Traditional automobile cruise held in memory of Huntington Beach’s Daniel ‘Dano’ Patten and Tommy Simpson

It was the variety of common vehicle cruise that Daniel “Dano” Patten would have cherished to movie.

Much more than 100 automobiles drove down the streets of downtown Huntington Beach front on Wednesday evening, cruising by means of the fog down Pacific Coast Freeway from Warner Avenue to Brookhurst Street.

The only thing lacking was “Dano.”

Surf Town Classics car or truck club held a memorial journey starting off at Lake Park to honor Patten as perfectly as a further late member, Tommy Simpson.

Patten, was a effectively-regarded Huntington Seashore-based mostly videographer who shot video of auto displays and other Surf Metropolis functions for his “Dano Live” YouTube channel, which has far more than 10,000 subscribers. He died on Christmas Day.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office mentioned Patten, 66, was filming an unlawful street race in Carson when two vehicles crashed into each individual other and went into the crowd. He died at the scene, law enforcement stated.

The pursuing day, Simpson, 72, another Surf City Classics club member who lived in Huntington Beach, died just after a fight with Parkinson’s sickness. He remaining behind his daughters, Renic and Airyn, as effectively as 3 grandchildren.

“We’re heading to do this every single year for Dano and for Tommy,” explained Brian Almas, an Irvine resident who is the president of Surf Metropolis Classics. “Dano was loved by everybody coastline to coast, Ventura to San Diego. But at the conclude of the working day, this is exactly where he hung his hat up. When the cameras went off, we had been his family members.”

Almas claimed the club will be supplying out the “Sweetest Ride” trophy when a thirty day period in Patten’s honor.

The metropolis of Huntington Seaside place up a banner on Key Road Wednesday honoring Patten and thanking him for “capturing our H.B. lifestyle.”

Patten, who is survived by his girlfriend, Tammy LaFlamme, and brother, Russ Patten, of Orange, filmed activities all about. The modern video clips on his YouTube website page include things like a Malibu Autos and Espresso celebration and a quarantine ride in Tustin.

But he termed Surf Metropolis Classics household, Almas said, taking video clip at each and every Wednesday night time meetup and cruise at Lake Park. Almas stated Patten was instrumental in creating Surf Metropolis Classics from 8 members when it started a few decades ago, to extra than 400 members now.

“He went to each individual car clearly show, seven days a week,” Almas said. “No one’s at any time going to do that. No one particular will at any time be Dano. Not only that, but for sunsets, for surfers, for the total [Huntington Beach] local community. If some thing was going on in H.B., he was a part of it.”

Lyn Semeta, who served as Huntington Beach’s mayor in 2020, created a Fb publish on Dec. 26 that Patten “touched so several life and documented so many critical instances in our town with his photographs and exceptional narrative.”

“I found so a lot of photographs tonight that he took, but my favored has to be the times when he was there with us to welcome the navy jet groups traveling in to the Los Alamitos Air Base for the air show,” Semeta wrote. “It was this kind of a privilege for me to be there — and Dano felt the similar. You will be skipped but in no way overlooked.”

Wednesday night’s memorial cruise featured a candlelight vigil ahead of the experience. T-shirts and other products were also offered, with the proceeds heading to the Huntington Beach youth shelter.

Patten’s signature phrase was “Hey, hey, hey,” and he would refer to his friends as “bro-skis,” Almas said. He was regarded for his crimson sun shades, and beloved distributing “Dano Live” stickers.

“If you handed by when he was filming you, he would say, ‘That automobile seems pretty great, but it would audio a small far better if you gave it yet another five horsepower with the sticker,’” explained Surf Metropolis Classics member Rey Venegas of Chino Hills.

Venegas introduced his 1939 Chevrolet Ram Rod to the cruise. Patrick Consolation of Westminster, a different mate of Patten, introduced a purple 1960 Volkswagen Bug.

“Dano just crapped his pants more than it when I to start with saw it,” Comfort and ease mentioned with a grin. “Him and I were being Volkswagen freaks. He was like, this is a sizzling rod!”

Russell De Bie of Huntington Seashore admired Patten’s work ethic.

“He was all over the place, and it was variety of like a pleasant sensation,” De Bie said. “If you did not know any individual, and let us say you just went downtown for breakfast? You realized you would operate into Dano, virtually anywhere you go downtown. Any car function, he was just always there.”

A general public memorial support for Patten is not planned, Almas stated. He inspired folks to donate to the Huntington Seashore youth shelter in Patten’s memory.

“He gave us reminiscences for a life span, with all of those people films,” Almas explained. “But you know what? With every thing that is took place, I comprehend that he was giving us a memory of him.”

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