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?"

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.

The race which caused the obsession

Rowing at the Marina Promanade is always exciting coz of the choppy waters. Choppy waters also mean that when the boat is hit by a wave, it rocks. It'd be a double whammy if the inside of the boat is filled with water, coz a slight nudge by a wave will send the water rushing to one side, in doing so, badly tilting the boat.

2002 was a memorable June race, a couple of times we tilted so badly coz of the excess amount of water in the boat that for one of the races we practically rowed the last 20m on the left side. The problem??... We were splashing too much water into the boat. And so began the obsession with attempting to reduce the splashing. People were forced to change their techniques and subsequent batches were reminded of the dreadful consequence of getting into the habit of drenching the person behind them.

Well thank goodness races today are held in the calmer waters of the Singapore River and Reservoirs and no longer held at the choppy Marina Promanade.

Evolution

June, 2002

December 2002

July 2006
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less is always more...
dgnbtrs these days should consider themselves lucky
coz the smaller the life-jacket, the easier it is to twist and move, not to mention, the very much reduced chance of getting that dreadful stinging life jacket abrasions.

Excuse to party

For as long as i can remember, the Mooncake Festival has always been celebrated by the team. It's funny that this is the only Chinese Festival that we actually celebrate, when we have never once commemorated the Dragon Boat Festival proper.

The only explanation for this has got to be the fact that the Mooncake Festival swings by September/October every year. Right in the middle of the semester. So it's a perfect excuse to break away from the books, get together and pig-out on mooncakes.

In 2000, in an effort to get both mens and womens teams being more 'friendly' to one another, both teams came together to celebrate the festival. It failed miserably. So 2001 it was just us. Duo team celebrations were then revived and continued in 2003, ok, that failed miserably too. But things seem to be slowly getting better as the years go by. Which is probably a good thing... or not?!!?!

Infamous

* tsk tsk tsk*

so now you know... bad timing and I go wayyyyyy back

Soap and suds

There are only 12 cubicles at the National Stadium. Weekend trainings with tonnes of other teams only means long queues just to take a bath after training. Which can sometimes be an unpleasant experience if the cubicles are flooded. The way to make things go fast is to wash down before hand, coolie style. So that the washing of the hair and face is done first.

Or alternatively, just skip the whole process and go home straight after training. Apparently it seems to be a trend now. Ewwwwwww!

Gifts galore

Yen Li was the pioneer of gift-making for race days. June 2002, she gave all of us a beaded anklet. Since then, i've worn it 11 times only. On the left ankle, to every other race i've been to.

Race-day gift exchanges have evolved from initially being something given out by appointment holders (started by Peiwen), to being given out by the welfare duos (started by Wendy-Isobel duo) to being given out by every single member of the team. Today, race-day gift exchanges is a million dollar industry. With the standards getting higher as the semesters pass.

A tribute to days gone by...

For the past 5 years, i have lived the life of a dgnbtr. When something's been a significant part of your life for so long, it's inevitable that you sleep, eat and breathe it. A lifestyle of great tans, intense work-outs, food bans, heart-pumping races, regiment, discipline and most importantly, great pals.

2001,
I found a new family

2002,
I said goodbye to the seniors I had grown to respect so much,
seniors who thought me all I know about and what it means to be a member of the ladies team

2003,
I experienced the effects of ugly team politics

2004,
at 16 small, I learnt that numbers didn’t matter as long as you had the heart

2005,
I realized in Penang I’d gotten the concept of competitive sportsmanship wrong all this while

2006,
after searching all these years, I finally finally found the true meaning to the phrase
‘1 stroke, 1 boat, 1 heart’

Pw once told me when I was at the crossroads of deciding to stay or not that people never stay because of the sport itself. It’s more than just keeping fit, maintaining a tan, but about the people you row with and row for. That’s the very reason why I constantly plunge myself into crazy self-torture. It’s never about the addiction to the sport but need to be around the people whom I go through thick and thin with, people who’ve seen me at my worst and lowest. People whom i’ve experienced the high of a good race set together and the lows of not winning despite all the hard work put in. People whom I know I can always rely on and trust. People who know when I’m pissed, how hard to push me. And of course the select few who know me the best, can read me like a book and know what I’m thinking and feeling. No one can understand what it’s like to have to sign up for something like this voluntarily, train up to 5 times a week and still need to juggle everything else, and look as though you are still surviving. Only them.

Mong-na’s gonna say I’m having a major hangover. Perhaps that’s just it. But you can’t deny 8 semesters, 5 teams, 6 captains, 69 girls and 12 races. That’s a lot of memories to hold on to and not something that’s easy to let go of. Coz once you’ve been in a team, it becomes part of you and never leaves.

You never forget.