3. Drifting, Rafting and Kayaking

November is chilling, even for a country located on the equator and experiences summer all the time. Maybe this trace of chill is too slight to be felt indoors, but it would be another story if camping outside. That was what happened on the second day of the Student Leadership Camp.

Usually during the holidays, my “next day” starts at 9 o’clock. But this time I woke up 3 hours earlier. Or more. I was waken by the freezing rain at around four o’clock. But due to the weariness, I wrapped my windbreaker tightly around myself and went back to my sleep again, until six o’clock, when my noise handphone played the noisiest songs of the century. I purposefully picked them so I could be aroused.

I got up reluctantly, trying to fight off the fatigue. I saw Mr Heng went back to the shelter with his jacket and an umbrella in his hand. Maybe he just finished his morning jog? Very likely. At any rate, as agreed, we station masters met Mr Loh and Sherman at the summerhouse near the beach. I zipped my windbreaker from the bottom to the collar, but the icy cold wind found its way in anyway. We were briefed shortly, after which we were dismissed for washing.

I had no appetite in the morning. A result of waking up too early. But I knew that I’ve got to have some food in my stomach anyway, so I stuffed in one piece of bread, without peanut butter or jam. Salty, sugary or greasy food in the early morning made me feel sick.

When everybody finished their breakfast, there was a general briefing at the beach for the participants. They then proceeded to a hall near the boathouse of Changi Beach Park, where they were instructed by life guards or instructors or someone in between or someone doubled the two roles, about basic techniques of making a raft. It was mainly about how to tie a strong knot. The station maters were sian-ing (Shall I put a double “n”?) at the side. I was just eager to be in the sea and kayak. Enjoy the moment when the kayak was carried up and down by the tides. It had been a year since the last time I kayaked during OBM. But this time I was going to try out the single kayak. Shih Ying, who was in charge of the same station with me, had asked me about which type of kayak I was comfortable with, but I have no idea because I guess it was no difference for me. So he went to discuss with the chief life guard, who dismissed the idea of each of us three having a single kayak. The final decision was that I was going to kayak solo, whereas Shih Ying and Nadia took the double seat kayak. It was a good idea as I was no veteran of kayaking, so using single kayak with no necessity of two people’s co-operation would be easier.

Thus, Chong Keng a.k.a. CK, Wei Hao, Shih Ying, Mat, Paul started putting on the life jacket, followed by fetching paddles and kayaks. We had trolleys here for transporting the kayaks. During OBS and OBM we had got to carry the kayaks all the way from the beach to the boathouse. On the way to the beach, Wei Hao and I was trying to figure out what creative things we could say after saying “wa ka lah kong”, because the sentence was supposed to continue after saying that. It was first used by Theen Yew for fun during Student Leadership Congress, and now it seemed to have evolved into some sort of weird greeting for me and the ex-potential Delta House Captain.

It took another hour for the participants to carry their rafts to the beach. In the mean time I was staring at a wild cat at the beach. The cat was bored and was really tired of my stare. It walked away with a turnaround. But even so, it was still meandering at the beach area. It kept either licking its furs in front of its breast, or scratching its tummy with one of its legs. And I was bored of it. Shih Ying went forward and stroked the cat, which rather enjoyed it. I wonder where her kitty was.

All right, so now it began. When the signal was given, all the station masters went into the sea. In the kayak. =D. I got a lot of sand on my kayak and my legs. Shih Ying remarked that it was sandy. Sendy was not here right? Okay, okay, it is lame. The rafts were coming, and we gave instructions to them: roadblock: leave one person or one oar? Actually I reckoned that leaving one person was the same as leaving one oar right? It just that the raft would be lighter. Anyway, we had got to keep kayaking back to the original position because we were drifting as the effect of the current. Zai You had warned us about it, but I did not realise that it could be so powerful! Especially when we had to kayak against the current. Shih Ying gave me suggestions of using the technique of stern rudder so I could quickly resume paddling forward without being slowed down too much. If I used back paddling it would be another story. But at that time I did not quite get the hang of it, so I could only use back paddling tentatively. While we were heading back, the participants called us back, as they thought we were running away. LOL. Actually it was quite a struggle for them, as the rafts were slower than kayaks, and they had got to fight against the current as well. But sometimes the current could be used as well. For example, we I was talking with Guo Rong’s team, the raft was carried slowly to the shore, which was exactly what our station required them to do. Although they had to start again as they left neither a person nor an oar to me.

While we had to take care of staying inside the boundary, we had got to be careful of single-minded fishermen as well. There was one man, whose race was not to be mentioned as we must uphold the spirit of racial harmony, insisted to fish with one of our raft in front of him. You can guess the result right? When he hooked one of our participants, instead of saying “Are you okay”, he yelled, “This is my father’s fishhook!” Oh, so this kind of people was actually the heirs of their fathers’ legacy. But as the Jack Neo movie I Not Stupid Too had said, “I do not give fish to students, I want to teach them how to fish.” Sadly, this fisherman’s father forgot to teach him this important lesson, and I guess the title of the movie was wrong for this particular man’s case. It should be the direct opposite.

When our station was not patronized, I learnt stern rudder from Wei Hao, who demonstrated it. The sea trip was so fun!

We cleaned the kayaks went the activity was over. It was a burning noon. The sun was high. So we wetted each other using tap water while cleaning the boats. Mat and I went to the taps next to the kayak cleaning spot and showered by the icy water while we were fully dressed. Shiok!

To be continued: 4. Titanic Five – Tug of War