Jamie O’Brien Baja Surfari Polaris General presented by BFGoodrich Tires
Baja has a stunning coastline riddled with remote surf spots only accessible by off-road or boat. We are excited to announce our newest project with World renowned pro surfer Jamie O’Brien to explore the hidden “Lost Coast” of Baja in his custom overland Polaris General.
This has been one of the most epic builds we have done to go explore Baja in a new way with one of the biggest big wave surfers in the industry. There are no paved roads on the Lost Coast and the 350 miles of stunning coastline is only accessible by off-roading or by boat.
Since seeing the major development Polaris has put into the General, we’ve wanted to do some sort of expedition build that could be used to go on trips for days without chase support. Over the last year, we have compiled the best brands in the business to build our friend and surfing manic Jamie O’Brien, affectionately known as J.O.B. something that he could stack surfboards on and cruise the beaches in search of waves, fishing, and fun.
The area of Baja that we will be exploring is called “The Lost Coast” because of it’s inaccessibility. Most people stay on the highway and hang a left at Mama Espinosas in El Rosario. We will be hanging a right and exploring “The Lost Coast” from El Rosario south to Guerrero Negro. Because of the diversity of the coastline the area produces epic surfing, fishing, and camping. I can’t wait to get down to Baja and go exploring off-road with Jamie O’brien.
VEHICLE
The Polaris General platform is the perfect balance between the high performance of the RZR and practically of the Ranger. We asked our good friend and off-road racing champion Phil Blurton to help us with this build. His company No Limit Racing Development builds some of the best race and play UTV’s in the business. Although he specializes in building Can-Am based machines, he does other builds and makes products for other platforms.
CAGE & BUMPERS
As with all cars we build, we started with the safety stuff. Phil built us a custom cage and front bumper. Although we know plenty of builders who can build us custom wazoo parts, we like to do builds that customers can actually buy. This way we are showing you products that are actually attainable. What I love about Phil is he races what he builds and does more testing than any other racer I know. The direct correlation between racing and product development is real. You break it – you redesign it – and many times break the part again until you find the magical balance.
GRAPHICS
I like this build so much, we’re going to do a 4-seat version next. The Mad Media designed graphic package, or livery as the european racers like to refer to it, was a throwback to the nose art of World War II fighter planes, combined with a camo pattern to keep the whole theme matching Jamie’s fun demeanor. We asked our friends over at SignArt to handle the wrap. There are a lot of wrap companies who may do it cheaper but no one does it better than SignArt.
TIRES & WHEELS
Don’t skimp on your tires unless you like changing flats. Just don’t. Yes, BFGoodrich Tires are more expensive than your average UTV tire, but they are worth it. BFGoodrich takes their 50 years of off-road racing and distills it down to the tires you can buy for your truck, SUV or UTV. We went with a 30 inch Mud-Terrain T/A® KM3 to make the holes smaller. They work great in sand, as well as the hard pack.
We wrapped the tires around some KMC Wheels XS234 Addict 2 Beadlocks wheels with satin black finish and red interior rings. They look great and have the extra function that beadlocks offer in keeping your tires from peeling off your wheels when you are pushing hard in corners. For this build, it’s probably overkill but it’s nice knowing when you are hitting a corner at 60 mph that you are confident that your wheel and tire package will not fail.
SUSPENSION & SHOCKS
Honestly, stock suspension on most UTV’s is pretty adequate but we decided we wanted a bit more out of this build so we added an HCR Suspension Long Travel Suspension Kit. HCR makes a ton of race proven products for all UTV platforms, so if you need more out of your UTV suspension they are definitely a great option. A lot of people have crazy ideas on what type of shocks they need, but the truth is it’s more about the set up of the tune.
Stock settings for shocks, regardless of manufacturer, are typically set up to accommodate the ‘average’ person but once you start modifying your vehicle with aftermarket suspension you are going to need to retune and upgrade your shocks. Now there are many companies who will help you with this but we get to cheat. I just called Randy Anderson from Walker Evans Racing and asked for his help. Randy is one of the foremost experts on suspension in the world. He has set up shocks for everything from Trophy Trucks to Indy Cars, so asking him to set up our shocks with Walker Evans General 2.5 Shocks was easy.
EXHAUST
Most people don’t touch their exhaust but I personally love to add aftermarket exhausts for sound.. Now I know it’s never going to sound like a V8 but a little push towards that direction helps. The XDR Off-Road Competition Exhaust not only sounds better, it performs better and has good looking metal heat and brush guard. These machines have a lot of plastic, but it never made sense to me that they have a plastic heat guard over the exhaust.
LIGHTING
If you have ever done any serious off-roading then you know that stock lights are not going to cut it. We added a full Baja Designs package including S2 Sport Pair Work/Scene LED, Squadron Sport, Pair Spot LED, LED A Pillar Mount, LED Horizontal Mount and LED Dome Light on a switch. What I love about Baja Designs is not only do they make a fantastic light but they complete the package by making great mounting solutions. The interior lights are a detail that makes night riding fun. Plus, we plan on doing a little night fishing so the four front facing Squadron Sport led lights will be perfect for this.
SEATS & HARNESSES
The second most important safety feature are the seats and belts. PRP hooked us up with their camo RS Suspension Seat and their 4.3 Harness in custom red to match the theme of the Mad Media designed graphic package. The important thing to understand is PRP has been making seats for racing for a long time, so the combination of their seats and their 5 point harnesses could literally save your life. I have crashed UTV’s multiple times and a few of them were big. Because I had a proper seat and harnesses and a full face helmet, I walked away with nothing more than a sore neck. Since we will just be cruising this beast, Biltwell hooked Jamie up with a Gringo S ECE Helmet to make things simple and stylish on the ride.
I can’t stress this enough – upgrade your safety equipment!
AUDIO
Anybody who follows Jamie’s antics on his social media knows he is all about having fun so we added a full Rockford Fosgate sound system so he can blast music as he cruises the beach and desert. What’s rad about this Rockford Fosgate General System Stage 3 Kit is they really thought out the relationship of the head unit in the dash. The unit is compact and hardly takes up any room on your dash and links via bluetooth to your phone just like your car does. Their speakers are also tough as nails. With years of research and development in sound systems for boats, Rockford Fosgate has developed a speaker system that will last on your rig for years. The system we used has 4 speakers total, two pods mounted on the rear cage pillars and two speakers mounted low in the front of the cab. They are going to hear us rocking for miles!
RADIO COMMUNICATIONS
Every off-road vehicle needs to have communications. How do you call for help? We put race radio style communications in every car we build. Hell, every vehicle we own has a race radio in it. Rugged Radios put together this UTV specific package so you can talk to each other and to other UTV’s with radios. Trust me, it’s clutch. It keeps everybody on the same page so you don’t waste time trying to find each other or trying to yell over engine noise. You can have up to 4 people connected, play music from your phone via bluetooth, and buy your helmet directly from Rugged wired and ready to go.
ACCESSORIES
Any vehicle you operate should have an adequate fire extinguisher that’s easily accessible, especially in UTV’s because of the possibility of roll over. Put a Quick Release UTV Fire Extinguisher Kit on your UTV! Fortunately our entire accessory kit is from Assault Industries, including one that easily mounts to the rear cage pilar. Assault also hooked us up with a Hellfire General Front Grill, Bomber Convex Center Mirror, Explorer Side Mirrors – Red Accent, 3 Piece Aluminum Gas Cap – Red Accent, Hellfire V2 Shift Knob and of course, a 350R Suede Steering Wheel.
One new really cool safety accessory we added was the Outer Limits Supply Waterproof 6000 Series First Aid Kit. On most UTV rides you are far enough away from help that this should always be in your vehicle. I have personally had to use it for some minor injuries that could have stopped the fun, but instead I was able to patch myself up and keep riding.
Now let’s talk about all the fun stuff we got to add to this UTV starting with the FF31 Fridge Freezer from Black Forest. I mean why have a cooler when you can have a fridge? The worst thing in the world is being a couple days into a remote trip and not having cold drinks to keep you refreshed in the hot desert or beaches of Baja.
One of the other cool accessories we added was the Water Port Rinse Kit that carries 5 gallons of water so you can rinse off after surfing or just a long ride multiple times. If you are from Southern California you have inevitably seen surfers taking showers pouring gallons of water over their heads in parking lots and roadsides. This is the more civilized way to do that.
WARN hooked us up with an AXON 45 Powersport Winch. 50’ of 1/4” steel rope, roller fairlead, rockerbar digital control switch, and digital corded remote. We’re in some serious trouble if we have to bust this out but we know Jamie’s crew will get creative in utilizing this feature of the car. Factory 55 finished that off with the world’s safest UTV/ATV winch hook.
And of course. Belts – the biggest pain in the ass if you don’t have the proper tools. Savage UTV sent over the Savage Tool Kit to keep us moving on the ride. It comes with an open space in the foam to add the belt change tool specific to the Genera. The space is designed to fit most OEM belt change tools.
