Almost4x4

Hi Almosters, had tons of fun today.

EIB is a great event, where the newbies show what they learned, or not....

For many is a rare opportunity to push the skills on a technical area, but under the supervision of Marshals, and eyes from observers....

I was more than happy to see many old friends and new faces.

Had the opportunity to drive a Jimny, although not under regular conditions

My best regards to the BBQ after the drive, you guys push the limits to make something special, and achieved it! Kudos to the ones providing such a great BBQ dinner (yes, you have credit to request a drive after it LOL).

Not to be forgotten are the organizers and volunteers.... thank you for arriving earlier and putting your time on making this event happen!

Next week there will be a Brest Cancer Awareness Drive, by Solmaz, looking forward to see you all!

"Eggs in basket" - 11!

Hi everyone!

I can’t hide that this event scared me the most. Navigation and coordinates have always been my weak point. Driving a car in a city, using one eye to navigate, drinking coffee and putting on makeup, while talking on the phone is normal, but navigating in the desert, oh my God , is something else entirely. I was always lost and didn’t understand, where these arrows were pointing and leading me, and how it was possible to get to the right point, when everything around me was absolutely the same .
When the event was posted, I was afraid to register, because I understood that I could not navigate alone in the desert. I give credit to my team for supporting me and practically forcing me to register.
Long wait, worries, and now the day has come. It's always great to see all the participants excited and ready for new challenges and adventures, but this does not affect your skills in any way. Here you are left alone with yourself, and this is the only way you understand, whether you are able to move on. I have the honor of being number 4 and once the signal is given #Number 4, GO!# there is no way back


Well, it was an incredible experience, a technical area, extremely soft sand, just you, the desert and the GPS. Many thanks to @Tom and @Laarni for the links how to use Gaia. Before the event, I studied everything, just like at school, and for good reason. Considering the condition of my bumper, which survived Friday the 13th, I was extremely careful. I took my time and chose the easiest path, but still got stuck, but after “Rescue the Marshals” I was able to do self-recovery. Arriving at the finish line, I was the sixth car to complete this test. My happiness knew no bounds, when I did this, and I was absolutely happy to see @Ely, the girl, who had done less than 10 drives, among those who completed it. Great, she really did very well, considering the fact, that she had to stop several times to the engine. Bravo! Keep it up!
After all the participants arrived at the finish line and the results were announced, I received my lucky place 7, which I am certainly very happy about
Next we moved on to the best part, the sunset barbecue. It was something and it was very tasty!

On a personal note, I want to say the following: I think our club wouldn’t be what it is, if it weren’t for @alshamsi_m. His absolute love, passion, skills and endless experience makes the club special and unique. We must admit that all of us, from one star to five stars, more or less, but we are all his students. And we use these skills not only in the desert while driving, but also in everyday life. These skills make us stronger, more patient, friendly, resilient, organized and disciplined. I can say with complete confidence that @alshamsi_m left his printfoot and it will never be forgotten. He and, of course, the entire founding team of the club, united more than 6,000 participants into one big family, regardless of nations, religions and traditions. Every member of the club, even if someone had to leave the country, did not remain . Thank you so much for everything you do for us. Be with us as much as possible, share your experiences with us and make us laugh until we cry like you did today

Thank you all the marshals for your support and all the participants, who made this event happened

Looking forward to see you next week.

With love

Yours Vika

I embarked on the Eggs In Basket drive with great enthusiasm, eager to take on the challenge, but it proved to be more difficult than I initially expected due to the soft sand and daunting dunes. Despite the challenges, our team of four decided to create a "cheating channel" to ensure that we all successfully completed the challenge.

The journey got off to a challenging start as a car in front of us became stuck, and I had to lend a hand. It was at this point that I mistakenly veered towards point 1 instead of following my intended sequence to point 3. Before I even reached point 1, I found myself hopelessly stuck in the soft sand. It was a moment when I feared I might be disqualified until a helpful Jeeper arrived to assist me. I'm incredibly grateful for his timely intervention.

After this setback, I took a moment to regroup and regain my confidence. I managed to complete all the points within 30 minutes, although I also spent some time helping friends who were facing their own challenges, ensuring everyone left the drive with a sense of accomplishment.

I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to the Marshals and Intermediate members who organized and supported the drive, contributing to the overall sense of happiness and camaraderie. Special thanks go to the outstanding team members who made this drive truly marvelous.

In the end, the Eggs In Basket drive was a challenging and memorable experience, filled with both obstacles and moments of unity, and I look forward to the next adventure with this remarkable group.


ALJAMHI

Hello Everyone,

What a day!!!

At first I was confused I should join or not. I went to rashid for his advice. He told me not to worry and try to enjoy the experience and don’t rush. So I did that I was calm and composed through out the drive. And I can say I enjoyed every bit of it I didn’t want this drive to end and I wish there were even more points to do. Eating fruits and juice after every sticker as a reward to myself.

I had the honor to pull the a fellow member twice at different locations. I myself got stuck at two places, got lucky and self recovered. Gaia app was good but freezing a lot. But I got the idea of direction from Gaia So I just drove around in educated guess until I see some flags with two seniors who welcomed me with big smiles.

I learned a lot in this drive and I am excited for more such games to come.

After the drive we sat for bbq . Thank you to all the chefs for making great BBQ for us. We shared wonderful stories and jokes.

I want to congratulate all winners. I was very happy to see Paddy in top 3. Way to go my friend.

I was the last to finish, Barish came to me as he thought I am about it but on the contrary I couldn’t be happier that I got to complete . Nothing but respect and gratitude for Barish for his concern for newbies

I want to thank everyone for making this day memorable.

EIB is the right event to refresh your self and enjoy each second

In the start , We all was very excited to go wondering what we will face

I was one of the cars got stuck in the entrance , but actually that’s didn’t effect me as all seniors was advising us to enjoy and relax ( it is game to learn and enjoy)

After that I move to my 1st point( around 600 m) , wasn’t easy area but I reach it smoothly and was very very happy (1 of 5 points)

Was the same for points 2,3 and 4 so I was very confident and happy

I was going to my last point and I saw the marshals front of me I got stuck
Was trying to dig for almost 10 minutes to come out then I found ALJAMHI front of me & recovered me successfully

Then I have moved to the final point to record my time and go the starting point for winners announcement

Congratulations for the top 3 winners, my self and all the challengers

It was great effort from all the organisers and the support and I am sure that took a lot of time from them

I was always asking my self do I will be able one day to be the leading car ? Can I choose right track for my self and others? And was no answer

I am so happy that I have answer now that I am on the track for that and I can use the GPS


After all that fun and experience we have moved to the best part which is to set all together chatting , doing BBQ and sharing all nice staff and stories

It is unforgettable day thank you so much for our founder and everyone to make this days

Looking forward to see all of you & the others how couldn’t join soon

Regards,,,
Moustafa Selim

EIB is always fun, very good to see the Newbie 10+ testing themselves and having so much fun.

I was sent to point 3 in the Company of Nidal, an easy to reach point not far from where the Audience was located.

Main problems at our point were drivers not following the right sequence or having issues with their GPS devices.

This drive is planned to allow you to practice not only driving in the desert alone without following any Marshall if not also to drive knowing where you are going to, some basic practice prior to the event with your GPS is a MUST, different coordinate formats, saving points and making a route, ... being able to master these basic concepts will give you a lot of freedom when desert driving, it is a great skill to have and no doubt worth practicing.

Everyone in this drive is a winner, from those with more experience to those who found it more challenging, you put yourself in a situation of uncertainty and you deal with it, well done to everyone that took part!!!

I know results do not matter (and this is 100% true) but must admit that the jeeper still inside me always smiles when jeeps get the top positions ... I know it is the driver and not the car but ...

Finally to thank Bu Salem for organizing another edition of EIB, the great number of Marshalls that came to support and everyone that took part in the drive.

See you on the sand soon.

Hi everyone!

EIB is one of my favorites challenges within Almost as it comes with a bit of everything: Eager newbies willing to proof himself on a solo drive managing navigation by their own, interm/advance members taking care of the WP making sure that nobody plays tricks (LOL), audience witnessing the whole event from the top, marshals driving around making sure that all is going well, founder and organizer watching over all of us, trophies and prizes, BBQ and brotherhood.

And this year, it did not disappoint anybody. Actually, I was very surprised to see so many successful drivers completing the challenge. For the records, in my newbie days success ratio was not that much high and there were normally several victims not completing the test, including myself (only 2 WP!!!). Most likely it is due to new generations being better prepared than us and also driving mighty machines (not a single Pajero this year).

Now my story: I was assigned along with Petr in WP number 2 with a special guest who everybody loves, Ahmed, also known as AZK89. We had a blast when welcoming customers! This is the best part to me by far…some of them relaxed like if there were at home watching tv, some stressed (“give me the sticker LOL and let me move!!!”), some a bit confused (“am I arriving to the correct WP?”), some a bit frustrated (“my gaia is not working well!!!” or I “don’t know exactly how to use it!!!”), some tired because of previous self-recoveries, some showing up 2 times (“wtf am I doing here again?” LOL), some collecting their stickers and not willing to leave us (normal, we are too sweet to be left LOL), etc.

Big thank to all Almost community for making this event a great success and special thanks to our founder and Master of Masters Al Shamsi.

I cannot wait for next edition with all levels playing in the same area!!!

See you next week in another amazing event for sure: Breast Cancer Awareness drive.

Hello everyone,

First of all, hats off to all drivers accepted the challenge.

It was a day full of challenge, learning, self-test and for sure fun. Kind of a different type of event for the drivers to see what has been learned and what is your progress towards to be an independent offroader, your relationship with your offroad tools and your GPS device. Congrats to all winners from 1st to 13th, having a signature in EIB 2023 for being part of such challenge.

Thanks to all barbeque team for the delicious grill and snacks served after the event. One small note that the weather is almost ready to welcome us for post-drive gatherings as well as camping!

Dont forget; change is good as soon as followed by improvement.

See you next time.

Barish

EIB!!!

Its an event which we always looked forward to, knowing it will help us accessing our skills, not only by our mentors but by ourselves.

I was a little bit worried as I only completed my 10 drives and event was published, I was one of the early birds in registering for the event but with every passing minute I was getting doubts as in will I be able to do it, I have not done a single 10+ drives so will I be able to navigate..... etc.

I started looking into the previous years EIB videos in almost4x4 archives and then I reached out to @Rashidjass to ask if I am doing the right thing by registering for the event? He gave a straight and simple response, he said " Only thing which may happen that I might not complete the all way points, but it will definitely show me which areas I am lacking and what to work upon, as its not about winning but more about learning about our own skills."

Well after hearing this I kept my registration active. I was showing everyone that I am very confident and ready, but in real I was scared as it will be first time in an area which is specially picked by our beloved Marshalls to test our skills.

Well finally the day arrived, I reached to the meeting point around 01:45 pm and started getting for the big event with a big smile on my face with which I was just trying to hide fear of what is waiting for us.

@alshamsi_m arrived to the meeting point and started the briefing, he made us familiar with the rules and what we all can expect from the drive. He told us it is a "childs play" listening to this made my heart beating a little faster as I understood these words are just a trap. But I still maintained my calm and then we started heading towards the starting point.

At the starting point we were given the sheets with Way points in different order for all of us. I was still trying to stay calm but once 4th car got stuck at the first straight crest, I started painting a picture what its gonna be inside the challenge area. To my amazement it did not end there all the cars after that got stuck at the same crest which started building pressure.

With all that pressure build up I started the drive in panic situation, and got stuck at the same point where all other cars before me got stuck, while panicking I started self recovery by engaging 4L without accessing the situation that all my tires were in air. @Tabubaker came to help recovering my vehicle and then I made my second failed attempt, did self recovery this time, and started my third failed attempt because I didnt disengage the 4L, @Preggy told me you are in 4L thats when I shifted back to our original driving mode.

Finally I crossed the first dune, by this time I already wasted more than 15+ minutes. After crossing I took two long breath and told myself Paddy you have already completed your quota of getting stuck now just focus on driving.

Started my quest to each way point where our intermediates were waiting to assist us with the stickers if its the correct point as per list. I finished all way points without getting stuck again.

I was a little bit satisfied with myself after finishing the list, and reached to the starting point to join our fellow challengers, now we all were waiting for the results to know how we all did? For me we all did well and finished the course hence we all were winners.

Now the only thing we all wanted to know our timings. With no delay @Barish came with final numbers.

To every ones surprise I was able to finish all waypoints in 34 minutes and 30 seconds, which included those 15+ minutes I wasted at the starting point.

I was amazed to hear @alshamsi_m calling out my name " Paddy who got stuck 3 times secured place number three". This would have not been possible without the guidance of all Marshals and Founder, who always tells us its better to get stuck than flying. But with this result I was flying for a moment.

Post drive there was a BBQ session, but I avoided eating to keep myself awake for the 2 hours drive back home. But trust me the time spent with all was worth every second.

With this drive I learned that if we want to upskill, we should learn to calm our mind in pressure situations. I am sure we all will learn it with our future drives.

@Rashidjass thank you for not letting me withdraw my name, @alshamsi_m Thank you for always supporting and helping us to correct our mistakes.

Looking forward to meeting you all on sand again next Sat for the pink drive.

~Br
Paddy