Safety Bill
The OHV safety bill running this year has died. It was killed in the last committee, Senate Appropriation. To me, this is a huge blow to the OHV community. Why? Most of us who go off-roading in recent years have noticed a dramatic increase in bad behavior out on the trails. Not only have the off-roaders noticed, but the people who manage land for off-roading have seen it. When this behavior gets out of hand, people ask the land managers what they will do to correct it. The land managers’ hands are tied to some degree; their budgets don’t allow for extensive law enforcement and voluntary action is largely ignored. The consensus within the OHV community, land managers and State Parks OHMVR Division is that the only way to get to the problem people is to require training. Not long, hard or expensive training, but training nonetheless. It has been shown that OHV users operate more safely and responsibly after training. The bill that just died had been crafted by a wide variety of OHV advocates, some of whom had careers in agencies that manage OHV. I don’t yet understand why this bill, that is cost neutral and makes common sense training, died. I do know that at least one OHV organization is celebrating the stopping of this bill as a victory for the OHV community. It is not a victory and every preventable annoyance, injury, trespass and fatality might have been prevented if those involved had received training. Pushing mandatory training back another year does no one in our community any good.

Lost Lizard
Pre-registration for the November 7 2026 Lost Lizard Fun Run is now open and you can reserve your spot and T-shirt and save a couple dollars. We will once again be crossing Wheeler Road and the famous Superstition Dry Lake. Expect a 20-mile loop with an extra, difficult trail going in the sand on Superstition Mountain. We will be hosting seven checkpoints again and the raffle prizes are starting to pile up. Base camp will be at The Dip right off Huff Road just north of Wheeler. https://sdorc.org/fun-run-2026/

4X4 Meetup
SDORC will be hosting 4X4 meetups on the last Friday of the month in East County. We will bring our rigs and talk about our vehicles, trails, trips and anything else in a casual setting. Find us on the Meetup App https://www.meetup.com/home/ or our social media. We had a dozen cool rigs and nice people at our first one, so look us up.

Sand Sports Super Show
We are excited to be hosting a booth at the Sand Sports Super Show this September 18-20. This is the big one and just up the road at the Orange County Fairgrounds. There will be hundreds of off-road vehicle related vendors showing their products. You can talk to the people who make and sell the products and enjoy some great show deals. We will be in spot 1022 in building 10 right across from Funco. We want to thank Bonnier for hosting such a great show. https://www.sandsportssupershow.com/

Ed Stovin, Director of Land Use
San Diego Off-Road Coalition