Looper

Yeah, I ware tactical sliders for FB+ and Intermediate drives since I expect to have a lot less shovelling and recoveries. For NB ans FB it’s tactical shoes only!

We all have our own ways of organizing stuff, and something that works best for one might not work for another. As a compulsive data hoarder and list maker, I will never be able to bring myself to keep few tracks to delete others, I am OCD-d to keep everything and try to manage. Also, for the first 165 drives technically I never had any reason to go back and see where I was driving since all that I needed to do was to follow the lead. So, I would just move the file to the designated folder and hide them, not a single track on the Gaia! On the other hand, as seasoned off-roaders with way more experience than most of us reading a post about "Gaia GPS for Beginners"; we have a lot to learn from you. @Frederic!

Recently Gaia has been a regular topic of discussion, as I started to do partial leads. During these discussions, an issue that came up regularly is how the tracks become unmanageable and do not make any sense anymore, leading to users deleting their old tracks. I too found the same issue while I was still new, perhaps 10 to 15 drives old, and I was intermediate already! When I was driving in the same area there were multiple tracks in different colours, and nothing made sense. Since Fewbie level I have been organizing my recorded tracks and I want to share my housekeeping tricks in post in the hope that a few of you might find it helpful. 1. Start Early: If you start early to organise your drives and with a little bit of housekeeping from the start you can better manage the tracks in the future, and it does not become a big headache later. Even if you are not subscribed to the app, do record the tracks with the free version and save them. 2. Folders: Create folders for each level of drive, such as Newbie, Fewbie and so on. I have folders for other types of drives, e.g., drives with friends, wadi drives etc. After each drive while saving the track, immediately put the track in those folders while saving. Gaia also gives an option to add photos you took during the drive to attached. While I do it, I delete them (Profile>Photos) later as it leaves a bunch of waypoints that I don’t need. The photos seem to stay with the track even after deleting them. Saving tracks in folders makes it quite easy to hide/unhide (eye button in saved tab) a bunch of tracks at the same time. These days I hide all the tracks and keep the current plan visible. Any new drive you record will automatically be visible till you hide them. 3. Colour Coding: You can colour code all drives in a level with one colour. In my case I used the same colours that were used in my stats posts. I considered either colour coding or creating folders by Lead or Area instead of filing tracks by Level + color-coding them at the same time, because it seemed like duplication. But those options either did not add any value to me or the process made it more confusing for me. Your experience might vary. 4. Rename Tracks: Rename the track with the area you did the drive and the lead with who you drove in the title. I also put the participants' names in the notes section. This helps to find specific tracks by searching for them (use “Download guest list” in calendar to get text of all names). As a newbie lead, I go back to my most memorable drives from the past in an area to plan for the next drive. Some time I get to see a great track to drive and other times I take the convoy though a technical jungle; either way it is fun.

You need what they call Tactical Shoes. The two most seen brands in the desert are from Decathlon and Antartica which is available from Amazon. You need a shoe which goes till ankle height and preferably made of canvas and/or leather and light as well, becase in the sand you don't want to wear those heavy work shoes like the ones from Cat. Also avoid sports shoes because they are made with breather able material, and they breathe in sand. Shoes meant for snow might work well, i guess - not sure though. In my experiance, Decathlon are well engineered, they go well with Decathlon Desert Pants. However, my pair developed holes on both the shoes near the small finger and started to fill up with sand. I once tried to attach some Duct Tape, and they looked cool for a total of 15 min before the tape fell off. So I was in the market, this time anything but Decathlon for a change, but I could not find anything good (I visited Outlet Mall on E66), so ended up buying the Antartica Brand from Amazon. PS: continuing my rant on Decathlon - when I washed pants in the washing machine and the hooks at the bottom shredded the pants near the ankle; lesson learnt - don't wash them in washing machine or wash them in delicate mode.

Congratulations @Cristian on your promotion. Well done!

Congratulations @Gautam Banka on your promotion. Well done!

Congratulations @Pieter Pot on your promotion. Now the fast pace starts…

Congratulations @Benjamin on your promotion. You are an accomplished driver and I am sure you will enjoy this level a lot.

My recommendation for any off-road car and specially for Jeeps is to have the tires cleaned, rebalanced, and rotated every 10k kms. as we drive in the desert and the tires go through abnormal amounts of stress irrespective how careful we are while driving, and they bound to go unbalanced. I copied this pic below from a search. I use the Top Right diagram in my car using all 5 tires so that over a 50k km dive each tire gets to be used for 40k km.

Wishing you a very happy birthday @Gaurav.

Tawi Nazwa is a popular spot for both off-road enthusiasts and casual drivers looking for some fun in the desert. It is the backyard of tradesmen who take their guests for a quick half hour drive in the desert in the name of dune bashing. It's no surprise that every sand dune is going to be churned up by the end of the day, as visitors push themselves and their vehicles to their limits. Just like Gaurav, it has been a while since I was here on a drive. The last time I was here was in June of 2022 with Dr @Chaitanya D, and it was a magnificent drive. In that drive I was quite surprised how untouched these dunes were and on this Saturday afternoon drive, exactly what I wanted. However, it seems that even this relatively secluded part of the Tawi Nazwa hasn't been immune to the influence of tradesmen and their guests. This afternoon was a bit warm and to be frank I was not used to it for some time now. After a quick briefing we ventured into the dunes. From the get-go we encountered churned up tracks, and the objective was to get a smooth driving tack while avoiding those bumpy cross-tracks. As we kept driving in the desert, we kept increasing the pace of the drive and when we reached one of the first tall dunes, we were driving quite fast and smoothly. From there we went to conquer Big Red. We did reach more than three fourths up there as well. But there was an issue with the engine of @Thejas so we all came back to the ground, and we could exit him safely. There after we practiced few sideeds before we called it a day. The track here at Tawi Nazwa can be intimidating and can be fast paced. We had very few refusals and all of you did an excellent job keeping up with the pace. I hope you enjoyed the drive as much as I did at the helm leading a remarkable convoy. @Mohit Gurnani: You did quite well on your first Fewbie drive. You quickly lost your uneasiness and rose to the challenges of a Fewbie Drive. @Parliament: You are ever excited to do more all the time. Your enthusiasm can be infectious. Just keep driving and you will have many, many chances. @Thejas Uthran: You drove your Trailblazer very well. However, in the end it faced some issues. Please keep us posted on how you manage after you exited the drive. @Misha Puskar: Few refusals here and there but they are part of the game. You were fantastic in your handling of your car and drove very well. @Senthil Kumar: You were the anchor in the middle, and I was extremely impressed with your handling of the refusals. You gave very clear instructions as to how to manage refusals. I was quite relieved at the front knowing you were handling the convoy at the back. @Juan R: Four of four, you have been my constant companion on all my leads. Sometimes knowingly but most of the time unknowingly you have driven with me in the lead on all last 4 of your drives. You drove as usual very well and I hardly ever hear from you. @Rk ram: This was our second drive, and you had an impressive drive as far as I am concerned. You could manage the refusal on top of Big Red quite well and drove well throughout the drive. @george charbel: Back-to-back third drive together. You are ready for the next level when the time comes. @premindra rajaram: Glad to see you back as well and you did an excellent job at the back. @Bashar Beasha: Thanks for being the back managing the responsibilities of the Sweep, which is as Gaurav mentioned earlier is an especially significant role intimating the lead on the movement of the convoy and managing the refusals behind the center-forward. @Gaurav: Thanks for being the 2nd lead and more importantly being the guide in my journey from being an absolute newbie till now leading drive. It gave me immense sense of confidence you being there in this drive. Finally some stats of the day: