Lolwut?

We interrupt our usual programme, to bring you the following Public Service Announcement, in lieu of the currently sprouting bouts of swine flu which have just hit Singapore.

I don't want you to TOUCH me baby....

Remember to wash hands, kiddos. =D

Getting to know TPKRT [Season 2] will be back on Monday, 1st June. Stay tuned.

Getting to know TPKRT [Season 2]

Episode 5: Randall Tan

(a.k.a the sinker. Randallman. Silver Surfer.. and *mfffttt* Brenden.)

Make way, its Randallman! And his costume is... flexible... 

It can be....

All sorts of.....

Funny costumes....

He can't help it. He ate the 'ZOMG FASHION SENSE!? fruit'.

Right. He's probably going to kill me for that. But at the very least i kept my promise not to put up the adventures of Center-parting man part 1 and part 2. 

In episode 3, we featured Kok Wei's journey from becoming bone thin to a TP Kayaker. Theres hope for those with small builds.

Today we will feature Randall Tan, the 3rd guardian of life (Har-har.) who kind of looked like this a while back. 

No, the picture is not photoshopped. Yes that is Randall, you can check his IC or license if you don't believe me. Provided he lets you take a look. And while you're at it, you can check out his Sentosa Islander Card =D

Anyway, Randall fits into the mold of the perfect weight loss success story by training himself into this:

Haha. Our sponsor.

Randall is a really fun loving person, so much so that its pretty hard to take him seriously. However, with age must come wisdom, and oftentimes during training, you will see Randall enter into 'serious mode', a scary phase (if you know him normally) where he drops his entire kiddy facade and becomes this moderately dominating and determined person. 

And believe me when i tell you its pretty freaky. Its like a different person altogether. 

If you seen it once, its not too difficult to imagine, then, how he managed to train himself and change himself over the past year or so. Well, losing weight is one thing, but then his abs showed up, too, which makes the whole senior bunch. 

Ah, yes... If you're wondering why we tend to talk about abs a lot - its because of the nature of our sport. When you're rowing, ideally,  you are supposed to be using the power generated from the rotation of your core muscles and your trunk, essentially known as your twisting. NOT from your arms. (Keep that one thing in mind.)

In other words, if your abs don't show after training like this for so long, you're not doing it right. Yes, Ladies and gentlemen, Kayaking is the abs sport. So sign up today and receive a free....

I digress.

The second thing to note about Randall is that he does not like to sit around doing nothing. If there's something he can busy himself with, if it involves helping others, he'll likely accept the job, be it keeping lifevests or paddles. He'll keep them for you even though he's a senior. (But don't exploit him. I'll drown you.)

Due to a back injury sustained as a result of Round Ubin in 2008, he was not able to train and compete in our IVPs in November. However, he still bothered to come all the way down early in the morning to be our team manager, although he could have simply left it to the juniors. 

I don't see it as 'sai gang' (literally: shit work) I see it as his way of helping the team out in whatever way he can, because he was unable to row. 

As soon as his back recovered, though, he went back to training, and participated in his first sprint race this year - the MR500, in a K-2 with Bryan.

He came back a happy kid. As you can see. Its what I hope you will look like after your first races.

Well, Randall's the most jovial and friendly out of the seniors, I can attest to that. If he ever scolds you (which i don't forsee, but...), it will be because you deserved it. We are a sports team, not a secondary school class, and the less we have to focus on organization and discipline, the more we can get done.  Keep that in mind, kindly.

This time round, i posted some nicer looking pics of Randall, so i suppose he won't kill me.

But well, i just have so many pics of Randall! Because he makes such a good model!!

And some M-18 stuff too.

But oh, you guys aren't all 18 yet so i'll save the good stuff for when you grow up. :3

I think i hear Randall coming. Gotta run. Bye.

(Smells like team spirit!)

Getting to know TPKRT [Season 2]

Episode 4: Quartermaster - Bryan Loy

(a.ka..... well. This one i better not say or he will say i hurt his feelings. =S)

Bryan, your perver- I mean- Friendly Quartermaster, also one of four 2nd generation guardians of life (I love how that sounds :3) is one of two prime examples of a metamorphosis, the other one being Damien. I'll get to Damien later. 

What they have in common is that at the start of the team, both were fairly confident (read: confident. not 'cocksure'. There's a difference.) that they would do pretty well in the sport because they were physically above average prior to joining. Like some of you are right now.

He was soon to realise, in time that it wasn't as easy as he'd thought. In fact, it wasn't as easy as we all thought.

Last Saturday's training (In which you all paddled out to 500m for the first time) saw lots of capsizes, and 'floundering fishes'. Its to be expected, i guess, since its your virgin attempt.

But us seniors went through this 'elimination period' after a period of rowing. All who didn't meet coach's standards were cut from the team to reduce our numbers. And Bryan made this unlucky mistake of capsizing in front of Coach, thus earning him the boot.

Instead of going home with his tail between his legs, he fought against coach's wishes to be allowed to stay.

Would you do that? Of course, it will be super hard to manage if everybody starts doing a Bryan and persuading Coach to accept you once you miss the mark, but if you insist because you truly wish to stay on the team, instead of because you want to save face or some other lame reason, then you really are worthy of respect.

Let's fast forward a little.

Despite managing to secure his place on the team, Bryan was the absolute slowest still, about 3 months into rowing. In spite of being nearly double Kok Wei's size, he couldn't seem to push any harder, and always ended up pretty far behind when we rowed long distance (We did not start training sprints until pretty late into the year)

The reason? Because he kept relying on those arms of his. 'Gym more, row faster.'

Wrong.

He believed so much in his bull strength, though, that he went for the T-boat category in our IVPs, and got knocked around.

Of course, we all did, being juniors and all, but Bryan was so affected by it that he began questioning himself and wondering what he could do to improve.

He then discovered that what mattered was not how much raw strength you possesed (termed 'bull strength') but how to effectively use that strength to move the boat (termed 'technique') After IVPs, Bryan moved to the K-1, and trained hard starting there.

Fast forward a bit more....

In January 2009, Bryan won his first medal- 8th Place in K-1 Novice Men's Category for the Singapore Canoe Marathon.

There's a happy kid for you.

Fast foward to the present day.

Now, the guy who capsized in front of Coach in a crucial moment, got kicked, revived, came back only to row last, but never gave up, has overcome all that crap that stands in any sportsmen's way and has quite literally went from zero to hero, and is among the fastest seniors on the team.

WHEREAS the person who was the first to get on the K-1, and who coveted the title of fastest rower on the team for a while very swiftly lost interest the moment somebody overtook him, and picked up smoking and other assorted crappy habits. He came back after a while and was told to shave his head as a symbol of apology but instead shaved a pattern into it.

In case you're wondering, it's most probably so that he could tell his friends that it was a fashion statement instead of something as humiliating as 'my coach punished me.'

(zomg i couldn't resist bringing that up. Its a prime comparison)

Genius in the sport or not, it means nothing without commitment.

Ask yourself if you can do the same as Bryan did. When you begin to capsize non-stop (which some of you undoubtedly will.), when you keep coming in among the last three (I can assure you that 3 of you will. xD) will you stick to the passion and commitment that drove you to join the team? Or will you cough up some loserish excuse like 'I guess kayaking wasn't my thing after all'

Anyway, enough about Bryan's history. It makes him sound like some relic.

Here's some interesting info!

Bryan also happens to be the resident gym nut, and is amazingly well-aquainted with the weights family - Mr 20kg, Mrs 15kg and their kids, Junior 10kg, Junior 5kg and little 2.5kg.

If you're ever in a suicidal mode and yearn to feel like an 80-year old Grandpa when you wake up the next morning, you can give Bryan a call. He'll be glad to help you out, provided you don't kill yourself first by dropping the bar on your head when your arms give out.

Hurray! You also get a free flexing in front of the mirror session with Bryan as your instructor! sign up today to begin your path to rock-hard.... um.... biceps.

And now you know more about Bryan. Whoop-dee-doo. And before we end, kiddies we'd like to remind you that being half-naked all the time is freedom of expression!

Getting to know TPKRT [Season 2]

Episode 3: Vice Captain - Goh Kok Wei 

(a.k.a Cook Wei, Frog Wei, Kok Wheh, Kok Kok Mee.... Once again, use at own

peril. K-2 partner please don't murder me. I buy you ice cream. :3)

Kok Wei, your friendly Vice-Captain, and one of the four 2nd generation guardians of life (euphimisms ftw.) is without a doubt one of the more inspirational success stories the team's got.

Eh.... no wait. He IS the best success story. o_O

As he's told you, around this time last year, he was kind of on a probatory period on the team, because he failed both trials. The then-seniors only kept him because he not only came back for the 2nd trials even after nearly dying during the 1st, but still adamantly wanted to join even after failing the second trial.

Well, around the time before he joined the team, Kok Wei sort of looked like this:

(Holystickman!)

and went on to train to this:

And ultimately, THIS:

The second picture is indeed a huge leap, but there is no greater difference than the leap from a human to a canoeist. You will see what i mean, this coming holidays...

How did he do it? Simple: He sticks to his ideas. In fact, he's got so much conviction that it's free to overflow to other people. For our batch, he was pretty much the one spurring people on. He's also a well of inspiration for quotes. I know, when not during training, just about 90% of what comes out his mouth is retarded, BUT he is the source of several of our memorable lines...

1) If its not tough, its not called training

2) We don't pray for abs. We train for it.

Although for the latter one, i think replacing 'abs' with 'medals' would be a little more acceptable...

I'd say he's also the trigger that pulled the team together when we were freshies.

It was on one memorable land training, that then then-still-weak Kok Wei let loose a little expletive while doing dips. Result : Being pumped by the seniors. (*cough* some people should take note *cough*)

The lot of us who finished our sets already gathered around him and started doing push ups as well.

When questioned: "What are you doing? No, you can't do it for him"

The response: "We're not doing for him, we're doing with him"

It think it was Sam, if i'm not wrong. She got stunned for a few seconds, during which Kok Wei finished his last 20 push ups. That memory of the night is the most vivid one.

Which is why you cannot imagine that i was actually elated when, during the first swimming training, a group of you guys got up and did the push ups together with the last 4 people in your group.

Ok, that sounds sadistic.

I wasn't elated because you guys were doing push ups. I was elated because it may be a small step, but this is the start of the team.

The few remaining members on the team now are those who did everything together. We did 'secret training' together, we went for the Nike Run, The Standard Charted Run, he'd always be there. (Although most would run away from the thought of a 21.195km long bonding session)

And shortly, the same few of us are going to run our asses off in the 42km long sundown marathon. Whoopee.

What you should know about Kok Wei is that he's..... very hard to capture on Camera.

Unless he chooses to...

...Flash.

....No i'm kidding.

I guess what we all need is a leader who knows when to activate the strict-o-matic.

I suppose Kok Wei does a good job on that.

However, the problem is that although he knows when to be SERIOUS and when to be FUN, he doesn't actually know when to stop being Fun.

So therefore.... Kok Wei's only got 2 moods - Serious or Retarded.

Because of that, its pretty difficult to get on his bad side. All you have to do is glance at him. Just make sure you behave when his serious face is on, and you'll be fine.

However, like me, Kok Wei dislikes liars, smokers, politics, arrogance and other assorted assholic behaviour. So if you think that some part of you is like a bad apple, cut it off and throw it away. No sense wasting the whole fruit - but i suggest you do it fast. Because if we discover it before you do, you can consider yourself out instantly.

Now the fun part- i wanted to type this... xP

Kok Wei's my K-2 (2-man kayak) partner by a stroke of fate. Its.... uh... a long story. But it wasn't funny when we first got thrown together because at the time, it was only 1 and half weeks to the RP invitationals in November.

So there we were, a pair of Juniors trying K-2 for the first time, about to race K-2 veterans who's had at least 2 years of rowing experience or more, in 1 and a half weeks.

On race day, we did kind suckily for the 1km race.

But on the 500m race, we focused. And these Notes helped. notes to each other, stuck onto the boat.

We breezed through the heats.

Which was kind of surprising, coming in second over all the other older and more experienced canoeists.

But the killer was Kok Wei's ultimate kick during the semi finals - right before the finish line, he jammed his feet into the boat as hard as he could, making it jerk forward - and won us a place in the finals by 0.3 seconds.

In a race, every millisecond counts.

Although after that... well. 2 rookies in the finals, you can guess what happened xD

Anyway, he may be pretty fierce and everything when it counts, but if you ask me, Kok Wei is one of the best people who is capable of taking up his position. And he will lead the best of you guys to surpass us.

One thing you ought to know.

Before every race, he ALWAYS tells me (without fail)

"We go out there, we give it our best."

"And no matter what, we come back with a smile."

Getting to know TPKRT [Season 2]

Episode 2: Captain - Samantha See

(a.ka. Sam the man or Sam the glam. Use at own peril.)

Ok guys. We have a confession to make.

In truth.... all the medals which you saw scattered on the table during our recruitment drive?

(Caption: Sam smiles happily)

They all came from Sam.

(Caption: Sam smiles happily again)

(Captain: Sam smiles horrifyingly)

I fear for my life.

Anyway, don't be shocked... Previously the Vice-Captain, Sam is one of the Grand-Seniors. One of the legendary Sannin, the other two being Jiraiya and Orochim- *Gets clobbered by Sam*

I meant.... Damien and Weijie. The three of them make up the remnants of the pioneer batch of TP Canoeists.

Anyway, Sam's winning streak starting during the Round Ubin Kayak Race 2008, where, after 2 gruelling months of training amidst monsoon winds of up to 8 knots, and obstacles such as waves generated by wakeboarders (I'm not kidding/ exaggerating.), she proceeded to swipe the position of 2nd runner up in the women's K-1 category.

Mind you, its a 22km long race, and the competition was very stiff. And the waves in the sea are of a completely different level from that of the reservoir.

After a brief off-season break ( We were hardly ever off-season. T_T) We rushed straight at the RP invitationals '08 - Our version of the Inter-Varsity games.

During that competition, She secured her place as one of the strongest girls among the polytechnics by clinching the runner up position for Women's K-1 500m.

One christmas later, we went for the Singapore Canoe Marathon, where she took up the Junior womens' K-1 Category, and won 2nd Runner up... again (*sob*, i want one too)

She didn't stop there, going on ahead to easily grab another 2nd Runner up position from the MR500, which took place in March. The only problem with the last one being that they kind of lost her medal and all, which really screwed up the victory.... but nevermind, she shall forgive and... uh...never forget.

That's a total of 4 medals.

In the extremely competitive field of Kayaking, that counts for something. A good way to tell would be that we all underwent the same training but haven't produced any medals of our own so far.

(I must emphasize the 'so far.' =D)

Do you now see what we mean when we emphasize attendance? True, only the Saturday trainings are compulsory, but if you miss out on trainings, it will definitely show, and even if you dilligently show up for every single training, it may not necessarily show right away.

This is the reality of our world. If you want to be a kayaker, it is something you must learn to deal with.

Sam represents the quality of rising to the challenge, no matter how big it may be.

(...... like i said...)

Of course, while i make it sound so easy for Sam, the truth is that things were never really so smooth sailing.

As you can see, girls are a...um.... scarce commodity in this team. In the senior batch, it got so that only 2 girls were left, Sam being one of them.

As fate would have it, her companion dropped out too, due to overwhelming external commitments. To be fair to her, it was just as well, because you can't be somebody in this field without your absolute focus.

It was a pretty hard blow to us, but i can imagine it was the worst for Sam, as she was then the only remaining female senior left on the team. I don't know if Sam's gonna kill me for writing this, but she didn't need to hide it with her sunglasses - that day was the first and only time we saw Sam cry.

However, her passion for the sport and her commitment to the team were both overwhelming strong and she refused to let herself and the team down by backing out as well. It was around this time that she began training anew, that led to her Round Ubin victory and eventually, the winning streak.

Girls, (and guys too), do you think you can do the same? I'll say this bluntly - out of the first batch, only 3 remain. Out of the 2nd batch, only 4 remain. And out of our 3rd intake last year, only 4 actively remain. Its probably safe to assume that out of your large group currently, not everybody will be staying.

However, if you do choose to leave us, I hope it will be because of your own reason, and not because your friend backed down and dragged you along with him.

If you choose to back out because of that reason, you won't merely be a reject in kayaking. You'll be a reject in Life.

So - take a leaf out of Sam's book, coming down to train whenever she is free even though she is currently on external SIP (student internship).

Although i don't recommend working as hard she does, because you'll soon be prone to frequent bouts of..... 

(Errr...Insanity.)

I guaruntee that even you cannot manage to remain on the team, you will definitely be somebody, wherever it is you choose to go.

swimming training.

All seniors and juniors, there will be swimming training on mon.6.30 pm at the swimming complex. Seniors please bring your float and shoes. Juniors just bring your swimming stuffs.

kokwei

EVERYONE SENIORS/JUNIORS/FRESHIES ALIKE ARE TO BRING $5 ON MONDAY DURING SWIM TRAINING FOR CANOE FUND. And please like, give me exact...I dont have a cashier with me to give you change. If you dont give me exact I'm gonna eat your left over money. So if you give me 10 bucks then...TOO BADDDD :D

See you monday! I know you all miss me righttt. especially KokWei and Damien. hehe.
Sam

And here it starts again..

Getting to know TPKRT [Season 2]

Episode 1: Coach (a.k.a Jiaolian, Tay Ping Hui..)

Who's that pokemon!?

Its.... Coach!!

("Acting cute is my second profession.")

I will leave it to you whether or not he wants to tell you his name. For now I suppose you ought to know him only as "Coach".

Well, its not often you find a guy who runs, cycles, abseils, rows, swims, and basically tries to kill himself whenever he feels like it.... and still manage to look like Tay Ping Hui!

(...cough... recycled joke. But anyway..)

Right now I'll bet the most prominent impression you have about him is of his amazingly long speeches. Yes, it kind of struck me too, when i first entered the team slightly over a year ago (Goodness....its been so long)



And...err... the second would most probably be his.... interesting grasp of the English language. Or... lack thereof.


But i must applaud you guys for not laughing at him about it, although he takes it all in good humor. He's made some pretty memorable funnies over the past year, but doesn't mind us laughing about it. Well, at least we control our reactions..


For example...

"Put the table on the money" (Kok Wei: MFFTT* tried hard to control laughter*)


"Don't go and make yourselves inbehave like them" (Damien: Wth is 'inbehave'?)


"3 of you go and stroke yourselves for 8km" (Josh: *BIT LIP*)


"Whose soospack is this?" (everybody: "What's a soospack?")


we eventually found out he meant 'shoebag'.



Ok now, jokes aside, amiable as he is, Coach enforces one serious rule: There's always time for joking - and training time is not that time. Some of you may have though Kok Wei was overreacting every time he lashes out at you for laughing or smiling during training, but its a very natural thing to us, because its been drilled into us by coach, the same way its about to be drilled into you.


That's enough introductions.

Now, background info.

What you may not know, is that while the school regards coaches as mere employees (I pay you to work for me - this set amout of money for this set number of hours, you get the idea), I don't think they know that the coach from THIS team is actually the backbone of the team.

That's right- I meant that without our coach the team would probably not exist now.

The problem started around the time our current seniors' batch began progressing from the T-1 training boats (Those bulky blue ones you guys are currently training in) to these K-1 racing boats :

(the phenomenon of the boat with no rower.)

(The streamlined kayaks you guys see every saturday rowing up and down the lanes... and hopefully yearn to try, too.)

See, at the time there were 9 of us. And.... only 4 K-1s available. Aside from us, there were also 3 other seniors who needed to use the boats for their own training. This would probably have set us in quite a bind...

Here's where coach comes in. Remember these?

You may or may not remember us rowing these sexy white boats. Well, there were 10 of them (11, if you include the one he bought for his own usage) They're NELO kayaks. NELO is a world-class brand of racing kayaks. We were still short on boats to use at the start of the week, and then magically, here we were - suddenly in posession of 10 world-class kayaks.

Although the usage of these kayaks are split between 3 schools (TP, SAJC and Temasek Secondary), it was still a Godsend to finally have enough boats to train with.

And it all came out of Coach's own pocket.

You can probably see how much we owe to our coach.

Be it when we exceeded our budget for the previous year and were unable to pay coach for a couple of months.

Or when he comes down to school to supervise our land training, and swimming trainings although he is only paid to watch our water trainings.

Or when he dilligently came down every morning to open the reservoir gates for us at 8am and stayed with us until the end of our second training at about 6pm, for the entire holiday.

To us, this is a man that cannot be replaced. I don't doubt that if the school tries to replace him, for some reason or another, it won't be long before the Team crumbles.

I recounted the history of Coach and the team for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, a few may feel that 'history' is best buried, and our old problems not exposed to the world. But I feel that it will serve as a reminder, just how much we owe to our coach since the team's beginning.

Secondly, sometimes because of his ... interesting english and his rather laid-back way of doing things, some of you freshies may have the impression that he doesn't really know what he's doing. But i assure you, he is a far cry from being one of them fat old coaches who sits on their throne and reigns over the students with a loudhailer.

If he can, he usually comes down to row with us. And drill us from err... a literal arm's length away. And trust me, he still rows faster than some of us can.

So no matter what.... don't doubt him. I mean it.>.>

(TPKRT, Changi Airport, 8th October 2008)

-Kiiro

TRaining

SENIORS AND JUNIORS
Tmr there will be training! Bring your wet shoes, running shoes and a set of clean clothes to bathe! Meeting place will be at the sport complex at 9.30 SHARP. Everyone please rest well tonight. Juniors, it may be your sculling test tmr. So make sure you have enough rest! see you all tmr.

(Please stop asking the seniors when is the training. If there is training, i will post on the blog.)
I am serious.

kokwei

Its back.

Land Training
There will be land trgn tmr. Meet at sports complex by 6.30 in shoes.
Take note.Please extra set of clothes to bathe. Be clean guys!!! =.=

See you all.
kokwei

Just for entertainment.

Its josh's art. Just for laugh.

kokwei =D

It goes out to seniors, junior and whoever is in the team
Are you of you excited about the swimming trgn tmr? =)
location: TP swimming complex
time: 6.30 Pm, Not Am. (Please not that by 6.30 all should be in your swimwear and goggles)
Stuffs to bring: Swim wear, goggles (all seniors are supposed to bring your kickboard)

Alright, i want everyone to sleep early tonight! Don't eat too much before swimming unless you guys wanna vomit. I'm more worried for the pool. See all off you tmr. Anything just contact me.

kokwei

SENIORS TRAINING
9am

FRESHIES TRAINING
11am at sports complex.

National Canoeing Championships registration is out! Exciting exciting!!! Come book your races with me. First come first serve. maximum of 2 people per race. $10 per race, per person.

heres the categories:
K1, K2, K4 -Women's
K1, K2, K4, C1, C2 (which we dont have)- Men's
200m, 500m, 1000m, 10 000m
Theres Boat control FYI so start trianing with weights. The usual 12kg for K1, unless you're taking part in 10 000m.

I'm going for 10 000m and probably 200m depending on what day it falls on. Junior girls I think you can go for the K4. Guys...discuss out within yourselves and get back to me by...31st May. If I dont receive any answer I wont sign you up alright? I'll remind you all a week before 31st again. :)

Hurray for races!
Sam

Seniors!
There will be trgn this coming fri 4.30 sharp. water trgn. coach will be coming down. Reach the club and get ready boats, paddles and jackets. Don't waste time and let coach wait. Organise yourselves! See you guys. =)

Training! =)

Seniors
There will be water training for seniors at 4.30

Juniors
Land training. 6.30 sharp. Meet at sports complex. Same place. Bring shoes AND clothes to BATHE!!! Your attendance will be monitored. See you guys!! and girls. =)

kokwei
strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.

Those that ordered the Life's short Paddle hard shirts please bring $10 tomorrow and pay me! getting shirts on Monday.

Sam.

SATURDAY TRAINING
10 30am at Sports complex.
Bring shoes and slippers.
For those that have wet boots/booties bring them.

Get ready for some wet training fun!

See you saturday!
Sam.

Tuesday Training
Sports Complex
6.30pm
Running Shoes.

Seniors, if you want to row today at 4:30pm Coach will be down at the club to open the gate.

Sam.