January | 2014 | SIDONESIA

Man I am excited for this new year. Scared a little BUT mostly excited cause things are happening. However on the 31st of Dec, there is NO TIME to be scared or think to much about the future there is only time to think about what to do on Dec 31st NYE.

I was sick, had a sore throat, was feeling kinda weak, but I still didn’t wanna stay at home. There were decisions of going to bandung, decisions to stay, to go play pool, nothing was clear. I just surfed the net and drank hot tea and medicine all day to try to get better for the new year and the rest did me well.

I was tired from long hours at work getting the initial design for our product completed and I think it took its toll. Come 7 I called Rafie, where are you broooo. He answers “Downstairs”. I go down and ask him, so what we doing for NYE man … “Dunno” he answers “but I gotta pick up a cake for my mum”.

Then Ajeng whatsapp me. “Gimana Sid jadi keluar ?” Ngak tau nih. Eventually we work out there is no plans and we have the evening free. “OK Jeng jadi kita on the way … siap2”. We drive to where Ajeng is staying for her training and our plan is simple.

Go to a nice place to eat till the new years bell , blow on the horns, greet everyone happy new year and then call it a night. NOPE … this didn’t happen 😉

So we went to noodle house at living world and right outside there was a dance party setting up 😛 The music was pumping, the people were dancing and it looked like fun …

So we ate … and well, the pictures tell the rest of the story 🙂

Was a great night and I forgot that I was sick, I guess now i’m paying for it haha but thats ok. It isn’t to bad and you have to celebrate the coming of the new year.

Have fun everyone and may your new years be everything you hope it to be !

PEACE …

So in addition to training freediving on sundays at the Bandung Freediving club we have some fun and play different kinds of games. This week Bima introduced us to a game called underwater rugby. If you have never heard of it then try to guess from the name, yes its pretty much what you expect.

The aim of the game is to place the ball into a basket located on the bottom of the pool. You pass the ball to team mates through the water and tackle the opponent who has the ball (all underwater). This sport requires stamina, requires strength and obviously good water and breath hold skills.

I played it for the first time at UPI pools and now im addicted. Its awesome and after 3-4 hours of free diving training where its all about calm, peace and serenity, with long static apnea breath holds, long dynamic with and without fins you sometimes just get the urge to punch someone and this is the perfect game 😛

So in more detail lets describe the equipment. You have 2 buckets which act as the goals, you have a ball that is slightly heavy and negatively buoyant, you have two teams and you have a strategy. The attacking team tries to score on the opposite teams basket while the opposite team defends.

Defence is done by tackling the individual who is holding the ball but the tackling must end the moment that individual drops the ball (so you obviously don’t drown them :P) To break it down those are the rules in a nut shell. What makes this sport so fun however, is that fact that it requires strength, stamina, tactics/strategy, teamwork and lots of underwater skills such as manoeuvrability and breath hold.

You may think that there is a lot in common with free diving but there isn’t all that much .. breath hold skills yes, manoeuvrability within the water yes , but staying calm and peaceful NO ! you have to swim fast, you have to be aggressive and you have to rough people up 😛

At the end of it i had scratches on my sides and some on the side of my face. Had a few bruises too. Next time I play I might just wear a hoodie so that I can prevent scratches on my face from someones long fins digging into my face … but other then that it was a fun and exciting game.

Check out the images of the game (sorry about the water, visibility was horrendous that week)

The crew from BFD that week 🙂