THE UNIQUE SPORTING COMMUNITIES OF SENTOSA
If you're itching for a new adventure, Sentosa is the place to be.
Besides zipping around the island on a Segway, swimming with sharks and taking your pick from numerous virtual reality adventures, Sentosa is also home to several niche sports that you can join.
Our tranquil island has a diverse sporting landscape, which ranges from unconventional sea sports and team sports to indoor skydiving and other professional sports leagues.
Here's how you can hop aboard these gregarious workouts, which will not only get you in shape but also introduce you to like-minded thrill seekers.
Beach volleyball
On Tanjong Beach, seasoned volleyball veterans and newbies alike are welcome to loan a volleyball and enjoy a game at Tanjong Beach Club's private nets. Enthusiasts who are adamant about getting good at this sport can sign up for a beginner’s class with WINDS Academy, led by SEA Games beach volleyball coach, Masato Itabashi. Rates from $30/hour per person, max 6 persons per class.
If you already know your spike from your pokey, you can enter a pickup game by joining the CS Singapore Beach Volleyball group. Games start at 4pm every Saturday.
WHERE: Tanjong Beach
Ocean paddling
Photo: Singapore Paddle Club
Kayaking enthusiasts might like to check out the Singapore Paddle Club. An amateur sports club that started as a dragon boat team 15 years ago, the Singapore Paddle Club gradually introduced more ocean paddling disciplines like outrigger canoe paddling, Surfski paddling and stand up paddling. Beginners can sign up for the club’s rookie session for outrigger canoe paddling ($50 for 3 sessions), which teaches paddling technique and safety drills. Experienced paddlers can skip this beginner’s course and pay a membership fee to join.
WHERE: Ola Beach Club
Indoor skydiving
There's a good chance that you haven't heard of indoor skydiving before, because this niche sport has very few facilities around the world. Sentosa's indoor skydiving complex, iFly Singapore, has produced champion indoor skydivers like Kyra Poh, who can show you an anti-gravity trick or two that will blow your mind.
What's indoor skydiving like? You won't know until you suit up and jump into iFly’s 56.5-foot-tall wind tunnel.
Whether you’re a beginner or super enthusiast, iFly Singapore offers different membership tiers to suit your requirements - from Basic Tier of 15 skydives at about $33/skydive to Platinum Tier of over 481 skydives at about $25/skydive. Contact proflyers@iflysingapore.com for more info.
iFly Singapore
Bungy jumping
Believe it or not, there is a growing community of like-minded high-flyers that loves to jump off tall structures. And you can find them at none other than AJ Hackett Sentosa, the home of bungy jumping in Singapore. Racking up more than 50 jumps is mortgage specialist Jasmine Ng who is part of AJ Hackett's Groundrush community.
"The moment you jump off the platform, you're throwing all your burdens and stress away," Jasmine said, before inching out to the edge, and proceeding to do an 'elevator drop', where you jump vertically from the platform with your feet pointing down. Another avid jumper Skye Stewart has more than 75 jumps under his belt. Both he and Jasmine recently jumped at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve at the recent Siloso Beach Party.
Groundrush membership costs $199, and you can enjoy 12 months of paying only $50 for any activity -- Bungy Jump or the Giant Swing. That's 365 days of freefalling, swooping, and screaming over Siloso Beach. You'll even get photos and videos of your jumps. Membership is only to Singapore residents. You can email sentosa.events@ajhackett.com for more details.
Sky Park by AJ Hackett Sentosa
By Andre Frois (@drefrois)
Andre Frois is a Singapore-based journalist who has written for the likes of Channel NewsAsia, the Straits Times, Vice and the South China Morning Post. He has also published city guides for Monocle, Prestige and the Singapore Tourism Board. In his free time, he enjoys making short films, teaching self defense, and composing music.
