I'm sure most of us have had close calls. You know, the times you thought "Oh Shiaaatttttt!" Like maybe you almost rolled your buggy. Or you for sure thought you were going to break something. But unlike the crash and burn stories, this thread is for those times that somehow you pulled it off, or maybe you didn't pull it off but still no damage was done. So let's hear the stories.

I have two that I remember most.

The first one was at the St. Anthony dunes 3 years ago. I was giving Bukithed a quick ride in the small dunes near camp. I came up a dune at a 45 degree angle and launched off a lip into a curved slip face. It should have been no big deal, I had good sight of my path ahead. But I guess I hit it a little too fast and at just "that" angle. I launched about twice as high as I meant to, which was not such a big deal, except the buggy rotated clockwise in the air, landing on the two right side tires, which were on the downhill side of the dune. While in the air, I for sure thought I was going to roll the car. But as I landed I steered down hill and pulled it off. I think Bukithed had to change his shorts after that one.

The other time was at Glamis. A group of us went to Olds at night and hardly anyone was there. Nobody running the hill at all. A teenage kid I know, but that doesn't normally camp with us, asked me for a ride. I know he is an exceptional quad rider that races all the time, so I figure I'll give him a good ride to show that buggy drivers aren't slow. I messed around a bit on the hill, then decided to do a 3rd gear run across the face of Olds, from left to right. I was about 3/4s of the way up the hill going directly sideways across the hill. Well... it was the first time I had crossed Olds sideways that season. There was a lip a little more than half way across that wasn't there the season before. Since I only have two lights that aren't that great, I never saw the lip. I hit it wide open in 3rd gear, never lifted at all. Of course once airborn I lifted off the throttle and the silence was EVIL. We were high enough in the air that we couldn't see the ground at all. I just knew, I had a feeling, that the landing would be ugly. I had no idea how high off the ground I was, how far I was going to fly, or if I would land out of shape. What was probably only a few seconds of air time sure seemed like forever. Then it happened. I landed relatively flat, front tires first but nowhere near an endo, and while it did bottom out pretty hard, no damage was done. I got back on the throttle and continued on as if "I meant to do that." The kid wasn't buying it. He knew better. He knew I effed up. And he swore to never ride with me again.

I came 10 ft from being killed by a sandrail { driver is the owner of a major offroad seat manufacturer thats not beard} that jumped over a hill without a spotter. 10 ft to the left and he would have landed on me @ about 50 mph.

Needless to say I will never buy his seats...................never!

The first one that comes to mind is a friend of ours who was still realatively new to buggy driving. He was following Coobee, who was following me, and we were in the South dunes of Buttercup. We found a really cool, smooth bowl leading to a table top to see how our old school no travel buggies would look off the ground. So Coobee and I made several runs getting only a few feet of air, thinking that was good enough seeing as how we were a ways from camp. Well, our buddy decides to try it, but just before he takes off, his wife gets out and says "I'll watch from the sidelines". He then asks Coobee, "What gear are you in when you hit it?". Coob says, "3rd". But forgets to say he lets off on the throttle right before hitting the lip.

This is a picture I took standing level to where he took off. I'm 5'11" and had to lok up to get that shot. His wife saw him take off and her knees buckeled.

A few slightly bent tie rods and a dent in the shock cover, was all the damage. Needless to say, he hasn't tried it since.

I had a seat sucker late last season in the "little dunes" just outside of 13.5. It was the first trip ever to the dunes for some of my smaller nieces and nephews, and they had been dying for a ride in the rail. So, I took them out by myself in the small dunes for a quick, slow, kiddie ride, and was working my way out to the first ridge to the west, as I like to take newbies to the top of that and let them look at how the camps are all set up along the tracks. So, we were in a fairly bushy section with a 15' or so rise coming up, no real visibilty for others, so I'm off the gas, and looking for any sort of motion. Just as I'm at the bottom of the dune, I finally see the tip of a flag on the other side, and I did the fastest 90 degree turn I possibly could..which turned out to be a real wise thing, as the car that came over the top of the dune just as we took our trip through the brush was moving right along. Them scratches along the side sure beat a head on crash...The kids never even realized what happened, they just thought old uncle bob was driving like a nut..

3 years ago, I was leading a ride in the dunes near Roadruunner with my friend's 15 year old daughter riding shotgun, I saw a nice hilltop jump coming up and I thought that I would show her my "motocross trick" where I grab a little turn brake just before I leave the apex of the jump to make the car fly a little sideways through the air, like the motocross bikes always do, it looks and feels really cool to do this in a buggy (with beadlocks of course), and I have pulled it off a hundred times without a hitch, but this time I had a little too much speed, and instead of getting a little air and a little sideways, I launched at least 8-10 feet high and the car got 90 degrees sideways before it landed; I braced myself for a good "barrel" roll and stood on the throttle to try and save it when it landed. Well, the car squatted and took off in the direction that it landed, just as if I intended to land that way. The guys behind me thought for sure that it was a gonner, but 15 year old Jordan thought that it was just part of the ride, and said "that was AWESOME!!!"

Close Calls! Quite a few not to mention a couple of Calls! I'll share when I have some more time to write!