Reservoir Discovery Series 2014 Kallang - Event Report

Had a blast at the final leg of Water-Venture's Reservoir Discovery Series in Kallang. I wasn't the lead paddler for that trip and mainly stayed back to help paddlers out.

I was left behind right from the start to help out the late comers while an old school instructor led the group. Not too sure if the participants were ok with him, but I feel that there really is no need to run these kind of events like a military operation.

Anyway, after I guided the late comers to the main group the first thing I did was some wildlife rescue!
Noticed a bird trying to fly, but the poor thing kept getting yanked down as there was a bit of string tangled round its beak. Luckily, I had a scissors in my PFD and was able to cut it free. Look at it, the poor bird looks so traumatised.

Shortly after, more wildlife was spotted under the Merdeka Bridge. An owl!

The group was actually quite capable and cleared the 10km distance really fast. Spoke to some of the participants and they commented that it was more interesting to paddle here.

And.. I agree! Check out the view.

 Happy faces from the participants.

And of course, PA had to promote its newest outlet Passion Waves at Tanjong Rhu by having a stopover at its pontoon. This new outlet is set to replace the existing Kallang outlet under the Nicoll Highway when the it reopens at the end of 2014.

Pontoon launches should lead to some interesting candid snapshots if people capsize. :p

All in all, I had a great time being a part of the Reservoir Discovery Series. I realised that I have come to prefer this sort of events over the standard 1 Star coaching courses.

1st long distance paddle for 2014!

Went on a paddling trip with the Dunman High ODAC. 17 kayaks launched off from Changi beach at 8.30am.
One of the kids did not turn up and I ended up paddling a double kayak alone.

 My kayak, which consisted of spare lifevests, spare paddles, canned drinks and fruits.

Kayaking Ubin Mangroves with new friends

A friend of mine just completed his 2 star course a few weeks back and so we decided to go on a short journey.

Why did the paddler cross the road?

The river mouth

He invited 2 friends along so we made the trip with a total of 4 paddlers including myself. Starting from Water-Venture Pasir Ris, we headed over to the southern end of Ubin and entered the mangroves from the MCC Ubin Resort side. Took us 4hrs to complete the journey which is a decent amount of time for newbies to complete 14km in Perception Dancers.

Opening up of waterways: River Vista to Marina Barrage trip

Setting off from River Vista

Kolam Ayer CC has set up a kayak shed complete with toilets and shower facilities at the River Vista HDB estate at 38B Bendemeer Road #01-812.
You can get to paddle in the waterways that were beautified and opened up as part of the ABC Waters programme.
Paddlers used to be able to paddle all the way to the end of the Singapore River for a similar experience but authorities put a stop to it. So right now, this is probably as close as you would get to paddling in Amsterdam's canals.

Inside Marina Reservoir

Marina Barrage

The trip to Marina Barrage was a Kolam Ayer CC Active Aging activity which coincided with International Water Week. It was nice to see grandparents/parents and grandchildren/children paddling together.

More pictures here

Kayaking Ubin Mangrove (K.U.M)

Not as narrow as the usual mangrove routes

Finally headed up to Ubin's mangrove for the first time in a year yesterday. With me were mostly new kakis who I've never really paddled with.
I also paddled in a Perception Dancer for what I think may be my first time in 4 years! I really dont like that boat, its so cramp!
I got the group going in circles for about 15 minutes because I forgot the route. The last time I paddled here was in June 2010! That's a year ago!
We eventually got on track and completed the entire journey in 4hours and 10min. Not bad for a group of out of practice paddlers.

Very wide entrance

Highest tide was 2.6m, more than enough clearance in the mangrove

Local resident

Remnants of an old sluice gate

Rest of the pictures here

Relax...

Serangoon Buoy

Went for a really relaxing paddle to Punggol jetty and back. One of the few times I've gone on such a slow relaxing trip.
Small group as usual, this time consisting of Huanda, Thongleng and Joyce.

Thongleng and Huanda

Trying to act young

Had lunch on Punggol jetty and the water around the area was covered with a layer of oil. Unfortunately, the ice cream uncle was not there today, so we could not buy any ice cream :(

We headed to Coney Island after lunch to basically fool around on the kayaks and once again, I tried to impart the art of Zen paddling. There we found a dead wild boar and I bravely/foolishly went to take a photo with its stinking carcass.

Balancing act

Wild boar

More pictures on facebook

Official Opening of Marina Bay Promenade

Marina Bay Sands in the background

Decided to be part of the massive clusterfuck at Marina Bay. About a 100 kayaks, 4 dragonboats and 16 sail boats went down to the Marina Bay Promenade area to salute PM Lee and basically just paddle around aimlessly.
It was nice to paddle around inside, but then again, we used to go into that area freely without many problems. It was only after the construction of the Marina Bay Sands that the area was blocked off and became off limits.

Old Clifford Pier

Central Business District in the background

I also was part of an expedition team that escorted some PA big shots into the Singapore River. This was probably the highlight of the trip because I managed to paddle in without having to do the ridiculous amount of paperwork.

Fullerton Hotel

Photos in facebook as usual

Passing on the teachings of Zen paddling.

Joined Ziyang and some of his friends for a round Ubin trip. However, one of the girls turned up an hour late and it didnt seem possible to complete a round ubin trip.
Instead, we headed over to Ubin for lunch.

After lunch I managed to convince some of the guys and gals to "explore the boundaries of stability" with me. We did some Zen Paddling, my euphemism for monkeying around.

Fong Yee starts off well...

The Force is strong with this one

Not as easy as it looks

There were quite a big group of kayak fishermen today. Spoke to some of them, these guys are quite interesting, they made seat backs and rod holders out of PVC pipes.

Fishfinder guy

Mr. Awesome

One of them even had a fish finder on his inflatable kayak! But the coolest guy of all was the one who rigged a small windsurfing sail onto his kayak. That was just awesome!

Rest of the pics here

Its about exploring

Kevin came to the trip today with this in mind "Its not about speed or distance, its about exploring". I quite like this quote.
This was his first time paddling to the southern islands and he was quite excited about it. We actually started off about 1hr late but it was to be a day of leisure paddling, so it didnt really matter.
From Labrador park, with kayaks rented from Kayakasia. We paddled along Sentosa, passing by Siloso beach till we reached the Sentosa Beacon near what I think is Sentosa Cove.
From here, we crossed over to Pulau Tekukor. Paddling along the left of Pulau Tekukor, we beached up at St. John's Island for lunch.

Ziyang with the beacon

St. John's Island

Starfish on St. John's

After lunch we decided to take a short cut and went under the bridge between Pulau Seringat and St. John's Island. After paddling around a corner, we went to Kusu Island and beached up for a while to let Kevin explore. Unfortunately, he got stung by something while swimming in the lagoon.

The aftermath

We were supposed to carry on to Sisters' Island, but my shoulder was hurting and I starting showing symptoms of a runny nose which made paddling really uncomfortable. We then decided to cut the trip short and headed back instead. Still, we managed to cover a reasonable distance of 18km and enjoyed some good surfing between Seringat and Kusu.

My body is screwed up, but it was still a good day.

As usual, more pics can be found on my facebook album

KayakFest Philippines

I went to Philippines last week to take part in a kayaking event. The paddling was done in Subic Bay. The event starts off at Anvaya Cove, a really high class private club which was AWESOME. We had breakfast and dinner at the club and it felt like I was in a 5 Star beach resort.

I took part in the 25km race with 11 other paddlers from the Singapore contingent. We werent all Singaporeans, with 2 Aussies and Indonesians joining us.
The paddling was wonderful. We paddled in a valley and the islands we passed had mountains! Quite a view.

More pictures available here and here

Human afterall

Went round ubin with Ziyang last saturday, the weather was ridiculously hot, I estimate it was at least 35degrees celsius. We were fine until reaching the north of ubin. Ziyang was suffering from mild symptoms of heat exhaustion and had delpeted his water source. We got our bottles refilled thanks to the kindess of the kelong owners.
After hydrating ourselves, we carried on. I stupidly left the food back at the club and by this time it was already about 1pm. I was hungry and the heat was sapping my energy.
By the time we reached the western end of ubin, I was breaking out in cold sweat and my hands were shaking. This made it very difficult for me to even grip the paddle.

I decided to give up and call the staff at Water-Venture for help. Boo came out to tow us back and he experienced some boat trouble. Just as he approached us, it started to rain. And it really poured down hard.

Oh, I was also stung by a jellyfish. Bloody bad day. Decided to cut my losses and take a taxi home. Didnt want to risk something bad happening on my bicycle.

Took a look at the thermometer when I reached back home and it was 32 degrees celsius at night! A really insane day.

Round Ubin on a hot day

Went round ubin with Huanda and Ziyang today. The sun was scorching! Luckily there was wind to cool us down.

Having an "energy stick"

The trip went smoothly until we reached OBS when the wind picked up and we had to paddle through a headwind. Damn torturing. We were also going against the current to make things worse. We did make good time on the northern side though. Following winds and sea made it really enjoyable.

Imitating a certain Changi trainer

Huanda having cramps!

More pics available here

Kayak Camping

Finally have something postworthy to write about after a month! I just came back from a wonderful kayak camping trip with 11 other paddlers.

Labrador Park

We set off from Labrador Park most using kayaks provided by Kayak Asia. Cher Huey was at Labrador Park on Saturday morning, but I didnt recognise him at first! Its the first time I've seen him out of the water.

Feathercrafts on Sisters Island

We paddled to Sisters Island and stayed the night. Great paddling with lots of waves to surf and the emerald green water was just beautiful.. Simply awesome. The kayak handled well and I was confident enough not to put on the spray cover while paddle for both days. Some water did enter the kayak, but it was minimal and I didnt think it affected much.
This trip also tested my kayak in the surfing department. Im glad to say it passed! I was happily surfing along during both days, reaching some incredible speeds. Although the creaking sounds didnt really help to boost my confidence at first.
The safety aspect could have been better, but Im assuming it was the organiser's first time leading a trip in these waters.
I definitely need to organise my own private trips to Sisters Island with friends in the future.

Feel free to view the rest of the pictures in my Facebook album

Im back!

Relaxing

First kayak trip in 5 months. Was not able to paddle for such a long time because I was in Europe during autumn/winter.
Still able to paddle comfortably at a decent pace. 45Min was spent eating lunch, so the journey was actually completed in 4hrs 15min.
Companions have improved. Huanda was incredibly tired the last time we tried to complete round Ubin in 4hrs.

Huanda's new toy

Ziyang with his new paddle

Ziyang bought a new Bracsa Hurricane max paddle, the paddle has a very firm catch and feels almost like a wing paddle. He was winded as he was not used to such a strong catch. More initial fitness was required to use the paddle. When I used it, I felt like I could fly. The firm catch allowed more power to be applied and transferred to the stroke. Nice feeling, but might be tiring in longer distances.

Rest of the pics here

Paddling down the Singapore River

The SIM Canoeing Club organised a freshman orientation camp over the weekend. I only joined in from Saturday onwards due to some prior commitments.
One of the highlights for the camp was the river clean up on the final day. All of us got into kayaks and paddled into the Singapore River. As we paddled along, we collected rubbish that we could find in the river.

Apparently this was the first social responsibility event ever organised by a sports club in SIM. We created SIM history!