Training, the fun kind...

I am soo excited.. the weekend was another great one, a build up to the coming one where I hope and finally get to … skydive. This weekend took 3 days to plan and execute, but was rewarded with heaps of new knowledge and oppurtunities for the future.

Not into discussing the planning bit, so let’s jump into the weekend itself. It all started on Saturday at 2am. Skydiving instructor extraordinaire, D.Lee (not D.Li, ,my colleague) suggested early in the week that I should make a trip down to Genting to learn the basics to skydiving in the wind tunnel there. So, on that Saturday, D.Lee and other fellow skydiver Mike along with his wife Stella picked me up and drove all the way to Genting. On the way we stopped at Nilai for hot nasi lemak which was yummy…mmmm…

We arrived at Genting around 830am, and proceeded to have breakfast at The Hainan Restaurant. Skyventure opens at 10 am, so we just chilled around till then, which was great, as all of us had not enough sleep the night before. D.Lee also taught the basic position of skydiving then, using some Y shaped board (of which I cant remember the name)… and it was painful… after a few session of stretches.. muscles loosened up a bit.. but still I get cramps when practicing the position.

At 10am, SkyVenture opened.. .and not long after that Abang Nazim came in as well… yayy!! Now all the cast has assembled for this run. I went up to grab my jumpsuit, helmet and goggles while the rest changed into the ones they brought along. D.Lee had me wear gloves… safety precautions. And.. so we were ready and raring to go. D. Lee went in first and demo-ed the arched position I should be in. My turn.. Went in… and sigh.. was so unsmoothly… darn… I kept turning and my legs were so unsteady.. I was also having difficulty in maintaining my arch.. and my arms were too close to my body. Failed… ok..dun give up yet… Mike went next.. and he was steady.. ok.. he’s an experienced new diver.. but learns quite fast as well. Ok.. D.Lee went in again… and another demo.. Me again… failed… sigh.. Went in another 2 times after that, but still no good. Break time.

Abang Nizam took the video of our first session, and D.Lee went through with us the whole thing.. Noticed my mistakes, but still no confidence in getting it right then. Okay.. prep myself again, and went in for the second session. Take a deep breath and lay myself horizontally … ok..steady steady now.. yes!!! Managed to hold my position!!! Yes!!! Knees bent, body arching.. keep arms forward… yes!!! I’m floating.. ok..mebbe turning abit but… floating nice, nevertheless.. I was so elated!! Went out and hi-fived D.Lee.. I was brimmed with smiles.. finally… I’m getting somewhere. My next few sessions got better and learnt how to manouvre better – like turning, chking altimeter and preparing to pull. Finally, did 20 minutes in the wind tunnel… had a dead back after that..and it’s still dead now (on Monday).

After the wind tunnel, Mike dropped me off in MidValley, KL. Hang-ed around the area fer a while, until sth grabbed my attention. Christian Dior had a huge booth, displaying their new mascara and perfume… and offering a makeover and a photoshoot for purchasing any of their products.. Nuff said, and two hours later… the results as below:

Which was soooooo NOT ME!!!

Spent the night in Bangsar and Uncle’s place, and had yummy mamak food… maggi goring for me, anytime, anyday…. And had a good and relaxing sleep.. was so dead already by then.

Alright..next day started out real early aroung 6am. Today (Sunday, that is) was for white water rafting guide training at KKB (I thought was suppose to be at Ulu Slim) Sigh.. muscles still aching like mad from the day before. Safiq and ?Rustam picked me and up from Bangsar and off we go. Had morning roti-telor at KKB while awaiting the rest. Finally we all headed down to the starting point at about 9am.

The “guides” in training were separated into 3 rafts with 6 persons per raft. Before we started to the big rapids, we were given some extra instructions on maneuvering the raft, from the front (pointer) and the back (captain).. it was not easy, but the instruction were easy. Then, after a short practice, we were off. The “guides” in training were given chance to sit in the front to practice being the raft pointer. The main job of the pointer is to make sure the raft is straight as we go along the river. Everything is different when you’re either in the front or the back…very much different when you’re just sitting in the middle… hmm.. let’s put it this way.. When you’re at the front, you won’t fall off easily, but.. you’d face the rapids head on. When you’re at the back… you’re literally standing up each time you got through the rapids, so you’d fall off extra easily (like Safiq at the 2nd canyon..hehe) and you get to see.. sometimes in slow motion… the rapids as it eats up the raft..hehe…

3 hrs later… we finished it.. I was dead.. we headed off to bathe and after that to a restaurant for lunch and a nice chat. It was raining heavily but that helped to cool the weather down as we ate to our hearts content. hehe.. thank goodness I was not driving back (thank you Safiq) I slept the whole journey back…

Dropped off at KLCC and chill until it was time to go back.. it was another amazing weekend.. but ugh… tired..!!!! even till now.. but then again, I won’t mind doing the whole thing again and again and again, with such wonderful friends and great instructors!!!

Okay.. till the coming weekend (super excited already)…
Trudge on..