8th August 2010. The day of reckoning was finally here. I found myself on the NKVE heading to Sunway Lagoon strangely excited and eagerly anticipating actually doing the bungy-jump. My on-air co-host, JD, on the other hand, was a nervous wreck (read his
blog to find out what was going through his head) as we drove to our destination.
When we arrived at the entrance of the theme park, the rest of the jocks were there, and to our pleasant surprise, our listeners, who had won double passes to enter Sunway Lagoon and who had come there to support us with our crazy stunt.
We put on our wrist band passes and promptly made our way to the bungy jump area. Little did we realize that we had to workout our glutes by having to climb all the way up this tower of wooden steps to reach the top of the suspension bridge.
Right in the middle of the bridge was the Bungy jump set-up. I do have a fear of heights and being 22 metres up high, walking across a suspension bridge, I told myself “Don’t look down, don’t look down… keep walking… don’t look down” under my breath.
Finally we reached the bungy area where Richard Tankersley and Doris of AJ Hackett were waiting for us. Down below, our listeners were at the viewing point looking up and waving to us. They looked small.
There were a few people in front of us who were already getting themselves strapped in to jump and all the djs watched with awe as they jumped off.
Finally, it was our turn to get ready. We were all given waiver forms to complete and sign (it felt like we were signing our lives away!) and we each had to be weighed. Apparently the minimum weight requirement is 40kg and you have to be above 18 to be allowed to do the jump.
And because I was the first one so gung-ho to fill up the form first and be weighed first, I ended up having to DO the jump first!!!
At that point, I still wasn’t feeling scared, though. It was all actually rather surreal, like I was just going through the motions and I couldn’t really believe that there was Ali, one of the handlers, handing me a harness to step into, wrapping a towel tightly around my ankles… strapping me into the bungy cord and guiding me to the ramp…
The towel was wrapped so tight that the only way to walk was to waddle like a duck. And waddle I did to the edge of the ramp, my toes just peeping over the ledge. I looked down into the lake below me and THAT was when it finally hit me – how far above I really was and how I was actually going to jump off a frickin’ ledge with nothing but this cord around my ankles!
I felt my stomach lurch when the realization finally hit me that this was really happening and there was no backing out of this now!
Ali told me to stretch my arms out and look straight ahead at the Sunway Resort Hotel in front of me and he said he’d count to five and that’s when I should jump.
His instructions were like a haze to me and I vaguely made out the voices in the background of my colleagues shouting words of encouragement and my name while the listeners below were yelling their support.
Before I knew it, the countdown cut through the blur.. “5! 4! 3! 2!....1!” There was a beat. And then... I jumped.
And as soon as I felt my body tip over, I remember thinking “This is the first and LAST time I’m ever doing this!!”. I can’t even remember if I yelled “OHHHH Myyy gaaawwwddd!!” or whether I was just thinking it, but I just couldn’t believe I was free-falling right then.
I kept my eyes closed cos I didn’t want to experience the sensation of falling. Next thing I knew I was being pulled back up again coz of the recoil and I was falling back down again, my body twisting in the air.
I was waiting to hit water but it never happened, much to my disappointment. Turns out you have to let the handlers know that you want to get dunked in the water. Finally, I stopped swaying in the air and I was alarmed to see how high above the water I still was. Eventually, a guy in a boat rowed up to me and asked me to hold on to a stick and I was lowered into the boat.
I think people thought I’d fainted coz I just lay there with my eyes closed and out of breath! I couldn’t believe it was over.
But the listeners were great as they clapped and cheered the whole time. In fact, three of them were so inspired by all the jocks jumping, three of them decided to give it a go too!
Check out the video of my jump...
Right after me, were Terry and Aly’s turn. Terry wanted to do a tandem jump and
Aly was petrified at the thought of doing the jump but agreed to do it if
Terry was going to jump together with her. Read their blogs to find out what went down….
After that was JD. He needed some time to calm his nerves but in the end, he was the first to be dunked in the water. Half his body went in the lake. When he complained after that the lake water stank, I didn’t feel so bad about not getting wet in the end! ;)
"Ommmm..." JD trying to calm his nerves...
After JD was Jeremy who was just as scared of doing the jump but still yelled “I’m AWESOOOOMMMEE!!!” while he was dangling in mid-air.
Nisha was next and she was one of the few who was eagerly looking forward to doing the jump…
Finally, the last DJ to jump was Hazim, our weekend jock, who wasn’t even planning to jump in the first place and was there just for support. In the end, we all managed to coax the guy to do it and like the good sport he is, he did the jump too!
Check out the video and see if your stomach doesn’t lurch when you watch it!
Thanks again Sunway Lagoon and Bungy Malaysia!!!
All of us with our certificates - we're certified insane!
And thanks to our listeners who came to support us!!
