The Biggest Red Bull Event of the Year TODAY at 5pm – “Red Bull Winning 5” (Intercon Hotel Gardens)

 With all the World Cup action going on, Red Bull Oman couldn’t have timed their biggest event of the year any better! Why not come out and see some local footballers compete in this unique event’s finals today at the Intercontinental Hotel starting at 5pm? After a month of intense qualifiers, 16 teams from across the country have been selected to compete at the Red Bull Winning Final 5 Country Final today: 2 from Salalah, 3 from Al Dakhiliyah, 2 from Sharqiya, 3 from Al Batinah and 6 teams from Muscat.  If you love football, you don’t want to miss this!  This event is the first of its kind in the Sultanate and it’s not “just football” – there is a twist to this unique sport…there are no goalkeepers!  To make it even more interesting, whenever a team scores a goal the other team has a player eliminated from their team! Each game only lasts 10 minutes until the entire team is eliminated which should definitely add to the intensity of the gameplay. If neither team is eliminated, there will be penalty shootouts made by 2 players going 1-on-1 for 3 seconds. The competition should be fierce as the 1st place team will receive a cash prize of 2,000 OR with 1,000 OR going to 2nd place and 500 OR for 3rd. Some of you may be thinking that it’s too hot to venture outside in this weather, but the temperature shouldn’t be too bad at all once it kicks off at 5pm.So if you’re bummed out that you couldn’t afford a ticket to Brazil to experience the World Cup action live, don’t lose heart, dear Muscateers! Instead, come on down to the Intercon and support some local heroes! 🙂Don’t miss out on the action. You’ve been warned! 🙂 For more info: http://www.redbull.com/winning5oman or on facebook here.

Extreme Sailing Series – Muscat, Oman – March 18-21

My apologies for not posting this before.  Extreme Sailing is taking place right now at Al Mouj Golf Course at the Wave in Muscat, Oman! I was out there this morning and it’s truly a gorgeous day to be outside watching the boats and enjoying all the fun activities taking place like camel riding, football competitions and more…in addition to watching expert sailors from around the globe compete for top prize!  You might want to consider going out there tomorrow with the family.  The Extreme Sailing series started Wednesday but there are still 2 days left.  Here is the schedule for the last 2 days of the sailing series, today and tomorrow:                                                                                                 I put this up to focus on “on the water entertainment“.  Please ignore the Extreme Club column as this was originally intended for invited members of the media.  I was invited to be on one of the sailing boats during one of the actual races but I did it last year so I declined the offer to allow others the opportunity to enjoy such a wonderful, once-in-a-lifetime event.  Here’s the post where I included video I took during the actual race last year!If you haven’t been to Al Mouj Golf Course, there’s no better opportunity than during the exciting extreme sailing series!  It’s on November 18th street on the right hand side of the highway a kilometre or 2 just before the main Wave entrance.  Just keep your eyes out for the excellent signage in place.My buddy, Geoff, scouting out a good spot for the Red Bull team photoshoot.  My main purpose for being out at Al Mouj this morning was helping Geoff with the equipment and lighting.  The last time I was out there was when they was only a 9-hole course.  They are now a full 18-hole course and it is gorgeous!From the media invitation, “With vessels reaching top speeds in narrow stadium courses the Extreme Sailing Series has become a benchmark in the sailing world. Oman features a great sea-faring tradition and has once again been chosen to host the sailing elite including Austrian double Olympic champions Roman Hagara and Hans-Peter Steinacher who are part of the Red Bull Extreme Sailing team.  We are very pleased to welcome all Media for the Extreme Sailing Series, Oman 2014 (19-22 March). We look forward to seeing you as they battle it out in the regatta.”  Here’s a great video including yesterday’s highlights:                                  RACING SCHEDULE 2014

Act 1: ASIA (Singapore) February 20-23
Act 2: OMAN (Muscat) March 19-22 
Act 3: CHINA (Qingdao) May 1-4
Act 4: RUSSIA (Saint Petersburg) June 26-29
Act 5: UK (Cardiff) August 22-25
Act 6: TURKEY (Istanbul) September 11-14
Act 7: TBC (Mediterranean) October 2-5
Act 8: AUSTRALIA (Sydney) December 11-14

If I did it right, this should give you live coverage of the race going on right now:I love seeing these smaller sailboats out on the water. Where the “grass canopy” meets the rocks.  Interesting…Camel riding – Fun for the whole family!So what are you waiting for? Head on down to Al Mouj now while the action is on! A big thanks once again to Stacey Ross, Red Bull Communications Specialist, who always does her best to bring fine entertainment to the residents of Oman!

BMX Red Bull Athletes, Kenny Belaey and Viki Gomez in the Sultanate

The Red Bull Bike Tour is visiting 4 regions of Oman this week.  Two world champion riders, Kenny Belaey and Viki Gomez are doing 24 shows held in 4 stops including Muscat, Sohar, Nizwa and Salalah.Here’s a clip of Kenny on his trail bike to see what he does exactly: Here’s Viki Gomez on his bike: Some shows in the capital to check these guys out and their mad skills:

• Thursday (tonight), March 13th, 7pm – Markaz al Bahaja Mall, Seeb
• Friday, March 14th, 7pm – Muscat Grand Mall
• Friday, March 14th, 7:30pm – Lulu’s at Bouscher

Thanks to Stacey Ross from Red Bull for the info! 🙂

Mousetrap Divesite, Damaniyat Islands, Oman

The divesite called “Mousetrap” was our 2nd dive out of the Millennium Hotel’s Marina in Musanah. (My 26th dive in total)  The first was Sira Island.This is the Musanah Oman Sail Divemaster, Thani Mohammed Al Hamdani. Quote of the day by Thani during the diving orientation: “Maximum deep last in the corner – 20 meter. If you want more deep, take one shovel and go down.” 🙂Other divers waiting for the rest of us to get in the water.  Mousetrap was right next to Sira Island.  This was the first time diving in the Damaniyats where the 1 hour break between dives was not spent at “Police Island” near the gorgeous whitesand beach of Kharabah Island.The visibility was quite poor on this dive so most pics came out looking “greenish”.  It was still a great dive though!  I saw several schools of yellow fish, as well as clown fish, parrot fish, cuttlefish and a turtle.  Check out the video below.  I almost missed the turtle as it was swimming over my head!I can’t quite remember what they call these fish.  Any divers out there want to help me out so I can properly label this fish?There was so much debris during parts of the dive that it was almost as if it was snowing under the water.  Check out the video below to see what I mean.  Some European divers on the boat said that it’s always like that when diving in Oman but that is simply not the case.  Visibility has rarely been an issue when diving for me.I think we caught 2 cuttlefish making out on this dive.Just look at that beach in the distance!  There are so many wonderful places to snorkel, sunbathe and dive at the Damaniyats!If you look close enough, you’ll notice that some cannisters are just slightly larger than the others.  The smaller ones are 13 litres and the larger ones hold 15 litres.  For this dive, I used the larger cannister and it made a huge difference for how long I was able to leave the water.  When I got out after a 55 minute dive, I still had 70 bar of oxygen left!  BTW, the tank with the green sticker is for Nitrox.  If you take one of PADI’s most popular specialty courses, “Enriched Air Diver Course“, it “gives you more no decompression dive time. This means more time underwater, especially on repetitive scuba dives.”Heading back to the Marina at Millennium Hotel in Musanah with the Damaniyats off in the distance

Here is a 10 minute video taken from many short clips of our dive at Mousetrap.  Notice the poor visibility in some spots and be sure to check out the huge turtle swimming over my head (starting at 7:05)!Be were fortunate to be diving during the Laser World Championships 2013 – which is taking place out of the Marina at the Millennium!  The boatride back was made much more interesting with dozens of sailboats out on the water!       I got this list of watersport activities from the Marina and thought readers might be interested in knowing current prices for such activities at the Musanah Marina.  30 minutes of Stand Up Paddle Boarding for only 3 rials?! Or Kayaking for the same price!?  To learn more about Stand Up Paddle Boarding in Oman,  check out this awesome blogpost by Heather Duncan from the “Duncan Adventures Blog”!

Any of you ever dive out of Musanah with Oman Sail? If so, how was your experience?  We really enjoyed it and love that the diving options of Oman are slowly growing! To book with Oman Sail in Musanah, just visit the Oman Sail office to the right of the Marina.  Tel: +968-2671771 Email: info@seaoman.com      Website: www.seaoman.com

Red Bull Car Park Drift Regional Finals in Dubai, Nov 8, 2013

I love this photo of the Red Bull Car Park Drift Middle East Regional Finals on November 8th, 2013 in downtown Dubai at the World Trade Centre.  The event was 9pm till about midnight.  We had VIP tickets right in the very front of the action and it was AMAZING!  This pic captures the gorgeous scene that is Dubai and part of what was such an incredible night of awesome adrenaline pumping action! Ali Al Balushi and Ali Al Shabaini were in Dubai representing the sultanate of Oman.  Here Ali Al Balushi starts his run.  He really was on fire (not literally, thank God!) on Friday night!  He made it to the top 4 and so for the final round he really had to bring his game.                                                As you can see, Ali Al Balushi got 3rd place!  Othman Al Takriti from Jordan came 2nd and he also got the Bridgestone award for Best Tire Smoke.We thought the last 4 contenders were ALL incredible and it must have been a very hard decision for the judges!The Middle East Regional winner of Car Park Drift for the Middle East – Jad Himo from Lebanon!  This competition was one of the main events of the 2013 Dubai Motor Festival and was one of the highlights of my 1st trip (ever) to Dubai!On our ride back to Muscat on Saturday afternoon, look whose car we ended up passing just after Sohar!Thanks again to Stacey Ross from Red Bull in Oman and Nada Shabib (Communication Specialist for the UAE) for arranging VIP tickets for us!  Folks, if you’re ever offered tickets (especially VIP!) to a Red Bull event, don’t pass up the opportunity! 🙂

Check out this video that Red Bull put together for media partners.  It will give you a great idea of what it was like being there.  If you want to jump to the action, the Winning Run starts at 4:28, followed by “Action Shots” (5:44-6:45) and a bit of Abdo Feghali’s drifting “Showcase” (6:46-7:03):

I’ll see if I can put the 2nd half of the video including podium shots when I get a chance.