Outdoor Educator, Adventure Sports Coach and Instructor Trainer
In this months Outdoor UAE is my article on white water kayaking here in the UAE. Yes you read that right, white water kayaking in the desert.
Get hold of a copy of the mag to find out more. A list of where the mag is available from can be found here https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=251340694902364&set=a.157112507658517.25782.152349084801526&type=3&theater
First published in 1991 the Third Edition of the White Water Nepal Guide is now available. This iconic rafting and kayaking guide book has seen a thorough update and there are some significant changes.
Firstly the original author, Peter ‘Green Slime’ Knowles, has been joined by co author Daz Clarkson who is one of expedition kayakings leading lights. Daz spends several months a year running trips in Nepal through Pure Land Expeditions and is the only person in the world to have kayaked all the rivers that flow from Everest. His current knowledge and expertise have helped bring the guide bang up to date.
Secondly the guide is now printed in Nepal. Daz says “As co authors we wanted to keep the style and feel of the 1st and 2nd edition, it is an iconic guidebook and we felt it mattered to people that they were able to return to it like an old friend. The book was made in Nepal, jointly published by Rivers Publishing in the UK and Himalayan Map House in Kathmandu.For me it was a great learning curve to be sat working in the publishers in Kathmandu, working away with traditional cut/paste. The finished product is perfect, it shows the great development in Nepal and the increase of river running in the Himalayas.”
The guide is an invaluable tool for anyone planning a rafting or kayaking experience in Nepal whether as a client with a rafting company or as a dirtbag boater planning an extended season. The book is packed to the gunwales with information, stories, cartoons and detail that will both entertain and inform both beginner and seasoned verteran.
Career Warning– Reading this book could lead you into the world of the expedition kayaker/rafter. It is a world of discovery including real adventure, cultural understanding, gobsmaking natural beauty and incredibile people achieving truly staggering things. If you’d rather sit in front of a screen of Column A and Column B than by a camp fire on a white sandy beach museing the days adventures while trying to spot satelites as they move across the sky in front of the Milky Way then this is not the life for you. Unfortunately these life choices don’t fit very well with a sensible career your Mother would approve of.
The Third Edition of White Water Nepal by Peter Knowles and Darren Clarkson-King (ISBN 978-0-9550614-2-4) is jointly published by Rivers Publishing U.K. and Himalayan Map House Nepal and available from all good book shops.
For UAE based climbers social media has been a tale of woe for a while now. Firstly the old UAEclimbing.com forum died a slow quiet death when its owner left the region. Then the UAE Rock Climbing facebook group turned into an badly moderated and spam ridden bitch fest. The only reason to continue membership of it seemed to be to watch with sick fascination as the community seemed to tear itself apart. For an outsider or newbie looking in it certainly didn’t paint the community in a positive light. For me it just made me angry and generated a strong desire to punch the screen in the way that the worst of reality TV does.
The reality is that the climbing community is actually very strong here in the UAE and I enjoy being party of it a lot.
Well maybe a new group that has been set up brings with it some hope at last. If your a climber based here in the region or are someone who wants to be a climber based here I suggest you join the Real UAE Rock Climbers Facebook Group and see if it can turn the situation around.
Here’s the blurb that outlines the ethos:
A Groucho Club for UAE climbers, a digital camp fire for genuine rock climbers with an interest in UAE climbing to meet without bringing their commercial spam and alternative agendas with them.
As per the Groucho Club, membership is by invite. Membership is predominately for rock climbers with an interest in UAE Rock Climbing. The group is Spam free.
There are no restrictions on subjects discussed but members will behave like mature adults. In the event of a member’s behavior degenerating to the point that other members are offended Das Scruitinizer will intervene. The reaction of members will determine what is acceptable in the circumstances and context that it occurs. The test of acceptable conduct is simply, how would reasonable, mature adults behave if they were sat round a camp fire with family, friends and fellow climbers.
There is no aspiration to build any “community” or club. This will be a place to share chat and experiences; make recommendations for areas, routes etc, swap beta (what ever that may be) so that people that want to get out climbing in the UAE have the opportunity to share information.
Who is running the show? Effectively the people on it and if they object to other people’s behavior then I will intervene with the remit that I will apply: what is reasonable? would you say this if you were standing next to the person? is this how mature adults would behave/interact?
Its a bit of a mystery at the moment who Das Scruitinizer is!! I do hope that who ever it is quickly puts together a sensible group of admins though to keep things in line on in the group to prevent the ridiculous malarky found elsewhere.
Enjoy
Ian
The cranks are very much turning at the moment in the regions cycle retail industry. To my knowledge there are at least 4 significant new stores due to open in the next couple of months. I’ll go through them in the order I think they will open:
I think first will be Micah’s Bike Shop in the area of Al Quoz, Dubai, behind the Oasis Centre. The store is already fitted out and products are on the shelf. Not only do these guys seem to be the undisputed “Kings Of Bling” (check out the range of anodized bling products in glass cabinets) they are also the first store, to the best of my knowledge, specializing in mountain biking. The store is born from a collective from inside the local mountain biking community itself and brands include Ellesworth, Intense, Loaded and Fox. They have a spacious workshop, proven mechanical expertise, free coffee and a very social outlook. Contact them on micahsbikeshop@gmail.com or via their facebook page
Next I think it will be Revolution Cycles based out at Motor City, Dubai. A project set up by Stewart Howison of Cycle Safe Dubai fame, this store will also have a strong community base in the road scene. I don’t know yet what they’ll have in store for the mountain bikers. Stewart is a committed cyclist’s cyclist so there will be no shortage of specialist knowledge and expertise. The best way to follow this project is to ‘like’ their facebook page HERE.
Following hot on the heels of these 2 ‘independent’ are 2 from the big guns of Go Sport and Ride.
I think Go Sport will be first and this is hot news for Adu Dhabi based cyclists. Opening in the brand new Bawabat Al Sharq Mall. Ranging is likely to be similar to the Dubai Mall Go Sports with its pretty even mix of road, mountain and recreational bikes and accessories. Mid to late March 2012 is the expected opening date but I’m afraid I haven’t got any store specific contact details for you at this point in time.
Ride’s new store is likely to be last but by absolutely no means least as it is being touted as what will be the largest bike store in the GCC! This will see a big change in strategy for the Ride Bike stores as they move out of relatively small mall based stores and into some space on the Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai. This will give them room to display their extensive brand line up including Giant, Santa Cruz, Top Peak and Mavic as well as decent workshop space to. All they need is a decent clothing brand to go with their Buff offering and it will be a very complete range 😉 . Ride are very active on facebook making this the best way to keep up to date with their offering and their group can be found HERE.
So times they certainly are changing in the regions very active cycle scene. To my mind its all very very +ve and exciting.
Hopefully catch at a trail head or in a bunch soon
Ian
On the 15th of March Arabia outdoors are holding “An Evening of Entertainment for Outdoor Enthusiasts”. Mike Nott and myself will be speaking.
Previous social events Simon has organised have gathered together a great group of people and this evening should be no different.
Mike Nott is a regional 4×4 authority, is the author of a soon to be published Outdoor UAE Advanced Offroad Guide and has had many adventures in the region and elsewhere. He’s a great guy Mike and his stories could lead you into some great off road adventures while his advice is likely to help you come through them in one piece.
I’ll be telling the story of our mildly epic initial attempt at circumnavigating the Musendam Penninsular including its untimely end along with the successful solo mission I completed immediataly afterwards. It is a fantastic world class sea paddlers destination and as well as telling the story I hope to provide racks of information on paddling in the area along with some top tips and handy hints.
Please help us provide a successful evening by sharing this post via facebook, twitter and other social media as well as doing the analogue version of sharing information by printing off the flyer below (click on the image) and sticking it on notice boards as well as telling your mates too.
Tickets are available from myself or contact Simon by email on simon.cahill@arabiaoutdoors.com or by phone at 055 9556209
Tim has produced this neat video of the mountain bike trails out at Showka
Enjoy
A short edit of my solo hack in Showka today
Jaakko has been exploring the slopes of Jebel Yibir for a while now running and mountain biking up there on a regular basis. Despite it being kind of on my doorstep I didn’t realise there was rideable terrain up there until I saw a video (see here) posted on the Hot Cog MTB Facebook group. It looked awesome and straight away I asked Jaakko when he was next planning to ride up there. 1 week later and we were shouldering bikes to carry them up the first 200m of ascent.
Jaakko is putting together a map of his explorations
The route wasn’t long, we only covered just over 10km in total, and it involved lots of pushing and carrying. The riding was tough and technical, the trail was often very rocky and sections were loose headsized rocks. It never ceases to amaze me what modern bikes can cope with though and I love this kind of biking.
Here’s Jaakkos helmet cam footage
There is racks of exploring to do up there. I have a feeling I’m going to be shouldering my bike quite a lot.
It was pointed out by Gregory.Rotter on cameralabs.com that this camera/lens combination was front focusing. Now because I’m a newbie with an untrained eye I hadn’t noticed this. After a bit of google action I came across a test sheet, downloaded it and ran the test
Here’s the result
Model: Canon EOS 550D
ISO: 100
Exposure: 1/250 sec
Aperture: 1.4
Focal Length: 30mm
Clearly front focusing 
And I’m loving this lens
So after another bit of google action I found there was a Sigma Service Centre in Dubai HERE. I gave them a bell and made the journey there to drop the lens off. It will be with them for 14 days 
I have taken another test with my Canon 50mm f1.8 to check its not the camera. I’ll upload it and post it shortly
Camera Canon EOS 550D
Exposure 0.02 sec (1/50)
Aperture f/5.6
Focal Length 135 mm
ISO Speed 100
Back lit with flash 430 EXII fired wirelessly at 1/8th but with a piece of paper over the lens and a diffuser on top of that against a peice of white A4 paper hanging from a tenuous back drop support made from plastic coat hangers zip tied together.
I’ve been experimenting this eve with a view to this months assignment. I’ve been trying to work out what a silhouette is and how to get some depth in an image.
I havent tried to take this sort of image before so I’ve had an interesting evening messing around with the flash. Had a bit of an accident though. Managed to pour wine everywhere while trying to get it into the glass in the dark and operate the laptop which was controlling the camera!!
There is a set of 5 of these images and the others can be found on Flickr HERE. C&C would be gratefully received
Look at that single track flowing down the wadi! I’d say 75% of todays ride was on single track
The trail pixies leave their little secret signs here and there to help out those that know to look for them
Got to love that you cycle past camels all the time when your out mountain biking here
Ian Ganderton 