The 3rd Annual Gas Construction/Locate & Mark Rodeo, co-sponsored by IBEW 1245 and PG&E, took place on May 20, 2017 at PG&E’s Livermore training facility.

The day kicked off with a wonderful rendition of the National Anthem, sang by Oakland’s own Gas Crew Leader Rivers Pugh.

As the Locate group began the “Locate from Hell” event, the Gas Construction teams took to the field. Families cheered on their loved ones as they competed in the pipe cut, meter build, service run and the hand dig events. There is nothing quite like hearing a wife yell to her husband to calm down and breathe. It was a great family-friendly day, with plenty to do for the kids, including a rock climbing wall, bull riding, face painting and more.

The times for each of the four events were added together in order to determine the position for the final event, the all-important relay. The relay had six different stations – truck backing; place egg in bowl using spoon at the end of bucket; retrieve and put three balls into garbage can with a bucket of a mini excavator; pipe squeeze; regulator bypass; and finally, a no-hands drinking of a water cup.

A heartfelt congrats to all the winners:

Gas Construction

Four-Person Team Category

First Place: Wild Hoggs (Brian Reome, Russell Higgins, Mike Moore, Dave Silva, Tom Wooten)
Second Place: Fresno GC Gas Hogs (Aaron Hatcher, Rick Reyes, Ricardo Chavez, Anthony Robles, Julio Martinez)

Two-Person Team Category

First Place: The 90 Gunners (Shaun Mahanay, Kyle Hill)
Second Place: Quiet Riot (Jason Visinoni, Brad Husa)

Locate & Mark

Overall Winner: Efrain Nava, Gas Compliance Rep, Yosemite division
Overall Runner-up: Bill Dawley, Utility Worker, Sacramento
Electric Winner: Efrain Nava, Gas Compliance Rep, Yosemite division
Electric Runner-up: Thomas Gongora, Gas Compliance Rep, Fresno division
Gas Winner: Efrain Nava, Gas Compliance Rep, Yosemite division
Gas Runner-up: Ryan Barrameda, Gas Compliance Rep, East Bay division
LFH Winner: Francisco Garcia, Gas Compliance Rep, Central Coast division
LFH Runner-up: Trevor Robertson, Sr. Gas Compliance Rep, East Bay division

The top two Gas Construction teams from both the two-person and four-person categories will compete in the National Gas Rodeo in Denver, August 24-26. The top four finishers from the Locate event — Efrain Nava, Bill Dawley, Ryan Barrameda and Francisco Garcia — will be competing in their own National event in Dallas, June 22-June 24.