstrations of equipment and recovery gear. After lunch, each group does 5 hands-on driving skills which are a combination of doing technical challenges on the obstacle courses and driving some of the blue-diamond trails. Whether you are a beginner or intermediate, I am sure you will learn something and you will meet a whole bunch of fellow enthusiasts.

I am thinking of joining their club too so I don't have to go out on my own. Everyone was very helpful and extremely nice. The club does sponsored day trips and camping trips for all skill levels. They also donate most of their tuition fees and club dues to sponsoring organizations and lawyers that help preserve dedicated land for off road use.

Hopefully this helps someone who is new to offroading and wants to learn how to use their vehicle or wants to meet some really cool people.

Thank you for the detailed report! I plan to attend next May...

Thanks for the tip! I'm very new to 4wd, and would like to take the class to get started.

Can someone point me to the 2018 clinic dates? I don't see them on the site?

The VP of the club works at my company so I just sent him an email. Here is his reply:

"The May Safety Clinic will be on Saturday May 19th and Registration should open up here in the next few weeks. I’ll confirm that at our general club meeting on Feb 13th. "

Thanks!

awesome! I'm looking forward to this..

but, 5 weeks prior to the event im scheduled to have shoulder replacement surgery and im told i cant drive for 6 weeks after the surgery. Ill have to confirm this before i can register. But damn this looks like fun...


Heres a link to the registration for the 5/18 event.

https://www.eventbee.com/event?eid=133467474#/tickets

can't believe I missed the registration... It's now a waiting list.

Who's going so far?

... Yeah... its a popular course that fills fast... but it's worth it. I think they do it 2 times/year and are usually pretty communicative about when they will open up registration for each... The time I got in, I just bird-dogged it and signed up like the day they opened registration.

about 2 hours after my last post. looking forward to it and applying what ill learn.