2024 HDD Rodeo – Tru-Tek Takes on the HDD Rodeo
“Do it right, not twice.” This is on the back of every Tru-Tek employee shirt, and it was the first thing I saw when I met the team before the 2024 HDD Rodeo.
A few days before the event, I was sent to Conneaut Lake, a small town in northwestern Pennsylvania, to meet the team DCI chose to sponsor at the HDD Rodeo. We wanted to select a team who was known for exceptional drilling, but also for outstanding character. If we were going to the HDD Rodeo, we wanted it to be with a company who was dedicated, driven, family-oriented, and going above and beyond the industry standard.
When I read their shirts, I instantly knew we were right in selecting Tru-Tek.
Tru-Tek is a small, family-built HDD business. Ivan Hershberger and his brother, Raymond Hershberger, co-own the business, which they started with their father, Ray Hershberger (now retired) in 2000. In just that short time, the company has grown from just those three to 30 – but they haven’t lost their family values.
The Tru-Tek Team
In fact, out of their 30 employees, Ivan Hershberger selected Tru-Tek’s HDD Rodeo competitors based on seniority, as a way of showing his appreciation for his team.
Together, locator Ivan Mast, operator Craig “Woody” Woodard, and alternate Gordon “Gordie” Drnek have over 30 years of experience with the company.
Hershberger put it best: “These guys were hand-picked, and we’ve tried to keep that family atmosphere. And us as owners, we’ve tried to stay involved directly, making sure these guys have the best equipment and all the support they need, and the world-class technology to do it. And that’s what we rely on.”
When the day finally came to compete at the HDD Rodeo and his team was in place, I followed up with Hershberger to ask how he felt about their chances.
His response was assured, yet humble: “We have a lot of confidence in what we do. We do this day in, day out. These guys have the ability to go out there, put pipe in the ground, compete with anybody as far as speed goes—without sacrificing quality or safety doing it.”
And that’s exactly what they did.
Planning for Competition
They pre-planned their bore with meticulous professionalism and care, taking additional time to map their lane with a TeraTrak. They drilled with speed and precision, culminating in one of the fastest times of the day and a direct hit.
What truly stood out, however, was the support they received from their community—despite competing at 9 a.m., hundreds of Tru-Tek’s friends and family tuned in to watch a livestream of their bore.
From the moment Justin Hershberger, Tru-Tek’s Project Manager, went out of his way to pick me up and take me to their shop that first day, to being among the first to shake the Rodeo winners’ hands on the last day, the confidence, humility, and professionalism of the Tru-Tek team were evident in every interaction.
For them, it was clear that the HDD Rodeo wasn’t about winning—it was about representing the small business family values at the core of who they are.
Jess Knudsen is global creative content manager at Digital Control Inc.
