Almost4x4

Hi everyone,

The 10+ newbies who attended this drive in the big dunes of Sweihan will never look at our usual playground in Al Faqaa the same way again.

@presa raised the level of expectations for all the 10+ newbie drives to come by pushing everyone out of their comfort zone and conquering new terrain in style.

The flow was very good and everyone drove very well. Few second tries here an there and one or two stucks (mine was one).

I’m sure everyone will agree that the effort of taking a PCR test and waking up early at dawn is well worth it to come and drive in Sweihan.

We visited the two main attractions, Old Lady and Nagra where everyone played for a bit going up and down, really enjoying the fact that the weather was good today with mild wind and temperatures of around 31 degrees for most of the drive.

We made our way out around 11:30 with everyone happy and yearning for more.

Thank you @presa for the amazing drive and thank you to the support crew @Tomvanhouten , @mpodroid and last but not least, the one and only @rapailo .

@dorudoru you did a great job as second lead. I think you should be in that position for all the drives

See you all soon!

Hello everyone,

What a great start of the weekend!

Waking up early morning with such a treat, is no punishment at all as @Sorin already mentioned.
Sweihan is high, sharp and steep and that was exactly what @presa set out to practice, with safety safety safety as the main focus and boy what a great drive was delivered by all the drivers!
Really good job to everyone being safe, but fast.
Although some might have had goosebumps and feeling scared, this is the best that can happen, your focus levels are right were they should be!

I had the pleasure of enjoying as a sweeper, which is a nice position overlooking the snake finding its way thru the dunes.
Just one little tow was my share of the convoy support and guess what, the driver wasn't even in the convoy.
Well done everyone and looking forward to the next!

Thanks @presa, @rapailo @Sorin @mpodroid

Tom

Hi Almosters!

We had great fun at Sweihan. Most of the convoy was driving at Sweihan with Almost for the first time, so I made sure that the level wasnt high, although the area requires different skills from the usual areas that this batch was driving at Dubai and Sharjah.

We started on time, at 7h30 and had some 2nd tries, until the convoy adjusted to the mid size dunes and the bowls.

After around 1h of driving, and two additional debriefings, the flow was very good! We could explore the walls, playing around the areas near the farm, with everyone being safe!

We head to Nagrah playing on the smaller technical dunes and aside a few 2nd tries, a popout and very few recoveries, the convoy did very good, without incidents.

After playing around Nagrah we head to the exit point, on a faster rally style, reaching the other side of the farm and stopping to inflate at a shadowed location :)

Due to the different nature of the Dunes formation in the area, and bigger dunes, some drivers were excited, but the skills to conquer this area is easier to acquire than to manage small and soft sand areas, like the previous week (F13), were this group did very well. So playing safe and driving a few times in areas like this will give you tje set of skills and confidence to go for further areas, like Western Region and Liwa...

Good afternoon everyone.

Wow, what an amazing drive it was at Sweihan! I was definitely worth waking up early in the morning plus a two hour drive to Sweihan, oh yeah and the pcr test also.

I arrived very early at the meeting point and was amazed by the weather. It was 28 degrees outside, which was nice to experience seeing that we have had 4 months of extreme heat.

@presa gave us Newbies a thorough briefing about the area, explaining the type of dunes that we will experience, explaining the technique behind side cresting and also about safety during the drive. The flow of the convoy was fast and here and there we had second tries and only one pop out. @presa definitely raised the bar for the Newbies 10 + drives, which I am sure all of us enjoyed! We've encountered sharp dunes as well as big dunes where we needed to push our cars to the maximum in order to keep up with the convoy. We also did side cresting over sharp dunes and getting the technique right was absolutely crucial. I was important to know when to crest over to the other side and when not to do so and have a second try.

Maintaining proper distance with the car in front of you was a key factor and also radio communication. We had fun playing in two areas, where we all could go and drive arches on the dunes while support kept an eye on each one of us.

Thank you for all the intermediates who came for support and making sure that our newbies are kept safe and also a big thanks to @presa for organizing the drive! It was an awesome drive and an experience that I will never forget.

See you next time.
Stephan

Good boys go to heaven, this is what i signed up for, that is why i joined almost4x4 and that is exactly why i bought a Jeep, huge dunes with a need to “floor it”
First time in Abu Dhabi since 4 years, first time in Sweihan, first time driving in such huge dunes and that was amazing.

The drive started with a briefing by @presa highlighting main challenges drivers usually face in this area and how to avoid it.
I was positioned at the end of the convoy and i had a refusal 100 meter far from the start point when i realized i did not engage my 4 wheel drive, we approach the first set of large dunes and first side crest and i could not make, went to the other side and tried again, same, one more time, nop, what happened to my Jeep? Or am i sleepy? Then @Tomvanhouten guided me and i really had to push the car way too much to make it, then i noticed my rear right tire is on 34 PSI, apparently my 4 wheel deflation/inflation system was not connected properly to that tire. Sorn helped me to deflate the tire while i attend a quick debriefing by @presa , thank you very much @Sorin . Here is the video where i struggled



We head to another set of huge dunes, we park in a “balcony” and @presa told intermediate and advance members to play if they want, wow, the guys did not leave a chance, they climbed and did side cresting for around 10 minutes, that was breathtaking. Here is the video



We continue with the drive heading toward Naqrah dune, another amazing set of dunes, we did the climb and side cresting and then we were informed that we all can redo it as many times as we wish, we just all need to follow same direction and avoid driving against each other. I think i did it 5 times, thanks to @AndreAJ and his advise on the right tire pressure and gear, last 2 times were perfect, i really enjoyed it. Then we return back to the exit point driving over 90 km/h and a big smile on our faces.

Thank you @presa for the amazing drive, also thank you for the feedback and guidance, the expectations are getting higher and higher.
@Tomvanhouten, @rapailo @Sorin , and @mpodroid thank you very much for the support and guidance during the drive, highly appreciated.

Here is the whole trip video, enjoy.

In the last Friday morning drive @presa promised the good boys to go to heaven, and I think all of us must have behaved pretty well during the week as we were taken where promised, both figuratively and literally

Figuratively as the weather was great (unlike in the last number of drives), and I guess we all felt exhilarated conquering the high dunes, learning at an accelerated pace. Literally - well look at the pictures, those Sweihan dunes are pretty high, and at a few points climbing the walls the only thing you see is the sand and blue sky

This drive had “be challenged and learn” written all over it. At the initial briefing and numerous times during the drive @presa provided us Newbies with tips and trick on how to conquer the high dunes safely (and how to side crest without rolling the car ).

The first few dunes after the start were supposed to be a warm-up but, boy, my heart started racing. At the speed/height and lines served to us by @presa it all was quite stressful at start, with my car not responding all that well. At first stop we were all asked to check the tire pressure – and that was the cause (15 mins into the drive it went up from 10 to 12psi!). The next 1h or so it was all pure joy (and continuously elevated heart beat), getting better and better at managing speed/angle of attack in the high lines. We were also allowed to play in 2 areas, to learn how the car behaves with different lines being taken – very useful!

The highlight of the drive (at least for me) was the side-crest crossing on the “farm” side of the Nagrah dune, made additionally more difficult as few of us had to drop into a bowl just at the foot of the approach. After getting out of the bowl using the usual circling technique (and those walls were steep!) we had to floor it along the steep ridge, to be able to get sufficient speed to make the side crest. Felt like a plane taking off, WOW, what a feeling!

We had an excellent flow with only a minimal amount of issues in the convoy, although some of us lost some less useful pieces of our cars (incl. myself ).

Learnings:
- Driving in high dunes is a different ball game; compared to the technical areas it requires a different technique.
- One should only attempt to side-cresting when the combination of speed / angle is (close to) perfect – anything less than that may endanger the car and driver.
- At some point you just reach the car’s limits (at least at current skill level) – changing track or trying harder is not going to make it go higher

Overall we drove for 3.5h, and covered 51km.

Thank you @presa for a fantastic morning, as well as the support crew of @Tomvanhouten, @mpodroid and @rapailo – I had a blast!

Hello Almosters

It was my second drive in Seihan Area, and luckily both under the leadership of @presa. Best things of the day was the weather, it was 28 once we entered into the desert and still did not cross 34 once we exited.

We set off almost 15 kms away from the main Sweihan City, and started negotiating the desert towards Nagra. The drive was generally smooth, with very few recoveries, however there were some pop outs which were fixed quickly.

The drive was designed around some low and high cresting, and easy switches. In some areas speed was the name of Game and everybody played very well.

I enjoyed the play time accorded by the Marshal and took full advantage of the same. I saw many happy and contented faces during the drive, which spoke very high of drive setting.

Special Thanks to
@presa

Support
@rapailo
@Sorin
@mpodroid

And the participants for a fantastic company
@NahorJP
@AndreAJ
@Ehab
@Laarni
@Nabeel
@nidal78
@piotr
@Stephan

Missed
@James
@brett

Experiences

• Sweihan is a beautiful desert very different to Al Qudra or Sharjah

• Floor it, is the name of game

• Reading the dune and flow of slope is extremely important

• Make use of playtime for getting experience and experimenting

Regards

Good boys go to heaven what a fantastic drive
For me this is my second time to drive in sweihan
In the first time in (far away from home drive) we reach the area little bit late coming from al khatim so we couldn’t enjoy the beauty of it but the second time was something else
After our marshal @presa brief about the drive honestly I was little bit worried I didn’t expect that level of drive it was really something totally different from what we used to do in the previous drives, riding the big dunes doing side crest it was one of my dreams to try it
Although I had some difficulties in controlling my big GMC in switching from side to side on the crest, stuck on one of the crest due not keeping enough distance losing the power to cross the crest, one pop out because of stepping on a bushes while doing a hard turn and losing some plastic parts from the car I enjoyed the drive very much and I know that all of these incidents are part from learning journey and I feel starting from this drive we all put our first foot in real world of off-roading
Finally big thank to our lovely marshal @presa for taking our hands to the next step in off-roading,and big thank as well to @rapailo @Tomvanhouten @mpodroid @Sorin for your lovely spirit helping an supporting everyone
And to all my fellows in this beautiful trip you really did a great job
Till the next time stay safe and see you soon

This drive was one of those that announces changes in members driving stile in a very polite way. @presa managed to introduce new skills in driving stile of all members and in a very safe way. This resulted with great satisfaction as it makes it look easy. Now we need to sharped the saw. Every subsequent drive will be a new story.

During the drive we could see that driver is the most important factor in the desert. All other factors are much less influential when it comes to higher driving levels.

I have no doubt all of drivers seen in this drive will do well.

Hello All,

Better late than never. Let's start with the conclusion. Best drive ever, till now.

I guess for us, every new drive is putting the bar a bit higher. However, Sweihan is totally a new ball game as mentioned by everyone.

I have been to the area before for an intermediate drive as a passenger, however never had the chance to drive my self. Absolute blast!

I should thank @presa for arranging this drive for us 10+ newbies. Apparently he had some suspicion that Newbies will show interest to this drive due to the restrictions and long drive. However, we would like to assure that whenever there is a Newbie drive posted in Sweihan we will do our best to fill these seats :) Feel free to open more.

We had some little side cresting experience from previous drives, especially from Al Faqa drives. But, on high and sharp dunes where you need to floor it to reach to the saddle and arrange your speed/approach angle is definitely something we need to work on, practice and develop.

Thanks again to @presa, he introduced the area to us in a very safe manner. One of the things I really appreciate(I hope the rest would agree) was the feedback mechanism and positive reinforcement from the Marshal.

In the beginning, he explained the principles of side cresting again and we practice few on relatively small sized dunes. After he crossed, he stopped where he can see all of us crossing and checked us one by one, provided feedback to all of us. The feedback I got was " if you are climbing from the soft side, try to be a little more aggressive". I believe these feedbacks improved everyone's driving somehow.

Thanks to@piotr's question, I learned the tricks behind the sharp turns of @presa. That also really helped me during the drive!

Due to the absence of @James, I have been honored with second lead position in this drive and I enjoyed it to the max. Being there just behind the Marshal, try to watch and follow their lines, trying to figure out the decision making process behind finding a safe path for our level is priceless.

In the drives I am being so focused on following the track, it is like a tunnel vision where you just focus on the car in front of you and it's track which results missing loads of great views along the drive. At one point on one of the high dunes, @presa reminded us to take a look on our surroundings before the drop. That moment again made me to appreciate the beauty of Sweihan.

My take away from the days drive:

• There is no room for ego in what we are doing in the desert. @presa summarized it very well, "the main difference between us and intermediates are safe driving, especially second tries. We are still not used to do decent second tries, intermediates do not hesitate to go for second try if they feel they can't do it.

• The distance is key for watching the car in front of you which gives you the most valuable information about terrain.

• Sweihan is real heaven for our level and if we be good boys/girls, the doors are open for us

• Never hesitate to ask, Marshals are always open and happy to explain

Special thanks to @rapailo for watching our back, it is always great to be around him! You learn in a fun way :)

And of course thanks a lot to the intermediates @Sorin , @mpodroid and @Tomvanhouten (it is a pleasure to see your progress and your support to newbies!)

Also thanks to my comrades which I believe all of them did a great job! Hats off to @nidal78, I wasn't expecting much with that heavy beast but once again you showed us "it's not car .... the rest we all know"

Looking forward to have more drives in PCR land.
See you in the sand!