Know your professor: Desert rider

The series continues... Maria E. Kallukaren shows a more fun side to educators in the UAE.

Name: Stephan Ottewill
Designation: English and IT instructor
Institute: Sharjah Higher Colleges of Technology

I love: Motorcycling

It's a hobby Stephan Ottewill picked up in the UAE, where he arrived from Germany to teach at the Sharjah Colleges 12 years ago.

"I first learnt to drive a car across the dunes. And once I was confident with that, I turned to motorcycling and found I enjoyed it," he says.

Adventurous now isn't he?

To which he replies: "I must obviously be adventurous from the fact that rather than take a plane, I've ridden twice to the UK from Dubai."

He will tell you that motorcycling is a very active scene in these parts, with a couple of well-known clubs. He is a member of Al Futtaim Honda's Trading Enterprises Club.

A model too: Thanks to his hobby Ottewill even landed a modelling job. Together with his daughter - a regular riding partner - he shot for Al Futtaim's Honda ad. "We seemed good role models," he says.

His students later told him how they had seen the ad in cinemas.

I own: An off-road, four-stroke Honda (unfortunately it was stolen two weeks ago; now you know whom to contact if you happen to spot it).

And a BMW (in the UK).

Why I love it: "We bikers have a saying. If you've seen a dog with his head out of a car window and noticed how happy it looks, it's the feeling I get when I ride."

Claim to fame: Besides the Honda ad and riding to the UK, Ottewill has motorcycled through Jordan, Syria and Iran, thus combining his two loves - motorcycling and travelling.

What his students say

"When one of my friends got low marks for an exam, Professor Ottewill told her, ?Imagine if one of your teachers had to do this in Arabic?' I have always remembered that. He is very encouraging. As for his hobby, it is a bit strange. We don't have teachers with such hobbies."
- Abeer Al Mazam, higher diploma in electronics engineering at SWC. Takes English with Ottewill

"He knows about everything; there hasn't been a time when I asked him something and he couldn't answer. I like his hobby ... he is young at heart."
- Salma Mohammad Thani, higher diploma in computers and networking. Takes English with Ottewill