Wakeboarding!
Friday, October 12, 2007

This week has been absolutely fun-filled. I spent half a day in the office on Mon after which I cleared 2.5 days of leave till Wed. Yesterday, Thursday, was the my unit's 38th anniversary celebration. In the morning, we had games and in the evening, we had buffet dinner at Chevrons.

Wednesday... Joy, Cherylene and I arrived at Punggol Sea Sports Club, nested deeply within Marina Country Club, at around 11am. The weather was sunny and the gals didn't apply sunblock. I gladly offered my sis's SPF50 Bananaboat which I "kopped" from my sis's cupboard. And we were all thinking the weather would remain all sunny and scorching hot, perfect for a nice tan and, perhaps, a little burn for me. The upholstery of the speed-boat seats were hot after being in the sun all in the morning. It was a little uncomfortable for our butts but our enthusiasm for riding on wakes numbed our sensation after a short while.

Our boatman was Fido and he took us for a 10 min ride to an island just off the Punggol shoreline. The view was typical as what you might see canoeing around Singapore: small little islets over-grown with trees with rather thin trunks and not-very-green leaves. I think I saw a land reclamation project cause there were many excavators and big sand trucks.

We arrived at the water which was quite a popular area for wakeboarders; there were at least three other groups of wake-boarders in the vicinity. So as the only guy in the group, I stepped out of the rear of the boat and onto a small wooden platform. The wakeboard is slightly less than a metre and the left boot was especially difficult for me to slide in. And that signaled that I was going to have not-a-so-smooth time...

I floated on my life-vest on my back as the underside of the wakeboard faced the rear of the boat. And my leg was curled at 90 degrees. So basically, the steps to stand on water: tuck your chest close to your leg, arms straighten, feel the tension in the cable and come to a squat. Almost immediately after you've gained some balance squatting, proceed to stand up. Always maintain straight arms, a slight bent in the knees to act as suspension on water. Can't bend too much though because there won't be enough weight acting on the water to catch the wake. All about balance.

My legs were so straight during the initial few tries that Fido nicknamed me "Chopstick Boy". Haha... Sometimes, I would forget to straighten my arms, lose my balance and fall. There was always a tendency for me to want to exert strength and pull on the cable. Big NO NO! Like Joy said, "Don't be insecure! Just let the cable pull you." And after almost 10 tries, or maybe more, I finally got the hang of riding on wakes and travelled, for the first time, about 200m on water on a board! The feeling was amazing.

Joy and Cherylene were really relaxed and had little trouble standing and wakeboarding after less than 3-4 tries. Girl power! And just as we were having so much fun, it started to drizzle. Not much of a problem until the sky poured onto us. The rain drops hurled at us into our eyes as the boat travelled through the rain at high speed to the jetty. We were cold, tired and felt kind of miserable. Cherylene said we experienced all of Singapore's weather in that short 2 hours: sunny, cloudy, windy, drizzle, and downpour.

The hot shower was really comfortable after exerting much energy through the riding and enduring the cold wind and rain. And I think the rain is really a mini-storm. The strong wind and rain overthrew a few deck chairs and wrecked a potted plant on the jetty.

Lunch was at Cherylene's place. We cooked linguine and cream of mushroom. The chihuahua, Kiko, was super cute. She made herself comfortable and rested sweetly in the warmth of my lap.

P.S. Thank you, Joy, for introducing wakeboarding to me.

P.P.S. Edited with assistance from Joy :) 13/10/2007 0816

posted byWilliam at 8:56 AM 0 comments