You are cordially invited to tonight's SNOW DRIFT OLYMPICS The shenanigans will look something like this: Meet at 10:00pm at the Home Depot parking lot in the Quarry shopping center in Nordeast Mpls Mapquest/GPS: 1520 New Brighton Blvd, Minneapolis, MN Just off of 35W north of downtown Minneapolis. Coming from downtown, take the Johnson Street exit. If you're coming from the north, heading south on 35W, take the Stinson Blvd exit. Home Depot is right there in the same strip mall as Target. This is an excellent opportunity to practice skid correction, accident avoidance, threshold braking, and to hone your safe winter driving skills. We currently have four Olympic events, and we are open to suggestions for more: 1. Follow the Leader Sideways 2. Biggest Rooster Tail 3. Stationary 360 4. One Minute Freestyle (be sure to stick that dismount) We will play at Home Depot for a short while, then visit several other deserted parking lots in the area. We won't stay in one place too long, so we can avoid meeting "uninvited observers". Bring FRS/GMRS radios for car-to-car communication. I will have a few loaners. All-wheel-drive vehicles recommended, but not required. IMPORTANT LEGAL DISCLAIMER: The organizers of this activity are simply giving notice of a meeting. This notice is provided for informational purposes only. This activity is not affiliated with any organization, club, or internet forum, although it is being publicized in several places. We will be using areas that are open to the public and are not monitored or controlled in any way by the organizers. Conditions are not guaranteed. The organizers are not responsible for the behavior of any drivers or passengers and have no control over them. All participants are responsible for their own behavior and should act in a safe manner, obeying all laws. By participating you acknowledge that driving or riding in a motor vehicle involves inherent risks which can result in property damage, serious injury, or death. You also assume all risks, and waive any and all claims against the organizers. See you sideways tonight!
I would also like to add that we do have members that are in law enforcement, so posting stuff like this will spoil your fun in a quick hurry. Russ
I've been doing this for the past 30 years (yes I'm that old) and have never had a problem. We always choose deserted parking lots and we stay out of the way of snow plows. One time we even had a huge plow truck doing donuts with us. Too bad I didn't get that on video.
I'm curious, since this is done in a parking lot, for what would cops bust you? Exhibition driving? If you hooned around on a frozen lake, would it be the same charge? What about private property?
Wreckless driving, careless driving, public endangerment, noise violations, trespassing, loitering, destruction of private property, supreme idiocy, etc... Lakes are public property (with rare exceptions) and private property is dependant if you have permission to be on said property.
It's really more of an informal driving school. Every time you drive sideways on snow and ice, you are learning car control. I teach teen accident avoidance schools, both in summer and winter. The winter schools are by FAR the most valuable. Every parent of a teenager should take their child to a deserted parking lot when it's covered with snow and get them to spin the car. Skid and correct, skid and correct. Get a drift going. Threshold braking. Sudden lane change. I know we're saving teen lives at the schools where I teach. Now when I go out with my adult friends to spin around in deserted parking lots or on frozen lakes, of course we are doing it for fun, but it also builds vital winter driving skills. I would hope that if we ever do meet a law enforcement officer, he or she would understand that. Haven't had the pleasure of meeting one yet (in that circumstance), even after 30 years of "hooning" as you put it.
https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/?id=169.13 It has been argued that you'd have to be really reckless and/or unlucky to get a large group of people cited in such circumstances. A larger group can attract more attention or, if you're lucky, might deter a LEO. Either way, in a public parking lot, yes there are laws that a LEO could cite you for breaking. On a lake, also yes... although these are normally handled by dnr and it's a bit easier to hold a sanctioned event on a lake than it is in a public parking lot. Private lots are a different story, although not clearly differentiated from public lots in any state laws I've come across while planning, organizing, or helping with the coordination of driving events (which by the way the OP is very well versed in). Use of this forum to publicize illegal (even potentially illegal) activities is not supported by the site or it's admins and staff. That said it is a public forum, but these types of borderline things are generally frowned upon.
Thanks for the info, idget. I can safely say that my 30 years of spinning in deserted snowy parking lots has NEVER involved "a willful or a wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property". Usually we're spinning one at a time, taking care to keep safe distance between cars and solid objects. We have had a few guys get stuck in snowbanks, however.
Thanks for the clarification. It seems like it's up to the officer to make a judgement call based on what's going on. Have you ever heard of someone getting ticketed for reckless lake driving?
But hey I don't want to ruffle any feathers. If a site admin feels that this is inappropriate, by all means feel free to delete the entire thread.
Yes, definitely a judgement call but backed by law. That said, I've never personally encountered (or even heard of) someone getting ticketed. On days like today, there are certain to be more pressing issues to follow-up on. Of course you shouldn't be a dick and ignore any suggestions to gtfo in the case that you do run into anyone who objects with what you're doing (leo or not). Lake driving, yes. A few people have posted on here about getting parking/speeding tickets or similar. Ever been ice fishing? Know how you're not supposed to speed? DNR seems to (rightfully) treat it like that except more offensive.
I've always been told not to speed when driving on the ice because it can be difficult to see spearing holes / ice blocks, and the only other reasons I've heard have been when driving on the ice, you create a wave underneath it that can converge with other waves and break the ice (the one episode of ice road truckers I watched, so I'm not sure how legit that is.) That said, whenever I drive on the lake, seatbelts are off and windows are down.
So...Home Depot won't plow their lot during the day? When I left work at 3:00 the drive aisles were wet asphalt already. You need to go to a Best Buy that was permanently closed recently...no need to plow a lot for a business that is not open any more.
I am just letting you know. Back in the day, what we would do is just post the "meeting" spot and then head out to the fun spots from there. The less public you make the fun spots, the more fun you can have at them before someone determines it is time for the fun to stop. Russ
I remember seeing a news interview with a local Police Officer on Kare11 back a year ago stating that when it is safe out, take the time to go out to a empty parking lot and practice driving in the snow and ice. The Officer even mentioned about trying to get the car side ways so you can learn how to react to it when it starts losing control.
too bad I'm just reading this oh well maybe next time...might get one more snow storm this year......also people use to post this stuff all the time...but it would be called shenanigans plural of she·nan·i·gans (Noun) Noun Secret or dishonest activity or maneuvering. Silly or high-spirited behavior; mischief. and no one really frowned about it.....just saying
I hear General Mills has a fantastic parking lot lol Law Enforcement aren't stupid they can tell the different between someone driving stupid vs someone who's really trying to learn car control. But there's a jerk in every batch so be very careful and use discretion. The good old days of friendly street survial training may have gone out the window now that everyone is ready to sue and every city, county and state is looking for an easy payday. The days when you could take an experienced driver out on an open lake or lot to help them become a more credible driver is priceless.
We always frowned on it being called "shenanigans." We called it mayhem, or like russ said "meet at the spot." Then you boneheads started calling it shenanigans and made a big production out of it. Going so far as to start a thread called "winter shenanigans" or some stupid **** like that. At which point the 20-30 car snow play time caravans whittled down to about 3-5 people because we couldn't get a reliable spot anymore. Stop publicizing where the fun is being had and making it into some sort of branded event, and maybe we can get back to having our secret meetups and mayhem time.
So, there's abandoned stores that exist... they have large unplowed parking lots, as has been mentioned... If one were to get permission from whoever owned the lots, and closed off the entrances to the public, would it be legal? I imagine there would need to be waivers signed by participants in order to convince most landowners (plus they'd probably need some money), but I think it would be neat to run a winter driving clinic for my friends who have no idea what to do in an emergency situation. I realize this is probably way more complicated than it needs to be, but I'm paranoid about run-ins with johnny law.
I have friend who's a security guard for a private company who use to practice his drifting techniques in the summer during the weekends and the neighborhood would call in complaints. The police would show up and many times but couldn't do anything about it so they just asked him nicely to just not doing as much lol. He even invited me to join but I didn't wanna see those officers waiting for me outside the parking lot lol
Check out northstar bmw club events as well as the local audi quattro club events. They both throw (sanctioned and insured) events on lakes and at dctc. see also: http://www.dctc.edu/continuing-education/transportation-safety/accident-avoidance/
whatever works...I came in during the shenanigans era and did not know the history of it, just as long as we can all go out and have some fun....I was pretty disappointing I woke up to just wet streets yesturday damn Cottage Grove is pretty good at cleaning the streets...so I just go visit family in St. Paul cause they are just the opposite
I'm in CG as well. And yeah, they are usually pretty good about giving the roads a quick scrape now and then to keep the depth of snow to a minimum. There is a small lot off of 70th on the east end of the park that never gets plowed. Getting in can be difficult if you don't know where the entrance usually is, but I always had enough room to get a good wide circle going. I would avoid any of the larger commercial lots around here though. The CGPD don't like it when you dick around in your car.
yeah I drive by that lot all the time... someone plows like the front part, but not the whole thing....now there is too much snow in the middle to get over to the good stuff... I was checking that out the other day..lol
You need a friend with a pickup truck or a large van. Something with reinforced bumpers. All it takes is a few back and forths over that mound to make way for car stupidity. Though the pack beneath it is likely frozen snow. Might not want to hit that with your car anyway.
They would undoubtedly as how much liability insurance you carried in case of an accident/injury/damage to property, and when the answer of 'none' was produced they would tell you to get bent. No landlord is going to even entertain the possiblity of a lawsuit due to an accident on their property, especially in such a sue-happy society.
But in the event that permission *was* given (regardless of how unlikely), that would be legal then, right?
