Jason Blanton in constant motion on Episode 128

Big_Rich_Klein_Off-Road_Podcast

Family Man, Jason Blanton on racing vs. rockcrawling; working the grind and working to win. Always great to see work ethic pay off, spend some time with Rich and Jason on this episode of Conversations with Big Rich. Good things come to those who work for them. Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast platform.

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Big_Rich_Klein_Off-Road_Podcast
Big_Rich_Klein_Off-Road_Podcast
Big_Rich_Klein_Off-Road_Podcast

5:57 – Snowboarding was pretty big in my life

9:40– I never had a problem because I don’t think I got enough power

17:47 – I’m sure if my first car had been a car, I might have been into streetcars

22:12 – I started with nothing in a Honda

25:18 – If I go to a job and they have me bid against other people, I don’t even bid

30:35 – You guys got to move your camp, you’re on the start/finish line

37:35 – they wanted pictures all day long of dudes with beards

46:09 – it’s serious, we’re there to win and it’s a business

We want to thank our sponsors Maxxis Tires and 4Low Magazine.

www.maxxis.com

www.4lowmagazine.com

TRANSCRIPT

[00:01:47.050] – Big Rich Klein

on today’s episode of conversations with big rich, we have Jason Blanton. Jason is an old time rock crawler with Calrocs, or WE Rock. I’m not sure where the transition came in, but with him. But we will talk to him about that and his ultra4 racing and his career as a contractor and his life growing up. So, Jason, thank you so much for coming on board and spending the time recording with us.

[00:02:13.870] – Jason Blanton

Thanks for having me.

[00:02:15.390] – Big Rich Klein

Yeah. I’m going to let everybody know that Technical Difficulties has been the name of the game with this one, and it’s all been on my side. But Jason has been very good about me calling him back ten to twelve times. So I think we finally got it worked out.

[00:02:31.750] – Jason Blanton

Let’s hope so. That’s good.

[00:02:33.290] – Big Rich Klein

Okay, so let’s jump right in. And where were you born and raised?

[00:02:40.090] – Jason Blanton

I was born in Mesa, Arizona, and pretty much moved when I was a pretty young child up to Washington. So I’ve been living in Washington and Kirkland, Washington, for my whole life, pretty much.

[00:02:52.320] – Big Rich Klein

Okay, and what is the neighborhood like up there? Is it rural or suburban?

[00:02:57.730] – Jason Blanton

Very suburban. We live 4 miles from Seattle. There’s asphalt everywhere and you’re 40ft from your neighbors. It’s not farmland by any means.

[00:03:09.370] – Big Rich Klein

And what took the family from Mesa to Kirkland?

[00:03:15.430] – Jason Blanton

My mom got a good job opportunity up here, so we moved up from Arizona and she works in the hospitality industry and moved up here to better things.

[00:03:27.370] – Big Rich Klein

Excellent. And it’s a great area to grow up in. I’ve spent a lot of time on the western side of the mountains there and on the eastern side with the events out there. But good area to grow up in, would you agree?

[00:03:41.170] – Jason Blanton

Oh, yeah. I’ve been all over the place and all over the world. It’s a great place to live. It’s a very mild place. It’s like not super hot in summer, not super cold in the winter, but you’ll get all the seasons and trees everywhere and lots of mountains close by, so a lot of stuff to do.

[00:03:57.270] – Big Rich Klein

So what was it like growing up there in Kirkland? What were the family activities? What were your activities?

[00:04:05.110] – Jason Blanton

I did a lot of sports as a child, so I did a lot of sports road bikes and skateboard and snowboard. I didn’t snowboard until I was a little bit older, like middle school, but pretty much grew up playing every sport there is old enough to say I didn’t want to do it anymore.

[00:04:24.130] – Big Rich Klein

I was going to say what’s your favorite and what was your favorite growing up sport to play?

[00:04:31.150] – Jason Blanton

I like baseball, so I played a lot of baseball, and soccer was mainly the biggest things that we played. But I was pretty good at baseball, and I had a lot of fun at baseball. My dad and I got a free pitching machine, so we built like a batting cage in our backyard. It was a good time. It was fun.

[00:04:52.490] – Big Rich Klein

Excellent. And do you still watch baseball? Is it still a fun sport for you?

[00:04:58.780] – Jason Blanton

No, I don’t like to watch. It pretty boring. I’d rather watch soccer. Football or hockey or something, but not baseball.

[00:05:08.400] – Big Rich Klein

Baseball my problem with baseball, and even when I did play, there was so much time, like you were waiting for something to happen. I mean, if you’re a pitcher and catcher, I caught, so at least I was in the action, you might say. But it just seemed like if you were an outfielder, you were waiting sometimes, like all day long for something to happen.

[00:05:37.130] – Jason Blanton

Oh, yeah, I agree. It’s kind of like I played pitcher, and I was short stop, and then I played a little bit outfield. Outfield was just like just hanging out there, waiting for something to come your way. It was quite boring.

[00:05:49.430] – Big Rich Klein

Yeah. And then you got into snowboarding, and how big was that in your life?

[00:05:57.570] – Jason Blanton

That was pretty big in my life. I played all sports really up until high school, and then I was getting pretty good at snowboarding at that time. This is back in the day when there wasn’t a whole lot of snowboarding was new, so it was exciting and new to me. And I gave up all my other sports just to snowboard. So I pretty much just work as much as I could in high school, so I could snowboard in the winter as much as I wanted.  READ MORE

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