Podcast: Download (Duration: 29:38 — 27.6MB)
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Christopher Goad… but you all probably know him as Bomber Bash. In the 16th episode of the All Day Ruckoff Podcast Brian sits down and chats with the fan favorite, the one and only, Bomber Bash. We get into where the nickname came from, what his first event was like, and what he’s looking forward to at GORUCK.
The only thing that would have made this interview better was if it was done in person and videoed. A huge thanks to Bomber for taking the time to chat and hopefully he doesn’t have to go on any more 18 hour drives with Nick.
Resources
Here’s the links from the show!
- GORUCK & Rucking Glossary
- Charity Challenges Flutter Kick Challenge
- Bomber’s Ruck Club Tour
- Andrew Handley’s Pub
- GORUCK Selection
Podcast: Download (Duration: 29:38 — 27.6MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | TuneIn | RSS | How to Subscribe
What’s Next
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Podcast Transcript
For those who don’t like listening to interviews here the transcript in its entirety!
Brian: I’m here talking with Christopher Goad who goes by Bomber Bash. Before we get started, Bomber, how did you get that nickname?
Bomber Bash: I’ll tell you. A lot of people asked me because I was in the Marine Corps and they’re like, “Oh, were you EOD? Did you work on bombs?” I’m like “No. I was just in weapons company, I was a pack mule. Bomber Bash is actually a car show that I’ve done for 10 years called the Twin City Bomber Bash. Before Facebook made everyone change their name to their real name, I went by Bomber Bash. It’s kind of strange the whole GRT community knows me mostly as Bomber Bash unless they’re newer and know me as Christopher Goad and they don’t really know who Bomber is.
Yeah, it’s a car show that we’ve done for 10 years. It’s rockabilly. All the cars are rockabilly based who do a pinup pageant, and actually last year we did a custom light, the Twin City Bomber Bash Light and we had David Lyles as the Cadre and had 38 people come down and almost all of them were GRTs that traveled down that came from New England, Texas, allover, and it was a lot of fun. Yes, the Bomber Bash is actually a car show called the Twin City Bomber Bash.
Brian: That’s really interesting and I’m sure you do not expect this to happen then for everyone to call you Bomber Bash from here on out.
Bomber Bash: No sir. No sir. It’s funny because, Robert Bash, when I first met him as that same weekend that you were here when I first moved here. He’s like, “Hey!” I’m like, “Robert Bash!” He’s like, “Oh! You know who I am.” I’m like, “Yeah, we have the same last name.” Anyway, he’s a great guy, but it was funny because people have confused us before or asked me how we were related. That’s when my name was still on Facebook as Bomber Bash.
Brian: That’s awesome. Bomber, how is it going?
Bomber Bash: It’s going fantastic. I’m having a great day. Little tired from the selection weekend, but other than that I’m feeling great.
Brian: Excellent. I’d imagine pretty much everyone down there is a little tired from the selection weekend.
Bomber Bash: Yes, sir. Nick is extra cranky this week more than his normal crankiness. There’s that.
Brian: Bomber, let’s start out with your involvement in the GORUCK community. How did you stumble upon GORUCK?
Bomber Bash: In 2011, I signed up for a Tough Mudder and I know a few people remember this from back in the day. There was actually a link to GORUCK with a little bit of video. It had like a little Tough Mudder logo with the hand. I watched the video and checked it out and I was like, “Man! That seems cool.”
I did a little research and I think the only video or any information I could find, because back then they still kept everything that went on in evens pretty quiet. I found there was a video from a Philadelphia event that was shot with a first generation GoPro. There wasn’t a lot of information out there, and by watching that video is when I decided to sign up for one. It was about six or seven months out to order a GR1 and then my first event was in October of 2012.
Brian: I think I know what video you’re talking about. I’m pretty sure I watched that video a dozen or two dozen times before my first event, because that was the only information out there.
Bomber Bash: Yes, sir. Yeah, for the longest, it was the only video.
Brian: Yeah. Where was the first event you signed up for?
Bomber Bash: It was in New Orleans, which I’m from Shreveport. I was living there then. It was about five hours away and I knew the city and felt I would be more comfortable doing it in the city that I was familiar with than traveling off some place.
Brian: This was back in 2012. There’s not much information out there. No one really knows what’s going on with GORUCK and the events. What were your thoughts leading up to the event and how did you feel during that event?
Bomber Bash: When I want to do something I just need to go ahead and sign up for it, because if I don’t I’ll talk myself out. I signed up for it the same day that I first saw the video Tough Mudder page. Just was nervous. Now, there’s all kind of training programs, squads, there’s the ruck clubs. You have so much more information out there. There was a little bit of anxiety about what we were going to do, and my training just consisted of — As I look back, it wasn’t the best idea, but I just ran, I did some five 5Ks with my ruck, add my six bricks in there. When I signed up, you could still do it with four bricks if you were over 150 pounds. Then they went away from the flame patch and then went to six bricks. Yeah, I didn’t do any push-ups, sit ups, anything. No overhead. Just squats, just ran with it. That’s what I thought I needed to do.
Brian: Those were the days, right? Back when a tough — If you’re over 150 was four bricks, and under 150 it was two?
Bomber Bash: Yes, sir.
Brian: I remember, and they made a switch to six and four. I was thinking, “Man! This is getting real.” When you completed the event, how did you feel? Did you know that you wanted to do another one or were you thinking you’re going to be one done?
Bomber Bash: I was one and done. I was like, “This is stupid.” It was class 294. Had a great route. There were a couple of people there that done multiple events. A lot of the New Orleans crew was there. There was a couple of other events. Team Farm was down there for a Scavenger back in the day and it was crazy, crazy. I just remember being exhausted and then I wanted a beer, and I bought a 32 ounce bottle of Pabst Blue Ribbon and then took a very long nap after I had that. I was wiped out, man. It did me in.
Brian: Sounds like a pretty good way to celebrate.
Bomber Bash: It was. It was.
Brian: Going fast-forward a bit, when did you start working for GORUCK?
Bomber Bash: That would be in — My one year anniversary is coming up. It’d be September 28, so a couple of more days will be my one year anniversary for being here in Florida at HQ, which is now the PX.
Brian: Congratulations!
Bomber Bash: Thank you, sir.
Brian: Hopefully I’ll make it down there again. I think I was down there on the weekend that you started with Team RWB for a ruck club meet up.
Bomber Bash: Yes. Yeah, I had a little luau. Y’all were here Saturday. It was a lot of fun.
Brian: That was a really good time. Speaking of ruck clubs and meet ups, you’ve been traveling the U.S. hanging out with ruck clubs. Is that correct?
Bomber Bash: Yes.
Brian: Who had the idea to send you around and do this?
Bomber Bash: I hear Lee likes to say it’s his idea. Nick says it’s his idea. Jason said it’s his idea, so I’m going to stick with that it’s my idea. It was totally my idea to do it.
Brian: I like that. I was worried it was someone else’s idea just to get you out of the office.
Bomber Bash: That’s most probably. That is totally correct. I think they pretend that they’re excited to see me when I come back, but sometimes I don’t believe that.
Brian: Yeah. I’m sure they’re excited to see you.
Bomber Bash: Yes.
Brian: You’ve been leaving GORUCK and traveling to various ruck clubs in the area. Where have you gone so far?
Bomber Bash: It kind of started in North Carolina with Brag. That was kind of the first trip that I went down with the company. On the way back we stopped by to see Andrew Handley in South Carolina. Met up with a lot of the GRTs there, the South Carolina area. We’ve been to Detroit. Well, all over Florida first. Went down south, Miami, went across Tallahassee, Fort Myers and just kind of followed all around the coast and came back and then do the blog, just told their stories.
After that, Detroit, Cleveland, had a blast with them. Then went to Texas and went to Dallas, Austin and Houston. We’ve done a few other trips. We went to Auburn for the Raider Ruck Nick and I did and did a couple of the legs with them and had a good time. I feel very fortunate, very blessed. We hung with the F3 guys. It’s been a lot of fun.
Brian: It sounds awesome.
Bomber Bash: Traverse City also. Yeah, for beach. I went up to Traverse City, which has been the whole town looks like a postcard. It was beautiful.
Brian: That’s awesome. You’ve got to make out to some amazing places.
Bomber Bash: Oh, for sure.
Brian: When you travel, do you mostly fly or drive?
Bomber Bash: We drove a lot with Nick, with him and I taking turns, and we’ll take Ripley with us his German Shepherd. After driving with him to Detroit, I decided that I didn’t want to ride with Nick anymore. I was like, “We got to fly.” We were in the jeep like 18 hours. It was crazy. Ohio was a long way to drive across. I will tell you that, sir.
Brian: That is a long trip. Did you start in Florida for that?
Bomber Bash: Yeah, I’ve left here from Jacks Beach and drove straight.
Brian: That’s a trip. One thing I’ve noticed when getting out and driving around between states. Some states are a lot better to drive in than others. Where is the worst place that you guys had to drive through? Either in terms of road quality or drivers or just how you’re feeling.
Bomber Bash: Nick wasn’t with me on these two trips when I went back to Shreveport for Extortion 17. Louisiana on I20 is absolutely horrible. It’s like it’s been bombed by the B52s at Barksdale Air Force Base. It’s just a horrible place to drive. In Dallas, if you’re not driving 80 plus miles an hour, you’re going to get run over. There is two speeds there. It’s stopped and then as fast as you can go. I would say those are the two places most challenging to drive in.
Brian: It sounds like it. On the flipside, what’s the most enjoyable place you drove through?
Bomber Bash: Traverse City was absolutely beautiful. Also, driving around Detroit, that was really cool. Then we went to — I guess it’s called the Sand Barren, Sand Flats at Fort Bragg. Nick has to get some photos there of some gear and we camped out and it was really — That area is really pretty.
Brian: Very nice. You’ve been to a lot of new cities traveling for GORUCK. Has you been to a lot of these cities before or was this your first time there?
Bomber Bash: I’ve been to Ohio before. Detroit was the first for me. Traverse City was the first, and I had not been up to the Fort Bragg area before. I am getting to see some places, and I hadn’t been to South Florida. Most of my experience from Florida was here in Jacks Beach or in the Palm Kendall. I have seen a lot of America and met a lot of the best people.
Brian: When you first get to a new city, is there anything that you try and do?
Bomber Bash: As soon as we’re there, connect with some of the local GRTs. Just let them know, “Hey, we’re in town, and let’s go eat.” We want to go in eat and have a beer at the places that they go to and just kind of have their experience and show us your town. That usually we’ll check into our room and like, “Hey, where are y’all?”
Brian: Awesome. You show up to town, check into a room, hook up with the GRTs and grab some food and beer.
Bomber Bash: Yes, sir.
Brian: Where you have gotten the best foods so far?
Bomber Bash: There’s a couple of places. Andrew Handley’s place, Andrew Handley’s Pub is absolutely amazing. He had a huge spread of food there for everyone and he took really good care of us. Man! There’s GORUCK memorabilia all over the place. It’s a really cool spot to hangout. I’d love to go there again with my girlfriend. Blacks Barbeque in Austin, Texas is one of my favorite places. Really, just all the local spots. BD and I, Traverse City at a hamburger place that was just amazing. I tried to stay away from the chain places and just support the local businesses.
Brian: Yeah, absolutely. You always grab a beer when you’re getting a meal. Do you stay with PBR or Bud?
Bomber Bash: No. We’ll go to the local breweries. We’ve been to some really cool ones, especially — Oh! I’m not going to call out any certain ones, because there’s so many favorite ones. The craft beer business is booming and we’ve had some really quality beer. I just like to go there, see what everyone else is drinking and have one of those. Yeah, usually stay away from the Budweiser and PBR just so I can experience what the locals are drinking or what they’re making.
Brian: It sounds amazing. Fly to a new city, hang out with some GRT, eat the good food, drink the good beer.
Bomber Bash: Yes, sir.
Brian: You’ve been to a number of spots already. Do you have plans to keep the tour going and drive out again or fly out again?
Bomber Bash: Yeah, and I need to do it — It’s probably going to happen next year, go up and do the Snowdrop event. I got to go hang with those guys and then I’ll be up at Bragg next year, but we’re entering to the holiday season here where it gets super, super busy, so probably no more trips.
Brian: Yeah, Rooney was calling you out on that, wasn’t he?
Bomber Bash: Oh my God! Yes. I’ve got probably about five unanswered messages from him on Facebook that I’ve got to answer today.
Brian: I just talked with him a couple of days ago. I interviewed him about Snowdrop and that event that he runs in Appleton.
Bomber Bash: Yeah. That’s an amazing event and he’s probably my 40th or 50th favorite cadre at GORUCK. He’s a great guy. I love him so much.
Brian: Yeah, he’s awesome. I did an event with him out in Seattle, and Rooney is a great guy. Next year, you might be out then in Appleton for Snowdrop.
Bomber Bash: Yes. I committed to that with those fellows. Yes, everybody.
Brian: There it is. If you want to do an event with Bomber Bash, check out Snowdrop, Appleton, Wisconsin 2018.
Bomber Bash: Yes, sir.
Brian: Let’s talk about ruck clubs and custom events. I heard through the grape vine that there might be a custom event for members of Rucks clubs coming up. Can you elaborate on that?
Bomber Bash: Yup. One that I would like to talk about is Mark Otto who’s put together for the Veteran’s Day Parade in New York on November 11 a spot for 200 GRTs and are going to have people from the ruck clubs come. I know the Cleveland rucking crew, there’s going to be a lot of them driving over that will actually be in the parade. There’s a couple of cadre coming. I’m really stoked about that. It will be great to be — I’ve never been in a parade. I’m looking forward to it. We’re going to go up there. 200 GRTs are going to be marching with our rucks in the Veteran’s Day parade in New York, and that’s pretty cool. He’s already done a couple of interviews. He was on Fox News last night talking about it. I didn’t get a chance to catch it, but that’s going to be a fun one. I’ll be up in the New York area the first weekend of November.
Brian: That’s awesome. If people want to sign up for this, is there a link on the website or where should they go?
Bomber Bash: We got it as a private link, but if they want to hit me up, it’s bomber AT goruck DOT com. I’ll make sure to send the link to them.
Brian: Perfect. Thank you so much, Bomber. GORUCK has a ruck club battle coming up in early 2018. That will be in Jacksonville, Florida. How excited are you about this?
Bomber Bash: I’m super stoked, man. Lucas, he reached out to me. He’s down with the Palm Beach Rucking Crew. Shot me a message and he was like, “Hey, man. What about let’s do a custom event where we have all the ruck clubs come?” You already got almost 50 people signed up for it and it’s going to be a Light. Probably Garrett and Cody and everyone’s going to be teamed up. I’ve got a couple of people from HQ that are going to sign up, so we’re going to have our little team going to. I’m really stoked. It’s a great idea, and if I didn’t like Luke so much I’d say it was mine. I’m really stoked about that. It’s going to be a lot of fun. It’s going to be a pretty tough Light. There will be a lot of fun involved, but we’re going to get thrashed too.
Brian: It’s probably for the best, since everyone showing up is in a ruck club. Luke is a great guy. I had him on a previous episode where he talked about the Brad event.
Bomber Bash: For sure.
Brian: He’s always fun to talk to.
Bomber Bash: Yeah, he’s an awesome dude.
Brian: We’ve got the ruck club battle coming up, GORUCK Selection just finished, and so you guys are all recovering from that. What else is going on?
Bomber Bash: I look forward to see what the beach events turn into. I think they’re going with calling them Poseidon. Super stoked about those and just being able to see the one in Traverse City, and it was a lot of fun. That’s what I’m excited for event-wise, is to see what happens with it. Constellation is constantly evolving and changing and there’s people that have done a couple of them and talked about that event has evolved and got better. I did the second one of the Betas and I look forward to doing one of the others one come up. They had one in St. Augustine this weekend that a lot of people come in. They caravan from here down there did it, come back. It’s one of the few times I’ve not offered hugs, because all of them smelled like pepper spray.
Brian: Yeah, I’d stay away from that.
Bomber Bash: Yeah. I’m like once you’ve showered, for real, give you a hub, but let’s just fist bump.
Brian: Yup. No shirtless Bomber Bash hugs when you’re covered in pepper spray.
Bomber Bash: That’s right.
Brian: GORUCK’s already released the date for 2019 Selection. It’s September 20th in Ohio. Can we expect you up there for the Bomber Cam?
Bomber Bash: I’m hoping so. I’ve put in my request to BD to let me go up there to Selection, because mostly I got to see the index and I got to see the PT test. There were a couple of people I’ve known for a while, but I want to go and watch them and give them a little love while they’re doing it. Most of that weekend, we work up here at the PX and just making sure everyone had a cold Budweiser in their hand, making sure they were checking out the gears. Also, a ton of people brought their rucks in and Joe and even Christian, who is our quality control guy, got them turned around same weekend. There were very few that had to stay due to the repairs on them. It was cool for people to bring their rucks in and let them inspect them and did grommets for a couple of people, repaired some straps, sewed up a few holes and everything. That was another cool thing that happened this weekend. I’d like to say congratulations to Alex and everybody else, but that dude is a beast, man. It was crazy watching him on the live feed and then it was an honor to see him finish here at the PX.
Brian: He was surprisingly coherent during the interview with Jason afterwards.
Bomber Bash: Oh, yeah. I think he was absolutely wiped out, but he was still him, and that was pretty amazing to me. Yeah, that was an hour or two after he had finished. He had got a little ice cream from his girl and got some beer, Kill Cliff, and water. He got to recharge his batteries, which that was cool.
Brian: Yeah. Let’s talk about the PX and scars now in Jacksonville.
Bomber Bash: Yes, sir.
Brian: When I travelled down there last year, I came and hang out and the GORUCK office and that office is what it looks like has been turned to the new PX and the new scars.
Bomber Bash: Yes. When I moved here, there are like I think like 21, 22 or us and it got up where there was almost 30 people, like 27, 28 folks. It was just so packed in here. They moved HQ down the road for the business part of GORUCK where marketing, the inventory folks, finance, Lee was there heading up on our fire base partnerships and over off to the left where I used to be, they’ve got all the scars. All the machines are set up and they’re kind of — It’s a really cool system of how they check them in, do the inspections, put them in the queue to be repaired, have them repaired, then ship them out. It works really well and SP says really fast. Joe block party. He handles all the scars, emails coming in, and then he also sew some and we have Christian that’s in our quality control, that he gets behind a machine as well.
They do a pretty quick turnaround and it runs around very smooth. Jason is over here, myself, Nick is over here. We just got a little small crew and I feel very fortunate to — I’m not seeing everybody every day like before, but it’s cool to be over here, because that’s where the GRTs come when they want to visit.
Brian: That’s awesome. I’ll have to make it out there again and see everything going on, but it’s very cool —
Bomber Bash: The plan is eventually have us all under one roof again, and I’ll be stoked when that day, but it’s also having scars here at the PX and watching those guys do their things. They’re a great crew.
Brian: Yeah, and it’s got to be awesome seeing all those beat rucks from GORUCK events coming and get nice and patched up and sent out for more adventures.
Bomber Bash: Yes. Oh, and my note to them, because I love these guys, is make sure you wash your rucks really well before you send them. There’s a couple of them that I’m like, “Oh my God! Ugh! Ugh!”
Brian: You just kind of get the box and the box wreaks before you even open it.
Bomber Bash: Yes, sir. Yes, sir.
Brian: You’re wondering if they sent you a backpack or a dead animal.
Bomber Bash: That’s right. I’ll have to start shaming those folks on the Tough page.
Brian: That seems like a great way to do it.
Bomber Bash: Oh, yeah.
Brian: You’re very excited about the GORUCK beached events that are coming up. We’re about to hit the super busy season for GORUCK, which is the Christmas time, holiday season.
Bomber Bash: Yes.
Brian: What are you most excited for about the future of GORUCK?
Bomber Bash: Just seeing where the events go. Jason is working on a lot of secret apparel stuff. The apparel lot is really going to expand. I’m stoked to see what happens with that. Not only like the GR3 did really well. It’s a fantastic travel ruck and just seeing what the next big thing is going to be. I just like seeing the ruck clubs expand, the family grow and just when you think, “Oh! This is about it. Something else comes along.
Last year, Constellation beach come back around and is turning into something new. I just like to surprises that are in store.
Brian: Yeah, and Constellation 24 is coming up, so that should be incredibly interesting.
Bomber Bash: Oh, yeah. The reunion this year is going to be in Austin, Texas. I’ll be down there for sure. I got my daughter and son-in-law lives down there. I really — Austin is an awesome place. There’s a lot of good food. There’s a lot of hills to go up and down.
Brian: Perfect. Awesome, Bomber. Is there anything else that you want to talk about or tell the listeners?
Bomber Bash: As I always say, monster is the best part of HQ, and the people, are the best part of GORUCK. I enjoy meeting everyone, having them come up here and hangout with them. I just want to tell them thank you and come get a shirtless hug.
Brian: You heard it. Come get a shirtless hug from Bomber Bash pending no pepper spray on your body.
Bomber Bash: Exactly. Thank you for clarifying that for me.
Brian: Yeah, I’m just looking out for you. Got your best interest though, Bomber.
Bomber Bash: I appreciate it.
Brian: Bomber, thank you so much for taking all the time to talk with me today. It’s been awesome, just awesome to connect again and chat. I truly appreciate it and we got to do this again.
Bomber Bash: Yes, sir, anytime. You take care and I hope you have an awesome day.