WATER POLO IN SAUDI ARABIA?

PART 1
OLYMPICS HERE WE COME!!

One of my primary goals in Saudi Arabia was to get back into shape. It has been a long, long, long time since I felt like I was really in physical shape. I wanted to lose weight in Saudi Arabia to be sure, but I also wanted to be in real shape, not just 30 minute work-out shape. So when I started looking at compounds to live in I always checked to see if they had a good swimming pool. Yep, swimming would take the cake any day over running, biking, walking, weights, etc. Well the Oasis has a magnificent pool that is actually used by the compound swim team to train – more to follow on the Oasis in posts to come.

From my first weekend in Saudi I hit the pool. I’ll never forget those first 5 days. A 200 (8 laps) swim felt like a sick form of torture…sloppier and sloppier strokes each lap, huge breaths like toddlers when they’re learning to swim and breathe, hips sinking quickly towards the vertical state, and massive lactic acid build-up. At the end of 8 Iaps I would lunge for the wall like a drowning man, pop my head up like a Contra Costa Free-Swimmer, suck in a huge breath of O2, and there would be the pool cleaning guy, smiling and waving, “Hi sir.” Take that stupid pool cleaner and shove it!!!! It was awful, but I committed to add four laps a day to my swim work-out every day and I stuck with it. Pretty soon I was kicking off with a 1,000 meter warm-up and working in real sets. Each week I felt lighter and stronger in the water. I started adding sets of 100s (4 laps) and 200s (8 laps) in combination, IM sets, sprint sets…Matt Biondi is my name and swimming is my game! OK, not quite. There is still lunging going on and big, gasping breaths, but with much more justification now.

Well it took about 4 months of Oasis swimming for me to get to a place where I remembered why I always struggled with swim work-outs –I finally hit a place where I didn’t want to add any more yards. I would hit the 50 minute mark pretty tired and just didn’t want to swim anymore. It takes incredible personal discipline and drive to be a swimmer (shout out Lincan) and I just don’t have that kind of drive. You have to be willing to push through the pain, and alone in my case; it is usually easier to push along with other people swimming. Nope, I had hit the wall and wasn’t going to push much further. This was compounded by the fact that the Oasis ownership didn’t see a real reason to keep the chiller on as we moved into summer. A couple of times I got into the pool and the temperature was 88 degrees! It felt like swimming in a bathtub and just totally drained any energy I had; not good when extra yardage is already being questioned (On a side note, it gets so hot here in Saudi that they actually have to cool the water!).

It was about this time that I ran into a Monday night swim group at the Oasis. I was usually finishing my workout at 7pm, right when they were arriving to start their swim. For the most part, they were average swimmers just getting in a nice workout alongside friends, but there was one gentleman who seemed out of place. He jumped in without goggles on and swam a loping head-up style. It was a water polo player’s stroke. I didn’t think much of it past that evening, but the next weekend I was finishing my set when this gentleman arrived at the pool to work-out alone. Out of nowhere, as I heaved in gobs of oxygen after my toughest set, he introduced himself as Dennis Bell. Then he asked the greatest question I’ve heard in years. “Do you by chance play water polo?” What? Excuse me? “Of course…well I played water polo, but haven’t for 8 years.” “Well we have a team at Aramco and you just struck me as a guy who probably played water polo.” “Well, I know I’m pretty dynamic in the water, “lightning fast” if you want to call it that…” OK, just kidding. I just sat there in the water with a dopey grin on my face. He continued on, “If you want to play with us we practice on Tuesday evenings, Thursday and Friday mornings. In fact if you want to go tomorrow I’ll pick you up at the gate around 7:15am.” I was giddy as a school girl and couldn’t wait. Only God could plant this type of scenario in Saudi Arabia…what would make this guy just come out and ask, after showing up at the pool on a weekend night at the same time I was there!

The following morning I went to my first practice at the Aramco pool and met an amazing group of guys. Turns out that this Aramco team competes in the 50+ age group at the World FINA Masters Tournament every two years; in 2008 they headed to Australia to play, and this year they are heading to Sweden. This wasn’t some fly by night outfit of guys hacking through the pool. No these guys knew the game pretty well.

Thursday and Friday (my weekends) we practice early AM at Aramco. We usually get 12-14 guys at practice so we can actually full-court scrimmage. On Tuesday nights from 8-10pm we play a local club team named Etifat. We play at their pool, which is about 5 minutes from my apartment. Those games are usually pretty even. They’re a younger team (17-24) that swims like crazy, and we’re the slimy veterans who grab and hold all the time.

Our team is an awesome mix of nationalities. We have one guy from Iran who played on the 1976 Iranian National Team, one guy who played for Brazil, our Goalie (and best player) went to Cal in 1974 and played there, six guys from the United States (including yours truly), one from the UK, one guy from Australia, one from Saudi Arabia, our youngest player was on the Egyptian Junior National Team (he’s 26 now), and another player from Greece. It is a blast to play again, and perfect timing. Now I can mix in the water polo workouts with the swim workouts - the swimming has become much more enjoyable.

Top Row (L to R): Chuck Crew (USA), Jim Findley (USA), Me, Anthony Sawaya (USA-Ex Cal Hoorah!), Abdi Majdpour (Iran), Kostas Tsingas (Greece), Chris Heine (USA), Raul Murillo (Brazil), Haider Haj (Saudi Arabia)

Bottom Row: Dennis Bell (UK), Austin Brell (Australia)

This past weekend we played a game up at Ras Tanura, which is about 45 miles northeast of Khobar. I finally took some pictures of the team because they were all in one place. The action shot is a stinker – it’s actually not a real action shot at all, but you can see Anthony (goalie) pointing, slightly upset with someone - but more will be coming. The guys are in their final stages for training before their trip to Sweden and the FINA Championships. Two years ago they came in 9th place out of 11 teams, but they lost 3 games by a goal and were winning all three of those games at one point. This year there are 12 teams and they’re shooting for a top 6 finish. I wish I could play with them. Wish them luck!

After Sweden they come back to Saudi and we start over again for the fall season…yes, fall season. We have a tournament in late September in Qatar where we play against teams from Dubai (1 team), Kuwait (1 team) and 3 teams from Qatar, including their National Team (we lost 7-4 to them last year). That tournament is in a regulation men’s pool (30m x 20m) which will be a gagger. Most senior men’s tournaments are in 25m pools these days unless it’s International competition, 20-35 age group, or NCAA. We’ll struggle with the swimming in that tournament but we’ll weasel our way through it. More importantly we all get to play together in Qatar as it is not age-based. There is also a big tournament in Saudi in November with some really good teams from the Western Province. We’ll see how that goes. I feel like I’m back in summer water polo again…

I can’t express how blessed God has made me. I gained 10 friends in a span of two weeks, and I’m playing my favorite sport of all time. Awesome, just awesome. As we cruise along the next season there will be plenty of updates on this adventure.

A TALE OF TWO CITIES

This past week I was able to get out of Saudi Arabia and travel to a couple of countries in the region; nothing too exciting, just a wrinkle in the standard routine. My first stop was Dubai, to be followed by a trip to Muscat, Oman. As I trudged through airports and sat in traffic, I was struck again by how different the landscape in the Middle East can change from city to city. So this entry there are no high speed car chases or barb wire, but just a little glimmer into the different styles life can offer here.

Dubai an Emirate located in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This is often confusing to people because Dubai is so well known, but when a discussion deepens with a person they ultimately realize they aren’t sure if Dubai is a city, a country, a county, an area or whatever. Well Dubai is one of the seven Emirates that make-up the United Arab Emirates. The other six are Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Sharjah, Fujairah, Umm al-Qaiwain and Ras al-Khaimah. Abu Dhabi and Dubai are the most well known of the group. These seven emirates make-up a single government that oversees the politics and policies of the UAE, with Abu Dhabi ultimately having veto power over the body. Abu Dhabi is also the wealthiest emirate, with large natural gas and oil reserves off its shores in the Persian Gulf.

Dubai came to fame over the past 10-15 years through a massive and rapid expansion. The Al Maktoum family, rulers of Dubai, undertook an intensive plan to make Dubai the new hub for business in the 21st century. Investment rules were loosened and a huge free-trade port and area was established known as the Jebel Ali Free Trade Zone. Companies by the 1,000s flocked to Dubai and set-up warehousing, offices and manufacturing facilities as a launching point to ship product to the rest of the region: Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, etc. Along with the free trade zone came investment banks and other financial institutions, media centers and technology companies. The final touch was the creation of an almost legendary tourism business. Seven star hotels, exotic housing neighborhoods, indoor skiing, gigantic malls, and now the tallest building in the world, all sprung-up in Dubai. It is a playground for the wealthy.

As I got off the plane and walked into Dubai International Airport I was reminded why I am not a particular fan of traveling there. The airport is huge. I have had to walk from one side to the other and it is not pleasurable. The duty free area alone is as big as the average US mall. Two stories with all the major brands. Like a casino, the airport never sleeps. It is a major transit point for the world traveling east to west or vice versa. Flights leave at 2am to Singapore, 10am to Houston, and at all times of the day to London and the rest of Europe. Walking from one end to the other takes almost 45 minutes!

Once out of the airport it’s immediate heat. Dubai is a concrete jungle and can be very humid. Tommy Broussard, our Director of Eastern Hemisphere Operations picked me up and we headed to a lunch meeting with V&M pipes. Along the way I was able to capture some of the amazing sites.

Here is the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. This first picture doesn’t do justice to its height or massive base, needed to support the upper stories.  But this photo might put the height into perspective! This building is 2,717 feet tall…almost ½ a mile up! You can take a $50 tour up to the 110th floor if you want. I’ll stay down here on the ground thank you very much.

And if that still isn’t enough, here’s a professional photo taken of the massive building. Look at those itty-bitty skyscrapers around the base!

Check out the indoor skiing slope. That silver tube stretches back up the “mountain”. We’re talking chair lifts folks!

In Dubai there is no shortage of places to eat so we decided on Mexican food (yep, you start to miss burritos when in Saudi!). The food was excellent and our meeting was productive. We said our goodbyes and headed to Tommy’s house for some R&R before my 7pm flight to Muscat. I took one photo out of Tommy’s apartment. You can see another apartment building going up with a cool twisting architecture. The marina is down below. I'd say that Tommy’s home is quite different from the Oasis.

That evening I was back to the airport, trudging miles to my gate, and then catching a flight to Muscat. As a parting shot, here is an inside view of the airport in Dubai…this is one side of the luggage area, just for Dubai Airlines. If you’re flying another airline, you’re in a totally different area.

Muscat is located in the country of Oman. Oman is renowned for its peaceful, loving population and wise leadership. Muscat is very different from Dubai. It has carefully planned its growth by limiting building heights and colors. As I woke-up the morning after my flight, I took these photos from my window.

Muscat was my first adventure to the Middle East back in 2008. I took a load of photos on that first trip. Here are some of the more memorable ones.

Check out the Shanri-La Hotel - 7 wonderful stars without all the glitz and glamour.

Check out the beach in Muscat.  Very serene.  The water is very clear and people are swimming and fishing all through the summer.  This is right down the beach from the Shangri La Hotel.

Like night and day from the Burj Khalifa, Muscat is a sleepy little town in comparison. Unni Kizhake (our Project Manager in the region) and I headed to meetings with our local partners, a local pipe company, as well as some customers. It was a very productive trip that we capped off with some Turkish seafood. Here is Unni in a nice Valentine’s Day photo that Jack Mason made at lunch last year…ok, sorry, but there has to be some pranks and fun in every blog.

The next morning, heading back to the airport, I snapped another photo. Look how hard it is to get the buildings in the photo!

Also notice the backdrop of mountains. Oman is bordered by a mountain range which gives the country a totally different feel from the flat desert of Saudi Arabia and Dubai. It is very pretty, although it holds heat in like a microwave. Saudi Arabia has been around 106 the past week. Oman was running at about 111! You would think the difference was negligible at those levels, but trust me, it’s noticeable in a big way.

Oman is a wonderful place. I know the Middle East is not the garden spot choice for people’s vacation, but I highly recommend Oman, especially if you can tie-it to another week in a place like Thailand or somewhere in Asia. The people are wonderful and there is a lot to do in Oman, from hiking to lounging on the beach to shopping in the markets. I prefer Oman to the large cement jungle of Dubai, but either way it sure was nice to get away to another country for a few days.