- Hosted by broadcaster and presenter, Kate Garraway, this newly released podcast and YouTube series will share the stories of people who call Dubai home.
- Episode 6 explores how sport, wellbeing and fitness run through the veins – and streets – of modern Dubai.
- Kate interviews: Marcus Smith, a fitness entrepreneur, extreme athlete and an ambassador for The Dubai Fitness Challenge; Eisa Sharif, Emirati ex padel professional and a leading voice at the UAE Padel Association; Shadi Enbashi, co-founder of SEVA Experience, a wellness clinic; and Candy Fanucci, founder of Pirate, Surf, Rescue, a lifesaving programme for young people right across Dubai, which aims to build confidence in the water and in life
- Episode 6 will be available on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and all other major audio platforms on Monday 17 March 2025
“One Active City”, the sixth episode of the newly released podcast and YouTube series DXB Unheard, explores how sport, wellbeing and fitness run through the veins – and streets – of modern Dubai. In this episode Kate dons her trainers and heads out to experience some of the activities this energetic city has to offer. From playing padel against an ex-pro, to watching children ‘pirate surf’, to learning about the remarkable Dubai Fitness Challenge – she explores just how important keeping fit is to people.
Hosted by broadcaster and presenter, Kate Garraway, DXB Unheard promises to uncover the hidden gems, personal triumphs, and extraordinary experiences in the cosmopolitan city of Dubai. Each of the eight episodes, which are released weekly, feature intimate interviews with remarkable individuals, where audiences can hear from Emiratis and Dubai residents who have left an indelible mark on the city.
In this episode Kate interviews:
- Marcus Smith, a fitness entrepreneur, extreme athlete and an ambassador for The Dubai Fitness Challenge, who came to Dubai in 1983 when his father got a job in the city. Marcus is the Founder of InnerFight, a leading CrossFit gym in Dubai. He ran 30 marathons in 30 days, a mere eight months after a serious bike accident
- Eisa Sharif, Emirati ex padel professional and leading voice at the UAE Padel Association. Padel, an easy to learn sport derived from tennis, is the fastest growing sport in Dubai, which has hundreds of padel courts
- Shadi Enbashi, co-founder of SEVA Experience, a wellness clinic in Dubai. The SEVA experience includes a café, yoga and meditation studios, and an array of wellness treatments
- Candy Fanucci, founder of Pirate Surf Rescue, a lifesaving programme for young people right across Dubai, which aims to build confidence in the water and in life. Candy was a competitive athlete from a very young age, earning her national colours in swimming, hockey, track and rugby. In 2010 she founded Pirate Surf Rescue, where a community of thousands of children participate in a range of sport, fitness and lifestyle education programmes across the beaches of Dubai
Kate Garraway quotes:
- “In this series I’m going to meet people that will open your eyes and your mind to another Dubai, the one that is unheard, to show you what this city and its residents are all about. It is a place where East meets West, where women can and do lead the way, where science is saving resources and selflessness is saving lives.”
- “Fitness is at the heart of this city, and the infrastructure is there to help their population live a healthier life: hundreds of kilometres of cycle tracks, miles and miles of dedicated cushioned running tracks, beaches filled with activities like volleyball, padel and water sports, and a yearly programme of activities that sees millions of their residents exercising daily in the Dubai Fitness Challenge”
- Reflecting on speaking to Marcus Smith: “Marcus’ story of how he came back from that horrific accident is so inspiring. […] I love the way he has helped with Dubai’s evolution. […] He’s taken his keenness on fitness and turned it into a whole community that you then see elsewhere in Dubai too.”
- “Padel is spreading all around the world, but it feels like its home is being made here [in Dubai]. It’s so huge and such a love [from] Emiratis in particular.”
- On playing padel with her daughter, Darcey, against ex padel professional Eisa Sharif, and her son Billy, Kate said: “I had the number one player in the world’s racket, and still was useless! I had so much fun that I can totally see why it gets addictive. I’m definitely going to go back…maybe without a camera!”
- On visiting SEVA Experience Kate said: “So this is the other side of the kind of outdoor, fit, active lifestyle that you can have here in Dubai. It’s just a beautiful ambition that they’ve turned into a brilliant business reality. To be able to come here, to be able to put the best food into your body, to experience a little bit of calm, and health and wellbeing, and also, I guess, to relieve some of the stress and pressure of life, and look after your brain, look after your mind and look after your wellbeing. […] I think I could do this much more than 30 marathons!”
- “Dubai’s commitment to mental wellbeing and fitness isn’t limited to adults. There’s a whole array of activities aimed at keeping children healthy, and building communities.”
- After meeting Candy, Kate said: “As you can see here at Pirate Surf Rescue and all across Kite beach, the absolute sense that people take their health and wellbeing and spaces provided for them to take care of themselves is just brilliant, and there’s a real sense, whether it be from parkour to paddle boarding, from the beach to into the desert, there’s a sense of just a community being brought together by sport.”
Interviewee quotes:
- Reflecting on his move to Dubai in the 1980s, Marcus Smith said: “It was wild […] because there was nothing here, there were no highways; […] there was tarmac on it, but you could just walk across it. There were camels on it every day! […] We’re talking 40 years so it’s a fair amount of time, but still […] it’s a lot of change.”
- On the importance of fitness to the people of Dubai, Smith said:
- “We’ve almost been gifted this space […] where His Highness has basically created one of the ultimate playgrounds of nature and sport, which is absolutely amazing.”
- “It’s insanely accessible compared to other parts of the world. If you live in an apartment block, you have a gym, if you live in a villa community you have a gym. There’s an incredible amount of public parks. All of them have some sort of outdoor gym or running track. There are bikes all over the place. […] It’s incredibly accessible.”
- On taking on the challenge of running 30 marathons in 30 days, a mere eight months after a bike accident that saw a truck hit him which led to him hitting a wall at over 50 km/h, Smith said: “That was fun! […] Dubai launched a 30-day challenge in 2016 or 2017, which again is another sort of marker of how Dubai wants to encourage physical activity. The simple challenge from His Highness […] was 30 minutes of exercise a day for 30 days. […] I was reading a book in 2018 and I got the idea that I should run 30 marathons back to back in 30 days!”
- On having a Royal Family member attend one of the 30 marathons, Marcus said: “I think that’s what makes this country quite special, because it’s quite small, and that initiative is under his patronage, and he saw someone doing something that he thought was good, I guess, and he said ‘you know on the 28th day I’ll come and run’.”
- On the 30-day fitness challenge, he added: “It’s amazing. It’s one of the only governments in the world that I’ve seen that actually puts on an initiative that encourages individuals, schools, corporates, no matter who you are, just to exercise. It actually plays out in all different formats. Companies will organise something every single day in their office. […] The vibe around the city during that time is pretty amazing. You see it around the city. There’s […] fitness parks that are at key locations around the city, so super accessible for people. There are different challenges going on.”
- On getting into padel at the start of it taking off Eisa Sharif said:
- “I started playing in 2013. It was a completely new sport to me. It looked weird! Like, why is there glass in a court that looks like tennis somehow, and the rules are like tennis. [But] when I started playing I loved it, it was social and it was a fun, faster game, but nobody knew what padel was. […] Today when I look at it, I’m very proud of where we are today, with the number of courts and the players and excitement of the community and society, not just here, even globally.”
- On the meteoric rise of padel, Sharif said: “It’s supported by His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. He’s a player, he’s the leader behind it. It picked up […] a few years ago, but it was always there. There [were] a lot of courts, but people used to play casually, but now they take it as a sport where they want to focus on their health […]”
- On Dubai hosting the World Championships Eisa said: “We did it in 40 days! We built eight courts. We used the existing Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium. We transformed the whole place into a padel venue.”
- On co-founding SEVA, Shadi Enbashi said: “We had a vision and we had a dream. […] We were re-visiting the concept of health and wellbeing based on […] our own experiences and based on where the culture we are part of was. […] The whole thing is about the element of nature and tuning into mother earth.”
- On catering to the Dubai community Enbashi said: “We all have different needs, and obviously there is an impression about Dubai being very much on the ‘glitter’ side of things. Having been born here, I can see the possibilities of this land, and I can see that what we are offering is not something lightweight. […] We can see the exponential growth of […] new centres and wellness hubs around the city. When we started there were only a couple of places in the city, and now there are [a] countless [number] of them […] which is a reflection of the demand and the need.”
- On founding Pirate Surf Rescue Academy, Candy Fanucci said: “The dream is to change every child’s way of thinking, their lifestyle, their thought process, and just to make them the most incredible, confident human beings; kind-hearted, loyalty, honesty, sincerity, hard work, the kind of values that we grew up with as kids.”
- On using sport as a tool to achieve this, Fanucci continues: “Kids are very practical now, with all the social media, if it’s not practical you’ve got an attention span of about 15 seconds now. […] TikTok videos have got shorter and shorter. […] Nothing sits in their mind as actually doing it practically, and they feel it and they get better. […] It’s teaching kids consequences to actions.”
Next week’s episode of DXB Unheard, “Sporting Showstoppers” (airing on Monday 24 March) sees Kate speaking to sporting legends, and some of the masterminds behind Dubai’s biggest sporting events.
About DXB Unheard:
Hosted by broadcaster and presenter, Kate Garraway, DXB Unheard is a newly released podcast and YouTube series promising to uncover the hidden gems, personal triumphs, and extraordinary experiences in the cosmopolitan city of Dubai.
Dubai is more than skyscrapers and luxury; it’s a melting pot of stories waiting to be shared. From unsung heroes to cultural icons, DXB Unheard explores diverse topics, from innovation and sustainability to community spirit. Each of the eight episodes features intimate interviews with remarkable individuals. Expect to hear from Emiratis and Dubai residents who have left an indelible mark on the city.
Future episodes:
- Episode 7: “Sporting showstoppers”, available from: Monday 24 March 2025
- Episode 8: “Reach for the top”, available from: Monday 31 March 2025
