Born and raised in Manila, Justine Claire S Alfonso learned to play the piano at age 7. She was also introduced to ballet at a young age, shortly after her sister. Afterward, she ventured into sports, specifically figure skating.
Her love for the sport has materialized until she competed in Skate Asia in 2013 in Bangkok, Thailand, and won a gold award in her category. It was that time when she decided to focus more on her education, as per her choice and her family’s.
In 2018, shortly after graduating, she went to Dubai for a quick vacation. She tried the tandem skydive in the emirate, a form of skydiving that allows people to experience the thrill of freefall while securely harnessed to an experienced instructor.
The adrenaline rush of falling free at more than 100 miles per hour made her decide to secure her skydiving license. When she got back to Dubai to enroll in Skydive Dubai, she eventually fulfilled her dream to be a licensed skydiver.
Justine, who is currently based in Abu Dhabi, said that the emirate has been an amazing place to live in, in the sense of safety and security. Apart from skydiving, she also skates from time to time to keep in shape.
“There will always be ups and downs, there are some who will agree and disagree with you, but at the end of the day, you will just have to keep things fair and just,” she said.
On top of her struggles living overseas is the homesickness. Until now, according to her, she is yet to overcome it as she still suffers from homesickness when she misses her family back home.
Her ultimate dream is to just live her life to the fullest, make her family happy, proud, and enjoy life.
“We are not defined by the things we own. I want them to be happy and have fun, but not by giving luxurious material things, yes, it’s nice to have high-quality things once in a while. But what I would invest in more is for them to experience what life has to offer apart from the designer bags, shoes, wallets, etc,” she added.
Justine has been training for the past few months for a skydiving competition in Abu Dhabi. She and her fiance, who is also a licensed and professional skydiver, were under the 2-way skydiving formation category and were up against six other teams on which they placed first. Their team scored a total of 52 formations in the sky over a series of six jumps. In each jump, they were given a starting exit altitude of 10,500 feet and a time limit of 35 seconds upon exiting the plane to complete as much formation as possible.
