Skytrex Big Thrill

Jun 7th, 2010 by Frog Prince

In our earlier article by Samurai Jack, we mentioned that Skytrex might be a good idea for an activity date. Having just gone through it myself, I would say there’s really not much of a chance to even hold the girl’s hand, much less have her in your arms!

But if you are 100% fit and have the heart of a lion, then you will definitely impress her as you slither up 17m pipe ladder to walk on tight rope, two-inch thick planks, circular PVC pipes; then swing on ropes and swoosh through the air. Oh yeah… if you man up and do all these effortlessly, she will be impressed. But if she should outdo you, then you might as well dig a hole and crawl in, never to surface again. Of course, the reason I went was not to impress anyone. Rather, Flying Fox (one of the activities offered in Skytrex) was on my ‘Things to Do Before I Die’ list.

But being a scaredy cat when it comes to heights, I opted to do the Big Thrill instead of Extreme circuit. The difference? Extreme is 22m off the ground!

Come Saturday, we were off feeling excited and nervous at the same time. Being one who wants to exercise regularly but don’t, I had thoughts of me being stuck halfway up the ladder or dangling in the air helplessly. But we encouraged each other and once we hand in our indemnity forms, we were raring to go!

On with the harness and then we waited eagerly for the guide to show us what to do. Lesson number one introduced us to our best friends – the carabiners and the pulley.

We had two carabiners each and one pulley and learned how to open and close them correctly. Then a short demo on how and when to hook them to the cables. You can bet that we paid full attention since our lives will depend on the carabiners and pulley!

Part two was a trial run where we just climb up about 7ft off the ground, walk on a suspension bridge and landed after a short flying fox.

After that, we dutifully lined up and waited for our turn to climb up, up, up to a flimsy-looking wooden platform. What the guide said about using my legs to push me up flew out the window as I could barely move them. So my arms came to my rescue as I haul myself up the ladder.

And the first obstacle was to walk inside a net which wasn’t too bad. It felt safe and I thought the height was still bearable.

Then it was the suspension bridge thing again but way longer than the practice one. Following that was another climb to a higher platform and this is when things got scary. It’s quite different when you are leaving solid ground. But when you have to climb up from one platform to another, the anxiety level rises as well. But I made it!

And what do I have in store? Another suspension bridge with a twist as this time, the planks go zigzag.

It was not that bad once you get the hang of it but I couldn’t stop worrying that the bridge may just flip leaving me high and dry. By then, I kind of guess that things are just going to get scarier and found myself at the start of the first flying fox.

I took one look, close my eyes, muttered a prayer and made my body go forward and just drop. For those of you with a problem letting go, I would say go ahead! Have a try, it’s quite therapeutic to just put your trust on gravity.

Of course the next obstacle made me wish that gravity was kinder on me as I found it really hard to make my way across swinging pipes.

I could feel gravity pulling me down, inertia pulling me back and the next step almost next to impossible.

But the worst obstacle has to be the rope swinging thingamajig. This really requires upper body strength and seeing as I have zilch, I cheated half way.

Instead of trying to swing my body and get to the next plank, I walked on the cable connecting the planks. The swinging thing kept leaving me hanging in the middle – between the two planks, so I can’t go back and I can’t move forward.

After that, I found the following obstacles to be manageable and it was great that there were about 3 or 4 flying fox. I really love those! It was an amazing feeling just dropping off the ledge and then finding yourself zipping across in the air. It was exhilarating and if anything can get me back, it would be this. And once the whole group completed the circuit, we took a group photo to commemorate the event.

Would I recommend Skytrex and Flying Fox to others? Of course! At RM35 – RM45 (depending on the circuit you choose), this is really value for money.

But be sure to book at least 3 weeks in advance and make sure no one in your group exceeds 100kg as that is the maximum weight. Perhaps because my group looked average, the guide did not really check but the website does mention height and weight restrictions. And while you do need your bravado, I would suggest topping up your patience level as well. There was a guide who really rubbed us the wrong way. Rebuking first timers with statements like ‘Oi, who told you to hold like that?! Wanna lose your fingers is it?’ was so not professional. Perhaps being young and yet more experienced, the fella needed to show off. Lucky the rest were much better.

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