Paddles for sale

Passing on an email from another avid paddler who is selling his paddles.
Please contact him directly at the number provided if you are interested.
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Hi paddlers!

I'm looking for new owners for my 215cm Werner ikelos and 220cm
Waterstick, both 2-piece paddles for sea touring. I just got myself
another Ikelos at 205cm because I prefer short paddles and it's really
one of the best you can get. The Waterstick is my first paddle and it
has been a spare pair for a long while.

Am selling at $500 and $200 respectively, pictures and test/demo
sessions out at sea are all available. Do email/sms me for details if
interested, thanks.

Yonghui
98787801

Rest time

No more coaching! Time to take a break.
I will just be invovled in the Carnival at Marina on the 18th of July.
Will have to limit myself during the next holiday by limiting the number of coaching assignments I accept. I shoud be spending the time doing more leisure trips instead.

Priorities

I need to get my priorities right. Was updating my logbooks and realised I have only done 6 kayak journeys in 2010 while in contrast, I have clocked 24 days of coaching.

That's it. I will not accept any more coaching assignments till August.

Paddling in reservoirs

Source: http://geotacs.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/CRW_1531-1024x680.jpg

Reservoirs have been open up for watersports sometime back and members of the public can rent sit-on-top kayaks for a leisurely paddle. Unlike in most other areas, you do not require any certification to paddle in reservoirs if you use the sit-on-tops. This makes it a perfect activity for families who would like to spend an hour on the water on a Sunday morning.

However, these reservoirs are also provide perfect conditions for flatwater racing and competitive canoeing and dragonboat teams flock to them. This can be nerve wrecking for other users on the water, happy to just float around. Having fast moving racing crafts speeding by and yelling for you to get out of their way might just spoil that serene Sunday morning that families were hoping for.

So I suggest giving the outlet a call and asking them if the time you intend to paddle coincides with training times and if its too crowded, to give paddling a miss all together.

Moving on

A year has passed since I last joined the SIM Canoe team for training.

After some thought, I've decided not to paddle competitively anymore. There's too much committment invovled and I'd like to do other things during my holidays. Im also looking at getting a motorcycle so time will be spent getting the license and money needs to be earned to pay for a motorcycle and the lessons.

Akan Datang

It has long been obvious to most paddlers that kayaking can never accommodate large numbers. 20-40 paddlers in the water would present a logistic nightmare preparing the boats and be a safety hazard with paddlers drifting all over the place.

This is unlike in dragonboating where you can dump 20 kids into one boat and have one helmsman at the back. They take up less space compared to 20 kayaks when moving around and the helmsman has full control of the direction.

Enter the Bellboat. The Singapore Canoe Federation's answer to the dragonboat.

Source: http://www.riversaccess.org

The Bellboat is 9m long and 1.4m wide. Basically it is 2 canoes bolted together to form a catamaran. There is a steering oar at the back, dragonboat style.
Obvious advantage over the dragonboat would be storage as it can be dismantled and Im guessing the weight wise, it will be lighter.
Made of plastic too! Injection moulding shouldnt cost too much and it can come in fancy colours.

More information on the Bellboat can be found here.

Sabotaged!

I recieved an SMS from Eddy regarding a coaching assignment on the 22nd and 29th of August for NJC. I then checked my calendar and realised I was free and accepted the assignment.
So yesterday I left my phone in the living room while I was busy playing some computer game for practically the whole day. My phone started to ring at about 3.20pm and when I answered it, Eddy asked where was I. It seems he gave me the wrong date. It was supposed to be 22 and 29 JULY instead of August.
Rushed down to Macritchie on my bike and reached there to find a bunch of unmotivated Sec 1 students carrying boats. These kids were totally uninterested! They moved slowly and the only thing they did in the water was raft up and chit chat or day dream. Not being that experienced, I couldnt really motivate them in such a short time span so I made them demonstrate the skills to me individually.
After 50min we had to end the session because there have been feedback from parents that the students are coming home very late. Honestly, if they moved faster, they can be dismissed earlier.
It took 1 hour to move all the equipment back. Some of them would carry a boat back and hide somewhere. When there was 2 boats left, Eddy and myself decided to carry the boats back to save time because the kids were no where to be found. On the way to the storage shed we saw a few loitering around and when they saw us, they ran away. The worse thing was that as we were carrying the 2 boats back, 6 kids sneaked off.
Goodness. Cant help but feel disappointed that this is the standard of our future leaders.

I hate red tape

As usual, many permits and paperwork is required if you want to paddle to certain places in Singapore. Its almost as if the authorities are trying to discourage any paddling outside of the confined reservoirs.

The SIM Canoeing Club is trying to organise a trip up the Singapore River. I've done it in the past and gone all the way to Clarke Quay. At that time you only needed to ask permission from PUB and have a powerboat escort.
However, PUB is now asking for acknowledgment emails from SDBA, NCC, SCF, PA, Waterways Watch Society, Singapore River Cruise, Duck Tours, Singapore Explorer, MINDEF, URA, Singapore Tourism Board and an endorsement from SCF.
On top of that, they are limiting us to the UOB Plaza. So basically, all these permits are required just to go pass the Anderson Bridge and Cavenagh Bridge. Pathetic.

Minute of Silence

A friend of mine who was a freelance canoeing/dragonboat instructor drowned yesterday evening at Macritchie.
An avid adventurer and champion for Diabetes, he has paddled around Singapore within 24hrs while in a canoe and dragonboat. I believe the dragonboat event made it to the Singapore book of records.

Last I heard he was planning to do a marathon swim in aid of diabetes too.

Alas, another life lost.

Read the news article here

Lots of coaching

All my paddling for the past 2 months have been limited to coaching. I have not trained or done any leisure paddling on my own.
Hopefully it does not rain tomorrow so I can do a short paddle from Pasir Ris to Coney Island and do some rolling after that. The skills are getting a little rusty.
There's lots of cool stuff in Water-Venture Pasir Ris, including a store room full of different types of paddle. Planning to try using the wooden paddle I saw inside.

Not forgetting the Greenland paddle that I plan to make. Will have to find a 2.2m long piece of wood. Now where am I gonna find one?

Its not just our drivers

I've spent the last 2 days conducting kayak orientation programmes for St. Patrick's School at Lower Seletar Reservoir. That is also where Republic Poly and Nanyang Poly canoeists train.

The Water Venture outlet there doesnt get much business. So basically, these kids have the entire area all to themselves most of the time.

So they weren't too happy about it when we had a bunch of newbies on sit-on-top kayaks in the water. The poly kids were just sprinting and bashing through the newbies shouting things like "hold your boat".
Unfortunately for these kings of the road. They were talking to a bunch of newbies who had no idea what "hold your boat" means and even if they knew they needed to stop, they didnt know what to do. Shouting probably just makes them to panic.
Too bad for those folks, they just banged their expensive racing kayaks into indestructible sit-on-tops.

That was yesterday. What they did today defines the meaning of "assholes".
I got the kids to go back to shore after our session. This invovles having the kids to come alongside a small pontoon, get out and carry the boats to shore.
With only 3 pontoons, it does get kinda squeezy.

Seems that squeezing doesnt bother the Republic Poly kids too much. When we were halfway through the recovery, they just paddled in and recovered their boats too. So 20 boats trying to get up isnt enough, they added another 10 or so.

Im sure waiting another 5-10mins wont kill you. Or maybe their fingers have wrinkled too much and they were desperately trying to get out of the water before the fingers drop off?
Looks like we dont only have impatient and psychotic drivers on our roads, we've got them in boats too!
Does seem that these things happen when some people think they have some sort of god given right. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, even when the power is imaginary.

Smelly Smelly Tevas

My sandals stink!
Once they get wet, they stink like hell. Unfortunately, I wear them for kayaking and other outdoor stuff when Im too lazy to wear shoes.
Putting them in the sun doesnt help much. I tried soaking those buggers in Dettol and scrubbing the sole, the smell went away for a while, until I used them for kayaking again.
They just freaking stink!

Looks like I have to resort to soaking them in Dettol every 2 weeks or so.
All that Microban anti-microbial stuff is bullshit man... Doesnt work. Or maybe it worked in the beginning and doesnt last.

People skills!

The new club manager of Water-Venture Kallang is the latest of my encounters with WV staff that need to work on their people skills.
Since, she took over as manager, all emails she has sent to trainers have included a short threat to kick them out should they not fufill their minimum coaching quota for the year.
In her latest email, she invites trainers to attend a gathering with food and booze. Encouraging trainers to attend. Might seem like a harmless invite.
But she goes on to say:

As the saying goes.."out of sight, out of mind"....in this case it's out of the trainers family...so attendance is STRONGLY encouraged!

These new generation of PA Staff seriously need to work on their people skills. This reminds me of the army where you are given options. You know, the kind of options where you get screwed no matter what you choose?

Oh yeah, she's gonna implement more guidelines too. Its just another fucking euphemism for RULES.

Leisure Paddling

Finally managed to do some leisure paddling, which meant I spent half the time rolling! (:
Kevin who had been posted to Taiwan for his National Service ORD-ed yesterday and asked me to paddle today.
His skills are now rusty from lack of practice. Sorta like when I went to gay beach with Aaron after I POP-ed. Couldnt catch up with him.
So to help him improve and at the same time clock some distance for the 4 Star kayaking course next year, we've sorta decided to paddle round Ubin at least once a week. Hopefully we can actually pull it off.

Busy Busy

I've been so busy with school and trainings that I've been putting aside my Greenland paddle and throwing stick projects.
Got reminded of these uncompleted projects when I saw Jun Bin paddling with a Greenland paddle yesterday. Will start on these projects first thing after my exams.

TDS STAR!

Early last year, I volunteered to take over Yizhen as SA Rovers' champion for a project with Touch Diabetes Support (TDS). This was not to be a one off event but rather a long term project to help TDS start up a Scout group.

Long story short, I unknowingly volunteered myself to be the overall champion from SA Rovers for this project. And instead of a Scout group, it turned out to be more of an activity group for diabetic kids and their siblings with some Scouting elements in the programme structure.

Today we organised a kayak orientation for the parents and kids. Winds were strong which meant most of the time was spent kayaking away from hazards. But thankfully everyone seemed to have fun. (phew!)


Many thanks to Kian Seng who runs Splashaxis, without him, this activity would not have been possible. He even helped out on a volunteer basis. He is also much better than me at dealing with kids!!!

Thanks also goes out to David, who came down to help run this activity. Apologies for not updating you on the change in venue.

Btw, some background knowledge.

TOUCH Diabetes Support (TDS) is a service of TOUCH Community Services, a not-for-profit charitable organisation was formed in 1992 to reach out to people living with insulin-treated diabetes. TDS offers a community of care and support made up of people and families living with diabetes, volunteer healthcare professionals and many who have a heart for this community.

Here's their contact details:
TOUCH Diabetes Support
Blk 149 Lorong 1, Toa Payoh, #01-943, Singapore 310149
Tel: 6252 2861 Fax: 6252 9695
Website: http://www.diabetessupport.org.sg

Breathless

I've been feeling breathless the past few days. Can't believe my asthma is acting up days before the race.
Pre-race anxiety? Unlikely.
Probably due to the cold weather. The winds have been blowing hard and the nights have been cooler recently. The damned LT in school is also freezing. Can still feel cold even when Im wearing my windbreaker.

Bureaucracy

It has become increasingly difficult to organise activities with PA. They used to be quite supportive in the past, but recently perhaps due to a change in personnel, there's been lots of red tape. All these restrictions hamper efforts to organise activities.

Things were much better back when Terry was around. Now everyone is kiasee and annoyed when they have to do extra. Seriously lah, 3/4 of the week is spent not doing anything in the office.

On top of that, trainers now have to start filling up rental forms when taking out the racing K1 or T1 boats. Sigh... Lost faith.

Weak....

Having been training for way too long. I woke up this morning aching all over.
Argh. Degenerating.

Chance Meeting

Was shocked to see David Wong in the trainer's room at Water-Venture Kallang. He took over Stanley's 2 Star course.
Haven't seen him in quite a long time...