Sunday Morning Fewbie Plus Drive - Nahel Bowl Riders: Fast & Fun Sunday Blast

Wave from the Waitlist! The Weather for the drive looks Wonderful. Wishing everyone the World but secretly hoping for some Wives, Work or Workshop priorities to turn the Waitlisters into Weekend Warriors!

Happy Friday!

Good evening @ChrisW

Is there any chance to jump from waiting list to the convoy? 
 

cheers

Hey guys - planning to keep the convoy short given the terrain and style of drive planned; but I’ll see what I can do. 

On 10/2/2026 at 10:04 AM, Jerome said:

Wave from the Waitlist! The Weather for the drive looks Wonderful. Wishing everyone the World but secretly hoping for some Wives, Work or Workshop priorities to turn the Waitlisters into Weekend Warriors!

Happy Friday!

 

 

Looks like you withdrew from the drive, Jerome...!

Thanks @ChrisW and see you tomorrow. 

RSVP now closed (except for @Jerome if you want to jump back in, let me know!)

@Infaz @Enrico - Mountain @Danie @Eddie-Dune-Glider @Ahmed Farouk @Piotr. @Noufal @Zsolt @Yury.bel @Krinesh @Beide Worku @Diego

Looking forward to seeing you all in the morning. Our goal will be to enjoy the nice weather, find some fun lines on the dunes and enjoy ourselves. Nothing crazy, but focused driving and application of our skills required!

Let's aim to be ready to be briefing by 06.40, rolling for 06.45 or thereabouts. We will be on Ch 10 (446.231-25). Please see the driver order below:

@ChrisW hi, sorry i will skip tomorrow as car is still in service

2 hours ago, ChrisW said:

Looks like you withdrew from the drive, Jerome...!

Have fun guys, I'll join again next week

Hi all,

Small tweak to convoy order given who is in/out:

Morning @ChrisW I’m going to drop out of this one. Have a severe vertigo affection happening 

apologies mate, enjoy 

@ChrisW - good morning. My car’s electrical system just died on the highway. All error messages are on / ignition is on-off. 
i will not be able to make it to the drive.

sorry for no better news! 
 

Thank you Chris for the great drive this morning. My apologies to all for the disruption, hope you guys had a great drive in the last bit 

Hey guys, thanks again for coming out today - was a pleasure to see all of you.

As we discussed in the briefing first thing, for today's drive our goal was to enjoy the dunes and support each other - and we did exactly that.

We had an initial run out from the air-up point through some of the larger dunes until we reached the small plateau at the entrance to the double-bowl section. This was a great high point to start our morning with, going out in smaller groups to enjoy the higher lines and energy required to push through that section.

We then set off through the longer range dunes, taking advantage of the high curves and occasional ridge lines. This area in particular needed careful practice in terms of speed, distance to car ahead, and how to manage your momentum - and we all got to experience a few lessons, with a handful of re-attempts required. All were handled well and good experience for everyone.

After assisting a couple of people in the group with making their way back to the road, we pressed on. As the temperatures came up and we encountered softer sand, we started to have a few challenges culminating in a pop-out in the convoy. Special thanks to @Beide Worku and the rest of the team for helping out here - we quickly got back underway and started making our way to the exit point.

With a little persistence and carving our way back and forth along the lines of the dunes, we reached Sweihan Pond and exited at Madinat Nahel.

All in all a good drive, congrats to @Enrico - Mountain for his first FB+ drive - excellent driving in the bigger dunes, and a pleasure seeing you all.

Today was definately a day, and a day of firsts. My first FB+, double-bowl (G-Force inducing), and pop-out.

Thank you @ChrisW for your patience, @Beide Worku for bringing the tyre workshop to the desert, @Danie for some sound advice on crossings, @Infaz for being my mentor for the day, and everyone in the convoy who welcomed me so warmly to the FB+ experience. FB+ is definitely a step up from FB, with lots of new learning, technique mastering, and experience building that lie ahead.

My apologies for the refusals that broke the flowing rhythm of the drive. Hopefully with more such drives my abilities will improve bit by bit with your guidance and support.

My take-aways this drive:

1) Keeping momentum and good lines is crucial when tackling longer and steeper dunes. A single break in that momentum such as hitting dips or second-guessing yourself can quickly lead to momentum 'stall'. I think fearing for my 'vehicle' at times made me extra hesitant to push where necessary - but now I know the skid plates can handle the bashing.

2) Mastering following distance is an art, not too close but not to far (understanding the terrain is important). This also comes with trust and confidence in those in front and behind you - which will improve with more drives together. Too many times I hesitated for a second when seeing the vehicle in front of me 'struggle' (or rather me thinking it won't make it), which instantly affected my accelerator foot, reducing power and loosing momentum. 

3) Knowing your vehicle through experience and practice, not turning too sharply at speed and pressing power at the wrong time. I was lucky to be able to recognise the pop-out quickly and stop immediately (saving my tyre, rim, and wheel assembly). Striking a balance between bead grip and directional force, and how that feels, should improve with more practice on such demanding dunes.

The comradery, friendliness, and support today is really appreciated.

Great drive today!! Thanks @ChrisW for the lead and for organizing it. Really enjoyed being second lead and helping out wherever I could. Beautiful morning, some great dunes and ridges, and that double bowl was definitely a crazy way to kick things off!

Everyone stepped up and helped each other whenever it was needed. That’s what makes these drives great! We’re all here to learn from our mistakes, improve and get better with every drive. Most importantly, everyone is safe and we all made it back with some good memories!

Congratz on your first FB+ drive@Enrico - Mountain you did really well today! Also in attempting the double bowl you were in front me and let’s see what my camera has captured.

3 hours ago, Enrico - Mountain said:

Today was definately a day, and a day of firsts. My first FB+, double-bowl (G-Force inducing), and pop-out.

Thank you @ChrisW for your patience, @Beide Worku for bringing the tyre workshop to the desert, @Danie for some sound advice on crossings, @Infaz for being my mentor for the day, and everyone in the convoy who welcomed me so warmly to the FB+ experience. FB+ is definitely a step up from FB, with lots of new learning, technique mastering, and experience building that lie ahead.

My apologies for the refusals that broke the flowing rhythm of the drive. Hopefully with more such drives my abilities will improve bit by bit with your guidance and support.

My take-aways this drive:

1) Keeping momentum and good lines is crucial when tackling longer and steeper dunes. A single break in that momentum such as hitting dips or second-guessing yourself can quickly lead to momentum 'stall'. I think fearing for my 'vehicle' at times made me extra hesitant to push where necessary - but now I know the skid plates can handle the bashing.

2) Mastering following distance is an art, not too close but not to far (understanding the terrain is important). This also comes with trust and confidence in those in front and behind you - which will improve with more drives together. Too many times I hesitated for a second when seeing the vehicle in front of me 'struggle' (or rather me thinking it won't make it), which instantly affected my accelerator foot, reducing power and loosing momentum. 

3) Knowing your vehicle through experience and practice, not turning too sharply at speed and pressing power at the wrong time. I was lucky to be able to recognise the pop-out quickly and stop immediately (saving my tyre, rim, and wheel assembly). Striking a balance between bead grip and directional force, and how that feels, should improve with more practice on such demanding dunes.

The comradery, friendliness, and support today is really appreciated.

An excellent self-debrief @Enrico - Mountain - there’s a lot here that just comes from building a bit of pattern recognition/muscle memory. The quick decision of when it’s time to push/maintain/slow, and recognising the conditions (sand, distance to car or obstacle, etc) such that you can anticipate, is largely now a question of repetition and practice. Looking forward to joining you on more drives in the future. 

Quick onboard clip from a trip round the bowl with Enrico, Danie and Noufal…

37 minutes ago, ChrisW said:

An excellent self-debrief @Enrico - Mountain - there’s a lot here that just comes from building a bit of pattern recognition/muscle memory. The quick decision of when it’s time to push/maintain/slow, and recognising the conditions (sand, distance to car or obstacle, etc) such that you can anticipate, is largely now a question of repetition and practice. Looking forward to joining you on more drives in the future. 

Thank you @ChrisW, your drive makes it look so effortless, while we are behind you flailing away between the feelings of exhilaration and pure frenzy. @Infaz helped me understand the importance of manually down-shifting to maintain RPM's, something I will need to practise, switching over to manual selections from the start (which I will focus on the next drive). Such faster paced, flowing, and larger dunes will require me to become a more conscientious driver. FB+ will definately challenge my abilities (which I am looking forward to), as I cannot just power through, but need to develop the necessary skill - to make it look as beautiful as you guys.

A few video clips of yesterday’s drive! 😎🙌

Thanks, everyone, for a great day out in the dunes yesterday.

A big thank you to @ChrisW for organizing and leading the trip. The route was excellent, from the double bowl through the long ridge lines. Lots of fun 🤩. 

Many thanks to @Infazfor an outstanding job as second lead and  to @Beide Workufor a great sweep and for being the mobile tyre workshop 😎.

Congrats to @Enrico - Mountain on completing his first FB+ drive. You handled the bigger dunes and the double bowl really well, and it was a pleasure to see you step up to the new level.

I have prepared a short recap of the trip, which you can find here: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DeG323Zo2La/?stkn=MWRjcmp4djNqZno2cQ==