Category: Sports

This has to be the coolest gym-related idea ever and the timing of it is perfect with gyms having been forced to close down now. Mobile Crossfit Box is a portable gym that you can rent out for you and your friends! It’s a fully decked out gym with everything you need from different kinds of cardio machines to barbells, kettlebells, dumbells, boxes, squat racks, and pull up bars.

The price is 40KD per hour and it can handle up to 4 people at once so it’s 10KD per friend. They also have a drop-in fee of 10KD which I’m guessing means if the truck isn’t fully rented out you could drop in where it’s parked and use it. For more info or too book the gym check out their instagram account @mobilebox_kw

via @notnorrah

The first time I visited the camel races was back in 2013 and I posted a guide for anyone who wanted to experience it as well. Because it’s been awhile since I last went, I decided to pass by again and publish an updated guide.

This past Saturday I drove out to the Kuwait Camel Racing Club to see how much things have changed. I took my old Alfa because I recently replaced some parts on it and wanted a long trip just to make sure I installed everything correctly. The trip to the tracks took a bit less than an hour and didn’t feel like a long drive at all. Once I got to the tracks I noticed all the main gates were locked. For a second I thought they were closed but then I noticed SUV’s speeding across the desert in the distance and heading in the direction of the track, I figured there might be another entrance and drove in the direction they were all heading. Sure enough, there was a side gate open off the main road and I drove into the racing club.

Once I drove into the track I didn’t see any spectators, racers, employees or even any signs telling me where to go next. So I just started following other cars and ended up driving through another gate and onto a tarmac road adjacent to the race track. I then kept driving till I eventually ended up at the start line. You can watch the video above which shows you how to enter the tracks and get to the tarmac that takes you to the start line. If you don’t have an SUV you’ll be fine since I was able to get to the track in my Alfa.

If you want to watch the races there are two ways:

• The first way is you drive up to the start or finish line and park your car on the side and just watch the start or end of the races.

• The second way to watch the races is you drive around the track with the race as it’s taking place. There are four tracks technically, the main track for the camels to race on is a large wide dirt track surrounded by railings. To the right of the race track is a dirt track for the camel owners who drive next to their camels during the race to control the robot jockeys on the camels. To the left of the camel track are two paved roads also separated by railings, one for use by track employees and the camera vehicle, the second is for the spectators to drive alongside the camels during the race. I didn’t do that this past Saturday but I did do that the first time I went to the tracks and you can watch the video above to see how it looks (chaotic basically). The only difference now is the spectators road is paved instead of it being a dirt road like in the video. Back then you could also tune into FM 93.1mhz on the radio and listen to a live broadcast of the actual race as you drive around. I couldn’t test it this time since my Alfa doesn’t have a radio.

The races start at 1PM and last till 3 or 4PM depending on the week. They alternate between 8 races and 16 races a week, the more races the later they finish. This Saturday when I visited it was 8 races, 4 races with the large camels and 4 with smaller ones. The only difference between the two is the starting line shifts closer to the finish line for the smaller camels. Each race lasts around 15 minutes before the next one starts. They’re not that strict with timing, they basically wait till the races end and all the spectators drive back to the starting line before starting the next race. The races take place weekly starting in October and this year will end in the first week of March.

I definitely recommend you check the races out just don’t go with high expectations, it’s nothing fancy. If you have kids they’d probably enjoy seeing camels up close and you can get pretty close to the camels both at the start and finish line. If you want to visit the Kuwait Camel Racing Club, here is the link to Google Maps.

If you don’t have a bicycle or are interested in trying out an electric one, @ebikes.kw rent and sell electric bicycles. They currently only have one model available for sale which is the Saluki Liwa 3.5 by EBIKES UAE pictured above which they sell for KD499. If you want to rent it then it’s 25KD for the day. They also offer test drives for those looking to buy one. For more info, get in touch with them.

The French sporting goods retailer Decathlon which currently has a large location in Marina Mall is opening another location in Avenues Phase I. I think they’re opening in the same place where Go Sport used to be but they’ve taken a few more stores around the old Go Sport location including a corner shop so it should be even bigger.

Last weekend I signed up and took part in the first open track event at the Kuwait Motor Town. It was probably the only sport left in Kuwait other than bowling that hadn’t restarted and I couldn’t understand why. It’s a sport where everyone is alone inside their cars driving around an outdoor circuit, so it’s pretty much perfect for social distancing. After taking part in the first event last weekend, I ended up leaving really impressed with the whole experience.

For this COVID era, KMT has introduced some new rules and changes to make things even safer than usual. Here are some of the important ones they’ve introduced:

Number of Participants
The number of participants at a race has been reduced to just 30. Previously it was anywhere from 60 to 90 participants per open track event. This means a lot less people everywhere and even spectators are no longer allowed at the events.

Registration
Previously on arriving to the track, you had to park your car, go into the reception area and wait in line till it’s your turn so you can sign in and collect your tags. You then have to go back to your car and drive up the scrutineering area where a group of guys run a number of safety checks on your car. The new process now is when you enter the parking lot you register at the gate while still in your car. While registering the scrutineering team will check your car and then when they’re done you enter the track. You don’t have to leave your car and really this process was so much more efficient than the previous way, they should permanantly have it this way.

Pitlane Garages
Pre-COVID, you’d enter the pitlane and park in any of the garages you wanted to. Now every garage is assigned to an individual and the separators between the garages are closed. So you basically park in a large garage by yourself and you don’t see anyone or interact with anyone. Every garage has it’s own bathroom and they’ve also provided gloves, masks and hand sanitizer for you.

Briefing
Before a race, every participant needs to attend a briefing session. Previously we’d all squeeze into a tightly packed overcrowded room. Now the number of participants has been reduced down to just 30 people and on top of that, the briefing session has been split into two groups. So there is plenty of social distancing during the briefing.

Other Points
Due to the number of participants only being 30, the track was pretty much empty the whole time with no traffic. KMT have installed new digital flags all around the track so we can now see the various warning flags when they’re shown. KMT now also has a fuel station and they accept Knet!

Really the only negative thing about KMT right now is the lack of proper night lights. They’re using regular street lights around the track which barely light up the track because they need to be positioned behind the safety barriers which are quite a distance from the track. There has been talk every year about getting proper flood lights but it hasn’t happened yet.

As I said at the start of the post I left the event impressed. If there was a local sport that is setting a good example of how to host an event safely during COVID, it’s KMT.

Due to the pandemic, all racing at the Kuwait Motor Town track had been put on hold but they’re finally back! There will be two open track events to end the year, one this coming Thursday the 24th, and the next on the 31st. The dates were announced yesterday but tickets only went on sale this morning and sold out in a few minutes. I was literally refreshing the website all morning and so managed to quickly buy tickets for both days, but a lot of people I know either managed to just get a ticket for one day, or weren’t even fast enough to get any tickets at all.

Because of the pandemic, they’ve got new rules for this season:

• Temperature checks will be done at the gate
• Face mask required
• Helmet hire is unavailable (BYOH)
• Only 1 assistant per participant will be allowed on site
• No spectators allowed
• Contactless payment only, no cash accepted

I can’t wait, this is gonna be a great way to end this bizarre year.

Top photo captured by @hamed__ashkanani

Big Ramy who started training at Oxygen Gym back in 2010 has become the new Mr. Olympia 2020 Champion. It’s such an incredible feat, basically, the equivalent of winning Miss Universe or the UEFA Championship, but in the bodybuilding world. When Arnold Schwarzenegger was bodybuilding his goal was to become the greatest bodybuilder in the world, that meant becoming Mr. Olympia. He eventually won it 7 times.

A few years ago I posted about how Kuwait was the new bodybuilding mecca of the World and Big Ramy just proved this to be true.

I was just thinking a couple of days ago on different people who started in Kuwait and gained worldwide success, the two people that came into my mind were @pinot and @nouriflayhan since I know them, but Big Ramy is now another local success story.

Lululemon, the popular yoga wear brand opened up at The Avenues yesterday. The store is on the main strip of Phase 4, right next door to the clothing brand Monki.

I haven’t played pool since university and not interested in playing it either but, someone on Reddit was looking for good quality cue sticks and a person recommended Dr Cue. So this post is for google in case someone else in the future is looking for billiard equipment in Kuwait. Dr Cue have cue sticks, cue cases, tables, balls, and various accessories. They can also perform maintenance on your equipment as well as customize your sticks with engravings or leather wrapping. I don’t think everything is listed on their website so I’d get in touch with them directly in case you’re looking for anything specific not listed there.

If you’re interested, their Instagram account is @drcue.billiard, their phone number is 99000303 and their website is dr-cue.com

Thanks Tengokuq

Recently while riding my bike on the Gulf Road, I noticed an Extreme Sports truck loaded up with bicycles parked in one of the lots. I didn’t know what it was for at first but then spotted an employee a few days ago and decided to stop and find out what they were doing. Turns out it’s an Extreme Sports bicycle rental truck. For KD3 an hour you could rent a bicycle from them to ride up and down the Gulf Road.

I’ve previously posted about their bike rental location at Marina Waves, this one on the other hand is located at the Green Island parking lot. If you don’t have a bicycle but feel like riding one, this is a pretty good option. Here is the location of the rental truck on Google Maps.

If you’re looking for a safe place to ride your bicycle, Kuwait Motor Town is bringing back bicycle days. Bicycle days are when they open the race track to the public so that people can ride their bicycles on the road in a safe car-free environment. Bicycle days are on the following two days:

Tuesdays: 4PM to 8PM
Saturdays: 6AM to 10AM

Access to the track is free and if you’ve never been to KMT before this is a great way to check it out. Here is the location on Google Maps.

Early this year an ice skating rink opened up in Bayan called the Kuwait Winter Games Club. The 2020 Open Championship for Professional Arab Ice Hockey Clubs took place there and the Kuwait Ice Hockey team was using the rink for practice. Now they’ve also opened it up to the public.

The cost is KD5 for 1.5 hours and KD15 for the whole day and that including the rental of the skates. There are also some hockey matches going on if you just want to go and watch.

But this is the thing I don’t get. How is Kuwait Motor Town, where everyone is inside a car by themselves racing around an outdoor track closed due to the pandemic, but close-contact sports like hockey and football are allowed? It doesn’t make sense!

The American sportswear company Under Armour opened up in Avenues Phase I last month. I actually came by the store by accident while walking around Avenues to see if there was anything new. I didn’t expect to see Under Armour there especially since all the other big brand sports stores are located on the opposite end of the mall in Phase 4. The store is pretty large, they have sneakers, sportswear, a separate Project Rock section (a collection by “The Rock”) as well as a small accessories section where I spotted some cool workout gloves which I think I’m gonna end up getting.

If you want to find the store they’re on the top floor of Avenues Phase I, near Borders.

Update: Turns out they’ve been open in Al Kout since last year.

Yesterday Al Corniche Club sent out an email informing their members that they will be closing down the club on October 11th. Last year Al Corniche Club lost the bid to operate the location but went to court hoping to reverse the decision. That must have not worked out and so they now have to leave the location.

This cable park came out of nowhere! For the past few months, I’ve noticed cranes at the far side of Green Island whenever I rode by on my bicycle. I just thought they might be clearing out some old junk from there but turns out they were building a cable park.

A cable park is a wakeboard or water ski park where instead of being pulled around by a boat, you get pulled around by overhead cables. Previously to wakeboard, I’d have to book a boat for an hour, then drive an hour down to Khieran, an hour back when done and the whole thing would cost me KD35. Now with the cable park I can just drive 5 minutes down the street to Green Island and wakeboard there for just KD6 an hour (or KD8 if you don’t have the gear). Seems too good to be true.

I’ve booked an hour on Tuesday to try it out and once I do I’ll share more details. For now you can check out the cable park’s Instagram account @cablepark.kuwait for some pictures and a link in case you want to book.