Sylph Angel

Sunday, November 9, 2008

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Heya, I have some more pics of saturday night at KFC, but I'll save them for next time =]

Hahaha I'm feeling seasick and wobbly now from the race. Well, actually it wasn't really a proper race, given that I slacked through the whole thing. Here's how it went.

My start was a joke. I lined up wayyyyyy behind the starting line, so I could avoid the fighting everyone, then I started really slowly. The waves, which were quite mild before the race started, became monsters when everyone started rowing. I was getting thrown about like some toy... Well, at least I didn't go and fight for space in front. I can survive waves, but not solid objects.

So I slacked through the monster waves, and went through without much of a problem. Victor capsized and I overtook him! Haha he was one of those people in front doing super starting bursts... See, it's good to slack.

After a while, we passed through the stretch between pasir ris and ubin, and started the round. By now the 200 competing boats or so were quite scattered already, and the waves were not as rough. We (I'd better change this to "I", since I'm doing it alone) were passing through ketam channel (sort of a river in ubin), where the waters are supposedly the calmest. I went to pick someone's backwash to ride, and chose a T2, but they slowed down so I changed. At this point I was thinking, "ooooh this race is so fun..."

Then we left ketam channel, and were reaching the westernmost point of the island. The waves here are much rougher, but not that massive yet. But I was struggling! Splashing here and there, getting stressed out, especially when ferries pass by. Luckily the backwash from them was quite weak, due to the distance. This stretch ended with the turn through the rocks to the north side of the island. Haha most people turned around the rocks, but I was in for a little thrill. I saw from a distance that boats seemed to have a bit of trouble when they went through, so I prepared myself, and felt a gigantic surge pull me through. I rid it for around 20m before it dissapitated.

The long northern stretch now. This part measures almost 10km in distance, and although it is usually calm, there's a pretty high ferry (or other random motor boats) traffic, and the waves those produce are massively scary. Now, they are travelling about twice as close compared to just now (roughly 150-250m). The bounce up and down the waves were quite fun at first, until I started getting seasick. Really, it was getting on my nerves. Not just that, my fatless ass was starting to cramp up too from the sitting (Ryan advised me to do more squats to get more muscle cushion there). Then I saw Mr See and Victor (it was about time he caught up =]) pass me. I was the last one in ACS by then. Not that I didn't expect it, but yeah, demoralizing. I stopped fighting the waves, I just let them carry me.

I guess I just gave up after that (come to think of it, I actually gave up before the race). I was starting to get tired and feel quite miserable, so I searched for a sandy spot on the fenced up shore (to prevent illegal immigrants). Found one after a while and went to stretch, drink water, and be merry, before continuing. I asked myself if I had any chance of killing myself in the race... and I replied, "I don't die from seasickness! Just hurry up and finish this, I know I can and I must prove it." So I pushed on, on to chek jawa (supposedly the roughest part).

The only thing which made me recognise I had reached chek jawa, was the nice scenic beach where Brandon and I had swam to to empty water after sinking there last year. Other than that, I really couldn't tell. It was calm... Where were the waves I had feared so much? Disgusting...

I kept rowing... rowing... by now I was dead bored, with zero adrenaline left in me. I kinda regretted coming in the first place. Then I saw this K2 which were somewhat my slack pace. As they were the only boat around, I decided to pace them (haha I realized I'd just joined the stragglers). The K2 was really really slow. I mean, I easy rowed 10 strokes, stopped rowing, started gliding, and waited for them to catch up, and started rowing another 10 strokes. Oh well, better than going alone.

My ass started cramping up again when I neared frog island (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulau_Sekudu), a nice little island with sandy beaches, granite boulder stacked up on one side and a few trees, providing shade. Perfect for a picnic haha... If I wasn't competing, that is... Anyway, I told myself I could go on a little more, as the cramp wasn't that bad yet.

I then spied another little beach further down and attempted to row towards it, but the race officials asked everyone to keep away from shore... So I gave up on the idea and went straight. I passed a jetty, where a ferry was just being lauched. It was travelling across me, in front, about 50m, and I was like, "Oh, finally, a full force ferry backwash!" However, when I saw the size, I freaked out. It height was over my head, a giant wall of water! I stopped rowing, silently cursed and sweared, and braced for impact. The first wave from the ferry flung my kayak up like a ramp, and when the kayak went back down, the front of the boat ploughed straight into the base of the second wave, and I felt the full force of that wave. My 20cm short wave breaker was useless. I got drenched. A little shaken, I continued rowing, only to find another ferry being lauched off... Not again...

Haha I got even wetter, but at least I survived. I could hear the two girls in the K2 somewhere near me screaming... But they survived too.

After that things went on as before. 10 strokes paddle, wait... 10 strokes, wait... Haha I don't want to row alone. A K1 joined us in the slackness, although before long, he started speeding up... I also sped up a tiny bit to keep up with him, and the K2 followed. By then my ass was hurting very very badly. I needed to get out! But no suitable shore in sight... At that moment, I saw the Singapore shoreline, with HDB flats and such. I needed to finish it quick.

However, I was not the only one who wanted to finish it quick. The K1 and K2 were already speeding up and were about 50m ahead of me. I sped up too, catching the K2 rather quickly. The K1 was proving to be a bit of a challenge, since he kept increasing his pace. But I ignored him and just continued at a constant pace (the pace I should have used in the proper race). He was stopped by the waves from a passing speedboat, and I just overtook him. Then it was the end. Finished. I staggered out of my boat, and started to feel my numbed ass again =]

Naturally, I didn't win anything, but I met my two main goals. Finish under 3 hours and don't sink/capsize. Haha. And even though it was essentially torture, it leaves me memories, not to forget a super long post!

Okay, I'm tired now, so byebye!

Oh yeah, I'm not going to look for mistakes in this post, because it's just too long...

vεﯠαחƒőχ @ 6:32:00 PM.