This is how we roll

Sun, sand, 'sea'. Love it.

Headed down to Kallang for some rolling practice and to catch up with Kevin.
Kevin had managed to do 2 consecutive hand rolls the week before and wanted to see if he could repeat the feat. Unfortunately, he was having an 'off' day. Almost managed one, but failed in the end.
Nevertheless, I took the opportunity to take some videos and photos.

Kevin rolling up

Relaxing...

Greenland style Storm Roll


Another Top Hat Roll video

3 Star Course 17/01/2010

3 Star Training Course
17th Jan 2010
Water-Venture (Pasir Ris)
$80

Course application must be made by 10th Jan
For more details, contact Water-Venture (Pasir Ris) at 65824796

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

Taking a break

To all the folks who visit my blog regularly, there wont be any updates because Im 1200m above sea level in Switzerland.
Im high and dry and wont be back till next year.

More press on the River Clean-Up

SIM Canoeing Club was featured in Gaia Discovery, an online lifestyle magazine dedicated to give people around the world an insight into sustainable development and tourism.

You can read the article here

Canoe Polo!

Joined the SIM Canoe Polo club for their training session today. The newbies (thats us) train separately, so the whole group was basically a bunch of newbies led by one experienced player.
I found it quite tough to do so many things simultaneously. Not only do I have to paddle, there's the added element of the ball.
The boat was so easy to roll I managed an elbow roll with no difficulty. Since I could easily roll the boat, I can concentrate on other skills such as ball handling.

One of the newbies just got his 1 star a month ago and is on his way towards a hand roll. Im quite interested in how rolling is taught. Seems they have been taught the hand roll without first learning the C-to-C or Sweep style eskimo rolls. I suppose boat design has got something to do with it, but I've got to give some credit to the teaching methods. Almost all of them can hand roll while holding the paddle blade to give additional support.

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!