Look, no hands!

Now that Im able to do the hand roll on both my left and right side, my next goal for kayaking would be to successfully perform a strait jacket roll. Which is essentially rolling up without the use of hands!
I give myself until the end of April to perform this incredible feat. I foresee lotsa "water time" for this one. If you get what I mean. Hehe.

Rovers in the water!

Organised a kayaking trip to the Merlion for Rovers in Singapore, however, only 2 Rovers from Mayflower showed up.
Other than them, 3 Ventures from Aquila, David and a friend of mine, Adeline turned up for this little day trip. Making it a total of 8 participants.

Here are some pics...

The rest of the photos are here

Showing off

Video of me doing hand rolls in a Turbo (:

Paddling with new friends

Paddled with the 2 new rockclimbing buddies today... Present on the water was the pretty Lydia, the spider-like Brian and the jelly belly Huan Da.
Didn't really do much, so I can't log it down as a practice session for myself. Mostly helping them try to do an Eskimo Roll. One successful student, so still quite worth it in the end. Otherwise a little dull.
Then again, I don't really do much, I just show them the set up and the ones with better motor skills end up getting it within that short period of time.

Here are a few choice pics.

My newest piece of paddling gear, the Teva Guide L/C.
Bought it for only SGD$68! A freaking steal...
Its like Chaco sandals only with some nifty features that include a quick release button at the side.

Kayaking for the Physically Disabled

During a recent Kayak Orientation for Victoria School at MOE-JBAC, I came across 3 students who were physically disabled. The first had a problem with his lumbar, which made him paralysed from the waist down. The second boy had muscular distrophy and was in a motorized wheelchair.

Obviously the boy with muscular distrophy could not kayak, so that settled it. I was apprehensive about the other boy paddling at first, but after finding out that he was a swimmer, myself and the other instructor allowed him to paddle with his father.

Now, I mentioned there 3 students didn't I?

See, the teachers were paying so much attention to these 2 boys that they neglected to tell the instructors there was another boy with a physical disability.
And I had to find out in the most embarrassing way.

During the buoyancy test which saw the boys holding hands in a circle and floating. I asked a boy why he wasn't holding hands with the person next to him.
What's wrong with this one might ask? Well, the boy did not have a left arm.

We all know kayaking involves paddling with BOTH arms. So, I paired him up with a student leader and told him if he wanted to, he could paddle on just one side while the student leader did the steering.

Overall, I've had an interesting experience so far in my coaching career. From simple stuff like handling over 60 paddlers, to having to dealing with participants who couldn't get their 1 star due to bad weather and now, dealing with the physically handicapped.

When people said you meet different groups of people while coaching, I certainly didn't expect this!

Greenland style handroll

Check out how this guy does his handroll.
Note the pause before he rolls up and the position that he is in. That position is known as the balance brace position. I don't know for sure, but I think we would be able to float up higher since the buoyancy vest we wear gives us some floatation to float up to the surface.