Diving - A way of to spice up your life

I never knew I have fear with fishes, corals or any kind of underwater creatures till I decided to take scuba diving course. What makes me decided to take the course??? I myself dont know why....I was sitting in my office, feeling sooo bored, confuse and vulnerable after my terrible breakup from my previous relationship...I thought give diving a try...some says you can actually feel peaceful underwater....Guess what, the very next day I asked my student, Charlene for info on the diving company I needed to register in with the budget I have...I called the company and signed myself immediately...the problem I have at that time was the minimum number of person is two for the course...I asked Disney ( my colleague ) if he is interested since I know he's sooo interested in nature and etc....I was lucky enough he agreed and as excited as me for the course...

Our dive instructor was Mr Charles Sinsua ( psttt he's hottt ) and another guy ( sorry forgot his name ) as our divemaster....They are very very nice towards us....We did all the required modules. The 1st day was the hardest for me..I got panicked easily the moment we entered the water to learned about buoyancy and lungs control.....and it get worst when my nose bleeds.

However, the 2nd and 3rd day were fantastic....eventhough I tried my best not get near with the fishes. There was one day when I was drifted by the strong current underwater and Charkie have to swim after me and saved me...or maybe I purposely let myself drifted so he'll save me...hahaha...I dont remember it anymore....

yupp..I finally got my PADI license in May 2002 and did a couple of dives after the "graduation"...hahah...then I dont know when did I built up my fear of darkness and underwater which made me stop diving....I mean a TOTAL STOP to my diving....

Maybe I just needed some encouragement and words of assurance that I'll be save....I raelize that my confidence is fading in this activity.

But I am so glad that Joe, my really good friend from school "hasut" me to join him and Khairul to dive recently in Mataking Island....that was one of my scariest things to face in the past years...the underwater...my heart was beating fast,shaking,panic but I tried to put a brave face...God knows how I felt....surprisingly, I am actually NOT afraid of fishes or whatever sea creatures or corals...But my main main phobia (now that I realize ) is being left alone in the darkness of underwater and the current. The current is not fun at all....I used to love all the risky challenging activities but oh well...age does make a different huh....

Now I have decided to take refershment course in scuba diving so I can share the fun and peacefulness with my fellow diving friends...Thanks to Joe for making sure I was not going to die..hahahha..and also to Khai for giving me the word of encouragement....it does help bros.

Read my trip to Mataking in http://josiekupi.blogspot.com

Skydiving...will I do it again??? YESSSSSS!!!

On 3rd March 2002, I did my Tandem SKYDIVE from 15,000 feet above the sea level in Kota Kinabalu,Sabah. It was organized by Exotic Sky Adventures toegther with of The Borneo Connections Sdn Bhd and at that time, for those who doesn't have any licence to skydive have to pay RM700 per person ( which actually ends in less than 2 minutes )....but I was lucky enough that the company actually offered me the chance of a lifetime to do the jump....and i said," YESSSS" to their offer..

Some info on the Skydive Event : ( FEBRUARY 22 - MARCH 9 2002 )

DROPZONE : Kota Kinabalu International Airport (T2)

TOTAL NR. OF PARTICIPANTS : 141

PARTICIPATING NATIONS:Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, The Netherlands, Germany, Great Britain, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, France, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Canada, The United States, Australia, Hong Kong, Japan and Malaysia

AIRCRAFT : Hercules C-130

TOTAL LOADS : 41 4 to 6 loads per day for 8 days/ 15.000 feet

TOTAL JUMPS : 3576 TANDEMS: 138 (included in the 3576)

AFF STUDENT JUMPS : 88 (included in the 3576)

AFF STUDENTS : 11 two Dutch, one Brit and eight local Sabahanians 8 graduated RESERVE RIDES: 4 (no incidents)

ACCIDENTS : One broken ankle/AFF student

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At first I didnt choose to jump on 3rd March..it was suppose to be 7th March. Ms Christine Perroud insisted me to jump on 3rd March since I was there to witness the even myself...well actually to check it whether it's as scary as I thought it would be...i asked everybody on the event ( ahemmmm...sengaja tanya yg hensom2 jak lagi tu..wakakakka )..and everyone actually encourage me to do it on dat day since only few will do tandem ( u jump duo; together with your tandem master - for those who doesnt have any licence or experience in skydiving )... and for whatever reason..i said OK i will do it on that day....but I had a problem that they almost skipped me. I didnt have any shoes...sandals or slippers are not allowed...darn!!! Thankfully, one of my nephews brought extra shoes in the car...so I was rushed to a short briefing and sign a paper that at that time I didnt know what it was....doi rupanya kalau lah sia mati kunun kan...they wont be responsible...wakakkaka....nah..time tu barulah sia pucat....My nephews ( Carlson and Roland ) and friends ( Rina, Linut and Hawk ) all looked at me with the look ," josie..what the hell are u thinking??????????".. anyway...aafter the 5 minute briefing...they rushed me to a group of Tandem Masters ( all are real pro and did the stunt like more than 6000 jumps )...Oklah...I start to trust these people....besides..they are MEN..wakakka..just kidding...I got Dennis, he's nice, shorter than the other Tandem Masters but he's the most experiences among them...the moment he helped me to prepare my gear and all the harness and so on, I told him,"Rrrr..Mr Dennis..I trust you to take good care of me..."...he just smiled....all he said was,"no turning back girl.."...I looked at my nephews face...cilaka..they gave me the sad look as if I'm gonna die....
The idea of the aircraft will take off to 15,000 feet is not fun at all....I almost couldnt breathe...I was the last one to jump with my Master....He said,"this is it..it's 15,000 feet now and let's jump..."..I got freaked out....to be honest I didnt want to jump at that time..seriously... I told him," Can I look outside how does the earth looks like?"...and went to the edge of the opening aircraft....that WAS NOT a good idea to do before u jump because u will definately get cold feet...


Immediately told Dennis,"Can we abort this jump???" he said," OK" BUT pushed me and in split second..I knew I was flying and my baby-tee also flipped, cilaka. Nampak lah sikit2 tu perut. Syall..


Anyway...I didnt scream or cried or anything because it went too fast...to think of screaming or naything...in less than 20second kah tu...barulah slow sikit bila tu parachute kena buka...and barulah sia bulih enjoy the view and the feeling of flying is really great...yupp beyond my expectation....however..I only enjoy the whole thing in 30second..before I start to feel dizzy ( welll I have problem with heights ok - my ultimate phobia ). I told Dennis I dont want to prolong my landing. I want to land immediately because i can feel that in any minutes I might faint, heheheh....


Yupp..finally we landed safe with the help of Jukka from Finland. I was happy, so do my nephews and friends hehehe buduts kan. But guess what, I want to do it again!!!