MARYLAND

Ocean City Jeep Week features new beach obstacle course

Sara Swann
The Daily Times
Jeeps flood the beach during the 2017 Jeep Week in Ocean City, Md. Friday, August 25, 2017.

Ocean City's 2018 Jeep Week will feature even more off-roading fun with a new obstacle course right on the beach.

Jeep enthusiasts will have the opportunity to drive on the beach course, which will be north of Ocean City's pier and include gentle hills, dips, swoops and mounds made of sand.

"The course will really showcase the Jeeps in a fun area on the beach, and visitors will be able to watch from the pier as well," said Brad Hoffman, event director for Jeep Week.

As one of Ocean City's popular annual events, Jeep Week draws huge crowds of enthusiasts and families to the town, who come to see the vehicles and participate in the week's activities. Activities will start on Thursday, Aug. 23 and go through Sunday, Aug. 26.

This year's Jeep Week is special because the event is being dedicated to Hoffman's sister, Wendy Hoffman Steil, who died on Aug. 4 at the age of 62 from lung cancer. Steil loved Jeep Week and always helped out with the event each year.

His sister was one of Hoffman's biggest supporters in life, he said. She loved Jeep Week and was always willing to help out with the event each year.

"This year, with her not being here, I wanted to make a tribute to her," Hoffman said. "She was the sunshine of Ocean City's Jeep Week."

Throughout the week, the Ocean City convention center will act as the activity hub, Hoffman said. Ticket holders will have access to vehicle services and programs inside the convention center. Jeeps will be on display and available for test drives through one of the event sponsors, the I.G. Burton Berlin Jeep car dealership.

Interested attendees can also have services, such as installing new stereo systems or changing tire rims, done to their Jeeps right there in the convention center, Hoffman said.

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A popular activity during Jeep Week is Jeep Jam, the off-road course usually held in Berlin. But this year it will take place on a 70-acre complex in Pittsville. This course will range from mild to wild to accommodate all kinds of Jeep enthusiasts, Hoffman said.

For more wild enthusiasts, the Pittsville course will include more extreme obstacles, such as rocks and telephone poles.

On the new beach course — which is more on the mild side — Jeeps will only drive about 3-5 mph, allowing families to enjoy the fun experience of driving on the beach, Hoffman said. There will be about 100-150 Jeeps available for the course, which is open from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday.

Jeep's flood the beach during the 2017 Jeep Week in Ocean City, Md. Friday, August 25, 2017.

When the course was first brought to the Ocean City Town Council for approval at the Aug. 6 meeting, the mayor and council members were hesitant because they had never done something like this before. The council asked about the logistics of course and how the beach will be returned to normal when Jeep Week is over.

Lisa Mitchell, special events coordinator, and Brian Shane, a representative for Live Wire Media, reassured the council during the meeting that the set up and tear down will run smoothly, despite it being their first time doing the beach course.

Although the request for approval came only a couple weeks before the start of Jeep Week, the Town Council gave the event coordinators permission to go ahead with the beach course.

Set up for the beach course will begin on Monday, Aug. 20 and continue in the following days before opening to the public on Thursday, Hoffman said. Barriers will be placed around the course to ensure the public's safety, he added.

Before Jeeps enter the course, they will undergo an inspection to ensure the vehicle is running properly and there will not be any oil spills on the beach, he said. Staff will be stationed on and around the course to help guide the vehicles through.

Hoffman said he got the idea for the new beach course from a similar one he saw at the Jersey Jeep Invasion event. His staff worked with the town's department heads to make sure the logistics for the course would work out. They also got the course approved by Ocean City's mayor and council, who expressed their support for the course.

With the event starting next Thursday, preparations for Jeep Week are in full swing, Hoffman said. Currently, there are about 1,380 vehicles registered.

"It takes a whole team and a ton of volunteers to get this ready," Hoffman said. "There's a great amount of excitement for the event."

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