Name: Andy Whitaker
Nationality: English (Yorkshire)
Occupation? Business owner/Designer/photographer
What is your passion?
The outdoors, wild landscapes, mountains & lakes and traveling through these environments to enjoy all they have to offer away from the hustle and bustle of the city.
How did you get into Mountain Biking?
I had been road cycling with a club and competitively since i was 13, then when the very first mountain bikes started to appear in the cycle shops
in the UK, so around 1986/87 i guess, I started mountain biking as well, I soon forgot about road cycling and have been mountain biking ever since
Where and how do you practice in the UAE?
I generally ride twice a week, once at the weekend and once at night during the week with the aid of high tech powerful LED lights. In summer I tend to ride just at night even on the weekends to avoid the heat, night riding makes it just a little more comfortable.
How long have you been in the UAE and why did you come here?
Friends back in the UK were getting married and starting families, whereas I fancied a bit of an adventure instead and to fulfill the dream of living and working overseas for a year or two (which has now become 15 years).
I have been in the UAE since 1997, I came here to work as a designer for a small company for the first 12 months before starting to work freelance and eventually starting my own design agency.
What has been your best experience involving MTB’ing
Being able to ride in places where no-one has ever ridden before, pioneering new routes on a regular basis, as well as the people I have met through
being actively involved with the sport, I’ve met my closest friends over the years through mountain biking.
Where is your favorite location?
My favorite location at the present time is Shawka, where over the last 2-3 years a few of us have been out developing a network of trails to ride, including getting out there with a rake/shovel etc to make new paths, we have even gone to the lengths to make a small wooden bridge over one gap to aid the flow of one of the paths… I still have a couple of other big gap bridges planned for this summer.
In the region I would add Salalah as another favorite area, having just come back form a 4 day exploration trip to discover potential mountain biking routes in the Salalah area. It was, I have to say a very successful trip and Salalah has a great deal to offer, and I hope to make another trip down there soon.
What is your next planned adventure?
The next adventure, well I’m looking into other places to ride in the region for some long weekends through the summer months that can be accessed by the budget airlines, so Almaty is a favorite option right now, but I also expect to go back to Nepal to ride again sometime in 2012
What would you recommend to our readers if they wanted to try Mountain Biking?
Contact one of the many groups on Facebook here in the UAE, such as “UAE mountain biking”, this group is run by a bunch of friendly and welcoming Filipinos. “Mountainbiking UAE”- is a very informal small group with diverse group of skills. Also look at “Dubikers” – one of the original groups and good to make first contact, there are also two other groups but I know little about them “Roost Tah” and “Barchans” these groups cater very well to riders with little or no experience and right up to an experienced level. They are well-organised groups with a huge amount of support to newcomers and split into groups based on skill/fitness.
The club I run Hot-cog-mtb (www.hot-cog.com), caters more for the advanced and experienced level riders, who have previous club/race experience and aimed very much at self-sufficient riders.
