Junior turns Senior...

Had to represent Canoeing for the afternoon shift for Year One Sports Selection Programme or something like that with Kenneth. Basically, it's a display of the school's Sports and Games CCAs to recruit those who have the potential. And boy, am I glad to be in the system! If it wasn't for these compulsury try-outs, I might never have taken a sport as a CCA in my life! And I so love Canoeing!

So after school, I hung out with some classmates for awhile before making my way to the Old Multi-Purpose Hall. As I entered into the hall, I looked around and the set-upm was just like last year, when I had to go through this as a Junior. Basketball at the BB Court, Hockey at the Rock Climbing Corner, Badminton, Rugby and Soccer in the centre of the hall and so on. The only thing changed was that Table Tennis was now outside the Sports Office instead of being in the Boarding House.

Joggging along the entrance, I went to Canoeing, which was still on the Stage like last year, and there Front and Center sat Mr. Ismail with a clipboard in his hand. On te stage was also a T and K boat, the K being held up by two Inclined Pull-Up bars. There were 4 excercise balls on the Right Stage and apparently, there was also an added desk and chairs on the stage and Mr. Ismail was resting along there. He signaled me to come, and so I came. He then briefed me through the proceedures and what surprises might come in along the way. Then he showed me the Canoeing Simulator.

This simulator simulates the water resistance you experience when you drag a paddle across the water and is used mostly in winter countries when winter has frozen all the lakes and reservors. This particular equipment was flown all the way from America and was borrrowed for this event from the Singapore Canoeing Federation, as I will learn later from Mr. See who came into the picture while I was giving the Simulator a little run. Paddling feels quite simular, just that even when you lift the paddle from the 'water', you still end up feeling the resistance and that the Footrest was Friction Clamped and not Notched, soit was sometimes easy to end up pushing the Footrest suddenly and see it slip off.

So here came the first batch of students! Mr. See gathered them around Left Stage and did a simple introduction. He first started of by addressing them as 'Gentlemen', believing that at our age, we should be gentlemen already and should respond to the term. Then he introduced himself ("... I'm Mr. See and I'm the teacher-in-charge of the Canoeing CCA. Now actually, I was also like you guys. Did you know which CCA I was in before I came into Canoeing? Come on, guess. Give up? I was in the Science Club. Can you believe that? Science Club...") and explained what Racing Canoeing was all about. He then showed the two boats that were on display and explained their differences and purposes.

For those who don't know; Ks are a whole lot more narrower, lighter and unstable than Ts and Ks have a rudder, while Ts don't. And Ts are more common in local (Generally Malaysia and Singapore) races and are more slow while Ks are well known in races all over the world and are very stead fast (IF used correctly...).

He then introduced Mr. Ismail ("... and he's in charge of the 'C' Division. Now, Mr. Ismail has been in this sport longer than I've been, so he has a lot more experience than me. Once apon a time, he was a body builder and now he's retired...") and me ("... And the boy in tang-top is Rumiguel. Now last year, he was sitting right over there [points to one of the boys]. Yah, he had to go through the same thing you all are going through now. But now we've trained him and he can now go 10, 15k on the water...") He then tells them that they will do the try-outs 4 at a time, while the rest who are waiting or have done can watch him as he demonstrates how to race in a canoe using the Simulator.

He ends off with a few final words of encouragement, saying, "Now gentlemen, I expect you to try your best on whatever Mr. Ismail tells you to do. You never know when you end up finding a new potential. In fact, I want you to try your best in all the stations, alright? Okay, now can four people go over to Mr. Ismail, the rest stay and watch..."

Here comes the part where I get to play around with their balances! (He he he! =P) All they have to do are just three simple activities. (Simple for a Canoer, that is...)

1) First, the person is suppose to sit on an excersize ball. He then folds his arms and sticks one leg out. Child's play? Okay. What they don't know is that Mr. Ismail will unexpectedly kick the excersize balls, causing them to wobble! I can still stay on, but could they? Not many...

2) Kneel on the ball and stay there for as long as you can. Now this is really tricky, I've got to admit! Even some of us tend to fall of sometimes. But let's see how the Juniors are doing...

3) Lie on the ball faced down, crawl outwards till the ball reaches the ankles, and do 5 push-ups. It may look extremely when demonstrated by Canoers, but trust me, a whole lot of people slipped and rolled off the ball before even completing their 5.

Well, by the 1th batch, I had a hang on the Simulator. By the 2nd batch, some of the demonstrators from Badminton decided to come over and try a few stuff. It was then when Mr. See overheard us talking about how shocking it is to have Kirby in the team and so he joined in and asked us to 'entrill' him with tales of this 'guy that's very well-known to the IP Section'. By the 3rd batch, Kenneth came just in time to help me for the last few of the batch. By the 5th batch, Junn Kit gave a surprise visit and volunteered to help us out. AND by the 7th batch, the last batch of them all (Thank God...), we were exhausted.

Making a staggering walk to the bus stop with a route made by Junn Kit (He made the route for a purpose...), I finally had a cooling ride back to Home Quarters. Ah, well. Appreciate every day given to you, 'cause it'll always stand out from the others... God bless... G'd ni.....zzzzzzzzzzzz......