Almost4x4

Dear Members,

Please post the trip reports for All Stars - Special Edition drive here.


Thank you.

Great start with Great people..

All levels drives are always interesting because of its mix and match skill sets and challanges.

Well, lazy afternoon with cold breeze become excited when saw 40+ cars gathered for fun. Event briefing was started with chocolate sharing session to marked the date sponsered by @Barish and @Shamsi

After attendance, got a space in @Booy's leading convey with experienced support team. The drive was started with basic level and gradually increased the complexity. After couple of minutes, encountered ditch which took out my rear tire. The whole convey called for demonstration, appreciate @Shamsi, @Booy, intermediate and advance driver support. @Shamsi had demonstrated the key points to recover the pop out.

After recover, continued drive, observed some stucks and retries while crossing technical areas where back to back small size dunes are always waiting to challange yours "keep distance and radio communication" skills.

Finally, the drives end at Love lakes (The Day Point), had small chit chat with other gorup members before leave.

Thanks Almost team for organizing lovely trip for us and wish to continue forever . :mrgreen:

Hi All,

First of all and again, thanks to the whole organisation making it possible to do these kind of things..lovely!
Must be quite a sacrifice sometimes having to deal with amateurs like myself and letting us learn, big thanks!

We had another great day in a different car then before as I decided not to jeopardize my daily driver anymore. The car did great, the driver not yet.. ;) will come I believe.
I am starting to see the differences between the drives and marshal's which is great to experience. this week (I believe) was a bit more technical with some nice arches and dunes which were not so high but challenging (on my level...)

Will try to post some video's later on, have to figure out how it works.

Can't believe we have to wait for three weeks now for the next one, on the other hand it gives me the time to do some maintenance on the car..

By the way @Solmaz , the initiative for the ladies drive is well received, so I guess we have another member!

Thanks again

Been a while after a long hiatus and a bit of exploration here and there and unemployment, since I've joined a drive, my last was the sister of this one from 4 months ago.
It is always great atmosphere with everybody coming around and grouping up.

Got a slot in @Barish convoy. It was a great track, fun challenge for my car which I welcomed. Did a couple of mistakes that i know of and admit, but in my defence i was exhausted .
It astonishes me that even with that long of a convoy the drive didn't feel slow or sluggish especially where in some areas it was a bit technical.

Credit has to be given were it's due. Thanks to leads and the support team make the drive great fun.

The gathering after was much needed and appreciated, good laughs and the fire was amazing.

Thanks to everyone involved in organizing and arranging the trip and to everyone else who have partaken in it.

See you all soon on the sand.

Overall a nice drive, but definitely not one of my best ones.

I've been assigned the role of second lead in @Booy convoy.
I started slowing down a bit to keep the pace of the car behind my, instead of the leader: @Booy clarified that my role is to report if I do not see the car behind, not to wait for it. First lesson of the day learned.

After a while, I was surprised that the leader was not giving the "clear" message just after higher dunes. I did it, but no signals by other members, not again from the leader at the next dune: I quickly realised that my radio was out. Battery drained, despite 2 out of 3 bars were present before leaving home. Second lesson of the day: always fully recharge the radio. @SameRaptoRed kindly provided a spare one to complete the drive.

And last, but not least, I also got crested twice in the technical area.

Too many mistakes in a day, but the good news is that I now reached 10 drives with the club, so I'll be admitted to more difficult drives to challenge my skills: finally some side cresting.

Thanks guys.

Let me start with thanks to @Barish for this wonderful organization. A well-spent day with the family.
I led the 10+ drivers for this drive. Idea was to practice faster pace and introduction to side cresting. Overall the performance was good, didn’t have any issues. Fair numbers of second tries showing that we are in the learning phase.
We had some observations that I want to share:
1- Don’t fight gravity. That is the number one safety rule all our drivers have to follow. Newbie drives are practice drives as well as having fun. Use this opportunity, take your multiple tries, understand your car and practice your skills. There is no shame, it’s part of the game and we value safe and responsible driving. It is only luck when you ”tackle” a crest after a fight. You don’t learn anything.
2- When you have a second try or an issue, inform through radio immediately. This is important to keep the convoy together and keeping the following cars safe. Again, don’t be shy. There is no harm.
3- We don’t overtake the car having issues unless otherwise noted by the marshals. The convoy waits for that car to tackle the obstacle and continue afterwards. Just a kind reminder...
Overall, we had good time and finished the drive safe and sound. It was interesting to end up in heavy traffic at the end of the drive but we made it to the sitting area.
Have to thank @Saeed FJ and @AMounir for their amazing support. You guys rocked!
Till next time...

First of all thanks @Barish for the great organisation .
As usual i will be chosen as last car in the convoy lead by @Booy , as support is was not bad to drive behind cars.
In the middel of the drive @alshamsi_m got a problem in the small bother of my truck , seems the two cars liked to stay together .
I pull the second truck in the convoy to an accesible area and then i went back with @alshamsi_m to the gathering area around the lakes .
Would like to thanks @Barish for the great gatehring , also @alshamsi_m for his unlimited support ( lessons all the ways ) .

Hi everybody,

Let me start with thanks to @Barish for this wonderful organization.
I don't forget the rest of the staff, in, and around the convoy.
Thanks to everyone involved in this organizing off road adventure.

this outing was an opportunity to correct the errors of the previous week. The adage of the more you practice the better you will drive safely begins to come ...
unpretentious, the road is still long, but it is done in a very well thought out setting, with top-notch supervision.

each outing brings its little extra, by multiplying the experiences:
- yesterday, straight climbs and descents,
-today, an initiation to dune to dune curves ...
-tomorrow? let time do, between discovery, ... and improvement!
We were able to observe recovery situations, which is another way of learning, and of understanding our own faults!

Thank you all for this appreciated journey! strongly the next on which I could align myself.
see you soon.

This was one of the best drives for me for quite a long time and I believe everybody also agrees that this was one of their memorable drives. Thanks to @Agalon for delivering such an enjoyable yet challenging drive.

I arrived the meeting point ten minutes earlier than the meeting time and nearly one third of the drivers were already there and the rest joined shortly after. @Barish split the convoys as exactly announced in the trip post and each group had their own briefing separately.

Being right behind @Agalon is like a fox trying to catch a rabbit! The turns are very abrupt, one second you are on the plains, next you are climbing a dune, then when you reach top, you may go right or left or down, no idea what the next action would be! Such a great fun!

I think we had one pop-out at the earlier part of the drive, few stucks and a number of second tries. We stopped to check some mechanical/sound issues on one of the cars. We also stopped for a short re-briefing about the side cresting and safety. So, in overall we had a nice flow, covering 38 Km with the average speed of 28 Km/Hr.

We reached Al Qudra, which can be called as "Dubai Mall without the shops", and joined rest of the Almost4x4 family getting ready to watch the romantic sunset. But I had to leave and spend the night for a pre-arranged event.

Thanks @Barish for organising this event and @Agalon for a drive that will be remembered for a long time, @Saeed FJ and @AMounir for the great support.

Thanks to @Barish for arranging and organizing this special edition trip in such a special day at such a special place to end.

Thanks to @Booy for leading , @alshamsi_m supporting marshal , and @Yazan Ali for supporting and floating and @SameRaptoRed for sweeping.

Check the video which i hope isn’t boring of our drive .
Note: this is my first modest video composition ever, i’d like to hear back from you.

Link:

Again thanks everyone for this trip.