We met this morning for the Scopes And Slopes Trip in Sharjah. Although originally there was supposed to be two trips, one off-roader level and one advanced junior level, last minute mishaps forced us to combine both trips together which ended up in one big 15-car convoy. After deflation, a short safety briefing and a bit of a warm up, the fun all started.

First we started to master straight cresting and than side sloping. Marko explained the Tap Tap technique to keep the power of the car and off course stressed on not fighting gravity and then everyone had enormous chances to make several tries. Then we moved on to do some snake trails and reached the Camel rock. Here we had some rest and then moved on to a highly technical area which led us out of the desert by 10:40 am. The trip did not exclude a few stucks but all were self recovered.

Here is some feedback to the drivers;

Aksana:
You are showing remarkable improvement and gaining confidence with each drive. As second lead  you need to maintain more space between your car and the first lead (about 8 car lengths). This would allow you time to lead the convoy to a different route if the 1st lead decided to change course. No more co-pilot for you, from now on u drive alone in the Car and you gonna be one of the best drivers around!!!

Karim:
I see some improvements over the last few trips. You have a better feel for your car. Keep it up!

Tarek & Andreas:
You still have some fish tailing problems. Applying the tap tap technique would give you the little extra power you sometimes need to control your cars.

Sid:
You NEED to respect gravity my friend. If you don’t have the power to follow the track, just steer towards gravity and let whatever power is remaining in the car guide u down safely. Just go down and take a second try. Picture this in your mind, master it and execute.

Rathica:
Step on the gas madam! Don’t be afraid to push your car. Hope Preggy is not affecting your decisions as passenger. We been that we done that that’s why I am looking forward to see both of you guys driving alone next weekend. Maybe then we will know what was keeping you from pushing enough today…….

Saboor & Tiago:
Apologies for canceling the off-roader trip but it was an emergency that forced us to do that. Hopefully you guys still had a good time with fellas junior today.

Ali Cuma:
You drove well today. I just noticed that on a few occasions you decided not to follow the track and not to take the challenges. We understand that your car requires different approach sometime even if we are doing our best to find suitable route for all cars. We ha ave no problem with this but please next time announce it on the radio and state the reason. Welcome back buddy after long time, hope your headache is passed and looking forward to see you on more trips.

Andrea
Congrats for your new car!!! Looks awesome and suits you well. Is good to see you back on track again. Hopefully we will se you more as trip leader. There is more sleeping beauties who are waiting for afternoon trips.

Andre
You did all challenges right. Keep doing what you doing. You are fitting better and better in our concept.

Faizan
You did all challenges now we need you to attend trips and practice which will bring you more confidence. Overall you did good.

Salah
You had recovery training recently and you were lucky to do so many recoveries lately.  You learned a lot and your skills are growing rapidly. You are prof that hard work is bringing benefits. You are now bringing value in each and every trip and finally we can say that you officially supporting our trips. I pushed you a lot and you are taking best out of it. You are very close to become independent in recovery support. That’s great and I would like to see more guys like you around. For now, do not pass opportunity for recoveries to the others (David), do it on your own until you master it.

Small note what we maybe missed somehow in Ab Initio, whenever you see car behind you, inform leaders and slow down and wait.

Whoever is not able to follow has to inform us on time so we can do what is necessary to keep convoy on track.

Do not engage in trip organization or whatsoever if you’re not designated or trained to do so. We respect your knowledge but you have to understand that you’re putting yourself in between something which can make confusion and unwanted consequences. When you are in convoy without designation, please enjoy your ride and let the guys to deal with situations. You’re very welcome to discus about those events and give your proposal or suggestion once we stop for break.

—-

Today we had chance to see people who gain they experience somewhere else and and people who started with us from very beginning driving together. I’m very proud to see our Juniors with very few drives dealing with challenges on right way. That is good confirmations that our philosophy and way of teaching gives lot’s of positive results and good foundations for next level.

It is big honor and privilege to be part of the group with people with such a nice personalities. It’s beautiful to see different nationalities having fun and building no stress land together.

In a future I would like to push a little bit more accuracy in terms of time management. Start trip on time, finish on time, and I believe that we would be able to achieve that.

We are keen to produce good trip leaders with trip supporters through special trainings. Good trip organization will reduce accidents and unplanned situations and our drives will be smoother.

Today we saw some potential leaders in this group and we know that they will be able to bring value in our group. We also saw some unnecessary engagement in trip management. We will try to reduce that situations with time.

We also saw why our trips are limited to 10 cars and I think we don’t have to write explanations for that. Trail is demolished for cars on end of convoy, lot’s of stop overs, second tries, etc. etc.

Also drives has to be limited to 2 hours because after 2 hours people start loosing focus and they performance is going down. Not to all drivers but remember that convoy is strong and fast as weakest car there.

Dear Fellas it was pleasure to drive with you on this trip and looking forward for next one.

Trip report: Salah/Marko