Explorace Season 3 Press Conference

Howdy all...

Been missing for two days for this Press Conference purpose.

Day one was from 2pm till 6pm. Teams were asked to go to the Fire Station at Tmn Desa for some rehearsal. Apprently, this will be the first time where the participants will be asked to put up a show.

And to make it more memorable, they decided to ask all of us 12 teams to do Flying fox coupled with minor abseiling and Repelling from the fire tower itself.


The Tower of Fun

We were divided into two. 6 teams to do Flying Fox and 6 more to do the repelling.


The Operative Wannabes

Me and Bandit was tasked as the first to go down in the repelling.

The whole thingy was nothing new to me and Azly, to start with, but of course, as per everytime all these techincal rope sections are involved, we usually will be extra careful and extra safe when it involved our own life. It is up to yourself to ensure that the harnesses are *double backed* (ie, properly secured) and the figure of 8 are properly taken care of (ie not dropped) and the locking carabiners are, well, locked.

Accident will happen if someone gets overly confident and fail to check on these themselves.


like this instance where bandit shaved his head...a case of throwing his fears away

Anyway, some of these are pretty new for most of us...as apparent in the first rehearsal where most of us were apprehensive about even climbing up the tower or building.

The flying fox were deceptively easy, of course, to be coming down from a height of 10m (from the roof) or from 20m (from the cliff) for the flying fox, meaning one would be travelling at a speed high enough to crash you into the tower's wall should the Bomba themselves do not take extra precaution. Both ropes were declined at about 10 and 15 degree respectively. Then, they have to control their belaying device (which resemble a gri gri, only more sophisticated). On Day One, Kak Jehan took a nasty fall, only to have the fall broken by the ready fireman below. You can say that she fell straight into his arms la.

Some could be seen with their fingers and hand trembling on top of the tower. The tricky part is getting voer the railing which requires some guts as how often one does that anyway? Climbing over your own apartment's or Condo's railing? mad?


All trying to look cool......


My fear of height and all was apparent, i just tell myself that i'm properly secured and i'm properly trained for this. Numbers of adventure racings and average joes activities should had given me some level of confidence...right? Not much of a problem la, it is only what? 20 meters from the ground? should be over in 5 seconds if i let the brakes off all the way.

The second day, we were told to be at the Fire Station at 8am. Most of us showed up on time, no less. There, we were given new sets of equipment. All proper fire rescue equipments certified by National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA). I wonder why our own DOSH (Department of Safety and Health) are not responsible to certified these...oh well...not gonna go into this!


All geared up and no where to go...

This is the first time i had a feel of fire equipments. Yes, the harness was definately heavier by at least 2kg compared to my Ocun Zeeper. But it was in many ways, more comfortable as the paddings were thick. I was told that these are used for rescue work, which explain why there were 3 D-Rings on both front and back of the harness...

We were given helmet, brand new as well, which was like those you see when you were young in Ultraman.


Ultraman Taro and Ultraman Lima brotherhood.


This is Ultraman Taro and Godzilla...

Heck, even Tiara Jaq were there...though she is known as Reita. We could swear her side profile looked like her...well, she better becareful when Efendi is around....or Efendi better becareful when Kah Seng is around......


see...same or not same...don't play play..she could chew your balls away

We had 2 more rehearsal, which by the second rehearsal, Kak Am had a fall similiar to Kak Jehan. OUch.

Then there were cases of helmet which refuses to come out (because we were confused where the release button was!)

And me, showing my butt to the sponsors and media...(ie nothing R rated, was told to face the audiences)

By after lunch time, some of us had changed and was given teh last safety and briefing.

So, there were TV clips introducing us before we made our grand entrance via those ropes exercises. It was fun to see and watch.

Least to say, the whole event went on smoothly, everything was on time and was done to perfection.

Later that afternoon, we were given our race schedule...and so, without further ado, here it is:


ROUND 1

RACE 1 --> 24/2 - 27/2 LELA & CARMEN vs AMALIA & JEHAN

RACE 2 --> 15/3 - 17/3 LESLEY & ALVIN vs MARZUKI & NOREEN

RACE 3 --> 29/3 - 1/4 REITA & MANI vs WENG AUN & CEE YEE

RACE 4 --> 11/4 - 14/4 NARESH & GUNA vs AHMAD & REEZMAN

RACE 5 --> 26/4 - 28/4 DAVID & JAMES vs AZLY & EE VAN

RACE 6 --> 12/5 - 15/5 YUHANA & IRENE vs MASITA & MISBAH

And there you go. I don't need to get a new wife for my marriage as Nimmi placed me and Bandit to race from 26/4 till 28/4 with David and James.

The Show won't be shown until early June. Ie, by that time, we would had known who will proceed to second round.

All race locations remain a secret and there might be overseas trip even on the first league of the race.

We were also introduced to all the 3 production teams which each team will work closely with on race day.

We were also told that we will appear on TV3 Bulletin Utama yesterday, or the latenight news yesterday. Of which, non happened.

Then, it came out this morning in MHI...so early half the world haven't woken up yet...

damn...