Impressions from the Dubai Off-Road and Adventure Show
Three long days — the gates to the 2015 Dubai Off-Road and Adventure Show remained open as it welcomed visitors of all races into the region’s only exhibition focusing on a display of heavily modified outdoor vehicles while throwing in various adventure activities as well.. Despite the heat during midday, the turnout to the show was great and the show attracted the right people – outdoor lovers, off-road enthusiast and adventure seekers.
The second year of the show is a landmark success over the first year with a few great leaps undertaken. First and most obvious is the venue which moved from Dubai Autodrome to Sports City that provided convenient parking access to visitors. Another worthy thing of note is that this year’s venue provided an ideal amount of space where visitors can easily find all the highlights of the show: the SUP pool, the climbing wall, the Best 4×4 Competition and of course the Dubai Gladiators Challenge II by just taking a few steps. The event had almost 30 of the Middle East’s most insanely customised off-road vehicles on display which applied among others for one of the desired spots.
Highlights of the show include the fan favourite SUP pool where they could bask in the cold water while kids and even adults had their chance to try out some kayaks and SUPs provided by Adapt UAE. Families also enjoyed a great day of Speedminton and American Football where locals and expats alike put their NFL skills to the test against an automatic ball thrower. Out back was the fatbike and MTB track built and presented by Silverback where people can also try out their line of Scoop fatties for all ages. Another iconic display in the show – the climbing wall and slack line from Rock Republic also returned and a lot of children and even media correspondents! Had a taste of what it feels to be high up a rock face.
Up front are displays from various off-road brands such as Mebar, ARB Emirates and Offroad-Zone, the latter of which also offered their free “You Drive Desert Experience” just near Sports City! For those who were in dire need of an adrenaline rush, this proved to be extremely useful. Our team even had the chance to try it out and the end result? An amazing high that left everyone happy as they disembarked from the Jeeps fresh from the desert.
Some amazing prizes were also raffled off which included two fixie bicycles, three G-Shocks and six boat trips! The lucky ticket holders celebrated with their brand new bikes and watches while part of them are already gearing up for their east coast snorkel trip! Another important prize was also won by Lara Haddad; she was completely stoked to have won a brand new Yamaha Raptor 90 ATV provided by Al Yousuf Motors! Asked what she would do first to her new ATV, she said with a breath of excitement: “I can’t wait to take it out! I’m definitely taking it out in the desert first thing”. Congratulations to all the lucky winners!
Another important part of the show was the Best 4×4 Competition. This year’s show brought even more off-road vehicles on display with almost 30 vehicles vying for the title of Best 4×4 of the Show. The car with the most votes was the Toyota Land Cruiser 76 “Honey Badger” from James Raley known by OutdoorUAE readers who followed their 14-month journey through Africa. Since their car was in the front area and was popular even before the competition, we decided to give them a special prize and trophy “Most Loved Vehicle 2015”. The victor was won by Ahmad al Madani of the UAE Adventures Club with his extremely radical 2013 Jeep Wrangler followed by Raef Akhila of the UAE Hummer Team with his 2009 Hummer H2 and last but not the least, Salem al Ali of Xtreme 4×4 with his 2012 Jeep JK. We had an opportunity to speak with Mr. Al Madani about his victory and he said: “Thank you very much to the Dubai Off-Road Adventure Show for giving me this award and thank you as well to my team; I had so much fun in the show”. Sharing the same sentiment, various visitors responded likewise when asked about the event. It ranged from reactions such as “Fun!”, “It was great!” and “We’d love to come back next year!” all in all; the show fulfilled its purpose to the community – to give them a fun weekend filled with various outdoor activities.
Commenting on the success of the show, Daniel Birkhofer – the brains behind the entire event had this to say: Now in its second year, I think we finally found the perfect venue which is an important and essential step to make the Dubai Off-Road and Adventure Show the annual highlight and season opener for off-roaders and outdoor lovers. But we certainly will push the date a bit back, to enjoy cooler temperatures during the day. A personal thank you to my team from OutdoorUAE who worked hard to make this event a success and to our sponsors and supporters.
We’d like to thank all our sponsors and supporters for making the second year of the event such a blast.
We’ll see you all in 2016!
Words By: Keith Perena
Photos By: Jung Francisco and Ian Sebeldia
