GEAR XL:Celebrating 3 years of bringing together the BDSM / Kink / Fetish community
By Cesar A Reyes
A Chat with Nick Duckro and Mike Bullhair
What started off as a small theme night held quarterly has now expanded into a highly anticipated monthly event that brings together folks from all sectors of our community that enjoy wearing gear. Gear can include from leather, neoprene, rubber, pup hoods, harnesses, or any kind of fetish wear. This body-positive and sex-positive party is now gearing up to celebrate its three year anniversary so we wanted to chat more about the evolution of the night with promoters Nick Duckro and Mike Bullhair.
Please introduce yourself? (each of you)
Nick: My name is Nick Duckro. I moved here 6 years ago from Phoenix, AZ. Living in San Diego was a long-time dream goal for me. I love it here in the Hillcrest community. I feel more like me within it and I’m grateful to be here. I’m also a bartender at AWOL and you can find me there most every weekend! Mike and I both are on the Board of Festival of Trees which takes place annually in November. That event raises money for local LGBTQ+ charities within San Diego County.
Mike: My name is Mike Bullhair. I’m relatively new to San Diego, having moved here full-time only a year and a half ago from Los Angeles. I was a bartender at the Eagle LA for about a decade and I concurrently worked in other nightlife and event production scenes. I’m currently bartending at Number One Fifth Ave (and Rich’s on occasion with Nick). I’m also involved with the Off Sunset Festival in Los Angeles, which takes place every spring and focuses on the BDSM/Kink/Fetish community.
Please tell us how Gear XL came to be?
Nick: Gear Blackout Party started at AWOL in 2022 when the owner of the bar, Alex, asked if I wanted to host a “theme night.” It was a small quarterly party, but as time went on and the party continued to grow, we expanded to the shop space and built it into its own little club, bringing in our own lighting and sound system to accommodate the larger space and we called it “Gear XL” when this happened.
Mike: When I finally made the move to San Diego, we decided to move the party to a new space (it had been on a brief hiatus), and The Rail was more than happy to have us. Our first party together was in May of last year, and we’re now approaching our one-year anniversary there. The Rail has been a great space to host our party, bringing in hundreds of people every month and hosting DJs not only from San Diego, but from throughout California and even from the East Coast!
What was your motivation for starting the night?
Nick: GEAR XL’s mission statement is to put on a party to meet and mingle then dance the night away with those who enjoy wearing or admiring gear. Gear can be whatever ignites your desire, be it leather, neoprene, rubber, pup hoods, harnesses or any kind of fetish BDSM gear! All are welcome at the party. I wanted it to be a melting pot of all people within the BDSM realm. We wanted to celebrate all within the leather community but ensure that other aspects of the community were welcome too – pups, leather, neoprene, etc., and ensure that, however you identify, you are welcome at our party.
We also stress community involvement; we partner with local businesses and organizations to host tables at our events that showcases their wares (for instance, Amarrado by Angelo brings in leather goods to sell) and we also work with brick-and-mortar sponsors like Gear Leather Company and Humanity! We also invite local leather clubs to host information tables for those interested in learning more about the leather community here in San Diego and how they can get more involved.
What is the importance of creating positive (body, sex) spaces for folks to enjoy and for different sectors in the community be part of?
Mike: It didn’t really seem as though there were many parties or spaces for the BDSM/Kink/Fetish community to go out and meet others and wear what they want and be able to have a great night out. We hope we’ve been able to fill a bit of this void with our party. I think it’s important for people to be able to have a local space and party where they can participate in what they like without having to travel outside of San Diego for it. The nightlife in Palm Springs and Los Angeles are great, but they’re not local. For being America’s Finest City, we really should have better accessibility to events like this.
We look forward to celebrating 3 years of Gear XL. What is the plan for the celebration?
Nick: We’ve decided to hold a celebration of local talent here within San Diego for our anniversary at The Rail. We have three amazing local DJs who will each be taking turns at the decks: DJ Xander Blxck, DJ Camp, and DJ Marcos Moreno. While we love bringing in outside DJs who may not often get a chance to spin in San Diego, we felt it was important to highlight some great DJs who live here, with us, and are within our own community. Our dancers and fetish demonstrators are also all local to us, and there will be some interactive moments as well! While we like to keep things simple, this is definitely not one to miss.
We are also happy to announce that we will be taking over the Friday night of Pride at The Rail! In lieu of our normal second Friday in July, we will be hosting a special Pride celebration July 18th!
Please give our readers your social media and how they can attend:
Mike: Gear XL is every second Friday at The Rail. You can find social media for the Gear XL party on both Facebook and Instagram. On Facebook at Gear XL Blackout Party, on Instagram @gear_blackout_party. Both pages have links to follow to purchase advance (and discounted) tickets to the party every month. Tickets are also available at the door but we encourage you to buy an advance ticket for a cheaper rate.
GEAR XL is proud to announce our San Diego Pride 2025 lineup! This summer we will bring you the fabulous and fierce DJ Kitty Glitter from Australia, alongside one of our absolute favorite duos, The Perry Twins, for a back-to-back set at The Rail on Friday, July 18th. Additional entertainment will be provided by Fetish Gras Weekend. Advance tickets will go on sale soon. This will not be an event to miss and it is sure to sell out!
The WORD is
Nick: Community Support
Mike: Camaraderie