Al Forsan – International Sports Resort – AbuDhabi

I recently had the opportunity to play at Al Forsan International Sports Resort. The event was called Al Forsan Amazing race where media parties were invited to compete with each other. This resort is one stop shot for all kinds of sports activity. Al Forsan provides world class facilities be it any sport along with professionals who can guide, train and help you nurture your talent. I’ve been so impressed with this place that I recommend this to be the best place for those corporate team building events.

We started our day with Paintball. Each of us were given a clean uniform for paintball. At the site, we were briefed on the sport and were given our loaded paintball guns. 10 of us were made 5 a side for the game. Each team had to steal the flag from their opponent and bring it back to their base. So we advance together as a team, we get attacked as we get closer to our enemy territory. You can duck in their artificial buildings, houses, huts etc. Peep through the fox holes and fire at your enemy making way to the flag. It was my first time. The game was literally as if we were in war. You had very little time, needed to think and act quick. Never did I expect the paintball to be so painful. All this time I imagined paintball to have a water balloon effect. But actually speaking, if you get a shot from paintball gun it really hurts. One of the shot I received hit my finger which gave it a cut. So you need to be really careful when you play this sport. You also don’t want to be shooting someone very close, make sure you keep safe distance to avoid any real harm. They did mention all this during the initial briefing. In this 15 mins game our team eventually won, simple because each of our opponents when out of ammunition as they constantly had to fire to defend and shoo us from getting closer to their base. So that’s one thing you need to keep in mind. There is no refilling. So when you are done with your loaded gun, the game is literally over for you. So fire wisely!

Pricing for 100 paintballs – Dhs 95 per person (weekend rates) – 15 mins game maximum

Then we were taken to Al Forsan’s polo field for horse riding where we were given private lesson on how to ride a horse. We were given the option to choose our horse. The instructor would stand in the middle and give us instructions on how to climb on a horse, how to sit on a horse(getting your posture right), how stand on a horse, move along with the horse when it starts to move quicker, how to stop a moving horse etc. Eventually I thought I did more work than the horse. Its not as easy as you see in the movies, horse riding does take a little bit out of you :p

The pricing for semi-private lessons for beginners would be: Dhs 360

Kart racing was the most exciting race for us. From the beginning we were just looking forward to this one. I think it’s normal, everyone loves to kart race. Before the race, every racer had to register themselves at the screens available at the station with their photo taken. Our profile is then linked to our assigned car. Each kart has an electronic tag to it and once the race starts our details would be visible on the big screens inside, moving up and down in the rankings according to our performance in the race. After the race, an e-mail is also sent to you instantly with your score and rank list. When registering you also have the option for the scorecard to be directly uploaded to your facebook page which I thought was a quite risky if you were to be in the bottom of the scorecard 😀 The 15 mins felt so long. The whole pressure goes onto your forearm when driving due to constant turning at high speeds. Eventually in the last 5 minutes I just wanted to get over with it.

Pricing is Dhs 140 for 15 mins of Go Karting.

Water sports at Al Forsan is powered by their high tech cable system which is basically long cables that travel at a speed between 29 to 38 kph and we just need to grab one of them and skate along with it on water. Be it wakeboard, kneeboard, water ski/skate etc. It was a little embarrassing to see the little local kids do it so well while we just hold that cable and fall right into the water. Ofcourse, its all about practice but surely their cable system is quite unique and a thriller for water sport enthusiasts.

Pricing for 1 hour wake boarding would be Dhs 140

Shooting is where I actually excelled. I was one of the top shooters scoring 85 with 10 bullets. I myself was surprised how accurate I was for a first timer. But it was loud. So loud that even after wearing that ear piece your hands still shiver expecting the burst of sound on your next trigger. And when participants shoot together, it gets even crazy. This probably was the only sport where you could actually relax and play the game. Rest of the sports we played today took the most out of our body.

Pricing would be Dhs 190 for 25 shots. Click here to visit the official page of Al Forsan – International Sports Resort. Click pictures below to screen them in full screen view: