hi guys. all work and no play makes canoeists dull people.

so i propose a games day on fridays!

we should all mug in library after friday afternoon to mug until we have enough people to play some games, then around 5pm ++ we shall play games until we are tired.then we shower and have dinner together.

games that we might likely play: frisbee(jameson says its for losers), basketball, soccer, captain's ball?? aiyar anything la.

think about the psycho motor(cyclomotor) skills that canoeing has robbed u!

ps. canoe girls are all welcome. friends of canoeists are also welcome. in fact everyone is welcome!

pps. lets start this friday! comments anyone?

hey guys, let's have a chalet after A's

We didn't manage to have one last year, due to Laos and all, so let's have a good one this year!

Everyone, please come! It's much easier to book now that we're all 18 (or do we have to be 21? I forgot haha)

I think it'll be quite wasted if we just ended it all with saying "bye bye"s after A's are over. And meeting only 3 months after that just to collect results or something.

Justin says we have to book early so we won't have a problem with room allocation next time. So please reply fast and IMMEDIATELY after seeing this blog post (just drop me an sms at 91510066 if you haven't got my number.) (cute girls, this is your chance to get my number ;p) (ok, just kidding about that last part, since you probably already got it ;p)(ok jk again, stop hurling those rotten eggs)

Hey guys! The J1s are having their dragonboat competition tomorrow at the Singapore River. The thing starts at 1200 and their races are at 1230 and 1330. Let's go down and cheer them on! Meet at the Raffles Place station control at 1200!

After everything is done, we can go lanning. :)

P.S. I want to own selwyn and ky.

After reading multiple posts, emails and talking with some, the qn many of us are asking ourselves now is "was it worth it...did we sacrifice 1 and a half years of our lives, our grades, our social lives all for nothing...was it worth it?" To each his own, we might all have different answers but for me the answer is a resounding YES!

I won't be gg on to write another long post simply because i feel tat all that is needed to be said has already been said but i just want to add something tat i feel all of us have missed out.
Yes we might have failed in this competition and many feel it has all come to naught. But aren't you forgeting something?

If you hadn't joined canoeing, would you have known you could push yourself this far? For me (an ex-shooter cum interacter), I was never pushed to my limits. After the j1 land trainings and canoe camp, i found a new side of me. It aided in my self discovery...to know tat I can accomplish something i never thought I could was really gratifying. I felt that I had achieved something great (greater den getting an A for exams which I haven't done for a long time)

If you hadn't joined canoeing, would you got to know your teammates? B4 joining, I only knew Kane and JC well. Now, I can safely say tat 20 years down the road, we will all still be frens. Even better frens den my classmates and tat's becoz we have shed blood and tears for one another, making us all sworn brothers in a sense. To Kong, thx for helping with my strokes when we were still K2 partners. Even though my strokes were so suck and I caused most of the tilts, you never abandoned me (until coach asked you to haha) and stuck with me without getting pissed off with my inadequacy. To Shenglin, you were my greatest teacher. Even though we rowed like only 3 times together, you taught me more den everyone else in the team put together. You are definitely my idol. To Jameson, we only had the fortunate chance of getting to know each other better after i went on to do K1. I dare say you were the most caring one in the water...nv letting me out of your sight even though you could have often just rowed off without me. You would even follow me all the way to the toilet during water training breaks even if you didn't need to and I salute you! HIGH FIVE! To Kenneth Loo, you are very understanding and even though your talent, grades and hard work are far far above me, you always took the time to listen to me bitch about my inadequacy and give me advice. You have been a real motivation for me. To KY, you are the greatest captain ever. You kept the whole team together and gave 110% and even your social life for us. I know of no one else who would have pulled off wat you did. To Eliza and Hannah (if you are reading this), you were the only ones who bothered to stop and look during water trainings to correct my stokes and I am deeply thankful to have teammates like you gals. To the blue moon gang (Seetoh and Guoren especially), thx for all the times you decided to walk with me to LIM BO SENG to buy Sportade to drink. To Selwyn, thx for counting out loud when we are during warmups. It would have never been the same without you. I am also deeply sorry for making fun of you the most in the entire team and i think Boon can testify to tat...NOT! To Bernard, Chiam, Seetoh, Guoren, Boon and any other who were regular lanners after trainings, thx for providing an outlet to destress and make fun of each other for being nub at DOTA. To Tim, thx for always making sure everything in the shed is in order. You have been a really responsible quartermaster. Lastly, I wanna thank Kane, Jingcong for always being there for me and giving me advice on canoeing on the way home after every training.

If you hadn't joined canoeing, would you have got the hot bods you all have now? Even Selwyn has abs after his long runs every morning. Its there Selwyn dun let anyone tell you its not. They are just freaking jealous.

If you hadn't joined canoeing, would you have gone Laos and did all the kok and some hard work for the Laotian pple? Getting a better perspective on the world and how pple lived in other parts of the world?

If you hadn't joined canoeing, would you have got to know your current galfrens? (only applicable to selected members such as pple who miss their drugs)

If you hadn't joined canoeing...But lucky for me, I did join canoeing and I did discover myself and I did meet frens who I know will be there for me no matter wat. ONLY THING IS I NO GALFREN!!! And i quote Jameson "I WANT CHIO BU!" haha.

I'm sure tat 20 years down the road, our wounds will heal and we would have a better perspective of the world by then and we would look back and be proud to say that we are RAFFLES CANOEISTS!

I love our team. No matter who you are. Boy/Girl, Man/Woman Chinese/Malay/Indian/Eurasian, Tall/Chiam, Chiam/Skinny, Smart/Chiam, I will still love you. Because you are a Raffles Canoeist!

Now, do you still think it was not worth it?

I guess the most of us who is reading this post already knows our result for 2007 National Schools Canoe Competition. Forgive me, those who don't, because I don't feel like typing the result here.

Here I stand, sad, disappointed, indignant. The former 2, it is easy to understand why I am feeling so. But indignant? Why am i feeling pissed? This time, my anger is not directed at myself, for having lost this round of competition, not even being able to get pass the heats round. Raffles Canoeing compromises not only of our current batch of student-canoeists, but also of her teachers, her coach and her seniors. I believe that the most of us, especially the competitors, have been left feeling dejected at our final result. Despite this, we have kindly-straightforward comments reaching us: hey, your result is not good enough! hey you didn't work hard enough! hey you're lousy and you can't even keep a boat heavy enough to qualify! hey! hey! hey! These comments would have been fine if they didn't carry with them the tone of despise, of saying that "we had not worked hard enough, and we were not motivated enough".

To me, such comments served only one purpose: they denied, put down all the sweat and pain that we had undertaken the past year and a half. I don't care if the comments were directed at only a few people; the moment anyone else but the competitors ourselves got angry at our result already shows little the commenter had shown any form of understanding. All they cared about was results. They are denying those times I saw Kane contorting his face and pushing his limit, those times I saw Kenneth Kong running the extra rounds because "my running is some sh*t now", those times I hear Sheng Lin say "Come on guys, lets go!", those times I see Shawn practising his strokes with anything he could find, those times I hear about Timothy cycling to and fro and running his marathons, those times Bernard tried to kill me with "one more round" for several times, those times I see Cheryl come early in the morning to do some morning training before going for lessons, those times I see Javine coming back from a 10km run around Macritchie Reservoir, those times I hear Jing Cong shouting colourful language to spur himself on, those times I see Boon Shing wheezing from after runs, and lots more I have not mentioned. Do you not see what's missing inside what I've just mentioned? Water training!

Other students in RJC feel that us training 4 times a week seems to be quite massive already, especially for student standards. They do not understand. Of these 4 trainings, only 2 of them goes into water time. Almost every canoe cca in other schools have them at least 3 times weekly. That works out to (AT THE VERY LEAST) 50% MORE water training days than us. NJC canoeists have around 200% more water training days than us. So you say they don't have a life. I'm telling you they do, and have it well too. Think about it. Our water trainings are already held so few times a week. What, as a coach, would you do to make up for the lost time? Train more on those days of course. And not just a little bit more. More, enough to make up for that 50%, 100%, 200% loss in time. How efficient do you think those trainings are? Do you think that RJC canoeists are machines who can register every training optimally, without feeling the effects of exhaustion? Do you think it is more effective to study for 5 hours straight for one day in a week than it is to study 1 hour consistently for 5 days of each week? How long do you think your attention span can last you?

Realise that those 4 boats (i consider James' too) that qualified for the finals are those belonging to the talented. Kenneth Loo, Kaiyang, James, Marcus and Shenghao. Yes, they are talented, and they trained very hard too. But even Kenneth was toppled from his position of 1st from last year, and Ky didn't get the positions he was expected to get. WHY?

The world is unfair, and there is nothing any of us can do to change that. Everyone is born with varying talents. The winner of a competition is always the one expected to have done the most hard work. If you won, it means you worked hard. If you lost, it just means you haven't put in the effort that the winner had. BULLCRAP. Don't you believe that for once. I am not afraid to say that I am very untalented in canoeing, and still the result this time around was a crushing defeat to me. To me, it had been a symbolic competition, to say that those without talent, as long as they worked hard, much harder than those who with it, can still stand a fighting chance to gain a medal. It is not difficult to imagine that the past few days had been one of the lowest moments in my life. I sacrificed my grades for canoeing, and canoeing failed me. I was not able to bring hope to those who had looked at me and said: "hey, he's untalented but he still made it! what's up with that? can I stand a chance too as long as I fought hard?". I was no able to fulfill the expectations that had been placed upon me. I had underestimated my opponents. I used to believe that men should never stop daring to dream and work towards it, that destiny was always within one's grip.

And I still believe so. But it truly is difficult when the available options open to you doesn't allow you to do so. And thus, I get very, very angry when others, outsiders, look at us and said: "whoa, this team hadn't trained hard enough, therefore they lost." I, for one, am very proud of this team I am in. Everyone's sweat and blood will stay in my heart for as long as my memory serves, and longer. Be disheartened not when others look upon you and say that you have not worked hard, for they know not the tough times we had been through, and out of. If they refuse to acknowledge our effort, then there is nothing much left for us to do. Those times we had fought hard and still gotten a fourth in heats, semis, know that we had done our best with what available resource we had open to us, and that immense competition we faced was also conversely experienced by our opponent who will in turn respect us for who we are. The world cares only about results, but that is because they do not know us well. Results can never clearly reflect who we are as persons, because only those of us, your teammates, who had been through that thick and thin with you, will understand that the times we had, all the sweat, had all been worthwhile. That, and not the perspective of the world, is what truly matters in the end.

i guess its over isnt it? nationals was such a faraway event and now its all just over the feelings just surreal. and after canoeing has been sucha big part of our lives, to think there wont be anymore early sat morns at macritchie and long runs (which i usually dun do) is almost painful. i guess we dont realise how much we need somethings until we actually lost it. i believe everything happens for a reason. not being cliche or anything but we failed for a reason. to each his own the reason differs but i learned something, i felt something i nv did before, the spirit of our team and it dawned upon me how individualistic i actually am. and the strength of this spirit surpasses that of individual glories and achievements and for once, i am proud of being in this team. we dint exactly gave the others a 'run for their money' or wadever but we all left better people. and i believe wadever we did for the past 1.5 yrs will go a long way in moulding each of us into men, responsible and driven husbands, CEOs, doctors, lawyers,(firemen) . just know when the As are over and we all disperse to our various callings all over the world, we once stood together as friends, team mates, brothers. that we were once all equal and we once suffered and fought together. let us never forget this because such a thing will never happen again, we only live once.


yours
justin chiam

Please remember to bring lots of water to the location, be it on sat or race day itself. The sole water cooler is next to the public toilet, about 10,000m away from where we would be stationed. Ok, actually it's probably only about 400m. Anyway, it's quite far away, and there's only one of it, so i don't think you wanna walk all the way there on the day itself just to queue up for water, like some water rationing exercise.

For morning racers: Be aware that the sun might be facing you when you race, so sunglasses might come in handy.

For afternoon racers: the day can really get quite hot, and though there are lots of trees, they don't provide the same cover like they do at macritchie, so be aware of the temperatures. try to mentally condition yourself to be able to take the heat without being distracted for your race.

Ok, what I just typed is quite redundant, but anyway this blog needs more posting. No one seems to be posting much anymore, cept' loo.

Hi people, the following are some photos we took at Bedok Reservoir today. Take a look and get a feeling of how it's like from our perspective. :)

(Archtyranno, if there's anything I left out, please do add in)

Please click on the photos for enlargement so that you can see properly! And pai seh for the bad photography; I was using my hp.

Some of the structures were there for some Dragon Boat Racing Competition that took place over the weekend. They might not be used for the Canoeing Competition next week.
A photo from the front of the race lanes, where people who check for DQers would be stationed.
These are NOT the pontoons we will be setting off from. They look nice though.
This is the "going into water" corridor. You will bring your boats down this ramp and onto the pontoon at the end of the path.
A view of the "officials" seating place from the ramp.
The end of the walkway, the pontoon is on the left.
Pontoon! Quite small compared to MR's.
The HC training. Man they are early in getting to that place.
A view of the pontoon from the grass patch.
A view of the race lanes. Take note of the huge distance between buoys and lack of cover on both sides of the race lanes.
The spot for the officials to stand on? It is in line with the finish line, which is around 50m from the last line of big buoys.

And the guy sitting there is Coach Joseph. Hi!
Another view of the race lanes
The finish line. The distance between the buoys and the "line" is distinctively shorter than that of the others. We estimate this distance to be 50m while that between the buoys from 500m to finish line to be 150m. Hence, there will be like 1 line of buoys at the 500m, another at 350m, another at 200 while the last at 50m which is they picture you see above. By the way, they only use BIG BUOYS as the indicators so do try to avoid them when paddling. They are like the ones we have at 250m, 500m, 750m and 1000m at MR.
Shelter for viewing?
More shelter
And more shelter
A possible spot to view the race.
The fence to keep our boats? Not sure.
Selwyn's Sexy Back! Yeap!
As you can see, the fence is not the same height as Justin Chiam.
This should be the enclosure where we will be keeping the boats (I think). Maybe it's not. Just speculating cause it's the only "fenced-up" area we saw.

As you can see from the photos, the buoys are freaking far apart. So far that I can't take a photo with the two lines of buoys inside.
HC people trng..

More pictures of the race course
A view from the approximate 750m mark. We not sure how far we have walked.A view from the end of the start of the race lanes. (1000m mark) Archtyranno and I noticed that there weren't obvious big buoys for separation and the 1000m mark. They used some small floating white pieces instead. In addition, there are only two lines of buoys from the 1000m mark to the 500m mark. The arrangement of the buoys is quite weird.

Whoo, in total I think we walked more than 2km, from start to finding the bus stop to go home. Haha...

Also, the toilet and water cooler is located quite a distance from the pontoon, like 800m? It's further than at MR so if you want to answer nature's call, move faster.

That's all from us, good luck for your CT results! :)

EDIT: not much, just that on race day (or actually, even on sat when we go over), remember to bring lots of water. The water cooler is really quite far (next to the toilet, not counting a potential make-shift one) from where we would be stationed. And, it's really quite hot in the afternoon from 2 to 4+++, so afternoon racers be aware of that. And for morning races, i think the morning sun should be facing you when you are racing so if can, try to get a pair of sunglasses. and for those who dunno, Archtyranno wa ore.

-selwyn

While waiting for my hp to upload all the bedok recce photos, i would like to say that megan fox, the lead actress of Transformers is damn hot. :X

And that guy damn loser become damn winner at the end. Respect X 1000000000000.

And Shawn damn pro (respect); he watch Transformers on his own.

We were celebrating his birthday when some shopkeeper from the stall at the end came to ask Kane for some lucky numbers (presumably to buy 4D / Toto) Lol.

Oh yeah hope you like to read the book we got you. Please don't read at night later you become a HB.

Happy birthday Kane!