If you ever make it down to Salalah in the southern region of Dhofar in Oman, you may want to consider diving (if you’re qualified) or snorkeling while you’re there to experience the beauty of Salalah marinelife.  While we were at the Hilton Salalah Resort on our latest trip, I managed to cram in a quick dive with the SubAqua Dive Center before the long drive back to Muscat.  I’m glad I did!

The Sub-Aqua Dive Center is near the Hilton waterfront; to the right of the pool as you face the beach.  Here, divemaster Nick Turner and another employee, Nina, attend to a customer.

Nick and Abdullah in the equipment room as we gear up for our dive.

This was the location of my first ever dive in Salalah.  It’s near the Oasis Club (restaurant) on the hill near this beach.  Therefore, divers refer to this divesite as “Oasis“.  Not only was this my first dive in Salalah - it was my first shore dive! It was a bit of a feat to put on my fins halfway in the water as the waves were crashing in!

So our divesite was in the bay right next to the “Oasis Club” in the bottom right corner of this map.

Our motley crue preparing for the dive!   It was good fun diving with these guys.

Abdullah, a new employee with SubAqua Dive Center, getting ready to go under.  Adbullah was just qualified as an Open Water Diver.

Viz was limited, but it was still a good dive.  Wish I had time for a 2nd one!

This was the first time using my new 14 mega pixel Intova with housing.  Here is a video of 14 different short clips taken my yours truly during this dive.  Keep in mind that this was my first underwater video in low viz!Obviously I have a LOT to learn about taking UW videos! Here is a video recorded at the same divesite by divemaster, Nick Turner, who is now leading the Suq Aqua Dive Center: 

Back at the beach! Benji, pictured here, was another diver who just finished his Open Water Diver Course.

That was fun! Let’s do it again!

If you’re a diver and want to do some diving while in Oman, give Salalah a try.  Diving season there is November to May so they’re open for business!

In case you missed it, here are a few clips from the last 2 FMX shows put on by Redbull at Motorshow 2012 Oman from Friday, December 14th.  Chris Fisher from Merge 104.8 enters “the death zone” and has these bikers doing somersaults over his head at one point!  You have to check out Geoffrey’s amazing photography from the same event (and drifting as well).  Click here to see some incredible shots.  Here are a few of my pics:

“Dude, you do realize we’re both lucky to be alive, right?!”

Here’s another incredible video graciously provided to me by one of the official Redbull photographers, Mustafa Hamidi, for your entertainment:

Nice vid put out by Oman Sail (released Dec. 16th) to promote the Laser World Championship 2013 which will be held here in Oman!

While I was at Oman Motorshow 2012, I decided to check out the Drifting that was going on next to the FMX shows in the Adventure Zone.

The ROP were out in full force.

People were standing on cars and anything they could find/reach for a good view.

My friend, Geoffrey, who manages the awesome blog “The Rogue and Peasant Slave” managed to get “in the pit” for some decent pics.

This pic is actually 2 pics combined using Panorama Maker 4 from ArcSoft.

Red Bull will be holding another Drifting Competition in February of 2013.  Here is a video from Redbull from the 2012 Car Park Drift Oman Competition:

Here is a video I put together by combining about 10 short clips from Drifting at Oman Motorshow 2012:

You might (or might not!) have heard that Oman recently got placed in the Guinness Book of World Records for creating the world’s largest football (or soccer for you Canadians and others out there who refuse to get on the bandwagon of using the globally recognized name of “football” for the sport!).  Well it was hard not to hear about it here in Oman as many publications “bragged” about this grand achievement.  Some papers went so far as to say that with this event ”history was re-written“….haha! Maybe for you.  One of the organizers was quoted as saying, “At last our dream has come true…”  Let’s not go overboard, y’all! Anyway, we were driving by the Seeb Stadium and noticed the giant football and decided to stop and get a few pics.

Vivid color function

Toy Camera Effect – “”darkens image edges to create a distinctive feel”

Miniature Effect – Blurs top and bottom for a miniaturized effect

My sister in law is in town for a short visit. Here she is trying to kick the 750 kg ball with a diameter of 10.8 meters.  Good luck with that, Janice!

Naomi and 2 of her aunties with the giant football at Seeb Sports Stadium

If you’re into giant footballs and are in the Muscat area, you might want to go to Seeb Sports Stadium to see Oman’s new “pride and joy”.   It is scheduled to stay there till June, 2013 “to remind the nation that Oman made it into the Guinness Book of World Records“.

Had to share these fantastic packages (for 2) on offer from Oman Sail to:

• Discover Scuba Diving,
• Explore the Damaniyat Islands, and/or
• Experience Sailing

Some pretty decent offers from the folks at Oman Sail! They sure do know how to cover all aspects of social networking: from facebook, to youtube vids to twitter, so I encourage you to show them some love and “like“, subscribe and “follow“.

Published Jan 29, 2013, “This clip summarizes the grand opening of Mussanah Marina and the new dive center which was held at Mussanah Sport’s city on 10th of January2013. The ceremony had various activities during the day after the offical opening by the guest of honor and officials followed by some fun free entertainment for the family and kids.”

                                      While we were enjoying our time at Marina Bandar Al Rowdha one evening, an Indian gentleman from Al Raheeb Marine Tourism approached us and asked if we’d like to do some snorkeling and dolphin watching the next day. (At a cost of 20 rials/person.)  I was a little hesitant at first as I’ve been on many boats in my 5 years here in Oman and I’ve never seen a dolphin yet.  Most dolphin watching tours even have it clearly stated somewhere (in small print) that “there is no guarantee that you will spot dolphins on your tour“.  It hadn’t happened yet so I wasn’t about to hold my breath!The next day we arrived at 10am, paid our 20 rials each and headed out for a day of adventure.  The poster stated that it would take 2 hours but we were gone at least 4 hours.  It was at least a 30-minute boatride to reach the spot we were hoping to see dolphins.  As always, it was nice to sit back and enjoy the gorgeous shoreline between Muscat and Bandar al Khairan.We certainly saw a fair share of dolphins on this trip! The dolphins would swim alongside our boat and jump out of the water every now and then.More tourists (in a boat almost identical to ours) doing their best to capture some good pics of the dolphins.I took thousands of pics, but what I really wanted was a pic of a dolphin as it jumps out of the water!  The problem is that you can’t really anticipate where they will jump so all you can do is be ready and hope to get one on film.  I only managed to get one picture as a dolphin leapt above the water.  Here it is but you might have to strain your eyes to see it.Here it is zoomed in and cropped.  Sorry for the blurriness, but the pic obviously becomes blurrier the more you zoom in!This pic captures what it can be like to be out dolphin watching.  The tourists are all looking off to the center and leftside of the boat while a dolphin swims along the rightside!After our exciting dolphin watching episode, we boated back in the direction of Bandar al Khiran, enjoying the mountain and coastal views along the way.There’s a still a lot of construction going on at Jebel Sifah, in the vacinity of Sifawy Boutique Hotel.And there’s As Sammak Seafood Restaurant!The village of SifahFinally…let the snorkelling begin! We ended up snorkeling in the same spot I went to before with Omanta Scuba.  At that time, someone told me it was called “Nursery Cove” but the men on this boat gave this spot a different name. ?!My sister-in-law, Janice, who flew all the way from Singapore to see us, LOVED snorkeling here in Oman.  If we have other family members or friends visit us again here in the Sultanate, we’ll be sure to do this again!I’ve still got a lot to learn about how to use my underwater camera as you can see from these pics! The problem is that I was mostly trying to take short video clips.  I’ll try and put a video up at some point.And another 30 minute boatride (at least!) back to the marina. So many great views! Here you can see the private beach of Al Husn Hotel at the Shangri-La.And there’s the sea-arch at Bandar al Jissah/Gissah.That’s Qantab, the beautiful seacoast village just outside of Muscat.  Here is a pic of the entrance to Bandar Beach  (also known as Qantab Beach or Bandar Jissah Beach) just 2 minutes up the road from Qantab village:I can’t believe that they’ve shut down one of the best public beaches in Oman to make way for some fancy 5-star hotel! (Here’s a report about it in the Oman Observer but I think there must be some mistake as they mention “2-star hotels” being built. ?!)Al Bustan Palace (A Ritz Carlton Hotel)And back to the marina!  What a great experience!

What tour company do you use for dolphin watching and/or snorkeling in Muscat, Oman, folks?!

        Today is the beginning of Extreme Sailing Series 2013 but Thursday and Friday are the most exciting days for families.   It’s being held at The Wave, Muscat with the public village open from 11am-6pm and the racing from 2 to 5pm.     This should be quite the event with something for everyone in the family.  Thanks to Maria from Oman Sail for the invite and info and another big thanks to Stacey from RedBull for the invite and VIP pass!  I’m a little nervous as I’m supposed to be racing with one of the teams on Thursday!  BTW, if you send an SMS to 90455, you can win a chance to sail with one of the Omani teams while they race! (The draw will occur sometime today - March 6th.)

Here’s a short vid titled “Support your Extreme Champions” from Oman Sail’s youtube channel about this event:   This is a pic from Oman Sail’s facebook page of the newest Omani team, “Team Duqm Oman“.

  To view this information and more (including map with directions), click on this link (provided by Oman Sail!) for the program flyer: ESS Program_Flyer

Don’t miss out on all the fun at the Wave!

Update: Wednesday afternoon racing is now over.  Here are the team standings after race 13:

• Red Bull Sailing Team         – 105 points
• The Wave, Muscat                – 105 points
• Alinghi                                         - 96 points
• Team Duqm Oman                 - 83 points
• Team Korea                               - 73 points
• GAC Pindar                                - 73 points
• Realteam                                     - 69 points
• SAP Extreme Sailing Team – 69 points

For any extreme sailing enthusiasts out there, you can watch the entire racing event from Wednesday, March 6th here from the Extreme Sailing Series youtube page (actually starts 50 secs into video):

  It was a beautiful and exciting day to be at the Wave in Muscat, Oman!  Today (Thursday, March 7th) was actually the 3rd day of racing here in Muscat as 8 extreme sailing teams battle it out for top spot on the podium.  The teams according to ranking entering todays race were: 1) The Wave, Muscat, 2) Redbull Sailing Team, 3) Alinghi, 4) Team Duqm Oman, (invitational team during this series) 5) Realteam, 6) SAP Extreme Sailing Team, 7) GAC Pindar, and 8) Team Korea.  As the gentleman here explained to us during the VIP/Media briefing, Act 1 in Muscat, Oman is only the first of a total of 8 extreme sailing series this year.  The other locations include: Singapore (April 11-14), Qingdao, China (May 2-5), Istanbul, Turkey (June 20-23), Porto, Portugal (July 25-28), Cardiff, UK (Aug 23-26), Nice, France (Oct 3-6), and finishing off in Rio, Brazil (Nov 14-17).  The Wave Muscat (pictured here leading the pack in one of the earlier races of the day) was definitely the team to beat today as they were #1 entering today’s race, they have “home field” advantage and they are the defending champions from last year!  This is the impressive VIP tent which is a pretty decent structure.  I think it’ss only there temporarily for this event.  The 1st floor has the VIP Bar which has the best views of the races, just metres from the shore.  Talk about a dedicated photographer!

It was wonderful enough just to be there and watch the races from the VIP/Media section.  I came to realize that I had been volunteered (by Stacey Ross-Media Specialist for Redbull) to race in one of the sailing boats during the actual race with Redbull! WOW!  Sounded excited but I was afraid that I might get in the way of the team.  The use of “guests” of “VIPs” in each boat is what makes this extreme sailing series unique.  As I heard the commentary explain later in watching the day’s events on youtube, “All these boats are carrying guests unless its deemed too windy.  It’s one of the unique aspects of the tour.  It’s a pretty special ride.  You’re right in the heat of the action which can for sure get tense onboard.  It’s not a “sail around the bay”; you’re inside a formula 1 team at the sharp end.”  After signing the waiver (always scary, isn’t it?!) the group of us that were to join in the 4th race of the day got suited up and boarded a boat.  That boat was then approached by other boats (as you see here) that took us individually to our respective sailing boats.  Check out the lady who works for Euro Sports with the Go-Pro helmet cam!  Graeme Spence (from Australia) is the Bowman of the team.  I also think he was the “media consultant” as he was the one who briefed the guests on board. Nice guy!  My wife mentioned that it seemed “kind of slow” from the shore, but when you are on board there is no mistaking how intense it can be!  It’s like “sailing on steroids!”  Here’s a short vid I took at the very beginning of the race (Race 3 of the day) to give you an idea:   Matt Adams (UK-Mainsail Trim), Hans Peter Steinacher (Austria-Tactician), and the Skipper/Helm (also from Austria), Roman Hagara. Matt Adams has won 5 world championships and 1 national.  The skipper, Roman Hagara has been in the Olympics 6 times and has won 2 gold medals for Austria.  Mr. Steinacher helped him win those 2 gold medals in Sydney in 2000 and Athens in 2004. A lot of experience on this boat!  Of course it was almost impossible to get a good pic while on board so I switched over to video to record another clip of the action!

Here’s the 3rd and final clip I took while on board:

Here’s an awesome pic that one of the Redbull photographers (Vincent Curutchet) captured of one of their competitors (Harry Thurston from GAC Pindar) and posted on their online content pool:        Here’s a pic I took of the 5th member of the team, Pierre Le Clainche, from France.  The sailors often put themselves in front like this to take the weight off the back of the boat to make the boat go forward faster. Pierre was won 2 world championships, 1 European title and 2 French national championships.  Here’s another pic of Pierre but this time of him in action from the Redbull content pool (credit: Loyd images):  The redbull team came in 2nd place in the race I experienced.  The boat came to pick me up and drop off another “guest”.  Turns out that the next guest aboard the Redbull extreme sailing boat was none other than my blogging buddy, Geoffrey:  They ended up in 1st place on this 4th race of the day!  Turned out to be a HUGE DAY for Redbull as they came out in the lead!

Act 1 – Muscat, Oman – Provisional Standings after Race 21:

• Red Bull Sailing Team             – 177 points
• The Wave, Muscat                   – 162 points
• Alinghi                                           – 159 points
• Team Duqm Oman                   – 129 points
• Team Korea                                - 120 points
• GAC Pindar                                 – 116 points
• SAP Extreme Sailing Team – 112 points

Here is a video from the Extreme Sailing youtube channel of the last hour and a half of racing from Thursday for all you diehard extreme sailing fans:

Don’t miss out on the final day of action at the Wave, Muscat tomorrow!

    The light of the sun on the wave-beaten sand,

gives the brilliance of midday to my eyes as I stand.

when, what to my wondering eyes should appear,

but a miniature “car” and a sail in full gear!  Cool ride or what?!   I’ve love to have me one of them!

5 days till the biggest Red Bull event of the year here in Oman!!!  “The Red Bull Soapbox Race will be a family day out event to entertain the Middle East for the first time.  The Red Bull Soapbox Race is where crazy driving meets wacky and ingenious engineering, and a whole lot of fun.  Challenging the experienced as well as amateurs, this gravity-powered race pushes teams to design and build outrageous, human-powered soapbox roadsters, and compete against the clock as they plunge downhill.  42 teams will be judged on the basis of speed, creativity and showmanship, by a panel of celebrity judges.  Oman’s acclaimed circuit driver, Ahmed Al Harthy, will be one of four judges at the Red Bull Soapbox Race.  “It’s special for me personally because I’m racing around Britain and Europe and to see this take place in Oman is something great to be part of.  It’s exciting that Oman is the first country in the Middle East to host this event and I’m sure it will have a positive impact.”  Sitting alongside Ahmed Al Harthy on the judging panel will be Radio and TV Presenter Murtadha Al Lawati, Oman TV Personality Ibtihal Al Zadjali and Director of the Oman Automobile Association Sulaiman Al Rawahi.  Familes will be amused, inspired and entertained by international performers including dazzling jugglers, stilt walkers, mimes, clowns, and more including a parade.   The craziest dressed couple will win a prize and if you arrive early you might be lucky enough to receive cheering horns and clapper sticks to create as much noise as you can.  The best things in life are free, and Red Bull Soapbox Race is no exception.  So bring your family, friends, neighbours and just about anyone else who would like to experience this wacky line-up of racers cross the finish line.  Everything goes downhill on April 18th at 2pm, and the swerving, hay-bale dodging and crashing will continue until 6pm.   Spectators can binge on food and beverages available at the stalls at the public village and around the track.  Of course you are free to bring along your own delicious snacks.  The downhill road to wackiness for the Red Bull Soapbox Race will be smack in the middle of the Bausher Sand Dunes. Look out for road signage along the way or better yet plug in these GPS coordinates to make life easier:           N23°33.916′E058°25.008′ .”

 Here’s a pdf file map that you might want to download and bring with you on Thursday:  Soap Box Map (just click on it!)

I have a feeling you won’t want to miss this event.  From my experience here in Oman, nobody does events like Red Bull!  (A big thanks to Stacey Ross, Red Bull Communication Specialist, for all the info she’s provided in this post!)

Seems like my blogging buddy, Geoff, beat me to posting pics from last weekend.  Check out his incredible pics from last weekend here.  What you don’t see on his blog are the lengths he is willing to go in order to get some of those shots!  Let me show you what I mean.Talk about commitment! Some of those cars came mighty close to the cable spools! Here’s another look:While Geoff was there officially shooting for Red Bull, I was helping myself to the free drinks (Red Bull – original and sugar free) in the VIP tent! Here are a few pics of the action:They also had this free try-it-for-yourself game setup for younger racers at heart:It was an awesome day of action down at the Oman Automobile Association!  Here are a few videos I took while there:        This short vid might give you a small taste of why Ali Al Balushi was crowned “King of Omani Drifters” for 2013: As the sun set on the car park drifting event, the 2 racers who came out on top were: 1) Ali Al Belushi and 2) Sami Al Shaibani.Ali Al Belushi and Sami Al Shaibani will both represent the Sultanate of Oman at the regional finals in Dubai this weekend on November 8th at the Dubai World Trade Centre.

Geoff and I will be there to check it out.  Thanks to Red Bull for the blogger passes to Dubai!  Should be awesome fun!  Let’s hope one of the gents from Oman wins it! Dubai, here we come! Winner of the RBCPD, Ali Al Balushi – the new Omani “King of Drift”

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.

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

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! :-)

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!

 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.