Singapore Kayaking Marathon 2006

National Kayaking Marathon
This year's event will be held at the Lower Seletar Reservoir for the first time. After banning all water crafts from the reservoirs for so long, the authorities are finally getting to their senses. Such activities do no harm to the environment or the quality of water that we drink each day.

The 2006 marathon is a 36km race for senior guys and 28km for the rest of human race. Check out http://www.scf.org/. Sea kayakers be warned as you will be expected to be left to fight for last place as many school racers will be participating! These young turks with their shiny Olympic-grade sprinters and 'winged' Brasca paddles will be hard to beat.

Other reservoirs open for water activities since last year are Macritchie Reservoir, Bedok Reservoir, and Pandan Reservoir. I think they are trying to promote Bedok as more of place for motorised water sports like water-skiing and powerboat racing, while Pandan as a sculling and rowing place. Lower Seletar for sailing and kayaking. And Macritchie will revert to its original role as a mecca of kayak racing.

In the old days
Macritchie was the kayaking place for colleges kayak teams at as far back as 1980s until PUB barred all activities in mid-90s due to 'croc sighting'. At that time, it looked more like floating bullshit. I was in my college kayak team training at macritchie before they banned kayaking. Then there were many memories of training days at Macritchie - the circuit training on the lawn, the very tiring runs, drinking direct from the reservoir, those latic acid-filled arms, coach shouting 1km from fininising line to start line.

Those days were rigorous and strict. There were rounds and rounds of circuit training, hundreds of push-ups, sit-ups, sprints sets, etc. We were punished for knocking our kayaks, or dropping them. The seniors just had to say 'YOU OWE ME 20!!' to various people who committed those crimes and the cumulative effect at the end of the day could be destructive to one's arms. But good old days indeed !

Next...
In a way it is good to see kayaking going home. Nothing beats fresh water kayaking if one's intention is just to kayak for an hour or so. It opens up a whole new lifestyle for those staying near the reservior where one could jump in a kayak to paddle for an hour before or after work. This is the lifestyle that has been sorely lacking in tiny Singapore!