The beginning.... of any games...the Uniform...

The begining of any games is near when you are invited to the UAC (Uniform and Accreditation Centre) to pick up these games pieces. It is our first venue to go live!!! The countdown becomes a reality.

Hope you enjoy the following photos and journey of me at the UAC - together with Games Workforce Support Team. An aspect I do enjoy working on an event is watching the organisations training/educational video's and published photos as they always contain my friends or colleagues.....

You see here, my friend Allister = guess the real life one!!

Above are pictures of others in my department (Games Workforce Support - HR) Caroline, Theo, Lisa, Razia, Nikki all at the front.
Chiton and I - who would have thought working together at the Victorian Football Association, then Commonwealth Games - that we would join up in the desert... Chiton you rock!
Rashed and I. Rashed owns a HUMMER!! Guess who will be going for a spin in this beast??


The Accreditation Desk.

From the Accreditation Desk, now that we have no issues with our accreditation, we move onto printing our passes. You see here, my friend Stephen (right) who heads up Accreditation. I do not envy his role - would drive any sane person to the other side!!!
Waiting patiently and in anticipation.

Mucking around in the Uniform Distribution Area!!

Now....... as for a photo of me in this delighful and fashionable uniform - well you will just have to wait!!!

Wakeboarding Academy - In Doha...

I never would have thought that I would be doing a wakeboarding academy in the desert. This place can completely surprise me!! Rodo a world champion and extreme sports champion took 6 of us for a 3 day academy. We had 20 mins each wakeboarding behind the beautiful mastercraft boat. The wake was huge and felt like you were in the middle of the surf. It was perfect, we finished work each day at 2pm (ramadan) and was in the water by 2.30. Spending the whole afternoon in the boat with friends trying to improve our performance, the sun was shining - life couldnt get any better hey!!

Day One - I had a goal of clearing the wake and I managed to do so on Day 1. Achieving this now, I thought christ what will I be like by Day 3? Day Two - I was thinking way to much and made mistakes but ended up pulling myself together and jumped multiple wakes. Day Three - higher and larger wake jumps!!

We all learnt some crucial tips from Rodo. Roda has an academy in Florida however is trying to develop the academy here in Qatar. Its close for all the Europe National Teams, it has 365 days of summer and its cheap!! I initiated some interesting discussion with the manager from Mastercraft boats of developing wakeboarding in the middle east... interesting!!!

One way to promote the sport, is via local television.. So believe it or not, but a local tv crew joined us on Day Two to film us. Lets hope that the locals do get behind the sport, Qatar will be fantastic place to develop a world class wakeboarding/waterskiing academy. Imagine!!

To check out more on Roda:

http://www.rodowakeboardacademy.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1&Itemid=2&lang=en