So here I am typing in the office.

So much to catch up on... lets see...

Sunday was the summer festival 5 crew dragonboat race.

First race was nationals mens, Ben put be down with the

alumni guys to row.

And I felt what it was like to row with a full boat of

awesome spirited rowers. I was frontman, which was a

little odd, since I'm usually backman. But Ben wanted

me to set the pace. Was a little aprehensive at first,

but then I just told myself it was just like my t1, k1

or t2 races with me setting the pace anyway.

Hence the start signal sounded, I executed the rythm

and stroke rates and the alumni guys followed

perfectly, we charged, went long, and charged, pulled

away, and finished first by a few boat lengths for the

first heats.

Next went down for the tertiary mens race with Jonny,

Jeremy, Winston and Darren coxsing. This time as

backman. I think my stroke was a little off par, due to

the timing being abit too fast. We lost the NTU boat,

which weren't dragonboaters at all, I recognized those

bugger canoeists :).

Then the girls went down, current girls lost the alumni

boat with agnes and patrick sao.

Then Ben sent... another team down for the nationals

quarter finals, which didn't make sense to me at first,

infact I felt pissed off, that the alumni team and me

rowed our asses off and got us to the quarter finals,

and now a couple of sub-par rowers are going down in

our place? No offence to the rowers who went down, but

some dissapeared from training completely in the past,

only to appear 1-2 months before the damned race, and

another appears and dissapeares occasionally for

training.

What a joke it was. Last place.


But what really dissapointed me was the Tertiary mens

semi finals. Last place. With the best rowers in the

team.

Main factors were:

1. Darren went slightly off course, resulting in a

slight curve.

2. Winston kept pushing timing, screwing up the

propulsion and charging.

I can't blame the guys either, we started the race

slanted, hence the curve. And winston was so spirited,

something I would love to see in each and every rower

in the team.

So yeah, the race basically sucked like hell. Ben

called it a fun race anyway. But looking at the current

team, my hopes are not high for the coming race.

Although I will fight.

Talked to Jeremy after debrief, trying to tell him that

it is possible to set the pace and count at the same

time. Our seniors do it, canoeists do it, the human

mind is so powerful that it really is too easy to set

the pace and count at the same time, but some guys

think that the front guy is too "pressured" and can

only set the pace and not count. But what they don't

see is that the two factors come hand in hand for

succesful execution of Ben's strategies. *sigh* I think

he felt like I was blaming him for the lost races.

Temasek Poly... ahhh, these guys. Past few years

they've been doing badly, but they did really well on

sunday at last. Nabbed a couple of medals I think. I'm

really proud of them. I always see their team training

so hard, they have not enough guys like our team, but

they've pulled it together. I always knew they were a

strong team, their rowers technique and aggresion are

what make them deserve something. Somehow a part of me

wishes that our team will somehow pull together like

theirs soon.

On tuesday Ben talked to us after training. Quite

saddening to think that I'll be leaving the team with

it in this state.

I guess a part of my lost hope in the team a long time

ago. Sometimes I find the will to try and contribute,

sometimes I feel that its useless. But the main thing

that kept me in the team was Ben. Sometimes I don't

even understand why he chooses to stay with a mixed up

team like us, heck, I wanna give up sometimes. But

theres so much to learn from him really, and it was he

who gave me my water wings, even though patrick is

taking me to the next level right now.

Well, life goes on, I have only one goal in mind right

now - The national canoeing championships in august.

Waking up at 6:30am to hit the water by 8am for just

one hour, then running down to work at is tiring

sometimes, but I see Al, Wee, JennYang and the other

schools training at 8-8:30am too, and I know I need to

push harder.