Category: Sports

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.

Around 7 or 8 years ago I learned how to kiteboard and I’m pretty sure I posted about it but can’t seem to find my old post. In any case, the person I learned with left Kuwait ages ago and so I wanted to post about another place you could learn to kiteboard. Q8 Kite Boarding is a local website that sells kiteboarding gear while also offering lessons. They carry a bunch of brands including Cabrinha, Core, Crazyfly, and Reedin.

Full Program Zero 2 Hero
12 lessons
Lesson duration is 60-75 minutes
Cost: KD280 (KD480 if you don’t have the gear)

Individual lessons are KD25 (45KD if you don’t have the gear)

Since the weather has cooled down, it’s probably a great time to learn to kiteboard. Kiteboarding is also an individual sport so social distancing should be fairly easy. For contact information, visit their website Q8kiteboarding.com

Update: Their Instagram account is @Q8Kiteboarding. Also found out that they were previously called DMBoarding which is the company I learned with. They just renamed now to Q8 Kite Boarding.

The 2020 Formula 1 season finally kicked off last week after being delayed due to the Corona pandemic. The second race of the season is taking place later today but like last year, you’re pretty limited to how you can watch it here in Kuwait. The only network in our region that broadcasts the races is MBC Action but it’s in Arabic and I couldn’t find a way to stream it online. The other (and better) option is watching it directly on F1 TV.

I’ve posted about F1 TV before but I mentioned you needed a U.S. credit card to sign up since live broadcasts aren’t available for Kuwait. But, my U.S. credit card expired and I still haven’t gotten my replacement card so I was worried I wouldn’t be able to subscribe again this season. Turns out you don’t need a U.S. credit card!

If you’re on an Apple device and have a US Apple Store account, then you can subscribe to F1 TV from inside the app and pay for the subscription using your Apple Store account. It’s a neat loophole that should make Formula 1 broadcasts easily accessible to more people.

So if you’re an F1 fan and want to watch the races, download the F1 TV app.

Along with hand sanitizers and anti-bacterial wipes, one of the hardest things to find right now is gym equipment. Everyone is stuck at home and looking for ways to stay fit so most sports shops are sold out on items like dumbells and yoga mats. But, even larger more expensive gym equipment is impossible to come by nowadays. When the lockdown happened I started considering different options to staying fit, I even considered the possibility of shipping a Peloton bike all the way from the States but in the end, I decided to get a rower since they burn the most amount of calories compared to other gym equipment.

Before the whole Corona thing hit my gym had gotten new equipment and so wanted to sell a few of their beautiful looking WaterRowers (similar to the one on House of Cards) to make more room. Nobody was interested in them and they were just sitting there gathering dust. When the lockdown happened I got in touch with my gym thinking I was clever to have remembered the rowers, to my surprise I was too late. Other gym members had got in touch first and they ended up selling all of them. I then decided I wanted to get a Concept2 rower since they’re considered to be the best rowers you can get (you’ve probably used one at your gym). They’re pretty expensive costing anywhere between KD400-470 in the local market but I figured it would be a good long term investment since they last a lifetime. But, I couldn’t find any for sale. All the local suppliers had not only completely sold out their Concept2 inventory, but some had even sold all the rowers they had coming on their way still to Kuwait. To add to the issue, Concept2 shut down their factory in the States because of the pandemic so they’re not producing any more rowers for the time being making it even hard to find anywhere in the world. They even had to post the notice below on top of their website because of the number of inquiries they were getting:

4/3/20: We are currently out of stock of all Model Ds, all Model Es, the Dynamic RowErg, BikeErgs, SkiErgs and the SkiErg Floor Stand due to high demand and temporary production stoppage to fight the spread of the Covid-19 virus. US and Canadian customers can fill out the wait list form so we can keep you informed as we get more information in this rapidly changing situation. If you need to speak to us, please contact us during regular business hours (M–F, 7:30 a.m.–5 p.m. EDT) or email [email protected]. We are doing our best to respond to after-hours inquiries within 1–2 business days. Thank you for your patience.

Luckily through a friend, I ended up finding a gym that had one lying around not being used that they wanted to get rid of. I ended up getting it and it’s now sitting right next to my TV so I can Netflix and row.

One cool thing I’ve noticed recently is some gyms now are renting out their equipment since they’re not being used. One of those gyms is Gym37, they posted on their story yesterday they had equipment for rent which is pretty smart. This is a good alternative to buying and in some cases could be your only option. You can contact them on 90911733 to enquire. Another gym that’s also renting equipment is The Burrow. They are renting out spinning bikes and rowers and their prices are as follows:

2 weeks – 100 KWD
3 weeks – 125 KWD
4 weeks – 150 KWD

You can get in touch with them on instagram @theburrowlife if you’re interested.

Finally, if you want to buy any sports equipment (or at least see what’s still available), here are some links you can check out as well:

AlNasser Sports
Explorers Base
Extreme Sports
Gym Doctor
Kuwait Watersports
ProSports
Rent a Gym
Sportsman
Sports World (Instagram)
Wawan

Green Rubber Recycling is a local initiative where they recycle used tires to create a variety of rubber tiles including fitness ones. I found out about it by mistake while helping someone who was looking for workout mats and thought it was a very smart idea. Loads of people are working out from home at the moment so the GreenRub fitness tiles are a good way of converting a home space into a mini gym.

If you have neighbors under you it’s a good way of silencing your workouts but even if you don’t have neighbors under you, having a rubber surface provides cushioning to your joints during workouts and you also won’t worry as much about dropping your weights on the floor.

Their fitness tiles start at KD6 for a square meter and you can get more information on their online shop or by visiting their Instagram @greenrubq8