Ready... Set... Side Crest!

[kareem.alameldin]

There is a lot to report, and I'm not sure where to start, so I'll just say whatever comes to my mind first,

I have been to an intermediate drive as a passenger before and drove with Intermediate drivers in private drives before, and passing the exam and feeling that I have done well in 10+ was really deceiving and gave me false feel of confidence going to this drive, to anyone attended the exam and thought the first 10 minutes was terrifying, it was nothing compared to the first minutes in this drive, it was a literal slap on the face,

After knowing that I can handle everything thrown at me at 10+ level, this drive made me on edge and focusing on every move I'm doing, and wonder if i will make it or not, the drive was lead by Jock for around an hour, then Booy took over for the rest of the drive, the diffence in styles is really clear in intermediate lead other than 10+, i guess Marshalls can stretch their wings a bit more in intermediate and it shows their character, in my view, Jock was so technical that if you didn't do what he did in clean technique, either you would look bad doing it, or you simply won't make it, Booy's lead was so fast that if you didn't have the right speed and momentum all the time, you simply won't make it, but both of them was so good they made me think on every step if what they just did was even possible!!! I was always thinking to myself "what?! This can be done?? Well... i guess we will find out!!" And i just copy what they did and pray!

At 4:30 pm, Booy announced that we will do safari style, and "floor it!", and that was the fastest half an hour sequence i have ever experienced, i was behind Youssef who was second lead, and after 10 minutes of this half an hour, i couldn't see anyone behind me, and i didn't call it on the radio because i couldn't let my hands off of the steering wheel, it was so crazy that when Booy announced the end of the drive, when everyone went out of their cars, we looked at each other like "what the hell was that?!!"

To anyone who didn't make it to intermediate level, please dont be upset and please take your time, there is a big leap between 10+ and intermediate than i thought possible, I honestly had some really scary moments during this drive,

There is so much to learn, and i can't wait for the next time!

[Mabubaker]

Let me start with a flashback!

I still remember one of my earliest trips with Almost4x4, it was Sand Addiction, the drive was tough to the extent that I got exhausted, and I reached the moment where I started asking myself, "when this drive gonna end??" OSMILEY
Few drives later I got into the the "enjoyment" stage where you don't want the drive to ever end! pacman
Then I got into the 10+, where I got a shock O_O from the significant increase in drive level. Here, I needed several drives until I got into the comfort zone. Then, the "pre-intermediate" stage comes, where marshals slightly raised the bar for the newbies, with drives such as "Drive Fast". In my case, I saw where the whole thing is heading and I loved it in love .
Events started to roll faster, CMIYC with the adrenaline rush followed by the inter exam where marshals tested our capabilities and readiness to enter the "big boys league" - intermediates.

Ready...Set...Side Crest! reminded me of Sand Addiction drive because it got me to ask myself the same question.. When this drive gonna end! oh noes

When I started the drive I was so focused and confident that I will do well... ninja .... The first side crest and wtfsmilie O$#!T.. with the speed and angel the car slided abit but I managed to put it back on track. Typical rules of offroading, such as safe distance, maintaining mementum, FOLLOW THE TRACK, don't fight gravity... etc gets much more important in inter drives. However, and during the drive I realized that some tiny details that weren't really bothering me at the newbie level are really important in inter drives, one of them is adjusting the driver seat!!! wtfsmilie seriously,, you need to put your seat in a position that gives you that maximum visibility on surroundings, still you need to pray on some side crests redbullsmiley. One more thing, I was against the snorkel thing because I was rarely getting sand into the air intake box, but it seems that side cresting attracts more sand overthere so now its on top of my list.

Marshals [mention]JockJKU[/mention] and [mention]Booy[/mention] showed us what it means to be in intermediate level, [mention]JockJKU[/mention] launched the drive into side cresting like there is no tomorrow on high precision track with zero margin of errors, to be honest I was doing better side crest after the other. Then [mention]Booy[/mention] comes to lead, by the way most of my early newbie drives were lead by [mention]Booy[/mention], and here he comes again, few moments later, we hear [mention]alshamsi_m[/mention] recommendation to [mention]Booy[/mention] to show the muscles of FJs arr. Side crests in high speed,,, omg ,, sorry CMIYC, we just met CMOYD... (Catch me or you die)...

See you is sand!
M Abubaker

[rapailo]

This drive was a major change to me as it was first intermediate drive and also first serious drive with FJ. Whole drive had some significant impact on my experience so those are some conclusions:

1. No need to elaborate how different FJ to Pajero is. It behaves differently. Power is obviously huge difference as this car does not lose power at all (at least on level of drive I am now). Due to this it tents to go into fish tail condition more easy. Side cresting is incomparably easier.

2. Drive is much more rough and nobody cares can you keep up or not. It is just expected to dance to the music which I like.

3. I have to change adrenaline gauge as current one does not fulfill the requirement anymore.

4. Long back I had some drives where I thought to myself that I shall improve on certain things. For a while there was no drive that gave me this impression until this Thursday. Now I have something to think of.

5. [mention]Booy[/mention] wants to kill people.

I am genuinely excited to have more and more as it is like drugs.

Thanks to organizers [mention]alshamsi_m[/mention] [mention]JockJKU[/mention] [mention]Booy[/mention] for supporting us in an amazing way.

[Youssef.Abdelhady]

5. @Booy wants to kill people.

XD XD XD

[kareem.alameldin]

5. @Booy wants to kill people.

That describes it for me too hahahaha
After the first break i asked him "Booy... what happened?!", i genuinly thought he is upset or angry at us!

[Booy]

Nice reports so far from our newly upgraded intermediates. The veil has been lifted, and you saw the other side - now there is no turning back grin

[Youssef.Abdelhady]

Hello Almosters,

To be honest, I was expecting a toned down drive because around half the convoy were new inters. But this drive was far from that, Inter = No mercy. ouch...it hurts

The structure of the convoy was [mention]JockJKU[/mention] as lead, me as 2nd lead, and then one experienced inter followed by one new inter and so on.

Of we went, and Jock decided there was no time for warm up. I was initially a little sleepy when we started but after the first few minutes I was AWAKE. omg

This was the first time I drove behind a Jeep lead in an inter drive. I don't know how to put it into words, but the track definitely felt different vs an FJ lead (Doesn't mean it was bad!!). grin

After around an hour, Jock experienced an issue with the Jeep, so the lead was switched to [mention]Booy[/mention]. Unfortunately for us, [mention]alshamsi_m[/mention] asked Booy to "show them what an FJ can do".

Well....... the blue FJ became the blue blur as we all chased after him. you're kidding, right

Around 30 mins before the end, we had stopped for a break, then Booy said its time for Rally style. The drive became even faster and now everyone is fighting for their lives and trying to keep up. redbullsmiley

Overall it was SO MUCH FUN and a great drive, and the new inters handled it very well.

Thank you [mention]JockJKU[/mention] & [mention]Booy[/mention] for the lead, and [mention]alshamsi_m[/mention] for keeping an eye on us.


See you all soon. pacman

[presa]

5. @Booy wants to kill people.

When I was a newbie, I asked to an intermediate what is the difference between newbie's and intermediate's drive... he told me: in newbie the Marshall are your best friend, in intermediate they will make you cry grin grin grin grin

[Phoenix]

In many ways, the senior members and marshals have their insights and expertise which is not to be taken lightly at all. If they say something about how the drive will be or how TO drive or even comment on your driving style then it is NOT to be taken lightly and NEVER to be taken personally. It is always, ALWAYS for your own safety as well as the safety of the convoy.

A few days before the drive The Wise One said “the funny thing is that you guys are going to the intermediate drive thinking the exam level”. As always he was right, this drive was a real slap in the face there wasn’t much of any warm up and the sidecresting started right away. It was fast and with the usual second tries and all. I was driving right behind Abu Odai and was keeping a close eye on him and the car ahead of him. Since he drives a Nissan as well so it was giving me an idea of what kind of lines to take, but soon I realized that a Pathfinder’s lines are quite different from Xterra’s due to the higher approach angle advantage the Xterra has. Still I managed to stay on track and finish the drive safely. There were a lot of instances where I thought to myself I need to learn better technique because I don’t have enough power in the rusty old Outlaw (this thing is 17 years old). Still I and Outlaw managed just about right.

At one point while driving over a plain iinnocent flat dune the front plastic grill came off. Neither did I hit any ditch nor did I fly over anything, but for reasons unknown to me the grill simply decided it did not want to be in the front of the car anymore and dropped on the floor. wtfsmilie

[mention]haider alnuaimi[/mention] picked it up for me as I had already dropped down to the other side of the dune and [mention]JockJKU[/mention] even asked me if I was ok, if I had hit a ditch or something. But the surprising part was that there was nothing to hit on that dune and neither did I get into any such situation earlier in the drive. It was only later on in one of the breaks we had that I learned the grill was attached to its place by only 2 cable ties and thankfully nothing had broken except the two cable ties that were holding the grill but were still hanging in the screw holes. This was later fixed after the drive with newer and more cable ties thumbsup

As soon as the lead was switched from [mention]JockJKU[/mention] to [mention]Booy[/mention] I learned the difference between the lines of a Jeep and the lines of an FJ, right from the first dune. They are quite different in approach, I did have a word with [mention]Johanna[/mention] about this and asked for her preference of approach line (Jeep or the Fj) and she did mention that she was more comfortable following the Jeep lines. I on the other hand soon learned that Outlaw is somewhat comfortable driving on either lines of approach. But since he lacks in the department of power I always have to approach every climb and dune in a very technical manner and cannot just rely on power to take me through.

There was an instance when [mention]Booy[/mention] was leading, we went up a big climb then turned to do a side crest. It was one of those long side crests where ones you were on the top you drove a good 7 or 8 seconds and then you turned down to the either side. So I climbed up and drove on the crest, ones I reached the point where I was supposed to turn down I saw 3 cars parked on left side of the dune and 5 cars parked on the right side of the dune plus the car in front of me turned down to the right side of the dune. I followed the track towards the right only to realise that we were supposed to turn down towards left. We were soon joined by [mention]alshamsi_m[/mention] who took us back to the convoy.

There was also a point when [mention]JockJKU[/mention] and [mention]alshamsi_m[/mention] were doing donuts on a flat sabkha, I tried to capture it on the dash mounted camera but couldn’t get it properly as the convoy started to move again.

The last part of the drive as mentioned by others was fast paced and safari style. Pretty much the whole way all I could see was Abu Odai and no one ahead of him and no one behind me. It was fast, and in every direction. By the time we reached the end of the drive pretty much everyone had that “YEEHAW!!” look on them, we got out of our cars and the first thing that [mention]kareem.alameldin[/mention] and I did was look at each other and go “THAT WAS AWESOME!!”.

If you would have met me 2 years ago, you could not have believed that 2 years from then I would be doing this on weekends. I was never into offroading and use to think that why do people spend money to be uncomfortable in the desert. One day I thought of giving it a try to see what’s all the fuss about and found myself driving with my second family (you are the star – club member drive). Slowly and steadily learning and applying the expertise of our seniors and marshals, sometimes in the middle of the drives when we take breaks I contemplate over how it all began for me and how much there is more to go, sometimes I cannot believe it myself all kinds of crazy stuff that we do on our drives. Most of all, sometimes I cannot believe how much I enjoy doing this and wait all week to get back on sand which also goes for each and every one of you reading this. But the most important part is that no matter what we do, we should never take the advice and comments of senior members and the marshals lightly or worse take it in a personal way. All the comments and advise is only for your own safety.

All in all it was a tiny glimpse of what lies ahead for us new intermediates and I cannot wait to learn and drive.

See you in the sand.

[alshamsi_m]

Hello everyone

Since I was planning to go to Al Wagan after the drive, I could not bring MCLoud or the Godfather so [mention]ALKHATIB[/mention] offered me his Jeep.

It was very interesting experience to go back to Manual gear and it was really fun " I miss the old days of my patrol ".



[mention]JockJKU[/mention] & [mention]Booy[/mention] gave us two different flavours but you can tell that they are from the same school cool .

Generally speaking, the intermediates did very well that day and I happy with marshals decision to upgrade them.

Season is not over yet and get ready for Hameem Intermediates level. thumbsup

See you in the sand

Cheers