Change in plans

The new schedule:

7th : Round Ubin Day Expedition (R.U.D.E) = 22km
8th: Pasir Ris - Punggol Marina = 14km
12th: Pasir Ris - Punggol Marina - Pasir Ris = 14km
14th: Pasir Ris - Ubin Mangrove - Pasir Ris = 12km???
25th: Pasir Ris - Punggol Marina - Pasir Ris = 14km

Can't go to frog island any more due to conservation.

Inflatable Kayak

A cheaper alternative to the $4500 folding kayak would be the Sonnet 16. Designed by Tom Yost. He has designed some beautiful kayaks. From aluminium frame foldables to wood frame kayaks to inflatables.

Since I am without any proper metal working or wood working skills. I am focusing on the inflatable. Kinda hard to ask those workers in the metal shop to do it for you too, because they only know how to do hands on. They are not thinkers.

Here are some pics:



Many other kayak designs are available Tom Yost's Website

Believe it or not!

Here's some interesting things you may not know if you are a kayaker from Water-Venture.

1. The 2 star cross channel rule is a Water-Venture rule. You do not need 2 Star to cross channel unless you are renting kayaks from Water-Venture, then you obviously have to follow their rules.
   However, it is compulsory to have 1 star if you want to paddle in reservoirs.
   
   
2. The slaloms in Water-Venture aren't really slaloms. Don't know what to call them either, but they are some sort of fibreglass touring boats.
   The picture below shows a slalom.
   
   
   Picture by Ofiserinf on Flickr
   
   
3. There are kayaks other than the Bandit, Turbo, Dancer and "Slalom" (:
   A sea kayak and a play boat are shown below.
   
   
   
   
4. Paddle blades come in many shapes and sizes. Here' are asymmetric paddle blades for high angle and low angle paddling
   

$4500 for freedom

Is $4500 worthwhile for paddling freedom? Thats more than what my father paid for his old yacht.
Anyway, let me introduce you to the Feathercraft Kahuna.

She's 4.5m long and 64cm at the beam.



Foldables have an advantage over hardshells because, well, they're portable! Will be kinda hard to transport a 4.5m long kayak, but a foldable can pack down into a 50litre backpack.

Towline pix

Here's a pic of my tow system.


Wish I had seen this earlier though. 2 parts to this tow system. A pig/cow tail for short contact tows and when fully deployed, you get a long towline. Very smart.

Wasted Opportunity

Got an offer to go Kota Tinggi to do an orientation programme for a company called Asia Outdoor. But, I cant go due to exams. Crap man...

Latest piece of gear

My newest piece of equipment. A Gill Bouyancy Vest in fire engine red!

Plans for June

I have these kayaking trips planned in June. Feel free to contact me at madaboutknots(at)hotmail.com if you wanna tag along.

7th : Round Ubin Day Expedition (R.U.D.E) = 22km
8th: Pasir Ris - Frog Island = 10km
12th: Pasir Ris - Punggol Marina - Pasir Ris = 14km
14th: Pasir Ris - Ubin Mangrove - Pasir Ris = 12km???
25th: Pasir Ris - Punggol Marina - Pasir Ris = 14km

Grrr...

The students came late as usual and by the time we got into the water it was 3pm. The group of 10 people I took had problems doing their capsize drill. Due to the delay, we didnt get to complete the rescues and did not have time to cover the classical draw, stern rudder and low support recovery.
I gave up and told them all to head back to shore. They didn't know how to stop properly and were banging into each other. In the end, I decided to fail all 10 of them.

The Problem With School Groups

Today will be the final session for yet another group of Hua Yi Secondary students. The school makes it mandatory for the entire Secondary 2 cohort to attend the 1 Star Personal Skill Award. However, this group in particular is quite unfortunate.
The school booked dates that clashes with their mid-year exams. The students had a session that was a day before their first exam paper and another on the day of their last exam paper.
During last weeks disastrous session, only 11 out of 37 registered participants showed up. Im proud to say most of them were from my group (: Maybe like 8 of them.

So the plan would depend on the number of participants who show up. If the 20+ pple do show up, they will have to do rescues which was covered in last week's lesson. On top of that, there are still things in the syllabus we need to cover, such as the classical draw, intro of low support recovery and intro of stern rudder.
If there is a lack of time, they will need to come back another day. Then maybe we can have a new record at Kallang.

Open group

I will be taking my first ever open group of 1 Star participants in a long long time. YAY!
Teaching an open group is more fun because the participants are usually not forced by a school or whatever to turn up for the course. Instead, they signed up due to an interest in the sport. Will have to take a different approach, allowing time for making friends during the session.

Passion

I have just completed my Abseiling Level 1 and the instructor is really passionate about abseiling. Abseiling has really changed his perceptions of life and he wants to share this passion with people. So in other words, he is a really good instructor.

Now, do I have this same passion for kayaking?
Kayaking is the only thing I have excelled in. So am I sticking to it just because its the thing I do best?

I do not want to end up like a mercenary, there only for the easy cash. Nor do I want to be like some coaches who do not really care about the students.

Some self-reflection is in order.

Headwind!

Paddled round Kallang again. Took exactly 60minutes this time round.
I blame the wind! :p
Was paddling into a headwind this time round whereas wind was non-existant last week.

Speed Demon

Decided to do some long distance training at Kallang today, so I went down and took out a slalom. Hugging the coastline, I paddled one full round around Kallang.

The route was:
PA --->Sheares bridge --->2nd Sheares bridge --->Yellow bouys --->Sheares bridge --->Suspension bridge --->Merdeka bridge --->PA

From what I read in online forums, the distance is more than 10km and I completed the entire round in 57.23min! Awesome... When using a Turbo, it takes me an hour to paddle to the Merlion and back, just by changing the craft I doubled my distance.

However, I still need to work on my technique, I felt a strain in my left arm. Need to utilize the the hip rotation more on the left side.