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Tomvanhouten
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Hi everyone,

One of the drives, you afterwards think; I shouldn't have.
Having a late night before, due to airport pickup, I actually felt ok going to the drive and the first hour wasn't bad either, but then all energy was gone and I faced concentration lacking and the feeling to drag myself up every dune.

As I decided, it isn't worth risking anything, I told the marshals that it would be better for me to leave and come back another time fresh and ready.
I am sorry for my performance towards the convoy, it was quite embarrassing, but a good lesson again for myself.

See you next time,

Tom
David
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Old Sweihan, fantastic area that I absolutely love and a leading car that always pushes hard, great combination.

Convoy struggled to get decent momentum, to be honest not as good performance as it should have been for an intermediate convoy, stop starts always make it difficult for the leading car to get a good flow.

Also worth mentioning that the area had more tracks that I had never seen there, there are a couple of bumpy sectors on the bigger bowls that are well known but Saturday it was, in my opinion, even worst. I do not think it was related to my position at the end of the convoy as tracks were too deep and not fresh, more likely a busy morning in that area prior to our afternoon drive.

On the more challenging sectors Optimus put a fantastic show always selecting the most difficult approach to climbs, absolutely fantastic!!!

Due to family commitments back home I had to leave the drive around 30min before it finished, gutted about it as somehow I got the feeling I was going to miss the best part of the afternoon ... but still not worth a major incident with the boss.

Thank you Optimus for organizing a drive for us and for an outstanding lead, Mahmoud and Rashid thank you for keeping and eye on us and your assistance.

See you on the sand soon.
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Petr
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Sharp, sharp, sharp dunes, and @optimus challenging us with some amazing high crestings, that took most of us many attempts to follow. At the last high climb we again first watched the marshall's masterpiece, then @Tomvanhouten as the brave second lead started to move while uttering in radio "I guess I will spend some time here". At this moment @Ehab and I looked at each other and bursted in laugh, since we had exactly the same thoughts.

But the rest was amazing as well as manangeable and I agree with @David there was no reason the flow could not have been better for the great experience in this area.

Many thanks @optimus for leading us, and @Mahmoodyasin with @Rashidjass for all the support.
optimus
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Drive : Petrolheads
Organizer & Lead: Optimus
Level : Intermediate
Area : Old Sweihan
Supporting Marshal : @Rashidjass
Advance support : @Mahmoodyasin

It was my first lead as a marshal. the plan was straight forward, test our intermediates with something different. I started the drive as usual with no warming up time. It was not long ago that I had to call for a de-briefing, reminding the convoy the unforgiving terrain of old sweihan, the type of the dunes & crests we are going to face, basic rules etc.

The convoy performed well on basic side-cresting, however struggled on multiple switches and fast paced straight climbs combined with sidecrests & at fast paced climbs combined with sharp angle cresting. We did some runs on the walls. Furthermore, there were some maneuvers, the convoy couldn't achieve that resulted in time to time multiple tries hence breaking the convoy momentum. As mentioned in the previous reports that flow wasn't great as it should have been for the intermediate convoy.

I can see there is a huge potential in some of the drivers and i am sure they would overcome such obstacles with ease! its just a matter of little more time & some practice.

At last i would like to thank all my intermediates for a great company & a lovely drive!
thanks to the support , my brothers @Rashidjass & @Mahmoodyasin .


until next time!
Optimus
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Ehab
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Old swiehan, my favorite intermediate area. I still do remember the first time our marshals took us there, it was recently reopened for public and there was barely any tracks. Unfortunately it seems many offroaders know about this area now and all tracks are chewed. This resulted to a very bumpy ride no matter where we go but still, Optimus managed to give us a nice trip and we all enjoyed it.

Enjoy watching
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