SoCal Truck Spotting - Stalking for Some =P

@Thesandaddict I hear you, man. I see similar situations in the paintball community at the paintball fields and paintball forums (namely, pbnation) when it comes to newbs.

While I appreciate getting help from others in the forums, I also try to learn stuff on my own by doing research on YouTube, websites, asking friends/family/shop staff who are already into the thing I'm just getting into, take classes, etc., or using that good ole search bar. I practiced that when I learned how to snowboard, mountain bike, shoot guns, go off-roading and overlanding within the past three years (the activities that helped me want to drive a truck to haul that stuff and stay out there longer to have a good time with others). It's cool, though, when I meet people who are gracious & patient (sometimes, even enthusiastic), who take the time to talk with me about their experiences, and who can listen to & answer my questions.

I'm seeing it's case by case situations on the individual, both the newbs and the experienced enthusiast, with regard to how they go about the learning process, sharing their excitement about a thing, how they conduct their show-and-tell stories (like the IG peeps), or with their advice giving. Sometimes, it can get annoying dealing with people's pride or ignorance. I get that. I just hope we can help each other learn our respective hobbies safely without hurting ourselves or others (...at least not too much, since we gotta sometimes feel some pain to learn some lessons). I'm grateful that my overland Tacoma neighbor was around (and still is) when I started to get more into the off roading and overland scene. The first truck I started to drive was a 2014, 2WD Tacoma Pre Runner. It was great until we got stuck in Big Bear one time after snowboarding in the morning and a snow storm came unexpectedly and quickly later in the afternoon. Luckily, we were able to get some chains to get outa there. After that truck, I really wanted to get a 4x4. Since I liked the Tacoma, I thought I'd try getting one of their new ones, but a 4x4 version. I liked the Pyrite Mica, but none of those were available for the new ones, the infamous 3rd Gens. Haha.. so, a Quicksand it was to be to keep it in that brown theme. The 4x4 opened up new doors for sure. I'm grateful for this forum, the people commenting in it, my neighbor, my off roading friends, youtubers, IG folks, Facebook groups like SoCal Trail Buds, people I randomly meet out on the trails, off-roading groups, overlanding groups, off-roading stores, in general, anyone who's helped me to learn and get better at knowing the Tacoma truck.

 

Let's be clear that it's your opinion. As mentioned by others, some people dont have the space to store the tent or the means to load and unload a 150# tent every trip. MPG with the RTT on isn't any worse than having 33's on your truck, and I'm sure most of us don't remove our 33's after each trip either. Just live and let live.

 

idk but in socal I can't go more than 5 min without spotting another taco, this is the only vehicle I don't feel jealous about spotting another owner,

 

I think it's ridiculous to spend $400+ on a pro grille. At least a tent will have a lot of function rather than form. The good thing is, no one is forcing anyone else to buy anything. My mom wanted a luxury car her whole life, started as a character at Disney and worked her way up to being a production/marketing manager while putting herself through college. Last year she got an Audi Q3 and it was a really cool moment. Sometimes you might not need it but want it, and as long as you work hard to get it, that's enough.

And at the end of the day, we in SoCal probably all overpaid for one thing.

Our trucks

 

5 north near San Clemente
Kaaaaaangs

 

damn right

 

Identity crisis.

 

Taco putting in work at the launch

 

PBnation is a trash fire that the community tries to put out with gasoline.

 

Blasted past this dude on the 210 today sitting shotgun in the wife’s whip. Tall.

 

Spotted Saturday at the Food Festival at SDCCU Stadium:

 

We all know why that tent is popped....

 

Paintball is trash Airsoft is superior.

 

Never tried airsoft, but I like that paintball has almost the same ammo capacity as real firearms when using mag fed markers. Pump is where it's at for me, though. However, the airsoft guns have replicas that seem to cycle like real firearms and can be manipulated like them with their identical controls. At this point, with paintball, real firearms and all the other hobbies I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm holding off on getting into airsoft.

Hey, if you haven't tried, give them a shot. Great exercise and a fun way to geek out with gear with friends and family. Like with these trucks, they can get addicting so be careful. If you're one of those Tackleberry types (edited: used to say military veteran/leo, but that didn't fit well and I don't want to disrespect them) who prefer only real combat, then thanks for your service and stay safe out there, sir.

 

Y'all need some Simunition in your lives.

 

Over at Chatsworth

 

I checked out a place in Vegas that had rentals with sims. They were trying to promote a combat sport which starts off as force-on-force with modified glocks that use sims and then the opponents could go hands on doing mma style rules when their mags were empty. I don't know if that ever caught on, but Fox did a feature on it. The guy who runs it says he knows some of the pro paintballers in the Vegas area, namely from team Destiny, I think. Pro sport shooter, JJ Racaza also gave it a shot and was in that Fox show about the venue. He got a different out look on his sport when it had someone else shooting back at him. It just seemed very expensive and possibly available only for law enforcement and military.

 

It's a completely different outlook when you know it's a firearm and hear the powder ignite. I love paintball, but simunition was a really wild experience of pointing a real weapon at someone. It's scary, but tells you about yourself. I never did get into airsoft, but that might have a similar feel, if by appearance alone. Airsoft is expensive, I'd rather just buy more guns, and take more training classes.



ok, back to spotting...

 

That's really cool, man. I'm gonna have to communicate with you in pm to get more info on the sim training. I'm still new to real firearms, ...been an owner and shooting since end of 2016 just before the assault weapons ban. I've been paintballing in pump tournaments since 2010 and feel that it may be more honest with regard to hits compared to airsoft since the paint leaves a mark. (Obviously, there's still cheating with wiping and stuff). Anyway, I like that sims are similar to paintball in that they leave a mark. It kinda tells you how your aim is doing. Not sure if velocities with sims are similar to real ammo and if bullets from real ammo travel in the air similarly as the sim "paint bullets". I'd guess they're about the same for close quarters.

 

In Encino on Ventura Blvd.