The 5 Lessons

Forward, Backward, Sweep, Stern rudder, J draw ....

These are the 5 key skills learnt during the kayaking course this weekend.

Thanks to Tigger who broached the subject about some upcoming event that require kayaking skills, we decided to sign up for it, and managed to get Balasing & Roentgen interested enough to join us.

I was a little apprehensive days before the course because I am never really comfortable in the waters and the thought about doing capsize drills wasn't didn't something I was looking forward to. But stupid enough to sign up already, there is no way to back out, just had to grit my teeth and go through with it, praying I wouldn't drown.

I was expecting the class to be filled with youngsters and true enough, most of the participants were really young (we had to sign our attendance and found most of the participants with NRIC starting with the high 80s and 90s!!!!!) The youngest with S94*** .... geesh!!!! That's like a few years older than my niece!!! *faint* Some of the participants even thought we were teachers! hahaha

These were a total of three instructors with the group. The main instructor, who I assumed is a trainee, is super young, super inexperienced and super ill-prepared to be an instructor. Can't teach, can't articulate and can't demo. But ok lah, he is very young and just hopefully can get more guidance from the more senior instructors there ... hopefully he will be able to improve and do a better job in future. Thankfully the other two instructors were more experienced and would step in to help and re-explain some of the lessons so that we wouldn't be left too confused ...

When the time came for us to do our capsize drill, I was of course so not looking fwd to it. But thankfully apart from some glitches on the first try, I got the hang of it and wasn't afraid of doing the drill on the second day (yay!!!). But the waters was really really salty and yucky! For one not conditioned to the sea conditions, I was really unprepared for what I was in for when my head got into the waters. Yucks!!!!

And I was really really lousy at controlling my kayak and instead ended up with the kayak controlling me !!! While people were kayaking straight, I was either in merry go round, or just swaying from side to side. Argh!!! Totally frustrating!!!

Day 2, cloudless, sunny and scorching hot! I was so not looking forward to another day of haphazard kayaking and hence was very happy when the ordeal was delayed when the instructor told us to go for an early lunch (that was at 10am!) and returned at 1130am because the tide was low and we couldn't head out -_-"

Anyhow the course had to go on. ... we were taught a few other skills like "the classic" which is to move sideways (another option to the J draw) and the rescue drill. Again, I wasn't looking forward to the rescue drill but was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be really fun! The rescue drill is having 2 kayakers rescue a capsized kayak. The steps were easy enough and it was fun to go through the drill. The 4 of us formed a team and all of us managed to complete the drill without any glitches. Very fun! Later the instructors made us all capsized together and think of ways to rescue ourselves. It was really good fun!

Towards the end of the class, the sky had turned ominously dark and we were told to hurry and head back to shore because there was lightning. As I kayak back, I was admiring the beautiful sky. Part of the sky was like a canvass, brushed with a black inked brush but leaving parts of the canvass white. It was very captivating ... just too bad I didn't have my camera with me.

I had so much difficulty paddling in a straight line and just got increasingly more frustrated trying to paddle back to shore while the rest were way ahead of me. HUGE THANKS to Roentgen for watching out for me, following behind and guiding me along (though I have no idea how to correct my own mistakes). One of the instructors, being the sweeper, was very encouraging and consoling. Reassuring me that its ok and that with more "water time" (meaning more practices), I will be able to better grasp and handle the kayak. By the time I got back to shore, everyone was already out of the waters and carrying their kayaks back for cleaning. I just basically struggled out of the kayak feeling defeated. Frankly, it was very very frustrating but I was still just glad it was over.

All in all, an interesting class. I think it will take me some time to get over my own frustration and fear before I go for some more water time. The guys and some of our course mates were already planning for 2-star kayaking course, -_-" but not for me. I really don't think I am up to it. Am already thankful that the instructors pitied me enough to award me the 1-star certificate haha

Though the course has been tiring and extremely frustrating for me at times, I do have some observations.

1. Quite comforted to see that the young kids nowadays are still helpful and polite. Some of our fellow participants are from the JC. They are polite, friendly and helpful. They will always be helpful and help pull one another close whenever we had to form a raft (i.e lining our kayaks side by side in the waters whenever the instructor put up his peddlar vertically on his kayak). And one of them helped me with my kayak when they saw me alone trying to carry it. Our younger generation have hope lah!!! *thunderous applause*
2. The youngest boy, all of 13 years old, just came up to help me empty the water in my kayak after my capsize drill, without being asked to. So chivalrous!! Again reinforces my point above!!! Somemore only 13!!! *broad smile*
3. Thanks to Roentgen for being such an angel kor2. Think he could tell (its obvious actually) that I'm really struggling and he was really kind to watch over me, slowing down many times to ensure I wasn't left behind. Thanks Roentgen!

Of course there are also unpleasant experiences like how yucky the water is, how horrible these guys (whose names I did mention in this entry :P) were, laughing at poor me for my lack of kayaking skills, my bui bui and not able to get myself into the kayak, for coming together to bully me and splash water at me with their paddles (oh, I think Bala was the only one who refrained from such a childish act but I really can't be sure amid the chaos so I can't really absolve him from the crime can I?? :P) with evil Roentgen being the most horrid one, filling my kayak with lots of water!! -_-"

And now, I'm just a super duper chao tah, roasted pig. Obviously slapping myself with loads of sunblock didn't help much, somehow I am just so "efficient" in absorbing the sunlight that I look almost half an indian now. *CRYYYYYYYY*

Thankfully, the frustrations of the course is well compensated by the lots of eat that we have. Think Bala is extremely disgusted with the way I gorge myself. We had yummy frog porridge, vege, soya beancurd for dinner on Day 1. Super yummy prawn noodles for lunch & claypot rice, fish & chips (upon my request :P) and grass jelly for dinner for Day 2. Though the course wasn't strenous at all, think I carbo-loaded enough to run a marathon :P No wonder I have no problems with the capsize drill, think the additional fats help me to float even better wahahaha
But I have to say I'm very happy to eat with Tigger. He sure knows where the good food are, and HE DOES EAT!! I am definitely happier going out with people who do eat, will say what they want to eat and will eat! Less frustrating!!! :) But of course he can eat and gorge and not grow fat since he exercises 3 times harder :) Not many people can do what he does unless he / she is like KJ who has basically given up hope :P
Anyhow, thanks for bringing us to all these good places, Tigger!

Lots more interesting reads can be found in the boys' blogs ...
Balasing - Excuse Me, Are You A Teacher?
Tigger - Tigger Show III, Roasted Tigger, Overweight Tigger
Roentgen - Kayak!, Kayak Part 2