Carson City Sheriff Deputies Gary Denham and Thomas Miller train for the 12th annual Extreme Motor Officer Challenge this weekend.
The Carson City Sheriff’s Department Motor Unit is hosting its 12th annual Extreme Motor Officer Training Challenge this weekend in downtown Carson City.
Sheriff’s Departments from all over Nevada and California will be in Carson City with their best motorcycle officers to compete in a series of training challenges to improve their skills and take home some trophies for their department.
“I am looking forward to seeing the riders and watching everyone ride,” Sgt. Scott McDaniel said. “It is a fun time and it’s good to put on something to let the public see what we do. We love to show the public things that they wouldn’t see.”
The challenge will feature a host of events from individual timed rides to obstacle courses and more. McDaniel said around 30 other officers are expected to attend. Agencies attending include Las Vegas Metro, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Diego, Douglas, and Nevada Highway Patrol.
“I am excited for this to get together with other agencies to see how they do things and enjoy the camaraderie,” Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Mike Stapledon said. “I have never participated in a motors challenge before, so I am a little nervous, but I have always wanted to do it.”
The camaraderie is a big incentive for these competitions, because motor units see a lot of the same officers at motor challenges around the country. They have formed a tight knit community in which to use each other to improve their police bike skills.
“Its nice we get to work with and meet other cops and its just a big training,” Deputy Thomas Miller said. “Its more of a fun training so if you are having issues somewhere for a certain pattern or turn these guys are there to help, but it’s also a competition too but it’s more of a friendly competition. It’s fun, it’s challenging for sure but it’s fun.”
The point of these challenges are to help train officers to better maneuver their police bikes, so they can take their skills learned and apply it to real time police work while they are riding. Most officers ride a Harley or BMX bike, similar to civilian bikes. They just learn how to handle it better for police situations, and for Carson City’s competition, they are giving participants certification credits for the training.
“It’s really about refined skills and techniques that you can maneuver the bike in a fashion that’s safe for a police officer to be on,” Deputy Matt Smith said.
The Carson City Motor Unit has five deputies in it, but only four are going to compete because Deputy Derek Kepler is out on family leave after his wife had a baby last Thursday.
“It sucks to not be doing it,” Kepler said. “I will be there on Saturday to watch, but it will be hard to watch because I know that I will want to be participating.”
The Motor Challenge will be happening in conjunction with the Battle Born 1864 Brews, Bikes, and Bubbly event also happening on Carson Street. The two events will be shutting down Carson Street from Robinson to Musser from Friday morning to Saturday at midnight.
The event will also feature a civilian moped challenge Saturday at noon to raise money for the deputys’ charity of choice. It’s $10 if participants bring their own bike and $50 to use a CCSO bike.
Because the brewfest is happening after the Motors Challenge, the Sheriff’s Office has set up a partnership with the local towing companies to provide complementary towing from 6 p.m.-2 a.m. Saturday to provide a safe ride home to people from the event.
The Extreme Motor Officer Training Challenge will run Friday from 5-7 p.m. and Saturday starting at 8 a.m. with awards given at 6:30 p.m.