Off-road adventures: The stories behind UAE’s off-roading culture

Gulf News

How off-roading enthusiasts are building a strong community while honing their skills  Read the full story here:   See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km

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00:00I'm June Gatdula.

00:20I'm one of the marshals of Pilops United.

00:23I've been in the group for almost three years now and this morning we will be having a drive

00:28intended for Newbie and Rook 11.

00:32Before the drive actually, one of the most important things to remember is that we have

00:38to de-plate first the tires of the vehicle around 10 to 12 PSI, it depends on the rims.

00:45We are doing the de-plate, we call it de-plation, or decreasing the pressure of the tire just

00:52to have a better grip on the desert.

00:55You will notice all the off-road vehicles is having a flag on top of it.

01:02Vehicle will notice or will be having an idea what is the movement of the vehicle.

01:07Vehicle at his back will know if it is stuck or is still moving.

01:15For first in the safety tips, we need to have our radio on, we need to observe radio silent

01:23during the drive.

01:24This is very important to everyone to hear the instruction.

01:30The maneuver for the Newbie will be very, very basic because we expect them to listen

01:37and follow instruction.

01:39To emphasize the one truck rule, this means that wherever the marshal goes, that's also

01:49the same truck, the same exact truck.

01:52This car and the last cars will follow.

01:55Why we follow the one truck rule always for the Newbies?

01:59The main reason is that this marshal knows where is the safest way or truck to approach

02:08for every Newbie.

02:16Okay, so we have an FJ Cruiser stuck in the top of the crest.

02:22So what happens is he did not put enough power going up the dune.

02:28Normally we will be using a type of recovery rope that we prefer, we call it a kinetic

02:34rope.

02:35So this is a soft shackle that he's using right now and the red rope is the kinetic

02:42rope that we prefer to use for recovering any type of vehicle here in the desert.

02:53So it's going to be a slight tug just enough to release the car from the crest.

03:03Hello, I'm Tom, I'm a Newbie here in this group, the Philips group.

03:08It's my first day here and it's very exciting and I'm learning a lot in just a few minutes.

03:13So the difference between city driving and off-road, well, it's a completely different

03:17world actually.

03:19You have to learn, you have to learn a lot.

03:21If you think you're a professional driver on the road, it's different here.

03:24Hoping to learn more from these professional off-road drivers and they're very kind and

03:30I love the adrenaline that I'm feeling right now.

03:33At the moment, I'm on my fifth drive with Philops and so far I'm learning a lot with

03:40them and they're very supportive in terms of teaching all the technical stuff and in

03:47terms of the community, they're very easy to be with.

03:50So you guys will enjoy, definitely.

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