Justin has been working in the off-road and vehicle recovery worlds for over 11 years, doing everything from long-distance expedition trips to on-the-fly winch rope repairs at King Of The Hammers to most recently racing it in the Every Man Challenge!
He resides in Idaho, where Factor55 winch accessory products are manufactured. His favorite movie is Point Break, which explains why you see him traveling from Idaho to the coast to practice surfing whenever he can.
One of the very first to learn of the Off The Grid brand from Josh and an immense supporter of a clothing brand that makes purpose built clothing. Justin is a wealth of feedback on past/current products. When we say built for Off Roaders By Off Roaders we mean it...
Above all things he might be arguably the coolest dad to his son Tobey who just graduated basic training for Coast Guard and his young daughter Jovie. Not to forget recently hitched to Ashley completing their happy family.
Times better spent Off The Grid!
]]>A few weeks before I headed out to KOH, I called Jon and asked him to borrow 4688 so that I had something to drive around and use for display at the Warn booth. Jon's reply, “Sure, I just don’t know if it’ll start. I haven't touched it since Oklahoma." Well, she fired right up, and onto the trailer, she went.
After a few days on the lake bed and everyone kept asking why the ol' 4688 was there and if it was racing. I asked myself, why is it not racing? I knew she had one more race in her, something we'd been saying for the last seven races. I tried to convince Jon to fly in and race her one last time, but his answer was still no. Then, after talking to the Warn teammates Brad and Justin
Brad and Justin got all their gear at Hammertown and were somewhat ready to race with a non-prepped old and tired jeep.
We then stopped by the BFG Garage, where Micah found us some fresh 35s KM3. We then headed over to the BFG Pits, where my friend, Cole, swapped the tires and gave the ol' girl a quick overlook, fixing and tightening some minor issues. Ava Wolf did some fast-weld reinforcements. The night before the race, the guys at Rock Krawler and Stacked Offroad racing, Matt and Big John Slykhuis, also jumped in to give the jeep a nut and bolt check while I was at the booth. Thank you, guys!
The plan was to go on a Sunday cruise, a long and expensive day of wheeling. Since we didn't qualify, we were at the very back of the starting grid.
Brad was in the right seat for the desert loop. He got 5 minutes to get used to the GPS and the car. I advised Brad to stay calm, not race anybody, and slow down to save the jeep. Surprisingly, we did! We passed some cars with good line choices and stayed below our typical race pace. We were not worried about our position; we just wanted to be steady, keep moving forward, and not make mistakes.
The rock loop started with Justin in the right seat. He only got 2 minutes to get used to the GPS and car! The rocks are where the ol' 4688 showed what she is capable of.
We got stuck in the outer limits in a huge parking lot of race cars. Justin being the Factor55 recovery guru he is, jumped out and started winching cars left and right. He finally got the bottleneck moving, and we were able to continue. We passed some more cars that were lost on the course and/or broken. Then we continued our slow and steady pace through the rocks, laughing and telling stories about our kids while trying not to make mistakes. We stopped at RP2 for a check-up and fuel, and that is when they informed us that we were in physical 5th! Hell yea!
By the end of the last rock trail, we see John in the 4th position starting the dry lake bed. We knew we had him with the corrected time, so we decided to take it easy on the remaining 10 miles of the race. When we were just a couple of miles from the finish line, right before Turkey Claw, we felt the front passenger tire not wanting to stick to the plan of moving forward. The wheel hub was more than gone. We tried many options, including sending it with a locked tire but had no luck. We were so close, yet so far.
In the end, it was an amazing day of racing. We got a lot more than we should have. A couple of co-workers attempted one of the hardest races at the last minute with an old and tired jeep; that had almost no race prep.
Brad and Justin kicked butt out there, and I think they are hooked for life now.
When Justin was asked to describe racing EMC, a man of many words and great stories, he replied, "It's really hard..."
Words by Sergio Pinillos
I'm from the Salt Colorado between Aspen in Glenwood Springs. I grew up doing all of the outdoor things and when I was about five is probably the first time that I was on a bike. My dad was a mechanic and I grew up going to the desert every spring and fall for dirt biking/camping with my dad's group of friends from the mountains. That's where I learned my appreciation of the outdoors. From climbing and running around and riding bikes and campfires.
I would say I probably hit the parent lottery which I feel super grateful for!
Riding Glow Up
I mostly played sports and I played soccer and basketball in college and, after college. I was working in the recreation industry which I've done most of my life.
In 2013 I got an invitation to the Colorado 500 that was guys only to date. I got to be the first woman rider on the Colorado 500 and that's something that I was really proud of. That year I was voted by the other riders to be Rookie of The Year.
The 500, you know, has been a big part of my life. They give college scholarships, and I got to be on the scholarship committee to help decide who gets the scholarships and keep in touch with the students throughout their time in school.
In 2021, I, finally decided to embrace riding fully.. it is what I wanted to do. I had some pretty big life changes and all of it was, kind of up in the air and I wasn't sure it was next, I hadn't ridden in years and I just decided that that's what I was gonna do. So I started riding a lot and even if I didn't have anyone to go with, I would go by myself.
I got really lucky of being like in the right place at the right time with incredible people such as Babes In The Dirt, and WLF Enduro Community, who brought people my way knowing who I was and then I was hired by Dirttastic, and yes I never set out to be a womans coach but it really aligned well with the things that I love to do.
I left my other careers in education, wilderness therapy and restaurant world with goal to show up as my most authentic self in the world of dirt bikes and share whatever knowledge and information I have to help others get out and ride. Took the leap..
Sold my house, moved into airstream and now am full time Coach Kat!
Community is everything and proud to be supported by and supporting like minded folks to embrace their Moto Journey.
Kats Favorite OTG Pant Trailblazer 5.1:
I love the Trailblazer 5.1 pant for everything. It allows full range of motion allowing me to do all the activities from working on the ranch to working on the motos with no restriction. The higher waist cut makes them comfortable all day as well.
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