The day finally reached. Fortunately, most of the participants reached school on time,  giving us ample time to do administration work. Although there was miscommunication with the bus driver in the beginning, it was solved quite quickly and we proceeded to johor bahru on the time which we had planned.

It was a fun ride there as everybody in the bus was mingling with one another, sharing their feelings and anticipation for the event. The entire process at the check point went faster than what we had thought it would be.

Finally we reached the paintball venue! The weather was at our side and the venue was great! It has many different combat fields. Also the instructors were very helpful and detailed in their introduction about paintballing. However, there were some delays at the beginning due to some administrative work, resulting in some people feeling impatient.

Without wasting anymore time, we proceeded to the games. The people were broken up into different groups whereby they were allocated different fields for their first games. The games were very exciting and breathtaking as the people inside the field zoomed from one corner to another strategically. Their goal was to take the flag in the middle of the field, before the opponents. Everyone in the field was eyeing for the flag and at the same time, attempting to shoot down opponents. Indeed, when you are hit, it is quite painful, but the intensity and exhilaration in the field overwhelm you such that it is nolonger that pain.

The event was quite well organized as everyone had played at least two times, at two different combat fields. At the end of the event, many people had with a great sense of joy and satisfaction. Afterwhich, we proceeded to Tamah Sentosa Seafood Restaurant where everyone indulged in cheap sumptious seafood.

All in all, the day went quite smoothly. Although there were some hiccups in the beginning, we managed to bring it together and made our first event a big success!

written by Chua Yee Ting

This summer, SMUX Skating Team & Xseed Team proudly presents to you: Laser Tag on Skates – Tagger Drift! Our very first collaborative effort with SMUX Xseed Team, making it possible to play laser tag while on skates! With the event theme built around the storyline of ‘REC’ the movie, participants strive to complete a mission and survive as they go through a series of obstacles and mystery solving. With their agility and strategic minds, they are able to work together as a team and complete the mission in the fastest time possible. The participants definitely had tons of fun, shooting and chasing after the other teams, crawling through the dark and mysterious tunnel, as well as solving codes and riddles hidden around. They battle teams in a laser tag cross-fire in the finale, and eventually emerging as survivors and winners of the thrilling and hair-raising race.

Your exams have just ended… Are you cooping in the house with nothing to do? 25 of us have just spent the most awesome time having the time of our lives in Malaysia… Drifting down rapids, jumping off waterfalls, playing modern combat AND riding through the rocky terrain in our FERRARI (ATV)!!!

On 27th April, we set off to Malaysia for a host of exhilarating, adrenaline-pumping activities. We travelled through the night in a comfortable 40-seater coach bus and finally reached our destination GOPENG, MALAYSIA – Nomad’s Earth Camp. We immediately geared up for our first activity – White Water Rafting!

We had a splashing mind-blowing experience riding through the rough rapids, sailing through the windy rivers and drifting down the strong currents.

After a hearty lunch, we head out for our second activity – nerve wrecking WATERFALL abseiling!

Gearing up for the waterfall abseiling!

This is not for the faint- hearted. We pluck up our courage and slowly inch down the massive waterfall.

Instant satisfaction from abseiling down the waterfall!

Overwhelmed by the adrenaline rush from the waterfall.

After abseiling down the waterfall, we had a terrific time splashing in the icy cold waterfall.

After a restful night, we are looking forward to the next activity – PAINTBALL.

Paying full attention to the instructor on how to handle the highly dangerous air gun which can shoot the paint ball across 50metres.

Our participants sporting the army uniform all ready for the activity.

Immediately after the sweat drenching activity, we head to our next ATV! Within a short drive of 15 mins, we reached our next destination and were ready to ride our boom voom All Terrain Vehicles!

We boarded our “Ferraris” and were ready to tackle any obstacles in our path. Driving through rocky muddy roads, slipping through narrow cliffs and steep slopes posed no threat to our awesome vehicles.

We zipped through the rocky roads and finally reached our destination – the Waterfall! We dashed towards the waterfall and had a wonderful time splashing in the pool.

Our participants had lots of fun and were very bonded through these exciting activities!

Image heavy, we’d rather let the pictures do the talking

27^TH APRIL

We started off with icebreakers to get everyone acquainted with each other before the trip

Bagsbagsbags / Polar bears sleeping!

Strangely, 2/3 of our group is from IS. Out of the 3 heads Fabian tap, confirm 2 IS students already haha.

The bus came and we were off!

Nasi Ayam breakfast / First signs of daylight

28^th April

We finally reached Earth Camp at Gopeng!

Walking towards our bunks to unload and get ready for a whole day of adrenaline!

Chilling in our bunks waiting for whitewater rafting to start, girls & guys.

ACTIVITY 1 : WHITEWATER RAFTING

Briefing / On the way to the set-off point!

When we reached our destination, we had a safety briefing like in case we went overboard and all….

Carrying our rafts down!

Little did we know, we weren’t going into our rafts immediately..cause’ it was time to put the safety briefing to the test. So, BEFORE we got into our rafts, we were going into the water already! Of course a few of us panicked…… Hahaha.

Into the water we go! / Splashing water at each other (which also happens to be our favourite activity whenever we get the chance to)

We went down the mini rapid one by one by one. . . .  After everyone had experienced ‘going overboard’, we were briefed yet again, this time about all the various commands we would need to adhere to during the rafting journey. Funny names which made it easier for us to remember but I personally mainly remembered the one where we all just had to hide in the raft, haha!

Down the mini rapid he goes, ALONE! ; Getting into our rafts with our groups

Finally, the rafting started and all of us had great fun after each and every exhilarating rapid we conquered! We had a short break halfway where we each got an apple and…. like I said previously, whenever we got the chance to splash water, we did.

We concluded whitewater rafting after going over a few more rapids and into the water again, this time as a group caterpillar to be pushed by the current! Much fun!

Headed back to earth camp again where we had lunch and took a short break before setting off again, this time to a waterfall!

ACTIVITY 2 : WATERFALL ABSEILING

Had a briefing, wore our harnesses and then a little trek up to the top of the waterfall. (The few of us at the bottom taking pictures were shivering from the cold water & it started raining too!)

Magnificent waterfall / Abseiling down!

It was an awesome experience for all of us and it was all over too fast. Nonetheless, we had much fun at the bottom of the waterfall getting our mini massages and not forgetting, splashing water at each other yet again.

We headed back to earth camp again to wash up, dinner and played games till we slept (really exhausted by the day’s activities).

29^th April

Breakfasted at 6.30 in the morning and set off for KL, to our paintball site! It was a long journey so we took the chance to catch up on sleep again.

Group picture before we left Gopeng, all geared up in our PAINTBALL ATTIRE!

ACTIVITY 3 : PAINTBALL

As with every activity, we always have a briefing before we begin…  Anyway after learning all the safety and game rules, we split into teams and got our team names! First two teams went in and got ready for battle!

Team BUNNY (bias ah, must put my team ) / in action!!

Paintball was painful for most of us and we emerged with battle scars and wounds but what’s life without a little pain right? It was great fun especially when we ran out of bullets and went RAMBO STYLE.

We were running on a tight schedule so after the last match, we brought our packet lunch onto the bus to eat on the way to our next destination.

ACTIVITY 4 : ATV

We split into groups again and set off in our ATVs after 2 rounds of practicing around the main area.

On our ATVs, we went through the jungle; steep slopes, mud and rocks all conquered! What awaited us at the end was a 7-tiered waterfall but most of us only ventured to the 2^nd tier. We can’t seem to get away from water eh? Finally, we headed back by the same route and washed up before being transported back to our bus.

We had a good dinner in KL before heading back to Singapore.

It was definitely a memorable trip packed with adrenaline, excitement, laughter and singing (10x good one).

After the 45-minutes taxi ride that gave us some time to take a nap before a day long of riding, we arrived at the ranch.

After settling down, we did a little stable management while the horses get ready for lessons. Rebecca, Year 4 Social Science Xseeder, shows the riders how to approach a horse and how to feed them.

Saddles on and the riding lessons trots off with Mos, the ranch owner, teaching the basics of mounting a horse, walking and dismounting a horse.

Then it’s time to RIDE! Everybody go UP and DOWN! Up and DOWN! Practise the UP-DOWN motion to move on to a TROT.

After riding lessons, it’s time to give the horses a shower and take a break before afternoon’s jungle trail…

If you can trot, the jungle trail will be an experience you will not get in Singapore…

The riders rode through the jungle trail like the Fellowship of the Ring in Lord of the Rings. Enjoying the serenity of the REAL jungle instead of Singapore’s concrete jungle.

TIME for SEAFOOD DINNER at a nearby KELONG!

Last pictures of both trips before heading home to Singapore.

Written by Dickson Chew. SMUXseed Special Project & Horse Riding IC

Location: Bedok Reservoir Park

A truly thrilling tree-top adventure! We climbed a series of obstacles built high up on trees and zipped around in mega zip lines around Bedok Reservoir! There were many obstacles each varying in difficulty and testing in their different ways. Swinging logs and walking on steel lines are examples of the constant challenges thrown at us.

It was really a hair-raising experience to traverse the course, but safety was never an issue. With two points of security at all times, and safety drills being constantly re-iterated by the instructors, we all knew that it would be a safe experience.

The mega zip-lines, resembling flying foxes, are perhaps the best of the course. Besides the amazing scenery and the cool breeze, its landing involved a parachute-like landing style which required us to run while landing. There was also a near- free fall feeling when attempting one of the ‘tarzan swing’ obstacles!  The rest of the course, although requiring quite a bit of arm-muscle, should be manageable by everyone. All in all a wonderful experience trumped only by the new friendships made and company enjoyed. Its all part of the Xseed experience. When was the last time you did something for the first time?

Written By:

Mok Zixuan, Jamon

Organizing Committee I/C

My experience at SMUX Xseed Combined Camp 09/10 was good fun at a good price. The $250 each participant has to pay was reasonable for transport, accommodation and all the activities that were listed.

The ‘Pain(t)-Ball’ arena was spacious and appropriate for our group, and it was good fun coordinating together, trying to capture the flag from the other team and all of us enjoyed the paintball session.

The next activity was Wind tunneling at Genting Highlands. I never knew such a sport existed till the Combined Camp. The instructors at the site were able to teach us the skills to wind tunneling in a short time. I started my first try at wind tunneling cautiously, focused on trying to balance myself against the high speed wind. With guidance from the instructor, we were able to perform maneuvers inside the wind tunneling chamber after awhile. It was an excellent first time experience.

On the second day, we arrived at Sunway Lagoon for the Go-Kart session. Since we had a full pass at Sunway Lagoon, we were able to explore the Adventure park and tried out different stations like the ‘Flying Fox’ and ‘Reverse Bungee’ as the Go-Kart station could only not accommodate all 30 of us at a go.

Our last stop for the trip was the fabulous dinner at a seafood restaurant located in JB. The food was naturally cheaper as compared to Singapore, we ordered dish after dish as though it was buffet-like and had a sumptuous meal which consisted of different cooking styles of crabs, and other seafood delicacies.

I must thank SMUX and the Organising Committee for the Combined Camp. Without the Organising Committee, the event would not have been such a success, and without the SMUX XSeed Team, there wouldn’t be alternative adventure sports catered for the SMU Community!

Written by:
Chua Kim Yong
Participant
XSeed Combined Camp 09/10

Paintball is a sport where players try to win by hitting their opponents with pellets containing paint, usually from paintball marker with the aid of pressure. A common play mode will be “capture the flag”.  The objective of the game will be to get the other team’s flag while protecting your own. While doing so, you also try to eliminate opponents by tagging them with the pellets.

Laser tag is a sport where players eliminate their opponents by engaging targets, usually with a hand-held infrared-emitting tagger. Laser tag is considered to be less painful than paintball due to the lack of physical projectiles. Check out these pictures of our recent laser tag event: campus carnage!

Wind Tunnelling is an activity that gives participants a chance to experience the thrill of skydiving (jumping off an aeroplane) and freefalling. Xseed frequents Skyventure in genting which is the one and only wind tunnel in asia. At skyventure, you get to experience the skydiving simulator fly in winds up to 193 km/hr

XSeed

XSeed Team

Since then, the game of paintball has evolved to become a more professional sport. On the 24th of January, SMUX brought 12 members to Octville country club to play the tournament version of the game called speedball. In speedball, two sides of 3 to 5 members square off in an elimination game where one is called out of the game the moment he is hit.

The other variation of the game of paintball is woods ball, which is a far more tactical game that requires greater tactical awareness, movement and fire control. It is usually played in a jungle and is fully mission-based.

For five hours teams took turns to square off against each other in a round-robin style tournament. Other games like capture the flag were played as well. In total, all 12 players expended a whopping total of 6000 balls throughout the entire day. No one left unscarred by the experienced as all players walked away with well bruised legs and hands to show off for the experience. They were however, comforted by the fact that they had been furnished with the necessary protective equipment like paintball masks and vests to prevent permanent bodily harm.

In the end, comrades in arms and fellow players from other teams bonded through the experience as everyone traded their battle stories over a common seafood dinner. No doubt, this paves the way for future alliances and rivalries in the game.

Leonard Ng (24/01/09)
XSeed Team Manager