Start of A Thousand Strokes

Mindy wrote poignantly about her Temenggor paddle. Excerpt here:

Start of A Thousand Strokes

A split moment, a roomful of memories. The throbbing in your heart is incredible when you have not entered a kayak for 8 years. Suddenly you are floating in the water.

The first ripple. The first stroke forward into the horizon, and the glide.... like flight.

I cringed. Then paddled on for 500metres just to let those heavy memories settle.

I am an amorphous creature, the kayak is my skin, my organ, my wings.

There is water bobbing beneath my legs.

It wasn't so long ago, that I naively declared to Vera, a senior in school, while standing on the KLSSC jetty: "I love the sea, I Love the sea!"

Because you cannot grasp its meaning, you cannot own it, and you can never understand it, even if you think you could.

Later when Vera was gone I didn't have the courage to row. Because a cloud would appear, revealing her ponytail, her smile and the last look we all had of her.

…I turned and waited for the guys under a bridge.

They were stuffing objects into their kayaks, making sure nothing was missed.

Huey told me all Kayakers have good souls. His theory could be right.

Read Mindy's full story at kayakasia.org.