Montebello California's Schurr High School can lay claim to being the birthplace of one of lowriding's most long-lasting clubs, the Techniques Car Club. In 1972 at the start of the school year Roland Ortiz, and brothers Aaron and Alonzo Quintana were thinking about joining a car club. After checking out a few clubs, they could not find one that fit the image they were looking for at the time. They all agreed that it would be best to simply start a club on their own. The first order of business was to find a name for the club. The name they would decide on had to have some meaning behind it, something they could base their style upon. After going through several different names, they came up with Techniques. Looking up the definition in Webster's Dictionary confirmed that they have indeed found the right name for the club. The definition of Techniques is "show you how". With that all important first step out of the way, it was time for the boys to build the club.
The club had jackets made before they built any cars, so technically they were first known as a "jacket club". In order for the club to be recognized as a car club, the club not only had to build cars, but they had to come up with a plaque for the club. The first members that built cars agreed on a plaque design, and it was finally time to hit the cruising spots and car shows as a club.
The club had to endure some rough and unfortunately violent times in their early years. Back in the 70's and 80's, car clubs were literally fighting for respect from one another. That period of lowriding is now known as the "club wars". Eventually things would settle down and the clubs, for the most part, would get along.
In the 90's, Techniques held a picnic to bring members together to talk about a re-organization. Members and their families came from all over to Penn Park in Whittier, California to get together and talk about getting the club active again. Most of the members in attendance had not seen each other for years and had lots of catching up to do. Upon hearing that one of the club's most dedicated members, Daniel "Danny Red" Aguirre had passed away without being given a proper headstone at his gravesite, some of the original and current members decided they needed to help a fallen member. The club got together and made a donation to Daniel's family. The club then held a dedication ceremony at the grave site to honor Daniel.
It was after the dedication ceremony that some of the original members got their second wind and got the urge to build another car. Many of the original members had been raising families in and around the Southern California area and had thought that they got lowriding out of their system years ago but they were wrong. The club was about to break out for the second time in its history.
The club now has a total of nine chapters. Eight chapters are in the United States and one chapter is in Japan. In recent years, the Arizona chapter was totally restructured with the true Techniques plaque design and rules. Techniques even have chapters in Fort Bragg, North Carolina and the state of Texas that are primarily made up of members that are in the military. In fact, many of the members of these chapters are on active duty, so it is not uncommon to see the Techniques logo in the Middle East or other parts of the world. Texas is the newest chapter, with members coming from the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. The Japan chapter is in its tenth year and is based out of Osaka in the city of Tokushima. It is not uncommon to see "jack stand" quality cars cruising the local streets of each chapter's location.