Crest Surfers
Two late comers today. The trip was scheduled for 9 AM, that’s not very early. Let’s raise the standard next time. As usual I always start the trip telegram group with the coordinates, then I share the location for the closest gas station!
After convoy order was defined we did radio check and started the warm up on very low crests. When moving to higher dunes we started having second try after second try… the sand was a bit tricky after the rain on the past few days.
We eventually started moving trough a very technical area on our way to Iftar bowl, even tough I was doing a track without cresting, just side slopes and straight cresting(Junior level) we still had several second tries along the way… Also many issues with convoy discipline with regards to distance, the convoy was made of ten cars and sometimes stretched more than 300 meters…
Before tackling the Iftar bowl from the shallower side I briefed the group on the importance of keeping a constant distance for the convoy to move as a unit!
Eventually we made to the Iftar bowl where we took the challenges one at the time couple of times and then as a convoy everybody together.
Fellas, many issues on today’s trip:
RADIO COMMUNICATIONS : on the briefing I made clear that we need to keep CLEAR and CONCISE!
“Johnn red JEEP second try”, “Mary blue FJ second try”, “Second try clear”!
Also remember: push the radio switch, wait one second then send your message!
CONVOY ORDER: I made clear during the briefing, NO OVERTAKING, still, we had several cases where overtaking happened.
CONVOY DISCIPLINE: I made clear during the briefing, whenever someone call “second try” the CONVOY MUST STOP, and we still had car moving around…
DON’T FIGHT GRAVITY: I made clear on the briefing that if you “fall” from the crest you must turn down towards gravity, and still many drivers tried to go back to the crest…
DO NOT ENGAGE ON RECOVERIES IF YOU DON’T HAVE DESERT FELLAS RECOVERY TRAINING: we had the official sweeper(Gonzo) supervising Pradeep and Sid and still had people trying to give inputs…
Thanks for the second lead Salah and thanks for the support Gonzo, Pradeep and Sid!
Fellas, please reflect on your mistakes so it doesn’t happen again.
Thanks everyone for joining the trip today and see you soon on the desert!
9 comments on Crest Surfers
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The ride was amazing. I am glad I made it for the ride as I learned quite a lot on handling a truck especially on such tricky dunes. I could feel the difference on using H & L gears on the same track while climbing the dunes on one of the challenges Tiago had asked, which was a good learning curve. Had lot of fun, must say it was one of the best informative and good skill test rides. Thank u Tiago and rest of the team for all the efforts and fun filled drive. Loved the CHALLENGES..!! All highlighted issues are well noted and will be taken care. 😀👍
Sujith you handled your car really really well, good job! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
A great trip with technical & learning curve for pre Liwa drive. 👍 Thank u Leader Tigo for organizing te drive😍 Noted your points on cummunication and all n sweeping.
Thank u Gonzo, Sid. & Salouh for te support.
Thank you Fellas for te awesome drive & pics 😍 Looking forward to next drive😍
Thank you Tiago, always great info from you on the trips, great to leave with new skills always. Thanks Salouh, Gonzo and Sid. Looking forward to the next one.
The trip to me was fantastic. I hade the opportunity to focus only in my driving and to improve my skills and take back my confidence. I hade around 3 second try for the cresting practice. And I did 3 times de iftar bawl, but this time I hade difficult to control the car in the way down, the send was extremely soft. Definitely I need to improve my skills for this challenge. I also hade to be recovered in the end of the trip . I was already felling tired , and I chose a bed dune condition for a straight cresting. But Sid did a very good job in the recovery 🤘🏻💪🏻. Thanks Desert fellas for giving me the opportunity to learn a lot 🙏🏻😘
I was one of the two late comers. As idiot I didn’t notice the meeting coordinates on the first line in Telegram and waited at the petrol station instead – since 8:13! I realized the mistake 15 mins before the departure, fortunately it was 10 min to the meeting point so I arrived two minutes before the deadline and was deflated two minutes after it…
Probably due to my rushed arrival I didn’t notice I hadn’t engage 4H until a middle of the drive, and it the tricky soft sand it make me to self recover a few times until I realized the issue 🙂
I liked Tiago’s track and the challenges he added to the trip – it is a nice practice.
A few observations:
– it happened often the convoy lost track. That’s a risk of driving at Badayer with myriads of tracks around. An experienced free floater at such situations might be helpful.
– when the convoy is requested to stop immediately after hearing someone’s stuck, the driver may not be in the safe position at the moment, and immediate stopping may jeopardize her/him. I felt there was a confusion what to do in this case and maybe it is something to clarify with the team.
– it may not be practical to keep strict radio silence during the recovery process. At least the Marshall and crew should have the right to talk – for instance to hint the stopped cars along the convoy to get them to a safe position.
Thank you Tiago for the organization, Saleh for the 2nd lead and Gonzo, Pradeep and Sid for keeping the convoy safe – and sorry for my unsolicited advises 😎
Yeah great trip, I liked the level of the drive to, enough cresting and technical challenges for me personally and some nice hill climbing and side cresting up the high dunes of baddayer.
As usual the senior team delivered direction and support as needed
All round nice trip! Thanks Tiago and Co
Looking forward to the next one
Really fun morning, a lot of cresting practice today a few second tries and recoveries.. I had the opportunity to work in the back with Sid and Pradeep as a sweepers team having a good practice day a few recovery done.
Good opportunity to practice and improve.. Thanks Tiago and all fellas … looking forward for the next ride !
A lot of tugging for me today, you put me in the spot by being sweeper trainee. Appreciate it considering now the temperatures have gone down but was quite a workout and brain damage. I understand that i didn’t properly assess one tricky situation but was rectified instantly by my mentors.