It's time

time flies doesn't it... it's been a year since last june race and now even the c gin nas are graduating.

last weekend i made the ritual trip down to guan yin temple, as i have done so twice a year for the past 6 years.

That trip will be my last. As with all things, it's time to stop, let everything go and move on...

Your star's shining bright, it's YOUR time now. Expectations are high, the whole dragonboating world's watching... but i know you won't disappoint coz you'd probably kill yourselves if you do.

Enjoy the last leg of your journey, the sights, the smells and the sounds... coz it'd be over before you know it.
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see you at the finish line

Boracay Getaway

Over the weekend, Geok and i headed to Boracay, Philippines for the Boracay International Dragon Boat races.

It was a blast and in my opinion, extremely well thought-out and organised.

Penang races were good, this one is even better...It definately gets a double thumbs-up.

for a summary of the weekend, click here!

(the above pic is of the Philippines National Team, SEA games gold medalists who are mind-blowing-ly damn good at what they do)

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meanwhile, i've been pretty amused by how people find this site...

maybe i should think about getting it going again...

Bye

I've decided to jump ship.

A big thank you to my faithful readers... esp the 'personnel from Hewlett-Packard' who risked her job visiting the site

Those who want the new bloggie-addy, give me a holler.

Missing the old skool

I guess i've always known this, but never really wanted to accept it.

Fact is, it's inevitable when you have a large team.

But this was the straw that broke the camel's back.

I don't even know why the same few of us always made the effort to be there time and time again.

pissed? disappointed? irritated?

I no longer know what to think or feel already, coz it just seems like so long ago..
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they no longer make dragonboaters now like they used to

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evidently the author is pretty peeved now,
maybe i should just make this the last post

Yeah YOU!

Evidently, George the Dragon's pretty busy and way behind in keeping this blog up-to-date. So here's your chance to help out.

Calling all budding writers of the dragonboat world, here's your chance to be a guest-writer on "A Dragon A Day". Just leave me your name and e-mail addy under "shout-outs" and i'd be getting back to you!

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i am pretty sure that no one's gonna respond.
anyhow, to you, you and you, do give it a shot anyway.

Penang Must-haves

Aside from looking out for the hunky Aussie from the Royal Australian Navy, the next must-have for every Penang race has gotta be the Ice Kachang.

Each year the Indian guy never fails to turn up at the race site to sell the refreshing Ice Kachang. Freshly made Ice Kachang with fresh fruit, topped off with a generous dose of Gula melaka. Note that the ice-shaving machine's old skool, means that the shaven ice's so fine it practically melts in your mouth. Eaten under the sweltering heat of the Teluk Bahang Dam... heavenlllyyy...

The best part... no coconut! Means we can chow down as many bowls as we possibly can!

Shadows from the past

"Close your eyes and visualise yourself rowing"... the snrs used to say.

I did so many times during the looonnnng 45min row today. But each time it was someone else i saw. Not because i wasn't focusing on myself, but more so coz i needed to see her do it.

I used to sit behind her alot during my last 2 seasons with the team. With her rowing in my face, it was not only motivating but a good thing as well coz when you sit behind someone who always rows with that much dedication and consciousness, with time you tend to follow suit.

... And with time you also realise that you cannot do without her in front of you.
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Damn, i need to find a new person to shadow.

Broken

It was the first day of the 2002 June race and as berd was boarding the boat for the mixed event, the choppy waters sent the boat crashing against the railings of the walkway as well as her finger.

I had no idea how severe it was as i walked a pale berd up the walkway to the first aid booth. Part of her bone was actually showing through and obviously the miserable first aiders there could do nothing and so she was immediately whizzed off to the hospital.

it was pretty severe and poor berd could only spend the next racing day watching and cheering for us from the shore...

Operations and metal insertions later, berd's finger was better, but sadly not as good as new...

Being Uncle Sadu's girls

At the 2001 Regatta, I remember standing at the shore watching my seniors win the IVP gold and Uncle Sadu proudly turning to the crowd and said "those are my-girls you know!"

Till recently, Uncle Sadu used to look after the boat rentals at SDBA. Everytime he saw us he'd go "ey girl, so how you doing now?". Uncle Sadu never knew us by name, well except the captains, coz they were the ones who paid him the boat rental fees, as well as deliver him pieces of cake whenever we had birthday celebrations at sdba.

It pays to have a good relationship with the guy who takes charge of the boats i tell you. Coz it sometimes can get the team free boat rentals during off-peak hours as well as uncle sadu sticking up for us when other boats come back late which result in us hitting the waters later.
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Geok and i saw uncle sadu at the stadium the other day....

and as usual, he went "ey girl, so how are you now?"

The other

At the 2004 Victory Lunch, Prof Shih in his address to us said:

"I would like to congratulate all of you for winning the PM cup and other events of the day."

You should have seen our faces back then...

Oh and at the lunch, there was a wall of dragonboat pics put up on a board. And amongst the sea of pics, there we found one pic of us.

Trading beans

Put Wendy and a chalet together and you definately get the bean game.

I have never learnt how to play the game, but listening to it on the side lines, out of context is in itself entertaining enough coz you end up hearing things like...

"I'll trade you X garden beans for X stink beans"

"I'll trade you X wax beans for X soy beans"

"I'll trade you X chilli beans for X blackeyed beans"


There are so many ways to entertain yourself when in a big group. Playing the bean game, the name game, the animal game, the number game... it's loads of fun coz you get to make fun of one another, and find out who really sucks in having fast reflexes or good hand-mind coordination. Then of course there's the dishing out of forfeits. And being dgnbtrs, the natural punishment of choice is not surprisingly... push-ups

Loving the fish soup

Not everyone believes in pre-race food bans. But I for one am totally religous about it. Coz it seriously does good for your body. Chowing down simple foodfare, non-oily, non-spicy really makes you feel better during training sessions. And of course you can perform better.

Somehow, fish soup and rice has come to be the examplary pre-race-food-ban dish for some of us. Perhaps coz it's soupy, non-oily, non-spicy, non-fried and healthy. So we (not everyone though, just the fish-soup lovers gang) end up eating it after every training.

For those who love to eat, pre-race food bans are always torturous. So the best way is to do it with fellow teammates. Wanna stick to eating the soupy, simple fish soup, we eat it together, so at least you know that there is someone else other than yourself missing out on the char kway tiao and laksa.

Or simply put, the workings of peer pressure or social servaillance.

If you wanna know

For those who have never rowed in a boat before... Here's how it looks from the back, or the position of the coxswain.

Left paddlers on the left, right paddlers on the right... duh. But that may not always be the case, especially when you need to get people to switch sides so that the boat is balanced. And in the unfortunate event where you really gotta switch, it's like learning how to row all over again... bleh.

Ideally the left and right should be mirror images of each other, so you get spot-on timing. How you position your legs are pretty much up to you, whichever position makes you feel comfortable and allows you to kick properly. You might also notice that alot of people have the tendency to tilt their heads out in the angle towards the water. That's coz those on the those on the left, look to the right pacer for timing and vice versa, so there's the tendency of the slight tilt. For the sake of effective rowing and self-comfort, excessive tilting is not recommended though.

Caught in the moment

Team pics at SDBA are usually taken to mark certain "milestones". Such as the issuing of a brand new training tee for the semester, days of time trials or last training sessions of the season. And it's always taken at the same spot. Must be coz of the platform, so we can nicely form 2 rows. and with kallang basin in the background, what's not to love?!

This has gotta be one of my all time favourite shots. Last training session of 2006, sem 2. Also my last training session with the NUS Dragonboat Team. Great weather, sunny skies, bright colours, one of those candid shots where everyone is just busy doing their own thing.

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Cindy...
My paddle???!??!!!!!!!!!!

must remember to take from you one day..

Pink Ladies

Apparently pink towels were in the rage once. Towels which we used to bring down to the boat to sit on, so that we don't slide about too much. These days people have progressed to use foam butt-pads. But i still prefer my trusty old towel.

Oh and someone in the pic is getting married soon!

How time flies...

The unsung hero

It is usual that after a race, people always say how great the rowers were, how good the pacers were at setting the pace, how powerful the back-pack was at providing the engine power and how superb the coxswain was at steering the boat. In my opinion, drummers have always been the unsung heroes of the lot. The ones who people sometimes forget, just coz he or she sat through the whole race hitting a drum and blowing a whistle.

Alot of people underestimate the job as well as the importance of the drummer. The general conception is that the drummer's role is pretty useless, coz he or she just sits there and hits the drum. So anyone also can be a drummer.

NOT!

Fact is, the role of the drummer is equally important to that of the coxswain. For the drummer is the only person in the whole boat who is able to view the whole race, accurately. She is able to see exactly which boat is coming up, whether her boat is leading or lagging behind. This important individual then has to relay the message to the whole boat, whether there is the need to 'up-5' or 'push-10'.

The drummer and the coxswain therefore need to be in sync. Both need to know the race strategy at the back of their hands and know what to do in the event where they need to play catch-up. If the coxswain calls for any pushes, the drummer has to be able to convey that message to those in front. For that reason, the drummer and the coxswain have to have a flawless line of communication and not give out contradicting instructions.

Finding a great person to fill the drummer's seat is never easy. She needs to be able to motivate the rowers, psyche them up before the races when we line up at the start. More importantly, she needs to be very calm and composed so that she doesn't start screaming at us to 'go go go go!" But calmly talk us through the race set, telling us when to 'up' or go faster or longer.

I've rowed with really kan-jiong drummers as well as superb ones who give you the feeling that you just have to row and leave everything else to them. Great drummers aren't easy to find. For it is them, who together with the coxswain, take our hands and lead us through every single race set making sure that we emerge without regrets.

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oh and not to mention, drummers can't be too heavy... duh.
so now you know, me and the drummer's seat... not gonna happen in a million years.

Ink

The big tattoo craze.

5 tattoos between the 4 of them,
and 1 very jealos vic...

(smiley face on the right has her tattoo on her hip, but kenna blocked by vic)
(oh which leaves 1 unseen tattoo... shall leave that as a mystery!!)

the pic's outdated now, coz vic has since gotten ink too!

The real deal - It's not all lovey dovey

2002 Regatta. The big race singlet fallout.

The guys team had originally designed theirs. And through some miscommunication, we thought that we could use the singlet design as well. So that on race day, the full team would end up wearing the same singlet. Well apparently, we couldn't, so there was quite a drama stir-up as the guys told us we couldn't use it. Apparently they didn't have the intention of sharing the design with us.... ah whatever.

Pissed, of course we were pissed. Coz that was the most ridiculous thing we've ever heard of. So we went to the drawing board and came up with our own. A dragon emerging out of the water. Which in my opinion, was nicer than theirs. Hmph!

Partly due to the fact that there was little communication between the teams, which at times resulted in bad misunderstandings, relations between the two teams back then were not the best. Which explains why the 'old school' dragonboaters of the women's team were always very intimidating and defensive when it came to fighting for our rights and standing up for ourselves, coz we knew that we had only ourselves to depend on.

Disclaimer: I have to admit that things in the recent years have changed. In my opinion, largely due to the more equal treatment by SRC towards the 2 teams. Which is probably a good thing, coz the last thing you want is hostility between fellow teammates all rowing for the same team.

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I realised i've been pretty vindictive the past few posts...
well, it's my blog and i'm gonna write whatever i want,
so deal with it!

Pinks and greens

June 2005, race gift. Bright pink pom-poms, topped off with a lime-green bow. On the left side for left rowers, and right side for the right rowers. The feet below were cut out from cork board.

I almost killed my fingers not only from making the pom-poms, but also from cutting out the little feet, coz the cork board was so thick! Thank goodness i only needed to make 19!

When it comes to making race gifts, i work alone. Mostly, coz my gift ideas usually come quite late and coz i wanna do what i wanna do. Which can sometimes be a terrible decision, coz when i get too ambitious or am pressed for time, little sleep is involved. And if it's the night before the race, sleeping late has gotta be the sin of all sins.

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If you look really closely at those lovely babies, coz of the angle at which the pic is taken, some of them just look really pissed!

SRC's ever fickle mind

I've always said that i think SRC (Sports and Recreation Centre) doesn't give their sportsmen/women enough. We train the full year 4, 5 times a week and get 8 miserable CCA points PER YEAR, this compared to hall people who can chalk up to 60 each year. It was only till 2 years ago that they offered hostel rooms to their sportspeople (compared to NTU which offers hostel rooms with ease to their sportspeople). Before that, with 8 points each year, sportspeople had to be kept on the waiting list of hostel applicants. Or practically beg for it by coming up with some super sob story to let the people at the Office of Student Affairs release a room to you.

And apart from all of that, like the sports scene in Singapore, they only pay attention to you if you are hauling in the medals. Considering i was from one of the most high profile sports in NUS and i already can't stand SRC, I can't imagine what it's like for the other lower profile sports which probably get an even suckier budget. No wonder everyone in the sporting scene in NUS hates the dragonboat teams.

Apart from all the complaints, i guess i gotta give SRC credit for honouring their sports people each year with the annual Sports Awards.

Sports Awards are held at the beginning of each academic year to hand out recognition to sportsmen/women who have served their respective sports well the previous academic year. Meaning you've been in it for at least 2 years, or if you are an expectional sportsperson, or if the whole team stands out above the rest, you get to get on stage to get a little plauqe or trophy.

September 2003 was the first Sports Awards i attended. Back then, Sports Awards were held at hotels. Yah like the Prom Night kinda Ball. With good food and attractive lucky draw prizes. That year it was held at the Grand Copthorne Hotel.


May 2004, SRC decided to go budget. With the Sports Awards held by the poolside of the SRC. Yah, by the pool which we used to practice rowing in each Tuesday at training. Bleh. Oh and instead of a 7 course dinner, it was buffet style this time. The food sucked so bad, we all headed to Clementi after for some decent food.


The downsizing budget continued with the 2005 Awards held at the Multi-Purpose-Hall. Yes the very location where we take our semester-ly exams! And once again buffet style. 2006, SRC decides that its was time to have it on a bigger scale, so this time round, the awards was shifted to the University Culture Centre. Sadly, I wasn't in SG to attend it. But it was good to know that SRC's now treating their sportspeople better!

Losing to the best

There are 2 kinds of losers. Those who come in second but are damn pissed with themselves for losing the gold, and those who get the silver but are happy for those who came in first.

June 2005, NTU won the IVP race with a whopping 7 seconds lead, i dare say it's probably the the largest win in recent years. We got the silver. We didn't do badly, everything went smoothly and it was a great race set for us, it was just too bad that there was someone better in the field. I remember being happy for NTU as they took the gold, coz with such a convincing win, you know you've competed with and lost to the best and that they deserve every bit of the medal.

Despite the fact that I've always heard rumours about what NTU have been saying about us, I've always had great respect for the NTU girls. Mostly coz they carry themselves very well and as fellow competitors in the field, they always put up a good race.

This picture must be the first in dragonboat history.

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Oh and since it's the new year, HUAT ah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

New Year's Eve

Exactly three years ago, back in 2003, Peiwen, Cheeling, Ah Peng, Serene and I did an insane thing to ring in the new year.

We called it the New Year's Eve Run. Sounds simple enough. We met at Siglap for dinner first, then everyone came by my place to deposit their stuff before we started our run. The initial plan was to run down East Coast Park to watch the ships shoot their flares at midnight. But we decided in the end to go further and so we ended up running from home to Bedok and all the way to Changi. Yup, Nasi Lemak Changi.

Yah what was i thinking right? Running with a bunch of the fastest and best runners in the team. The Changi area was gruelling, coz it's just stretches and stretches of never-ending road. At that section, I went into the "What the hell am i doing here?!" mode. They knew that when i get into that mode, i grow very quiet. So they kept telling me, reaching already, reaching already. I knew better than to believe them. After goodness knows how long, we reached Changi and sat down to pig out on Nasi Lemak and other rich goodness we could find there.

After supper, we headed to hail a cab to fetch us back... We weren't crazy enough to run back after stuffing ourselves full. I remember walking out of the food centre, it was then I gave Serene, the incoming captain for the new calender year my word that I would stay in the team the next semester.

And so i signed myself up for another 6 months of aches and pains.

The first 3 years

Peiwen and i were the only ones from our batch to last the full 3 years.

I made a collage of pictures for her as a farewell gift when she left the team and graduated in 2004.

I think if someone were to ever make one for me, it'd probably require a mega-sized frame to fit all the pictures!

Random fact #557

At the June 2004 race, SRC sent down supporters and cheerleaders for the PM Cup event. That year, supporters came by the bus-loads. They were given free t-shirts from which a sea of orange emerged. Many of whom were exchange students. The ang-mohs fascinated by the dragonboat races whipped out their video cams and started recording. The Chinese students must have thought we were some celebrity rowers in school coz they kept stopping us, wanting to take photographs with us.

It was the first time SRC had come out in a big way to show support for the rowers. No doubt, there must have been the intention on their part to show off and intimidate. But we rowers don't really give a hoot, coz we just look forward to getting the free t-shirt.

The following year, NTU sent their supporters down as well. And since then, each June race, there'd always be a contingent of orange and reds (NTU's school colour). See who bigger and louder only loh...

Chasing away the study blues

Right in the middle of studying for the exams, we celebrated See See's birthday. One of the oldest big sisters in the team, we couldn't let the ex-captain off simply with just a cutting of the cake. The result was a huge war of flour-showering at the SRC squash court area. Which explains why some of us ended up looking pasty and white.

Oh and that broom on the floor... we had to use it to clean up after the whole saga was over.

Not childish, just plain playful... Thank goodness it was a Sunday and the SRC was pretty empty then.

Same race, different visions

Jacq got us to draw out what our race plan looked like.

Hui Bing, my rowing partner and I compared notes... Evidently, the way each race looks is unique to every single one of us.

But of course, the fundamentals are all the same.


*for obvious reasons, parts of the race plan have been concealled...

Logistics nightmare

Each race is a logistics nightmare. Coz we not only have our own paddles to take care of, there's also the butt-pads, life jackets, medicine balls, water coolers, glucose containers, water, bread, bananas and sometimes packet lunches. Oh and not to mention our personal belongings. If that's not troublesome enough, imagine bringing all that overseas. Packing our paddles with bubble wrap for cargo when we went to Penang in 2005 itself was a big challenge. Thank goodness, things were made much easier in 2006 with the introduction of large paddle bags which could store up to 12 paddles each with ease.

With so much going on at the race site, it's amazing that over the years, nothing major has been lost.

Bad mix

Dragonboaters and alcohol....

Not a combination i would strongly recommend.

Shoulder press graduation

The shoulder press is my most hated machine. Whoever invented that torture device should be shot in the head! In fact anything which involves the working out of the deltoids is disgusting. And when gym circuits* or endurance training come round, it practically leaves my deltoids paralysed with the build up of excessive lactic acid. But what you hate most, you just gotta do more. So whoever who partners me for gym training, they know that that's the first station i attack.

*gym circuits are carried out for endurance training. Means you do lighter weights, but for an extended period of time. It consists of a series of up to 8 stations done consecutively. There's a specific way in which the stations line up after one another. But not giving any trade secrets away here. *heh*. The only rest time you get is for switching in between. Even then we gotta move fast, if not the captain's gonna start nagging. If you think gym circuits sound painfully gruelling, there's still the ultimate Gym Deluxe Combo. But again, not revealling anything here!

Race traditions

Regardless of the race result, it's always been a tradition that appointment holders are given the toss in the air after the last race of each semester. Kinda like a "Hip Hip Hurray" for a job well done.

The toss usually takes place after the medals have been given out, after the looooooooonnnnnngggg debrief's over. At the go of a secret signal, those standing nearest will grab hold of the appointment holders so that they don't run away while the rest move in to get ready.

It's all a game of maths. The lighter ones get tossed higher, the heavier ones don't. Either that or more manpower is required for the toss.