'Hoppers' strive for new heights
By Shayna Coleon
Advertiser Staff Writer
Take a regular car or truck, put it on steroids, and you have a "hopper."
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
These vehicles reach new heights; in fact, they can "hop" up to 6 feet, taller than an average person, and can dance and bounce along the way.
Del Baker Zeree, left, and his brother Fabian hope their Mazda truck hops 88 inches in Wednesday's competition.
"People really trip out when they see the cars doing that," said Chino Haynes, president of the car club Unidos la Familia, and organizer of the annual Unidos Car Hopping Competition. "They're always saying, 'how do they make a car go up like that?' "
Hoppers are actually low-rider cars and trucks with hydraulic pumps and reinforced metal frames. The added gear allows the front of the vehicle to inch upward, while the back of the vehicle moves down, said Fabian Zeree, 26.
The Kalihi man and his brother, Del Baker Zeree, were champions of last year's Unidos Car Hopping Competition at Pearl Harbor's Fourth of July Block Party & Aerial Fireworks Spectacular. Their 1987 red Mazda truck hopped 53 inches.
On Wednesday, the pair hopes to break their record by hopping 88 inches in their newly painted black Mazda truck at the Unidos competition.
Hopping has been in Hawai'i for about 20 years, and should not be considered as just a hobby, said Joe Ono, owner of Midnight Customs, a car paint shop in Mapunapuna that works with a lot of low-riders.
"We consider it like dancing: If you have no timing and no rhythm, then you can't hop," Ono said. "So, in actuality hopping is more difficult than it actually looks. Hopping takes timing, plus knowing your equipment."
The hop is measured with a plexiglass stick that is placed underneath the front tire of the vehicle.
"When you hop, you can only go so much this way," Fabian Zeree said and pointed his right hand upward. "So, you just keep going, just bouncing — until your back bumper hits the ground."
In one swift motion, he slapped his palm down on his left arm.
"When you hear the back like that, you know the back hit the ground, so you just stop," he said.
The brothers want to top at least 88 inches this year.
People can be in their vehicles when they street hop, but in competitions the contestants are not allowed to be in the vehicle because of safety reasons. They control the hopper with a cargo switch that is connected to a long extension cord that stretches to the inside of the vehicle.
"It's not like turning on a light switch," Ono said. "Basically, to hop a car in the quickest and best way, is by switching your control three or four times before you're done, before you hit the ground or burn your equipment."
If the person controlling a hopper is inexperienced, they may ruin their vehicle or break one of their parts.
When the Zeree brothers entered one of their first hopping competitions on the Big Island, a hose broke.
"The crowd was sprayed with oil," Fabian Zeree said and shook his head. "We were real disappointed."
Del Baker Zeree said he even remembers when he saw one hopper, a 1960 Chevy Impala, rip in half.
"The owner wasn't reinforcing the frame of the car, so it just went to waste," he said. "The front and back just busted, and the car just bent."
Most people build hoppers themselves, Fabian Zeree said.
"First, we do welding. We cut the metal material, reinforcing the frame of the back, middle and front," he said. "Then you do wrenching, and you hook up the hydrolics. Mount them in the bed (of the truck) after you put the body back on, and then hook up the (hydraulic) pumps to the front."
But it doesn't end there.
"Then you can get going on your body paint," Del Baker Zeree said and laughed. "No matter how nice your car is, you're never done with it."
The rising cost for a hopper never stops, especially if the person is always entering competitions. The Zeree brothers spend about $1,000 before every competition.
The brothers know it can be an expensive sport, but continue to do it because it's their lifestyle. It's one thing they grew up with and one of things in life that makes them feel good.
"It's a rush, a big, big rush," Fabian Zeree said. "When I see the truck go high up, it feels like I'm on this roller coaster and we're going down the first big hill."
"I don't really care about the prizes," he said. "We just try very, very, very hard to beat our last record."
Del Baker Zeree said the crowd at the competitions give him all the energy he needs.
"Oh, at first I get butterflies when we come out with our truck," he said. "But, then you hear them cheering for you, and you want that record. You want those inches."
