Equipment rodeo wheels its way into Yuba City

Shamaya Sutton, Appeal-Democrat, Marysville, Calif.
Updated ·2 min read

Apr. 24—Over the decades, rodeos have been a part of the Yuba-Sutter community. Now, an equipment rodeo is being added to that long-standing tradition.

Last week, Mechanical & Irrigation Solutions, Inc. (MIS) hosted its third annual Excavator Rodeo onsite at its location in Yuba City.

"It's a great way to connect and engage with our customers and give them a chance to test out our products," said Manik Thiara, vice president of sales at MIS. "It's kind of our way of saying 'thank you' and we hope to keep growing and expanding the event each year."

According to staff, equipment rodeos originated on the East Coast where they've quickly grown in popularity. But the team at MIS wanted to start bringing some of that excitement back to the local community, so they launched their first rodeo in 2019.

Friday's event drew around 700 people and featured a timed excavator obstacle course and a "mini golf" station. All attendees were welcome to participate in the competition, which involved operating the escalator to flip tires, pick up tennis balls, and maneuver puzzle pieces. The mini golf course was a bit more simple and involved hitting a soccer ball with the excavator's claw head and rolling it into a hole. Prizes and trophies were awarded to those with the top three best times.

As of noon on Friday, the top time for the excavator obstacle course was 2 minutes and 45 seconds from an employee of C&D Contractors.

This year's excavator rodeo was an "invite only" event, catered by Cool Hand Lukes and featured music and DJs from 97.7 "The River."

MIS itself was founded in 2008 by Jas Thiara. Thiara has been described as a visionary and saw the need to develop a company that features a wide selection of heavy equipment for a variety of farming and construction industries all under one roof. The grounds are filled with an impressive amount of hangers, equipment, and machinery, many of which are built in-house.

"We take care of fabrication and anything from land development, to agriculture, irrigation, pruning, harvesting, we can do it," added Stephany Banuelos, one of the participating staff members and coordinators at MIS. "We look forward to making this even bigger and expanding the obstacle courses. We're really one of the only ones that do equipment rodeos here and it'll be a fun thing to keep offering in the community."

MIS is located at 3199 E Onstott Rd. in Yuba City. For more information, visit misisthebest.com, or call 530-674-7030.