"As an ambassador for The First Group and owner of property in Dubai Sports City, I spend a lot of time in Dubai and it is great to see the local community joining together to help raise funds for those suffering in Haiti. I'm delighted to be able to lend my support to such a worthy cause and I look forward to seeing everyone on February 27th at The Els Club." – Andrew Flintoff

Following the devastating effects suffered by the people of Haiti, Dubai Sports City is participating in the global disaster relief efforts by staging a charity event at The Els Club.

You are invited to join in the festivities from 4pm where a twilight picnic will take place on the driving range with plenty of entertainment for the families to enjoy.

ALL proceeds will be donated to Red Crescent, UAE.

Date

Saturday 27th February, 2010

Venue

The Els Club, Dubai Sports City

Entry Fee

AED100 donation upon arrival
Includes food pack, beverages (non-alcoholic) and entertainment

Auction

Listed below are some of the items that will be auctioned off on the night.

Callaway Driver signed by three-time Major Winner Ernie Els

• Framed print signed by 2009 Dubai Desert Classic Champion Rory McIlroy
• Framed print signed by 2009 Dubai World Championship winner Lee Westwood
• Business Class airfares to Arizona, accommodation for 4 nights and golf at various Troon facilities
• Business Class airfares to London, accommodation for 3 nights in the Celtic Manor Hotel and a round of golf at the Ryder Cup course
• Round of Golf with former Ryder Cup Captain Sam Torrance in the winner’s choice of either Dubai or United Kingdom *
• 4-ball at The Els Club, The Montgomerie, Saadiyat Beach Golf Club and Abu Dhabi Golf Club
• Springboks jersey signed by Bryan Habana and other Springbok players 
• Box seat tickets for two people to a Springboks game in South Africa, personally hosted by Bryan Habana*
• Box seat tickets for two people to a Manchester United match, personally hosted by Michael Owen *
• Cricket bats signed by the England and Pakistan teams
• Cricket bats signed by all 8 teams from the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy competition
• Framed prints signed by England Cricket Legend, Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff 
• Cricket lesson for up to 10 children, coached by Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff in Dubai 
• Head Tennis Racket signed by world number 3 tennis player Svetlana Kuznestsova 
• Tennis lesson for up to 10 children, coached by world number 3 tennis player Svetlana Kuznestsova in Dubai
• Weekend stay at the Emirates Palace (2 nights) in a Khaleij Suite inclusive breakfast for two and a brunch for two on Friday at Vendome Restaurant

* travel and expenses not included

Oakley Free Style Night
Monday December 14th 2009

The culmination of the Freestyle Night series took place at Ski Dubai on Monday, December 14th, 2009. Each event had been closely contended and right up until the final it was going to be anyone?s title?especially in the junior category. The seniors pretty much had an outright winner but to make things slightly more exciting, the judges were going to offer 200 points at the final opposed to the 150 in previous rounds.
The competition going into the final round was Slope Style, so the guys could be as daring and creative as they wished. Everyone stepped up to the plate and impressive performances were witnessed!
The final prize was a year?s supply of Oakley apparel, which everyone wanted; but as we could only have one winner from each category, the two lucky men were Ryan Chambers (Junior category) and Toby Illeris (Senior category). Both of these guys were constantly competitive through the four rounds and really deserved their titles.
Al Boom Marine and Oakley would like to thank the staff at Ski Dubai, MC Ben Brodrick & DJ Greg Dufton for making this event possible. See you all next year!

Max Sokolov is top dog at 2009 Pepsi Flowboarding competition

The annual Pepsi Flowboarding competition at Wild Wadi took place 10-12 December. The event, sponsored by ONeill, was seen as a tremendous success by all competitors, spectators and organizers. ONeill brand manager Stuart Lowman said, The only thing that would have made this event even better than what we saw over the past 3 days was a bit more sunshine. The competitors, organizers and spectators made it a fantastic spectacle to be a part of.

The event saw four professional flow boarders flown out from Durban, South Africa to demonstrate as well as judge the local amateur competition. Andy Carrie, Clayton Barker, Paolo Falconer and Jason Lammers showed all watching how its done. It is hard to imagine
that in the desert of Dubai the event was hampered by a little bit of rain but fortunately this did not detract from the display given by the competitors and pros, and enthusiasm shown by those who came out to watch.Over the 3 days, the crowd was entertained by both stand up and body board riders, all of whom were competing for a grand prize in each division, a pair of return tickets to Durban, South Africa with free accommodation plus free entrance to the flow boarder park at Gateway shopping centre, Durban, plus a AED 1500 ONeill voucher.

Firstly a huge THANK YOU to everyone who came along to Stop #5 to ride or watch! It was a great turn out of amateurs and amazing to see so many new faces.As always we were plagued by the weather somewhat but a bit of wind didn’t stop the action & every rider really upped their game & set an amazing atmosphere ready for … The Oakley Riot … it looked like everyone was partying like rockstars on that beach!

Amateur credits go to Michael Declercq & Sascha Brandmaier for achieving 1st place in each of the 5 Stops this year! Also to 15 year old Drew Gibson for taking the top spot in the Mens Division for Stop # 5 – the first Junior to do so! It was also great to see two new women riders join the tour & both reach the podium on their first attempt, nice work Marie-Ange Beata & Vera Bacon who took 1st & 3rd places respectively. Hope to see much more of you next year. Last but by no means least, hats off to our ‘Crash of the Day’ winner – Elliott Denham, for going big & trying a Raley in less than ideal conditions… respect. The official results for 2009 were;

Each division winner took home a Hyperlite wakeboard, plus the title every rider had been battling for all year – The ‘Champion of Champions’ who received 2010 Sponsorship from Oakley, Hyperlite & O’Neill went to MICHAEL DECLERCQ, the GROMS DIVISION WINNER and a star of the future no doubt. Congratulations to everyone for their efforts throughout the year – it’s great to see every single rider has improved since Stop # 1 in February which seems so long ago now … & thanks again for supporting the first amateur wakeboard tour in the Middle East.

Onto the Oakley Riot Pro Double Up Event – 8 of the World’s Top Riders hopped the Atlantic Ocean to take to the waters of Mina Seyahi & rise to the challenge for their piece of the US$20,000! Every rider brought a fun & unique element to the event both on and off the water; presenting awards, signing posters, boards & even body parts in some cases, not to mention partying Dubai style 24/7! We witnessed a Switch 900, Mocha Latte (Heelside, backside, wrapped, grabbed, off axis 720) & an enormous Heelside Backside 720 from the podium winners. Official Results were;

‘Rathy showed his class after only arriving the night before the event and getting straight into his rhythm’ said Oakley Brand Manager and event organizer Andrew Whiteman. ‘The event was a huge success and we are looking forward to making the Oakley Riot an annual event. It is great for the sport in the region, where the UAE local amateur tour is followed by the best riders in the world. It wouldn’t have been possible to make this happen without the help from the sponsors, judges, drivers and of course the riders. And to have two Oakley guys on the podium was the icing on the cake’. ‘What I loved best about this event was meeting the kids who are the future of our sport, I spent like a whole day before the event with Grom rider Tom Cook & his family just chilling on their boat, good times.’ Shane Bonifay.To see the event video please check out www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZaA3ZJU6eA and for all other wakeboarding news and updates in the GCC there’s Facebook Group : Board Riders UAE & www.twitter.com/HyperliteME

This day could not have been possible without our sponsors- thank you Oakley, Hyperlite,
O’Neill, Sea Dubai Watersports Festival (DIMC), Nautique Boats by Bristol Marine, Barasti,
Corona, Le Meridien Mina Seyahi & Hummer – Liberty Motors. Good work Al Boom Team for putting it all together, the awesome driver Ollie Dunn, International Judges ;Colin Hart, Graham Creedy & Tom Ellis, Safety Boat legends Cathy & Simon Cook, plus quite possibly the world’s best MC who kept everyone up to date on the action, Matt Crowhurst.See you next year!

Round 2 of the Oakley Freestyple Night at Ski Dubai on October 19th saw the riders hit the 'Big Air bag' with absolutely no fear whatsoever. A huge kicker was constructed for the event, which had the riders getting plenty of air to show their best aerial skills.Each trick was pulled from a list at random, with the winner of the last run having the option to add any grabs or technicalities they desired...And they got creative! Check out the latest freestyle night video on www.alboommarine.com !

Juniors:
1st Ryan Chambers
2nd Cody Gibson
3rd Hector Parkes
4th Khalifa Al Marri
5th Rey Sowan

Seniors:
1st Toby Illeris
2nd Ahmed Alghas
3rd Mijirin Al-Hajiri
4th Alan Ahmed
5th Om Jang Magar

Super Sport Academy organized 3 events during November & December, 2009. The Zoggs Tadpole Gala was followed by the Zoggs Mina Mile and the year finished with the Zoggs Junior Swim series hosted by JESS.The Tadpole Gala gave children between the ages 3-6 the opportunity to show their families and friends their skills in the water. Many of them used flotation equipment to give them a little more confidence, but the more advanced swimmers were able to do proper swimming styles and races. It was a fun filled morning for all! The next event is March 12th, 2010.The next event in line was the Zoggs Mina Mile, attended by approximately 360 swimmers ranging in ages from 6-70 and partaking over distances between 200m and 6.5km. This was a fantastic family day which took place at the Le Meridien Mina Seyahi Hotel. The next Mina Mile will be held on February 6th,2010. Hopefully we will see even more of you out there! The Junior Swim series was the second leg of this 6 series event and the last event for 2009 on the Super Sports Academy swimming calendar. Attended by approximately 200 children,the day ran smoothly and was once again full of close, exciting races. Even the afternoon rain didn’t hamper the enthusiasm of the swimmers. All clubs are eagerly looking forward to the next
event on January 15th to continue their battles!

The Super Sports Aquathlon took place at Jebel Ali Hotel on the morning of October 3rd. The Series race was the first of 3 and judging by a great turnout of 220 competitors, is expected to grow. This race catered to all ages; the youngest competitor being seven and the oldest in their sixties.

The venue was fantastic and one couldn't have asked for better racing conditions. The race was divided into 2 distances, the short course being a 400m swim and a 2.5 run.

whilst the full distance race was 800m followed by a 5km run.As is the Zoggs tradition, it caters to both the social swimmer as well as the competitive swimmer, and the majority of the participants were wearing Zoggs caps and goggls!

We hope to see more of you out there at the next event on November 21st.

Visit www.supersportsdubai.com  for further info
 

The first event of the Zoggs Junior Swim Series, organized by Super Sports Dubai took place at the Horizon School on Friday, 13 November 2009.

The gala was attended by 150 children, ranging in age from 6-16 yrs, from 6 swimming clubs across Dubai; Super Sports Dubai, Desert Sport Services, AGSA, Speedo, Hamilton Aquatics & Active Sports Academy.

The standard of swimming was really high, yet amongst all of the competitiveness, there was still great camaraderie and sportsmanship.

A great day was had by all.

Go onto www.supersportsdubai.com  for further details.

The Rip Curl Indulge took place on the El Mundo boat on Fri, 13 November. This was the last cruise for 2009.

Once again it was a wonderful way to spend one’s Friday afternoon with good company, music, food, drinks and water activities – definitely money well spent!

The crowd on the boat were a great mix of both young and old who took full advantage of the wonderful Dubai winter weather. Some guests just lounged around like lizards sunning themselves and taking in the amazing views, whilst others went for swims and rides on the banana boat. Towards the end of the trip, as we were all taking in the spectacular sunset, we even had a few people dancing on the decks to the vast array of music the dj was playing.

Now this was definitely the life!

The dates for next year will be put up in the Rip Curl Store, Mall of the Emirates as soon as they have been finalized.

A big thank you to everyone who attended the Rip Curl Indulge during 2009. We hope to see you back in the New Year!

The popular Emirates Golf Club Par 3 League sponsored by Tommy Bahama returns for its third season over the most challenging short course in the Middle East.

The structure of the competition has one league running from November 2009 through to May, 2010, culminating in a May Grand Final with the top twenty teams (including at least two mixed or female) competing against each other.

As the purveyor of island lifestyle, “Tommy Bahama has created a world where life moves at a more relaxed pace. Designed for the sophisticated customer, Tommy Bahama offers relaxed sportswear that looks as good as it feels for both men and women”. As the continued sponsor of the Emirates Golf Club Par 3 Leagues, Tommy Bahama takes the luxury lifestyle brand from the clubhouse to the links.

For more information or an entry form please contact the golf office at Emirates Golf Club on 04 380 2222.