H2Oi is a car meet in the beach town of Ocean City, MD that used to be an organized VW/Audi event, focused on water cooled cars, hence the name. Due to increasingly unruly crowds, the last time it was held as an official event was 2016. Since then, it’s been kept up through informal organizing online.
For the record, I think H2Oi at this point in time has a lot of cool cars, a lot of stupid shitty cars, and while not everyone who goes is a chode, a few too many of the attendees are “That Guy” from your local Cars & Coffee.
Here’s how local Ocean City officials feel about H2Oi.
A couple years ago the state of Maryland passed a law...
[A]llowing authorities in Worcester County to designate Special Event Zones during large events, particularly motor events. The new legislation allows officials to lower speed limits in the Special Event Zone. Similar to a Construction Zone, violators will face increased fines if speeding in a Special Event Zone.
Special Event Zones are in place during motor events in Ocean City. Signage on roadways will indicate where those Zones are in effect. Citizens are urged to drive with caution in Special Event Zones and be cognizant of speed.
Thousands of car enthusiasts are expected in Ocean City for the event and citizens should expect to see a large police presence. Officers from allied agencies will be assisting the Ocean City Police Department (OCPD), including the Maryland State Police, Worcester County Sheriff’s Office, Maryland Transportation Authority, and Maryland Natural Resources Police.
Officers will be strictly enforcing all traffic laws. Additionally, pedestrians are urged to Walk Smart! and always use crosswalks when crossing roadways. Wait for the signal to change and be sure that drivers see you while crossing.
It’s not mentioned in the link above, but getting your car impounded during the Special Event Zone means fines of up to $1000 to get it out of impound. So...there were a lot of H2Oi cars in impound!
There are of course already a few videos on youtube “bragging” about getting their cars impounded this year.
But, it wouldn’t be a large unruly gathering with a large police presence in 2020 without some people getting in fights with the cops.
On Friday night along Baltimore Ave, the main drag in Ocean City, someone in the crowd shot off some fireworks, and was promptly tackled by cops. Someone else jumped out of the crowd and tried to get the cops off the guy who shot off the fireworks. Uhh, not the smartest idea there pal.
Later on in the evening, the cops sprayed skunk spray or some other kind of official cop stink bomb device in an attempt to disperse the crowd.
Saturday also involved at least one cop cold cocking someone in the face.
Apparently what happened here is there was a large group of people chanting “H2O! H2O!” at the cops for some reason or another. The cops tried to grab a That Guy in a red shirt, who managed to squiggle away from them. Then another That Guy yelled, “HE GOT AWAY BRO HE GOT AWAY!” at which point one of the cops punched That Guy #2 in the face and tackled him.
I think at this point the only way to sum this up is, 2020 gonna 2020, H20i gonna H20i, and cops gonna punch people in the face.