Page 45 - Panama City Living Magazine

Getting over a mountain of tires is good for one rush, but Caroline, 52, is always looking forward to the next one. She says each obstacle is a different challenge so it just continues for her. Coming from Atlanta, Caroline has been staying with family in Panama City Beach the past two years and shares a passion for the sport with her younger brother, Evan Garner, who is also a regular at The Swamp. Evan chews up the ground in a rock bouncer that looks like it came out of one of the Mad Max movies and sounds like a train. Caroline used to borrow Evan’s old jeep before she bought her own rock crawler. Now they both are part of a close-knit group that frequents The Swamp and travels to other parks around the country several times a year.
Ask Caroline, or almost any of The Swamp regulars how they got started and they’ll likely point you towards the man in black, the man they all call “the Godfather.”
Tim Drbal, 52, has a couple of off-road vehicles; one that looks like a giant Jeep and a rock crawler he shares with his son. The crawler used to be a 1985 Toyota 4Runner that he purchased for $200 15 years ago. It now looks like a bunch of truck parts that have been welded together. It’s not pretty, and it’s not even close to looking intimidating, but you should see it climb. With only a 4-cylinder engine, Tim Drbal’s rock crawler is slow but can conquer just about everything and anything.
Co-owner of The Swamp, Charles Bode.
www.PanamaCityLiving.com • March—April 2020 • 45