Just Sharing 文の分享站: Sibu BASE Jump 2011

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Sibu BASE Jump 2011

Sibu B.A.S.E. Jump is back for its 3rd edition! I had been following the event for 3 years consecutively and this year I had noticed some positive improvement by the organizer.

The jumpers participated in the 3 days event starting from 23rd-25th September has obviously increased if compared to last year! 23 jumpers from all around the world mostly from western countries such as Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States of America, Austria and Netherlands were joining the event lead by Gary Cunningham from Australia.

There are also 4 Malaysians taking part in this 27-storey or 126-meter height jumping from Wisma Sanyan Sibu, the tallest building in Sarawak. They are lead by Captain Aziz Ahmad, president of Malaysia BASE Association.

[Captain Aziz Ahmad]

Talking about Gary Cunningham, this name is very familiar to me. I had been mentioning about him since I follow the event from its first edition in 2009. If you wish to see my previous write ups, please click here. He returned to Sibu for 3 years in a row and this year, he brought even more jumpers to make the event grander ever and more excitement than before. Gary himself is the world record holder of the most BASE jumps made in 24 hours and also the technical adviser for this event.

[Gary Cunningham]

This year, as there were more jumpers, thus more variation of jumps could be performed by them. Apart from individual jumping, there were also jump-in-2 and trio jumping! It certainly added more entertainment and heart-beating element to the event and spectators were so amazed with the dedicated performance by these jumpers.

Sometimes they even broke the silence by clapping their hands for the exciting performance as a sign of satisfaction and amazement. This phenomenon is more rarely happened as in normal case Sarawakians are used to be shy. If they clap without been forced, it means the performance had really touched their hearts.

This year the organizing committees had put in more efforts to make the BASE jumping a more happening event. Trade fair had been set up at Town Square 2nd phase to make the event more carnival feel. Besides that, there were also night jumping which never been held before. It was a positive improvement and perhaps it was an effort to put this event in national's sports tourism calendar.

However there is still room of improvement to make this event better. In my opinion, for the night jumps, appropriate lighting should be set up so that the jumps could be seen clearly.

Besides the excitement, the spectators also took this opportunity to take photos with the jumpers everytime after they done their jumping. I believe it is a great experience for both the spectators as well as jumpers and I am looking forward to a better event next year!