So there’s been a pretty big buzz in the off-road world lately about the “Offroad Observations” article that Shane Watts posted on OffroadChampions.com. If you haven’t read it yet, click that link, scroll through there until you see it and read the whole thing. Once you’ve read it, this write up will make a lot more sense to you. Reading this first would be like watching the The Empire Strikes Back before you watched the original Star Wars movie. It just wouldn’t be right. Anyway.. Let’s do some fluffing.

First and foremost, I’d like to say that I seriously enjoyed reading Wattsy’s article. He grabbed my attention, kept it all the way through and I read all of it. That means it’s pretty good because when it comes to reading, I have the attention span of a 6 year old. There’s been a ton of people saying that they think it’s great that they’re someone willing to post their true opinions, yadda yadda yadda. I agree in a way. We’ve all become so serious about everything that we’ll blast each other behind backs but won’t say anything to each other’s faces. Yeah, I’ll admit I could be slightly guilty of that but to tell the truth, I don’t actually care, I don’t really have any beefs with anyone. Hate me if you want for posting stupid crap on Facebook and Twitter, or using a lot of so called fluff when I write something (more on this later), I don’t care.

It’s no secret that Wattsy has always been willing to speak his mind. Yes, that’s cool. Yes, it couldn’t hurt for more to do it. However, and here comes my point, if everyone did that like some of you think they should, everyone would always be pissed off at each other and this generally friendly industry would be about as fun as prison. If everyone spoke their mind, nobody would like each other. We would never get anything accomplished and there would be even less support than there is now. While I think it’s good for a couple of guys to be willing to do that, you can’t survive in this industry constantly doing that. It’s a good way to piss everyone off to the point of where nobody is going to want to help you. Truth is, it’s not very professional when you have a job on the line.

Onto the “fluff” thing… It’s not just Wattsy who’s mentioned this. There’s several people who have talked about it. I’m more than willing to admit that I tend to use some fluff in writing. Does it matter? Apparently it does to some. Here’s the deal… If I get into something but leave out all the fluff, you’re going to be reading something like this: “Yeah Charlie Mullins won the race. He was going fast. Some other guys finished in the top 10”.. Do you seriously want to read that? Take out fluff and you’ve got nothing to read. That means you’re going back to wasting your time reading useless junk and creeping on people on Facebook. Wouldn’t you rather spend your time reading something moto-related?

I can tell you right now that I catch flack from Rob Mitchell for not just throwing a real opinion out there on some things. Truth is, I hold back for one of two reasons… It’s either A. I’m not going to comment on it at all, or B. I simply do not care. So that means, when you read something from me, you’re already reading my true opinion because I’m not going to bullshit you and say so-and-so is so great when I turn around and say I actually think they’re a douchebag. That’s something that should be addressed, not just fluffing stuff up.

With that said, you ready for my real opinion on Wattsy’s post? I liked it. I like it when people put their true opinions out there. However, where the hell did this come from? Seriously. All we’ve heard from Wattsy over the past few years is stuff about his Dirt Wise Schools, then all of a sudden BOOM here he is like he’s been around the race track the whole time. Speaking of the schools, I think it’s cool that Wattsy has managed to do so well with his schools. Before you take out expenses, he’s making a cool few hundred grand a year off those, and that’s pretty bitchin if you ask me.

Wattsy basically “called out” some guys and aired out some issues with others that many didn’t know about. That’s cool. I think it’s badass when someone is willing to do that. Yet, nobody has really fired anything back. Wattsy put some really good stuff out there in that last article, but none of those riders have really voiced their opinions. I kind of don’t blame them. They all have something to lose, whereas Wattsy has burned as many bridges as General Sherman did when he marched across the south (that’s a Civil War reference. If you failed your US History class, look it up on Wikipedia). However, if anyone wants to put anything out there, email me at jbolton@jaredbolton.com and I’ll hook you up.

I have no beef with Wattsy. I thought the article was great and I can’t wait for the next one, but we all should know to expect something like that out of him because that’s just who he is, and it’s been a part of his success.

That’s kind of all I’ve got. You basically just wasted your time reading this to get my opinion that I thought the article was good but want someone to fire back with something substantial because I don’t have a reason to say more than what I’ve said. If you have an opinion or response or anything on it you want to share send it to me at jbolton@jaredbolton.com and I’ll post them up next week. Or if you want to read more fluff like this from me, let me know what you want to hear about and I’ll waste your time fluffing it up.