Another year of East Coast Bash with Clubloose is upon us. I have had the pleasure of attending this event for the last seven years and after traveling the country to many drift events, East Coast Bash is hands down the best. It is essentially a party with some drifting added to it and 2014 will most likely be bigger than last years. To celebrate this grand event, I wanted to take the time to highlight every East Coast Bash video I ever made to show the progression of the event over the past few years as well as my film making. The first one was held in 2008 and was meant to be an All Star Bash for the drivers on the East Coast so naturally it would be called East Coast Bash.
This was the first year we were on the road course at Englishtown and we had quite a few drivers from all over the place. Watching this video brings back a lot of memories as it was my first year shooting videos. Drift Brigade was still around, Rapper Dan was still in a Miata and Brian Wilkerson had one of the best looking drift cars ever. SLR video did not exist quite yet and I am pretty sure I made this with a non-HD tape camera and no tri-pod. It was a fun time and it would most certainly set the pace and feeling for the years to come.
The second East Coast Bash would be called The Bible Burner, a tribute event to our friend Rich Bible who passed earlier that year. With everyone hearing about how awesome the first East Coast Bash was, it quickly became the must go to grass roots drifting event of the season. Reflecting back on this film, it has to be one of my favorite ECB edits. This would be the first time Formula D drivers Ryan Tuerck and Vaughn Gitten JR would come out. 2013 Formula D rookie of the year, Mats Baribeau, had a rather clean JZX for the time, and U-God from Wu-Tang Clan showed up. Geoff Stoneback would start his first year of drifting here and Brian Wilkerson still had the best looking car on grid. Other East Coast staples like Steve Angerman, Brad Hettinger, Vosko, and even Rich Abella can all be seen in their earlier days, showing that they have always been rippers.
Since the first two years of ECB were a success, why not go for a hat trick. While it might have not been the best East Coast Bash, drivers sure got a lot of seat time that weekend. Waldin and Wagner were still running pro-ams at the time, so it was cool to see them mix it up with the other local rippers. Miro show us the pink side of things and Geoff Stoneback started to really come in to his.
Although 2010 was a little more low key, old faces mixed with new and made for a great time regardless of the rain that happened. Miro was really progressing at this point, Nick D’Alessio started to become the ripper that he is today and Bill Quinn managed to hit every clipping point on track. Carlos Doria was still around at the time and Angerman finally had a half way decent paint job. We even had Texas Pro-Am driver, Russell Walker, stick around after D1 to hang out and have fun. A lot great memories were had from this event and looking back on it, it was one of the busiest summers we ever had traveling.
In 2011 I started to get a clue of how to make videos and East Coast Bash had become a two day event of drifting and good times with friends. This would be the first time I had a full crew out with me shooting and all in all we made a pretty bad ass video. Drivers came from all over. Russell Walker made a return, Andy Sapp drove up from Atlanta and local rippers, Tanner Munson and Brian Hoplimazian started to progress their skills behind the wheel. Since it was the weekend after Formula D this time around. Drivers like Vaughn Gitten JR, Ryan Tuerck, Tony Angelo and Mad Mike Whidett graced English Town with their pro-spec cars as well as JR’s very first S13. One of my favorite edits and a damn fun East Coast Bash.
Hands down one of the best edits I have ever done. At this point in my filming career, I jumped from tape cameras to the SLR world and really started to hone my editing skills. For 2012 I wanted to showcase the event with an awesome introduction and also display the night and day driving sessions. We had drivers from all over the country from East to West. Breaking came all the way from Indiana, Andy Sapp made his return, Nate Hamilton stuck around after Hyperfest and missile cars were becoming popular with the DA boys. This ECB would go down as the best yet and had drift fans and drivers kicking them selves for not being there. This one defiantly set the tone for the years to come.
Last year I teamed up with my friends over at Hoonigan and contributed a heavy dose of footage for their series, Bash Bangers. Hert did a fantastic job putting this together and it really shows what East Coast Bash is all about. You have burnouts in a Bentley, fire balls and some of the best grassroots drifting around. If this video doesn’t get you pumped for ECB 2014, I don’t know what will.