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."