Public Service Sports Carnival at Marina Barrage

The view at 7.15am from the middle of Marina Reservoir

Helped out in the water sports try out booth by Water-Venture at the Public Service Sports Carnival on the 26th of November.
There was dragonboating and kayaking. There was quite a number of people coming to paddle, which I honestly didn't expect.

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.

Water-Venture Bedok Reservoir

Main entrance

Went down to Water-Venture's Bedok Reservoir for the first time today to conduct orientation programmes. Quite a nice place and it takes about 45minutes to travel there from my home.

I like the fact that the launch site for the recreational boats and the racing kayaks are separate. No issue of helpless newbie paddlers getting in the way of racers and being yelled at.

1 Star for SIM Canoeing Club

Picture by Rayyan

Taught a 1 Star group who signed up through the SIM Canoeing Club on 20-21 August. Its not often that I teach adult groups, but when I do get the chance, they tend to be more fun to teach.

Had a great weekend even though I was recovering from a runny nose.

Kind of coincidental that one of the participants is in my Buyer Behaviour class too!

Kolam Ayer CC River Vista Kayaking Clinic Review

In my last blog post, I blogged about a trip where I led a group of paddlers from Kolam Ayer CC's River Vista Kayaking Centre to the Marina Barrage. It was a fun trip with grandparents and kids paddling together.

Kolam Ayer CC runs the centre and organises kayak orientation programmes led by qualified instructors every 1st Saturday of the month.
While I applaud the initiative to start this kayak centre and organise activities for the residents, I find that it is a waste of time for anyone to join the monthly kayak orientation programmes.

Why is this so?

This is because the demarcated area for paddling is very small. Even with the qualifed instructors present as guides, the management from Kolam Ayer CC does not allow paddlers to go out of the demarcated area.
This would not be a problem if the boundary is big. However, during the last orientation programme I was involved in, it took a bunch of newbies 20 minutes to paddle from one end to the other. Participants pay $18 for a 3hours session, but the place is so small you would get bored in under an hour.

Im guessing the management from Kolam Ayer CC simply took the idea of a demarcated area from Water-Venture and implemented it without considering if it makes sense to apply it to their kayak centre.
Water-Venture allows unsupervised and unguided rentals of kayaks, having a demarcated area helps them limit where these people can wander. On the other hand, Kolam Ayer CC only opens up the centre once a month for guided orientation programmes.

If anyone is considering paddling there I'd rather you go to Water-Venture Kallang, located at 4876 Beach Road. They are open everyday except Mondays and you get to paddle freely, without a guide in a much bigger area.
Rental costs $15 for 2 hours. Or if you sign up for their bundled PAssion card and Water-Venture membership, it will only cost you $7.
For more details on membership and rates, check out http://www.water-venture.org.sg/

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