Ok.
I saw this post by Ministry of Adventure last month during those flash floods. The copy was loltastic, it was this:
Is urban kayaking something you always want to try?
Wanna kayak alongside stalled vehicles and people standing on benches at the bus stop?Now here’s the chance for you! We don’t know when will the next chance come, but we will be prepared when the next flash flood is here!
When?
The next heavy downpourHow to join?
Throw away everything you are doing and race to the flooding area the next time it rains. People stuck in their car or bus stop are welcome to join in the fun. Kayaks not included.Where?
East side of SingaporeWhat if I don’t have a kayak?
Box, container, bathtub or anything that fits you will do too. Swimmers are also welcome.Is it suitable for kids?
Kids are advised to stay in school or home. The frustration of the working crowds stuck by the flood can be dangerous.What should I bring?
A change of working clothes so you may also kayak to workHow much is it?
It is FREE! You may even earn some bucks by kayaking people to their workplace!See also our hiking along MRT track during train breakdown event which happens every month on our Facebook page!
Loltastic but I then went “Oh?? Ministry of… ADVENTURE?” and if you have stuck around my blog long enough, you’d know I like adventure. AND OHHHHH. OHHHHHH THIS IS A GROUP that actually teaches you skills that I like in my list of Lara Croft checklist. (It’s somewhere, I forgot where but it’s there anyway.)
And their next event was a real event called 1 star kayaking certification.
There’s a lack of pictures for this post because I didn’t want to drop my phone in the water and besides, I’m there to learn first!
Learn how to kayak properly before taking pictures.
Yes.
I JOINED their course! The 1 star course over their website.
It’s so easy to sign up since you can see the dates available and then just… pay online. Tada, that’s it!
This is so much more convenient than some public courses for it…
The last time I kayak-ed was in a two person kayak in secondary school during some outward bound school camp thingy and that was just… Well, it was FUN but it wasn’t a “certificate” course since it was a myriad of adventures during the school camp.
Anywhoooo, this was a 2 day course and it was pretty fun!
Mind you, this is the ‘winter’ of Singapore week and the wind is actually cold (??!) and lots of gusts of it but the sun’s shining pretty nicely so it feels good? JUST THAT WITH THE WIND YOU GOTTA PADDLE MORE.
What I learned in this course
- Various techniques for paddling
- Capsizing
Ok it sounds like two points but I’m just squishing it all together. Basically I learned how not to spin around in the kayak and that took a few paddling techniques and to even how to “park” in a raft position with the rest of the kayaks.
The capsizing bit, I learned how to capsize properly in a drill (I still need to make sure I have my paddle and hold the stern of the kayak). From there I also learned the Raft it – T-X position to do a rescue.
That’s for the on the water stuff, of course I had to learn how to get into it, get rid of the water and how to get out of the kayak at a shore and pontoon.
Yessss. It was fun. TIRING but fun. Also it’s going to help me grab a certain geocache that’s only available via kayak in some certain location in Singapore…
It’s really nice being on a kayak paddling away but I’ll need more practice if I ever want to try a 2 star course. I’ll stick to just beginner’s…Â for now.
Ps. Count how many times I said “fun” because really, IT WAS. I don’t know, it’s pretty exciting being on a kayak like that.
