Almost4x4

Hello everyone!
First of all thanks to @Barish for organize the drive.
This All stars limited edition started with a really hot briefing under 47degrees so we needed to do it fast!
I was in the +10 convoy with @Daggerfall leading, the drive was really interesting with a lot of action...
I had so many mistakes but the worst was when I was caught by @alshamsi_m with a second try stopping my car in a dangerous position, actually @Agalon was telling me that when suddenly from another convoy @alshamsi_m showed up and then I got my first warning
I want to say Thank you to both of you for taking the time to show us when we are in danger. This is priceless.
I was driving in a stressful way and after that I felt completely lack of perfomance and focus, so many second tries and because of that I lost my position in the convoy 2 times so I found myself at the back of the convoy driving really bad and under too much pressure to try to come back to my original place. Maybe I should have left the drive at some point but I did not do it.
So when the drive finished I felt relieved and thinking how to manage this hard emotions that were around me during all the drive. Maybe in some time I will find any other chance to challenge myself. Let’s see how it’s going.
Thanks to @Scorpio for your patience and to all the rest of the convoy who were involved in some of my mistakes. I’m really sorry guys

Have a nice summer ⛱

Flor.-

Flor wrote: ↑Sun Jun 20, 2021 12:21 pm Hello everyone!
First of all thanks to @Barish for organize the drive.
This All stars limited edition started with a really hot briefing under 47degrees so we needed to do it fast!
I was in the +10 convoy with @Daggerfall leading, the drive was really interesting with a lot of action...
I had so many mistakes but the worst was when I was caught by @alshamsi_m with a second try stopping my car in a dangerous position, actually @Agalon was telling me that when suddenly from another convoy @alshamsi_m showed up and then I got my first warning
I want to say Thank you to both of you for taking the time to show us when we are in danger. This is priceless.
I was driving in a stressful way and after that I felt completely lack of perfomance and focus, so many second tries and because of that I lost my position in the convoy 2 times so I found myself at the back of the convoy driving really bad and under too much pressure to try to come back to my original place. Maybe I should have left the drive at some point but I did not do it.
So when the drive finished I felt relieved and thinking how to manage this hard emotions that were around me during all the drive. Maybe in some time I will find any other chance to challenge myself. Let’s see how it’s going.
Thanks to @Scorpio for your patience and to all the rest of the convoy who were involved in some of my mistakes. I’m really sorry guys

Have a nice summer ⛱

Flor.-

Nice report Flor. Please remember, we all have been there. There were so many times that the feeling of quitting cross our minds. The feelings of frustration, anger, and some times even tears is something that we all have experience in one way or another.

The most important thing is do not walk away don't get panic and really believe the fact that we are all in the same boat today is you tomorrow it is me the day after it could be anyone.

Listen to the advice focus and execute the given advice to the best of your ability. After every drive take the time to recall and re-evaluate your performance. Have some self critic and then re-group and come back to the next drive stronger.

Flor wrote: ↑Sun Jun 20, 2021 12:21 pm Hello everyone!
First of all thanks to @Barish for organize the drive.
This All stars limited edition started with a really hot briefing under 47degrees so we needed to do it fast!
I was in the +10 convoy with @Daggerfall leading, the drive was really interesting with a lot of action...
I had so many mistakes but the worst was when I was caught by @alshamsi_m with a second try stopping my car in a dangerous position, actually @Agalon was telling me that when suddenly from another convoy @alshamsi_m showed up and then I got my first warning
I want to say Thank you to both of you for taking the time to show us when we are in danger. This is priceless.
I was driving in a stressful way and after that I felt completely lack of perfomance and focus, so many second tries and because of that I lost my position in the convoy 2 times so I found myself at the back of the convoy driving really bad and under too much pressure to try to come back to my original place. Maybe I should have left the drive at some point but I did not do it.
So when the drive finished I felt relieved and thinking how to manage this hard emotions that were around me during all the drive. Maybe in some time I will find any other chance to challenge myself. Let’s see how it’s going.
Thanks to @Scorpio for your patience and to all the rest of the convoy who were involved in some of my mistakes. I’m really sorry guys

Have a nice summer ⛱

Flor.-

Hi,

No need to feel bad or sorry for making mistakes.

You are still a Newbie and still learning and making mistakes is part of the learning process .We deliberately (Make sure ) put you guys into new situations, tackling different obstacles for you to develop your skills and learn new techniques. So its very normal and we enjoy to be part of your journey.

We all went through these struggles and if you be patient and keep driving soon all these will become second nature to you.

P.S. : Moving car is a safe car!! And always follow gravity and turn down to safety when you feel in trouble!

See you next time!

Hello Almosters,

Trip reports are amazing tools to listen different stories of the same drive, which make my day on Sundays :)

Firstly, thanks to @Barish for organizing All Starts - Limited Edition III where he gathered all newbies under one event and give us the opportunity to meet each other. What a fantastic event.

Thanks for all our marshals and supporting big boys to show up and help everyone to stay safe.

It was priceless to see @Agalon and @Solmaz back.

I was placed in 10+ convoy under @Daggerfall's lead. Apparently he missed leading convoys a lot, during his holidays. This drive was also important because this was the first time where @Daggerfall would lead my batch. Also, this area is one of my favorite areas in Dubai where we had two fantastic drives led by @Agalon and @Solmaz in past. So, I was super excited to get in there and enjoy.

Most probably I should've done something wrong thus I ended up being the second lead for him. Drive started slowly and we ended up in a technical area where the lead was playing around gently, supposedly he heard the stories from last week's EIB and he knew we would enjoy it. During this part; let’s say warming up for upcoming tricks, I realized that @Daggerfall knows his car by heart and he doesn’t do anything unnecessary. I knew that engineering is an optimization problem, but @Daggerfall showed me being a Marshall requires optimization skills as well. He crosses the obstacles with the last spark of momentum he has, you feel like he will, or he already got stuck over there but “no way” he somehow throws himself to the other side of the dune with the minimal effort. Respect!

As a result of that if you follow him with the normal distance in a convoy, until you realize what he is going to do, you just lose your momentum and it results to second tries/getting stuck. In the beginning, I faced this issue and it led for few second tries. However afterwards I could figure out how to handle riding behind him. Thanks to him we rode many crests (with least possible speed) and tried some lovely side crests, medium arches. We crossed loads of sharp and high V ditches, Pajero brotherhood did fantastic at those parts, hats off to @CARLOSS and @AdamW

In these kinds of drives I find listening some rock/metal helps a lot to get in the mood. During one of the waiting times, @Daggerfall caught me while I was headbanging along “Are you gonna be my girl” from Jets. It was embarrassing till he rolled down his window and increased the volume to let me hear what he was listening I guess we already know the song for this drive’s short video!

Lessons learnt from this drive:

• 3-4 cars or 20 meters gap is a good starting point and a great indicator, but sometimes you might need to increase or reduce the following distance.

• Marshalls also listen to music

• We are still taking baby steps, and we are allowed to fall down(securely).The important thing is to show up as much as possible, and learn from the mistakes

• Optimization is important everywhere in life

After the drive, catching up with all big boys, new batches of newbies is amazing and also it is very surprising that we can still sit in the desert in the afternoon pleasantly without evaporating.

Special thanks to our beloved founder @alshamsi_m , for his continuous support and being the foundation of this warm family!

See you on the sand!

Dear Almosters,

Another very nice trip we had this Friday! Truly an All Stars – seeing so many nice cars all lined up, eager to go! I enjoyed it very much!

I am grateful to @Barish – for the very nice track and smooth lines!

There were times when I really felt like I was part of Dakar convoy.. large open areas, some technical dunes, drops, big arches, very very entertaining track! Thank you a lot! I start loving the desert more and more!! I can’t wait for next trips!! PS: It was the first time when I saw the Orix in wilderness, very impressive!

I want to thank also to @David for giving me some great tips during the drive, mainly encouraging me to try and keep up the pace. My Pajero was 3rd car this time, and was a bit challenging so I didn’t want to disappoint the people behind! Of course I will improve!

I am grateful to huge support from @Solmaz, who in time of need guided me very clear and sharp “don’t worry.. it’s straight over the top” or “wheels max right and slowly reverse.. don’t worry” Thank you! I Owe you! You made all of my situations look very easy to deal with! Thank you also to the entire Support Crew for the wonderful job today!

I had to learn again “not to fight gravity” and I admit.. I will try not fight it again! I guess I still have to work on understanding the limit of wrestling with it.. I was soo close of wining this time! Just kidding!
Beside this, I had just few second attempts (due to lack of speed), but for one thing I'm very proud of myself... for not getting crested ..at all! It’s good progress for me – as I didn’t have to clean also the rope this time.. and all is tidy inside the trunk!

All in one, it was an excellent day out, I enjoyed every second of it! Thank you to everyone for organizing it!

Looking forward to next adventures!
See you soon!

Best regards,
Danutz

Dear Almosters,

Apologies for the late report. I have been busy unpacking at our new apartment and it is taking longer than expected.

obviously my head is not where it should be today - i posted this report in the wrong place twice and deleted it, hopefully now it is where it should be !!

What a great drive thanks for arranging it @Barish. Thanks also to @alshamsi_m and @Daggerfall for leading the convoys. It was an impressive sight to see so many enthusiastic Newbies at the meeting point in the high afternoon heat.

The briefing was done and drivers split into 3 convoys of drivers of a similar level -5, -10 and 10+.
I was assigned to the 10+ to be led by @Daggerfall, this made me a little nervous as it was only my 3rd time out in Wasp VII (FJ), having done the previous EID and a couple of Newbie drives in J-Wasp (Jeep). it was a fantastic drive with @Daggerfall setting a brisk pace and introducing us to some "Cresting" this challenge is very new to me and to be honest I still have a bit of a phobia when it comes to this technique. but i managed to complete the crests - sometimes not a very pretty maneuver, but successful nonetheless. At one straight climb/crest I managed to get the FJ completely bellied and had to be recovered by a friendly support Jeep (thanks @Petr. at another point in a gully where we descended then a sharp left at the bottom - trying not to turn too hard (fearing a pop out) I managed to hit the wall of the dune and got well stuck. I called on the radio I was stuck and would need to be pulled. But with the encouragement of ( I think @Agalon I pushed all the fancy buttons, diff lock, A-Trac, 4L and bingo Wasp VII crawled out of the ditch !.
At another climb after a steep drop I could not manage to get the power to climb, after 2 second tries in 4h I resorted to 4L and floored it - Wasp VII made some angry noises on the climb but it managed to climb out.

From reading the reports of the other Newbies and the Marshals pretty much everything has already been said so I wont go into any more details of the drive.

Suffice to say if you read the report of @giorgio you will understand what this club is all about. The time and effort the Senior members put into the Club and the knowledge they share with everyone is nothing short of outstanding. The club is first and foremost a place for every driver to develop the necessary skills to drive safely in the desert. Everytime we venture out in the Desert we are developing our skills and gaining valuable experience.

We had a great bunch in the 10+ convoy. the usual suspects @AdamW @CARLOSS @Flor @NahorJP. And of course @dorudoru who did a fantastic job at 2nd lead, i knew if he was needing a 2nd try i would need at least one 2nd attempt at the challenge. it may not have been a great day for everyone as we can all have an off day where nothing seems to go right, but at the end of the day we all learnt something new.

The gathering after the drive was a nice way to wind down and chillax before heading home (more unpacking).

My take aways
- The commitment to the safety of everyone by the marshals and senior members is unprecedented.
- It has been said many times before - leave your ego at home there is no place for it in Almost4x4.
- Listen, observe and learn
- Radio communication is one of the Keys to keeping it safe for all drivers.
- Getting stuck and needing 2nd tries does not mean you failed it means you are learning and developing your skills.
- Every driver is developing at their own pace - be tolerant of those who may struggle occasionally
- We all have days when nothing seems to come together the way it should. have patients and try to stay calm and focused.


Thanks for reading my long report !

hope to see you all out in the sand again soon

Regards

Brett
Wasp VII

Hellos,

As i mention in all my All Stars event reports, it is always exciting for me to organize the All Stars drive, introducing our Newbies different areas, different tracks and different challenges. We all have one target as one big team to succeed and we all share the time all together as one big family.

We increased the level in 5- and tested the response. All drivers did very well and prooved that they are ready for more. The adherence to convoy rules are far better, driving skills in Almost way are improving, the engine sounds of the cars are increasing. Even the stress mgmt of 5- members in situations were surprisingly well. I am also very happy to see the same level of enjoyment in all 3 convoys.

I would like to thank to all support team in my convoy and to all 45+ members that contributed to this event as a lead, support or driver.

Dont forget: Change is nothing if improvement is not there.

See you next time.

Barish

Hi All,

It felt great to return to the sand after a while and see members from all levels.

I was leading the +10 convoy with the support of @Agalon @Scorpio @Yazan Ali and @Petr .Thank you guys.

We did go through many different obstacles to exercise different techniques including riding on the crest of small dunes at low speed to learn how to control the car and balance the weight on tip of the crest. Which I believe is a good exercise before doing actual side cresting at higher levels which is much faster and through higher dunes.

As we mentioned before learning new things sometimes requires several tries until you develop it to a satisfactory level and its part of the process.

Thanks to all organized, supported and participated.

Hope to see you at the next adventure.

Best Regards