Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.
LEGENDS
It's not about the shoes. It's about knowing where you're going, and not forgetting what you've started My Brothers, its time to finish what we started. Looking back, 2007, 2008. It's been two great years of adventure, sweat, tears and laughter. It has been an honour sharing these two years alongside all of you, feeling that same tiredness, crying that same anguish at last year's nationals, feeling that same joy together during NJCC this year, laughing at the same jokes, swearing at the same things, smelling the same odours after each and every training... it has been an honour being on the same team, being able to wear the name of Raffles on our backs.
It's about having the courage to fail, not breaking when you're broken We left Bedok last year with heavy hearts. Some of us had a firsthand taste at the bitterness of defeat. Some of us swore almost to revenge our seniors. Some of us swore to recapture our pride. But all of us had a common goal - that was to prove the true mettle and strength and courage of Raffles Canoeing. We were broken, but we were not breaking. We swore to come back in glory and in power. Kaiyang kept telling us that we were going to give them the fight of their lives, a run for their money. Eugene decided that we'll give them more than just a fight.
Taking everything you've been given, and making it something better By early March, the team of 2008 had already eclipsed the team of 2007. We pulled ourselves together and told each other that we would do a better job than our seniors, that we would train harder, row faster, fight smarter. Out of the comfort zone, with a team we could call our own, we delved head-on into NJCC. We came out stronger, more resilient and more persevering.
It's about work, before glory, and what's inside of you All of us have gritted our teeth, have felt the pain of the last one hundred metres, the lactic acid coursing through our veins before that final crossing of the line. Whether win or lose we have glorified the name of Raffles Canoeing, we have done something beyond the limits of self and pushed towards achieving something as a team. But far beyond the race, the 2K timings, the land sets of no rest, the 500m sprints, the 40 x 10 bursts in the water, all these have agglomerated into the defining moment of: the race.
It's about doing what they say you can't Michael once told me that the Spirit motivating us during NJCC was that of Surpassing our seniors and gaining recognition as a team; the Spirit motivating us during Nationals should be that of Proving to Everyone else that Raffles Canoeing is a team to be revered, respected, looked up to. Rafflesians excel at sports not because we have natural sportsmen, but because it is in the very nature of the Rafflesian to work towards excellence.
It's about doing what all these people, from MJC, PJC, NJC, ACS(I), ACJC, SAJC, say we cannot do and cannot be. They have overlooked the fact that within each and every one of us rests a true blooded Rafflesian (that includes you, Eugene) who will put excellence before pain, before defeat, before difficulty, before fear, that excellence which gives the team, the sport, purpose and meaning.
It's not about the shoes. It's about what you do in them It is this same excellence which has to unite our team, it is this same excellence which should drive every single one of us, whether K or C, whether single or double (or quadruple). It is this overarching excellence residing within the depths of our souls, which all of us should bring forth, and shake the very perceptions of these people who have never believed in the success of our team.
It's about being, who you were born to be Let us open both our eyes and theirs and let them see what Raffles Canoeing can and should truly be.
With all the competition and harsh reality kicking in for all of us, we've lost sight of the real essence and spirit of our sport, that which constantly drives us and motivates us to excel.
Our love for the sport.
Haven't we forgotten how we fell in love for what we did at the beginning of last year? Have we forgotten the feeling of pride and joy in what we were doing? Have we, in the push to get better timings, smoother strokes, and meeting expectations, let go of the very thing which drives us to greater heights?
Have we merely remembered the pain of defeat, and forgotten the sweetness of putting in our all into each stroke, pulling faster, pushing harder and enjoying this sport, this livelihood that all of us share as a team?
Let us not let go.
Let us press on.
(And to the K4 people. These are people just slightly older than us pwnzing. Let's catch up. :D )
You leave the pontoon, with the rest of your teammates cheering you on. You know they have high hopes on you. Your heart beats erratically with the flurry of emotions surging through you; you tell yourself not to be anxious, not to be afraid, not to feel challenged, you earnestly remind yourself over and over again.
The sky is the least inviting, the water is choppy, and the wind is strong. Yet these are not the least on your mind. Your mind is on the race to come. It is the race, which you have prepared so long and so hard for. The wind caresses your arm, and you feel the droplets land sparsely on yourself, as the paddle surges through the water, and up, recover, through the water, up, recover...
It's your turn, as you slow down. You prepare to enter your lane, your heart beating harder than before. You know you are part of it, and you know that it is the time to face your fears; fear of inexperience, fear of fatigue, fear of the pain to come, fear of the result. No matter the confidence, regardless of the training, the fear creeps up to you. You live in full awareness that anything can happen during the event.
The umpire calls all boats hold. Uncertainty looms over you greater than ever before. And you know that you have to stand up to all that is before you. There is no backing out, there is no turning back. And this is a feeling we have not felt guys, you and I. We've been lying asleep these four years, and its the ripe moment to awaken the spirit of sportsmanship within each of us, that which embodies courage, discipline, fighting spirit, gentlemanliness, perseverance and passion.
"Start within ten seconds…"
The horn sounds.
A trigger sends an instantaneous surge of adrenaline into your very being. Everything becomes heightened. Your paddle hungrily digs into the water, and you give a powerful pull, your arm punching down with every ounce of might you can muster. The winds and the water suddenly become transient, and your entire being is thrown into the race.
Now it is just you, your boat. The finish line is no where in sight. You focus on the buoys, on going straight. Your every stroke is the culmination of strength, grit. It is a race of not only muscular endurance, power or stroke.
It is a race of determination.
You fight on. The pain begins to set in, even as your breathing has gotten from heavy inhalations to a furious struggle. You concentrate on keeping your composure. You know that a compromise on your stroke, on your frequency, on your power per stroke, may cost that goal you were striving so hard for.
Your vision condenses with the passing of each buoy. The pain now gnaws at your muscles. You know that not giving your all may cost you that goal. Relentlessly you force yourself to continue, in spite of the escalating fatigue.
You realise that this race is not only about the now. It is about everything that you've done thus far, all the trainings you went for, all the exercises you did, all the times you rowed, all the pain you went through, all the joy, the struggles, the times when personal bests drove you to exhilaration, the times when tiredness drove you to your very limits. You have somehow subtly known and acknowledged it all along, all that you've put into this race. Your hard work, your laughter, your smiles, your blood, your sweat, your tears.
All these things have culminated to a single event. And right at the moment where you are feeling the most drained and tired, this gives you hope.
You realise that you are no longer rowing for yourself, or that goal. You are rowing for God, for his Glory, for the School, for all the team mates who you love and share the same passion for canoeing with. They've placed their faith in you. This hope surges through you, more powerful than any adrenaline, it causes you to forge forward.
At this time, the pain is excruciating. Not just your muscles, but your lungs, your mind are in pain.
Burst.
You give your all.
You cross the finishing line, spent, drained. You've given your everything.
And you lost.
The feeling, that feeling of loss. You stop paddling, defeated. You gave it your all, but it was just not enough. Those numerous times you trained, when you told yourself you were giving your hundred percent, perhaps those were lies. Perhaps those were a compromise. Perhaps.
You cannot help but let the tears well up. There is no way to escape the sorrow, let alone the defeat. You were not defeated by the winds, nor the water. You were defeated by men, by women, who trained harder than you, who sacrificed more than you, who were more deserving than you.
But in the end, you realise, that you were defeated by yourself. You were the one who chose to compromise, who complacently thought you were giving your all, when in actual fact you were less disciplined, less focused, and less determined. And my friends, my dear team mates, my fellow canoeists. We are all like that. We have all been in slumber. It is time to wake up. To face up to reality. To reflect.
What has my attitude been. Have I really given my all. Have I really behaved in a manner befitting of my sport. Am I truly a Raffles Canoeist.
Come on guys. We are the present; the batch before us has gone. What shall we do? Are we going to just accept the status quo, or are we going to pick up the pieces bravely? Let us all awaken.
The pain is real, the defeat is real, but so is the strength, the courage, the discipline, the passion, the success. RafflesRow for the Win!
More an more of us are falling ill and getting injuries. (The nehthan unglam images have been removed due to the man himself complaining.)
*Guys, please take care of yourselves. We don't compromise on training, but as Mr. Go and the J2s have emphasised, we have to train smart, and regulate our own training as well. Don't compromise, push yourself to your limits, but do not overdo things. Remember that when we train, we should set our sights on whatever we want to achieve in order to forge towards next year's nationals. We certainly don't want to pwn ourselves rite?
On a side note, don't eat fast food. yeah.
Or potato chips. Double yeah.
Just kidding. In moderation guys! Not that we are banned from eating such things. Consumption in moderation! Erm. That means like eat them once every ten years. Yupp.
To those who thought C4 200m was powerful, THIS IS THE BOMB...
* 1) Their strokes are really really fast (too fast) 2) Their muscles are really really big 3) They make paddles look like toothpicks/earbuds (from aerial view they really do.) 4) Jiao Lian's home team is featured: Pple's Republic of China. Jiao Lian, be proud! >_< 5) One of the guys so strong the blade snapped from the shaft (jacked)
To all K rowers: watch and learn *This vid has slo mo lah so its easier to look at their stroke and pick up some pointers
we joke we play we train together. And we are all concerned when we know that you've got this pain that doesn't go away. We may not be able to feel the pain together with you, we don't know what you're going through, but just know that we are behind you, so don't be worried or afraid. And we believe in your strength. We'll continue to encourage you on, and hey, whether you and chinks win anything or not, we'll be real proud of you guys. We always will be.
So get well fast, commit it to God, and set your heart and mind on it. We hope and pray for your speedy recovery.
Okok. So that's not Mohandass. Mohandass isn't like that when he's sane. We'll get Mohandass to sing in his american idol standard when we can, and it'll probably be soon cause Mohandass is quite pissed at us catching him in his bathroom voice unawares. He's promised to sing so stay tuned for his melodies! (nope, i'm not trying to be sarcastic here.)
Jokes aside, let us pray for the success of 5 of our very own J1s who will be taking part in the upcoming NJCC:
Guys: Nehthan, Chinks, Eugene
Girls: Dede, Bernice
Hey nehthan and chinks, jiaolian says you guys confirm can't get even a bronze but dun listen kay! As long as you believe in something and put your heart to it, even if you do not achieve it, stand proud! But of course we all do hope that you guys will make a mark for yourselves and the RJC canoeing team.
Eugene, you've come and been proven loyal to our worthy cause. You're the most IMBA rower in our team, and so we hope in your success. Youcanoeit!
Dede and Bern, you've been partners in K2 for so long and i know its kinda sad they splitin you but, know that as long as you work on it, you'll do fine in the company of the J2s too. Dede, continue to jiayou and we know that you can pwn, juz stare at the other competitors with the judge dread face and they confirm scared. Bernice, just give it your all, for God and for RJC.
Yepp. We shall pray for their success and place our hope in them. Continue encouraging one another and build each other up, so that we may go forth as a team and pwnz! Wecanoeit.
the holidays are coming. and unlike the J2s, who have to study for the common tests, as long as we J1s be good boys and girls and complete our homework and mug finish for the coming term...we will have no problem. Really. And marcus thinks that we should give ourselves a well deserved break.
So since keeguan's saturday outing to sentosa didn't really fall through the other time, marcus thinks that march is a good time to give ourselves at least a day's break.
marcus thinks that this outing good opportunity for teambonding. marcus thinks the rest will feel the same way too.
marcus thinks we should have it this coming sunday 11/03. this is owing to the training schedule we have next week. marcus knows that kaiyang will not let us go so easily.
marcus really wants to know what all you lovely people have to say about this outing. marcus also hope very much all can come for this outing. Although marcus must say that this outing actually supposed to be strictly man. because marcus knows that as man, all of us will do some really buddily things which the girls may find repulsive. and marcus thinks that girls who cannot tehan spastic male behaviour should refrain from wanting to join. however, those who find themselves man enough (such as those who delight in hearing manly sick jokes) can join us.
But of course, marcus does admit that all things not settled yet lah. marcus really hope this time all can make it and all will go...marcus also got church this sunday, so those no church one can chiong the morning. those have church one can join in the afternoon. then we can all go dinner and be happy. Yay. Pion.
marcus hoped he got the message across in as non-retarded a way as possible.
Okay. So let's brainstorm. Anyone with ideas for the ORA fundraising, pls dump them onto the blog. We wanna hear them. Pls give constructive ideas such as:
1) Sell manly canoeing plush toys (trust, me, they'll sell like hotcakes) 2) Sell protein shakes 3) Sell healthy, protein laden food such as boiled chicken breasts. Simple. we just get a pot, get a pail full of chicken breasts, dump them into the pot filled with water, throw in together some leeks, onions, carrots and potatoes. Then boil for very long time like 3 hrs. Then sell! haha. Kidding.
Hey preferably something edible which has high returns...such as drinks. haha.
Since we can only fundraise during ORA, does this mean stuff like busking cannot be counted? We should look into that.
And Logistics wise, somethign that is not too taxing or unmanageable that is within our means. We must note that we are canoeists, and that means that our time should be constructively spent on areas other than wurrying abt what on earth to sell for Fundraising.
So just contribute your ideas. Cos we need the money, and we need the ideas.
Poser. I know. Long sleeve blue shirt and red cap... haiz. No wunder. But sorry saturdae cos i sick, so i decided to look cooler a bit and wear something that will not expose myself to the heat of the sun... haha so to those who not really fan of long sleeve poser-like shirts: sry. Dun wurry guys as long as i'm not sick, i will not wear that thingy, cos its kinda wussy if you think about it.
Anyways everyone's ROWIN!
Yeah... maybe we should print that on our singlet!
This Post is dedicated to the following pple:
Mohandas and Jerome, Shawn and Hmm who ah i kinda forgot (sry) nice going on T2! Shawn go for it! Jiao jiao likes your strokes!
William and Xinda pwn Nj on your C1s. Juz get the balance going first kay
Nehthan and Chinks, Vic and Aaron, also pwn Nj on your C2s. And Nehthan, less vulgarities pls!
And to the rest of the numerous pple on the Ts... gogogo! We can see the passion and the improvement! Let's see: Maggie, Kennedy, Ah D, Michael, LJ, Jeremy, Wei Zhong
And to Konek and Hong Cheng on the K2... wait till you try with the seat!!!!!
And to Sheng Hao... you rox! (the kayak... haha kidding lah. But we still need to work a while more on the two-freakin-long-wooden-sticks-k2-balancing simulation thingy.)
And specially to Justin... patience is the road to perfection, but pls for the sake of humanity, not too PATIENT lah. You are beginning to go into bullet-time. xD
And Beng Hong, what u doing ah? C ah? Must be.
And AhD say i look like a captain. Hmm. Because i look diff with my silly long sleeve blue shirt thingy and the red cap. And Maggie said i stand out because of my Black hair (DOTS maggie... DOTS) Jiao Lian also got say i look like U Glen (J3 cap, see below).
Face... not too sure. Arms wise...definitely a long long way to go. What the s**t did he do to get those s**t? Hmm. Anyways haha Ah D nice one. For a moment i felt flattered. Haha. Nevermind Uglen. You got your arms (s**t), and i got my wings.
Riding on the mario-liugi trademark that the j2s have somehow created, here's a good website to find out how much really you know about mario and liugi.
Today was a bad day. For one, it rained like cats and dogs (haha bad english) and we didn't get to kayak...jacked and did land sets instead =p
It was fun anyways. Marcus and Hongcheng both peed at the bushes next to the main road, directly before the underpass. Hongcheng, be proud of yourself! And Konek was even more imba. He peed at the area near the terrace housing, in full view of the monkeys (as well as the maids who were probably looking outside from the windows...). Konek, be proud of yourself too!
Basically we just went there to take out boats and keep them. Boring. And certainly not very farny especially when we were freezing to death in the rain. But it was good team bonding. And loads of "Hong Cheng" jokes, that made him look very silly. Sorry Hong Cheng, do not take heart, cos we were just joking *that's why its a joke... but we don't mean to ridicule you, and you are a very smart person. Cos you're in RJ canoeing DUH; just that your singing and dancing is slightly amusing. Haha.
Oh. and the pyramids. Guys... you really must try this. If you thought sets were gay, wait till you try the 18 pyramid...
2,4,6,8,10,12,14,16,18,16,14,12,10,8,6,4,2
That is manly. A grand total of 162 pullups. The epitome of pain. The forearms first start to feel extremely pain, then the lats, then you just die. At 18, the body succumbs to the pain of pulling. Woah. We should really do this every training, and confirm by July we'll kick NJ's ass. A team of hulks. Yay.
Anyways, we got some cool video of konek peeing and of a certain group of people acting crazy in the rain. Coming soon to a certain blog.
Sorry. I am really really bored. Especially since i have to do an econs essay. Haiz. So here are even more canoeing jokes:
Jiao Lian: EH! Kayak no. 9! Kayak no. 9! What's your freaking problem! Keep boats already lah! Come back now! (No response) Jiao Lian: EH! Kayak no. 9! Come back now! (Still no response) Jiao Lian: For the last freakin time...erm...okay...Will someone please go rescue Kayak no. 6?
A Frenchman, an American and an RJC canoeist were captured by a savage tribe.
The chief of the tribe said: "We found out a while ago that the best skin to waterproof our kayaks is not boar or crocodile skin, it's human skin. So guess what? We going to use your skin to make our canoes! Hahaha! But we are very kind, so we let you choose how you want to die."
So the Frenchman said: "Give me some poison." He went: "viva la France!" Drank the poison, and died.
Seeing this, the American, sad but filled with Patriotism, said: "Give me a gun." He went: "God bless America!" Took the gun and shot himself in the head, and died.
Lastly, the RJC canoeist exclaimed: "Give me a knife." And then he started poking and piercing himself frantically all over the body, screaming like a retarded ass monkey.
Seeing this, the chief was intrigued and asked: "What are you doing?"
To which the RJC canoeist replied: "Haha! So much for your stupid canoe!"
2) Because your Ba__s are unequal-sized (girls, you are so lucky cos you probably dun have this problem)
3) Because for some weird reason you paddle halfway then suddenly the paddle break (Incentive to get a good paddle and not some sucky 3rd-hand stick from the seniors)
4) Because you were laughing at other people who just capsized
5) Because a terrapin crash into your kayak
6) Because you saw something that you thought was a water snake and then got so scared you capsized and then realised after you are in the water that its just a piece of floating wood
7) Because Jiao Lian counted to 5 and you too psychoed by him till you capsize next to the dock
8) Because you were looking at chiobus and you lean to one side too much (Its a dumb way to capsize because what chiobu is there to see lah please!)
9) Because you overtook the guy and you turn around to look at how far ahead you are when you realised you turned way too much and by the time you try to brace you are halfway in the water
10) Because when the umpire say, "on your marks, get set..." you were too urgent and had the urge to clear your bladder
*this applies to K and T rowers only. (and if you still cap in a T2... wah. i shan't say anything.)
Luigi
Marcu
Bowser
Kennedy
Willie
Kee Guan
Xiao Bai Cai
Vic
Bong
Greg
Michael
Maggie
Mohan and das
Xing Da
Jerome
Jeremy
Hong Cheng
Powderman
Eugene
Feng Shuo
Nehthan
Beng Hong
Marc
Aaron
LJ
Shawn
AhD
