I found this thread, and I can't even remember the question that was asked but it was in the Outdrive forum. A member had asked a question about a drive, and I had just gone through the exact same scenario with my Nordic. I waited for what seemed like an eternity (what was probably actually an hour) for someone to answer the question for this poor guy and nothing. I figured well, I'll help the guy out real quick and then I'd never post on this thing again.
I spent a few minutes trying to think of a screen name, and even jotted a few things down on a paper tablet in front of me trying to get clever but was shooting blanks. I finally just said "F It" and figured I loved the river and my name was Dave so I picked "RiverDave." I was only going to make this one post anyways so what did it matter. Had I known what was going to happen over the course of the next few years I would've spent some more time thinking of a better name.
I answered the question in the thread, and now that I had a login, there was a few other threads I wanted to respond to as well since I had a free minute. A couple of posts quickly turned into a 100, and I'm partially embarrassed to admit that this thing went from a quick minute to a borderline addiction!
After talking to these numbskulls online for awhile the infamous "Trouble at the River" thread came about and it was decided we were going to meet up and drink beers until we solved the worlds problems. A guy by the name of FroggyStyle had some kind of military background and he dubbed it "Operation 6 Coolers." I offered my families riverhouse as the meeting spot, or rather the party spot for the group. I was truly concerned though as more and more people started inquiring about going to this deal because, while I had thrown some serious parties in the past, this list was getting long and these were random people from the internet.
I figured the best thing to do was to plan it early so if things started getting out of hand I could shut it down and side step to the bars. I took a second step and brought my wrecking ball crew with me to the river in case anyone stepped out of line. Imagine 4 of the biggest guys you've ever seen that were exceptionally familiar with the idea of bar brawling and parking lot justice. Party time was scheduled for 7pm - 10pm and then get out.
I think it was BoatCop that showed up first around 4:00 pm, and he hung out for a bit waiting to see who would show up. Next up was Havasu Dreamin and his father again way pre party time. They hung out for a few hours and then bailed. I fancied myself a bit of a party throw'er at the time so I had my "mix cd" (think before pandora kids) ready to rock and roll, and I had several coolers of beer ready to go at a moments notice. I was still chewing on my nails a bit though being extremely unsure of what was going to happen later that night. What is this thing gets completely out of hand, I don't know any of these people other then their screen names, and I couldn't pick one of them out of a lineup.
7:00 pm finally came and ya know what happened? Nothing.. Nobody showed up! I was half breathing a sigh of relief but on the same token I was kinda disappointed. My wrecking ball crew kind of goes hand in hand with "party crew" so now they were leaning on me to go to the bar something fierce. I told them I was going to stick around the house in case any stragglers arrived, but to have a good time. It's 10:00 pm now and my crew is gone and to say I drank a bit when I was younger was an understatement. I was a little more then half in the bag, and I was thinking screw it, I'll call the bar and have them come pick my ass up.
10:03 pm I hear a boat coming around the corner and then knocks on the door, and then people walking around the side of the house to the back. I went from crickets and leaving, to about 30 people in about 2 minutes flat. The Screen names like H4215, RiverToys, Chestah Cheetah, Hustler, FroggyStyle, RacingRascal, RiverCrazy, Slick (actually not sure if he was there or not), etc.. all of a sudden had faces attached to them.
Plenty of others showed up as well, I remember introducing myself to this furry little guy that wasn't drinking and he said "I'm John West it's a pleasure to meet you!" For those that don't know John owned Ultra boats, and I was kind of blown away that he was sitting there at my counter. John quickly introduced me to a guy named Kevin Spaise (not sure on spelling of the last name, but it's not the actor) as it turned out he was the editor at large for HB magazine. He had come out to see what all the fuss was about.
The night went off without a hitch and ended up into the morning hours as they so often do. It was one for the books or rather the magazine as it ended up being in the editors column that month. It was an awesome night and the following week on the forums for monday and tuesday was actually kind of dead because everyone was so tired from partying all weekend.
I'll never forget when I logged in to see a thread titled "where's the &)(*&*( pics!!???" I still laugh when I think about it. That was the story of where it all started, and the first get together off the boating forums on the west coast that I'm aware of.. That was the story of OP6-1.
This video was shot at OP6 - 3 or possibly 4 I believe in 2003.
Next week we will be taking a look at how these get parties impacted the boards, and what ultimately led to the start of RDP.
Pics courtesy of Rivertoys Jason
RD
