The New Stars ll

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alshamsi_m
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Hello everyone

We had the original plan to do the drive in Sharjah, but unfortunately, all Al Fayah and Maliha area is fenced. So we had to look for a new area.

Al Qudra is well known to everyone, but they don't know it the way we do. We chose an old camp next to Lisili Fort " Hidden Cafe". Another special thing about this CM drive that we drove more than 60 km, which is a new record.

Our leader @Solmaz gave the members an excellent drive which was perfectly balanced in difficulty otherwise we wouldn't be able to finish the whole track thumbsup

All in all it was another successful day. Congratulations for the new upgrades and looking forward to see in the UPCOMING drive.

Cheers
Shamsi
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Tomvanhouten
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Hello all,

lovely to see new members of the family, welcome everyone!

Still a bit sick, but all good to drive, so let's do it.
Driving from this side of Qudra was really nice to do again, good terrain with (if you want) really good challenges as well. Seeing some more potential there Psmiley
Our convoy with @Solmaz leading, @Agalon @alshamsi_m and @orlantsev floating did really really well with only one stuck car and no other incidents.

Loved it to meet new people once again and hopefully see you all soon in more Almost drives!

Tom
Abualiya
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I am so sad I couldn't participate due to heavy fog in the morning time in Sharjah. I could barely see the street so I had to turn back TT TT I hope you have a new Beginners tour soon in sha Allah.

Glad to hear this tour was a success thumbsup

By the way, why is Maleiha area fenced? Any information? Is this a permanent issue?
Mafalda
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Hello Almosters!

Here's my trip report...Never thought I would be writing a trip report again but why not? I'm not driving husband's car anymore as he has joined the FJ club... indifferent

And how proud I am of my performance...This was my third drive with the club but first one alone in my beautiful red jeep in love

@optimus was the leading marshall and @Petr was second lead and I was following him. Of course my legs started shaking when I saw the "big" climb approaching but I remembered all the good advices everyone gives about speed, momentum and when to release the foot from the accelerator and it went so smooth...i really thought I was gonna get crested brigade.baka-wolf.com

It was a fun drive that made me feel a lot more confident to join the upcoming newbie drives...

A big thank you to @alshamsi_m for letting me join this CM drive, to @Rashidjass for organizing it, to my leading marshal @optimus and all the floating marshalls , to the intermediate team for their hard work and crew for giving all the support needed.

See you all on the next drive!!!

Mafalda
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giorgio
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The anticipated CM drive finally took place with so many new members taking advantage of this opportunity to start their off-road ventures.

The morning was beautiful with a light breeze and the traditional briefing before the drive was a pleasure to attend.

The drivers were split in three convoys with @Solmaz @optimus and @Rashidjass as the lead cars.

I joint as a support @Rashidjass convoy which totaled of 16 cars @brett was assigned to sweep and@haider alnuaimi floating while the support team as always was scattered within the convoy ready to provide support and rescue

The convoy did very well with minor interactions. Keeping proper distance was the most popular comment on the radio with second being the communication.

It is important on this early stage of your trip to off-roading to establish the fundamentals. Proper distance, radio communication, momentum and study convoy flow.

I urge every driver that got to enjoy the drive to complete their tool collection and complete their tool submittal and earn their first star that will enable them to join the upcoming first drive which will be more challenging and more fun at the same time.

Looking forward to seeing you all soon.

Closing my report I would like to thank all the support team that worked hard to help the new members to successfully complete this long drive. Big thank you to the Organizer @Rashidjass and all founders and Marshalls for attending and making this drive one more successful event

Till next time drive safe and look forward to seeing you all soon. 
The Wolf is not concerned with the opinion of the sheep
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alshamsi_m
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Abualiya wrote: Sun Feb 05, 2023 11:20 pm
By the way, why is the Maleiha area fenced? Any information? Is this a permanent issue?

The government of Sharjah decided to do a cycling track all the way from Malieha Road to the small road of Al Faya. Also, they fenced the entire area till Fosil Rock which might be a tourist project !!!
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CARLOSS
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Hi everyone!

This is the 5th CM drive under my belt and by far, the most interesting one (apart from my very own CM) but let’s start with the acknowledgments: Thanks @giorgio for organizing and taking care of our convoy on a brilliant way, @Rashidjass for an outstanding leading, my mates for supporting and the new members for driving well & safe. thumbsup

All started as usual, with a nice gathering of new faces and usual suspects. Academic briefing done by @alshamsi_m (new members, you don't know yet how lucky you are with this gentleman teaching you) and drivers divided in 3 convoys. @Solmaz and @optimus leading the remaining two with the support of @alshamsi_m , @Barish , @Scorpio and @Agalon . Thanks @Daggerfall for showing up and introducing a beautiful new member of the Almost family blank . Congrats and I hope we can see you “back on track” any time soon (we miss your side crestings too much TT TT )

The drive started as usual, slow pace and nice & easy tracks…after 10 min, nothing happened. Convoy performing very well. Rashid started to push a bit more, 10 more min, nothing happened. Same thing with convoy’s performance. I was wondering along with my son (my copilot in these occasions),” what is going on here?” dark mood Our viking rope was still :z_z_Z: in one of the trunk’s drawers . We followed two nice customers driving Pajero and Padro and even though there were a few “stucks’ near miss” nothing happened within the next 10 min.

I said to myself, OMG!, this is going to be hard to "swallow" but all changed with the first “serious” dune in which there were many stucks Psmiley . A car got stuck twice! And this when the real fun started! (sorry for being sad with the new members but you will understand that in a few months).

In the middle of the drive Rashid called for a break and he started to check one of the cars (Ahmed’s) with some weird noises in brand new shocks. I saw playingsmiley him playing around with some small dunes and I could not resist myself (my son deserved some action) so I called on the radio something like “This is Carlos, if you don’t mind, Rashid, I will also check my shocks because there are also making some noise” (LOL) and we had some fun flattening some small crests. (for the records, I greased them all a couple of weeks back) grin

And that was not all. Just before the end Rashid called on the radio “we are taking a short cut” and oh man!, he drove us to a technical area nearby EIB and that was the cherry of the cake ORLY . The 2 big trucks at the end of the convoy started to have “fun” as well as both Giorgio and @brett doing the rescues.

All in all, all participants finished on Murquab area with a smile in their faces. Fantastic CM drive thanks to our magnificent marshals. thumbsup

I hope I can see most of the new Stars soon.
Carlos
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PedroLeal
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Another Club Member drive, another Club Culture Celebration!
New members were welcomed in a warm and friendly environment and lot of good vibes, cookies, karak and coffee!
Then the briefing started with the already famous attendance call. We can't miss watching the new member's names being called for the first time :yaeh_am_not_durnk: !
After the attendance call and initial briefing, founder @alshamsi_m started the offroad basics masterclass, which I don't get tired to attend as there is always something new to learn, or to refresh.

We then moved to our cars to form 3 convoys.
I was assigned to do support & rescue to the convoy led by @optimus with @Scorpio as his navigator, and with @Barish and @Mahmoodyasin floating. My fellow Intermediates completing the support team were @Petr as 2nd lead and @KIMOz sweeping.
The drive started with @optimus selecting a very easy and smooth track which helped the new members who were driving on the sand for the first time to start getting the feeling and build confidence.
The convoy was performing well so the leader started increasing the pace and decided to do some straight crests.
At that moment we started to have some few but expected stucks, which I helped to rescue under marshal's supervision and guidance.
The drive ended on time and we could feel the excitement coming from the new drivers and that smile on their face showing that sense of accomplishment. The goal was definitely met!

On a side note, I was having a special member driving in my convoy.
My wife @Mafalda was driving her "new" car alone for the first time.
I can say that I'm very proud of her and her performance, since she had to overcome her fears by herself, and she also shown that she has been learning something with the previous drives as a passenger.
I hope she can find her own pace and keep progressing on becoming an independent off-roader.

To close this report, I will not tag any names otherwise I'm sure I will miss some, so I want to thank the founder, all the marshals, the crew, the media team and the advanced and intermediates team for making this event possible and memorable.
I also want to thank the new members who joined the drive for coming, and I want to encourage them to get their tools acquired and verified by a marshal ASAP and join the upcoming newbie drives. These drive will have a special focus on them and will be a great opportunity to learn consistently and with safety as the number 1 priority.

I'll see you all soon in the sand!

Pedro
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brett
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Dear Almosters
First a big warm welcome to all the new Club Members who braved the foggy morning to join us at the “Hidden” meeting point.
We started with the camp on Friday night just behind the meeting point. Just as we arrived @PedroLeal and I found a hapless soul wandering towards our campsite – he mentioned that he and his friend were stuck a couple of hundred meters away – so we invited him to jump in and we headed over to the stuck car – sure enough one of our Newbies had managed to get himself fully crested on a dune while trying to find the campsite (more GPS training required). Although they had been digging and trying an old school diff-lock routine with a snatch rope the Prado would not budge. A quick pull with the FJ using the Viking rope and he was dislodged from the dune, but that was not the end of it – he had managed to rip the tire valve stem off completely. So we had to set about and change the wheel. By the time we were finished the hapless newbie decided to call it a night and head home as they were tired from the earlier efforts of digging.
@PedroLeal and I escorted him out to the road and then we headed back to camp.
What a fun night around the campfire and hearing all the stories that you only ever hear about at a camp ! then around 11pm the fog came down !! visibility was lest than 20ft !! by 12:30 feeling very damp from the fog the few of us remaining decided to call it a night. Due to the fog my wife and I decided to just sleep in the car rather than pitch the tent and then have to deal with wet tent and sand in the morning.
After only a few hours of rather uncomfortable rest the alarm went and it was time to get up and prepare for the drive. The fog was starting to lift as the sun began to rise, I got the fire restarted, prepared coffee and after more chitchat with the other campers it was time to head over to the meeting point.
My wife Imee had her first “official” off road driving experience as she drove the Wasp to the meeting point and I piloted her red FJ (Mars) to the flat ground. She did really well and before long she might even take the next step and join a CM drive.
It was great to see how many new members had braved the fog and assembled at the meeting point. at this point a big thank you to @Rashidjass for organizing the event, the support of the Marshalls and Advanced Drivers for their time and commitment to the club. To the Intermediates who joined to give valuable assistance in guidance and recoveries. As there were so many of them I wont attempt to name you all here.
A surprise visit by @Daggerfall to introduce us to his lovely new 1 month old baby girl :innocent:
The introduction and safety briefing was done by our founder @alshamsi_m – I have heard this initial briefing many many times and it is always interesting and a reminder of the basics that we should never forget when driving in the dunes – the main focus is SAFETY.
I was positioned in @Rashidjass convoy and give the position of sweeper, we had @Laarni in second lead, @CARLOSS (and copilot Leo) mid convoy for support, @Ehab for ??? ……………………. Oh yeah media thumbsup to capture all the whoops moments on video. Director of operations floating marshal @giorgio and assisted by @haider alnuaimi
The firm sand was very forgiving for the new members and the first part of the drive was quite straight forward for most of the drivers with no stucks, a couple of almost to fast approaches to straight crests and airtime !! remember guys take offs are easy it’s the landings that are complicated (and dangerous)
In the second half @Rashidjass took off his nice hat ! and entered the technical area driving the little Jimny he was able to set a challenging technical track for the new drivers, so the inevitable crestings started and the intermediates got the opportunity to hone their recovery skills under the guidance of the marshals.
By the time we arrived at the exit point there were a few very tired Club Members but from what I saw they were all smiling – I hope to see many of you at the next drive after you receive your first star (get your tools checked) and let the journey continue
Until the next Adventure

Brett
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Lapsis
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Well here I go, my first club drive, my first star, my first report...

Wow, what a day and what a welcome!

I have to say that I am absolutely overwhelmed by the warm welcome that my wife Delia and I received by all, but more that that we are utterly impressed by the club philosophy, safety standards, and discipline. As someone who comes from a background in safety and training in a high risk field, I can not appreciate this philosophy enough. It is so reassuring for someone, for whom this was only their second outing in the desert, to know that they are surrounded by experience and professionalism - but not at the expense of pleasure and fun.

It all started with @alshamsi_m 's briefing. Short enough to keep the crowd interested but still packed with invaluable information.

Then off we went to join our convoy. @optimus in the lead with @Petr second. A bunch of CM's interspersed with experienced drivers and the security of a sweeper and two floaters showing us all of what can be achieved with practise and skill!

I was following @PedroLeal but for some reason he was driving something called an FJ Cruiser, some of you may have heard of them, he seemed to manage quite well considering his handicap! playingsmiley

@optimus seemed to find the perfect route for a group containing first-timers with a mixture of gently weeving routes through the dunes, to some challenging crossings, to an initially intimidating climb up what seemed (to a new driver at least) to be impossible - yet with the combination of experienced lead drivers showing it is possible, and great teamwork from all, one by one we all made it. The passenger's grab handle was certainly put to the test!

What did I learn? I think the main takeaway is that I have a lot to learn! As easy as others may make it look there is certainly a fine art in reading and judging every dune and how to cross it, how much power and momentum is too much, and how much is not enough. Lesson of the day then: It's better to get stuck or have a second go, than fly! Wise words I think.

I'm very grateful to all who came together to make the CM drive happen and also to @Rashidjass for organising it.

With my tools checked, and a shiny 'Newbie' star on my belt, my finger will be hovering over the "Join Trip" button at 17:59 on Sunday. Hope to see you all there.

Now, time to work out how to upload and share some of the fantastic photos Delia (@Oasis) took...

EDIT: It was pretty obvious after all!...

Training
Image

Practise
Image
Last edited by Lapsis on Tue Feb 21, 2023 11:56 am, edited 1 time in total.
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