Tired of joyriding and the hassles involved, Saudi youth have invented a new joy that mixes rocks with cars to make interesting sculptures. This very strange hobby involved lifting the whole car using small rocks. The car lifted off of its tires on a pile of rocks. The result is quite compelling, leaving people wondering how and why these vehicles end up in these predicaments.
Arab News visited Al-Beda, 20 kilometers outside Madinah near a natural park, where young Saudis are practicing their strange hobby, often trying to out-do each other.
Badi Al-Raddadi said that he loves this activity because it is safe and less damaging than racing.
“In the past when we used to do joyriding, we were chased by police and booed by people because they regard what we do as dangerous entertainment. This rock art is amazing and involves a lot of creativity. It takes us more than three hours to do it and it is a bit difficult. We have to jack the car up and set it gently on rocks. There is a chance that the rocks will not hold the car but we always succeed in doing it. This hard effort is paid off when we see people’s eyes and how much they liked what we did,” said Badi.
“There is nothing much that we can do as Saudi youth. It seems as if we’re isolated by society and whatever we do is not good enough for people,” said Muhsin Mohammad, a Madinah youth.
Muhsin is a great fan of this art and he set up a website in which he collect all pictures of cars on rock. Muhsin wishes if there was a special car club in which all Saudi youth would express their talent.
“Setting up a car on rocks is an art only few people master. It involves a lot of work and creativity. The higher you take the car, the more creative and talented you are. It is a great feeling to see a lot of people taking pictures of our artwork. Some people criticize what we do saying that we waste our time. If they think so then painters are wasting their time too and so are sculptors.”
Talal Al-Saadi, frequent visitor to Al-Beda Park, said that the site of cars lifted on rocks is beautiful and shows artistic works. He said, “It is a lot better than joyriding and car racing. We lost many young Saudis in joyriding but we never lost anyone in this sport. I think there should be some reward to this artistic work and to sponsor their talent by opening new clubs in which they can compete on this sport. This will at leats take them off the streets.”
