I’m sitting here, again, on an Airbus A380 on my back to Canada from Dubai… A few weeks back when I was in this exact same position I was writing an article for my buddy Scott Copeland’s magazine “Tentacle Mag”. Definitely a unique office for myself and SkimBC.com!
For the past 6 months I’ve been travelling back and forth to Dubai and Abu Dhabi on business, it’s been pretty exciting and I have seen a lot of cool things! On my first trip I spent 6 weeks between Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia with my skims, I brought my Zed Harvest flatland board and my Zed Canvas foamie and managed to find time to use them both!
Since the majority of my time was spent in the desert between Abu Dhabi and Saudi for the security project I have been involved in, my skimboarding was limited to flatland skimming at the resort that my colleagues and I had stayed at… Which was not a bad thing at all! The Jebel Dhanna was the only hotel within several hours of our job site, this 5-Star resort most likely had never seen someone skimboard before so I would commonly be asked questions on the beach from the employees about the sport. Several times the employees would question whether I was being safe, but my friends and I would assure them that I knew what I was doing! Skimboarding on the Persian Gulf is certainly an experience with its white sand, crystal clear blue water, and bathtub warm temperatures! Commonly work would keep us going until sundown and further so it was difficult to find time to skimboard, but anytime we did come back to the hotel before sundown you could surely find me running around in the evening tide pools… It still amazes me that after almost 20 years of skimboarding I cannot resist jumping on those damn wooden planks at any given opportunity, this was very evident to me when I would jump on my board after working a nearly 12 hour day in up to 40 degree heat during the day. The only reason I wouldn’t skim after a 14-16 hour day was because it would be too dark to see what I was doing!
During my 6 week trip I found myself with about 4 days off (usually 1 day at a time with the possibility of starting work later the following day), my colleagues and I were our own bosses while on site so this was our choosing to work so much with the hopes of leaving the Middle East early to come home. During these days off we would do whirlwind adventures into Abu Dhabi (2.5hr drive) and Dubai (3-3.5hr drive). On my first adventure to Dubai I was with my colleagues/buddies Sean “Chester” Casey, Lupe
“Where’s the Chipotle” Gonzales and Jon “9/16ths” Stewart. We arrived late on a Thursday night, which is equivalent to a Friday in Canada and the US as they have Friday/Saturday off in the Middle East, so we promptly assaulted the town. We found a great bar/club on the beach at Le Meridien hotel, which hosted a pool party/beach party/indoor old school party… It was pretty unreal to say the least! The next morning we immediately drove to ‘Sunset Beach’, which is only a couple hundred meters away from the Burj Al Arab (the famous 7-star hotel). Sunset Beach was a great spot for small-wave skimming, the water was warm
and there was tons of soft white sand to run on. I managed to skim for several hours with fans of all different nationalities, the most common nationalities on the beach were Pakistani and different forms of Europeans… It was pretty cool! Skimming beside the Burj Al Arab has certainly been a highlight in my skimboarding career! To finish the day my good friend and colleague Steve “the Wanker” Walker and his wife Nicki “Wanker Wife” Walker managed to dig up some Kanye West tickets to celebrate the Formula 1 races in Abu Dhabi. I certainly felt spoiled that day! Unfortunately during this most recent trip to Dubai I was unable to skim as my boards had to be left at home L, what a shame! The waves were actually much better this time, there was a knee to waist high point break that was peeling in and breaking smoothly on shore so I was pretty bummed to stare at these waves as I lay on the beach. I’m not very good at relaxing on the beach when I know that there are quality waves directly infront of me! I tried desperately to get a board from the Dubai surf shop, but unfortunately the employee I talked to didn’t seem to know what a skimboard was… Which was shocking since I saw they had a handful of Victoriaskimboards at there most recent surfing event that they hosted at Sunset Beach. Anyways, with all of
that aside it’s always enjoyable to spend time at the beach out there!
If you’re looking to go on a skimboarding adventure then I’m not sure if I’d recommend Dubai/Abu Dhabi in particular for waves as it is fairly inconsistent, but if you’re touring around the Middle East I have heard great things out of Oman. I have even seen some pretty unreal photos of Oman surf spots which actually have waves pealing in amazing liners on shore! I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I will be in Dubai again soon and will have a rental car so that I can do the 3hr drive from Oman.
About the author
Brandon has spent much more than the majority of his life skimboarding, born in '86 and skimming since '91 he has dedicated countless hours to progressing the sport for himself at his local beaches. Since 2002 Brandon has been trying to push the sport outside of the beaches by developing SkimBC.com, a labour of love for the sport that has helped shape who he is!
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