| 20.3.05 |
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wrote this for nuthing... so instead of letting a piece of writing go to waste... here it is... The NUS Windsurfing Championship is an annual event held off the coast of PA East Coast Sea Sports Centre. This year’s event, on the 12th and 13th of February, attracted 19 participants from NUS, bringing together windsurfers from almost all the faculties; except for Dentistry and Law, when our lawyer-to-be fell sick over the weekend. The turn out, while seemingly small, is encouraging as it was the first weekend of the Lunar New Year; (in other words, opportunity cost of braving the high winds and great waves with us is the number of hongbaos one can collect over the CNY weekend). Over the two days of the Championships, thoroughly blessed with bright sunshine and approximately 10 knots of wind, we managed to run a total of 7 races, allowing 1 discard. It was an interesting experience having so many boards trying to start on time on a short start-line. Collisions, ‘diving-incidents’, shouts of “Starboard!” or “Leeward!” (?!!?) were just part and parcel of racing. Some of us, being first-time racers had trouble finishing the course on some races, especially when the winds began to pick up and became rather hard to manage. What struck me as heartwarming is to see windsurfers; rivals and once-strangers, rafting up between races, sharing racing strategies and tips on how to point the board higher or increase board speed. Our Race Officer of the event, former national windsurfing coach, Mr. Tan Kim Yeow, ensured that the races ran smoothly and that all racers adhered to ISAF Rules of Sailing. Under his professional guidance, many of us learnt a lot during his end-of-day debriefs, where he points out our chronic mistakes and gives us pointers on how to improve our race techniques. These short lessons on race strategy and tactics made us all the more aware of the elements around us during course racing and instilled in us, a new-found respect for the sport we have already grown to love. In my opinion, this event, while small-scaled, is a success in many aspects. We emerged from the competition, better and more experienced windsurfers, having learnt a tremendous amount from our peers and identified our shortcomings. Healthy competition made friends out of strangers and strengthened friendships amongst those already acquainted. The event ended with a prize-giving ceremony and ‘wheelbarrow-barbeque’ party; where we ate, we drank, we tossed yusheng. To sum it simply, it was a great experience organizing and participating in this competition, we closed the event with lessons learnt, friendships strengthened, thousands of incinerated skin cells and hands blistered. ----Stef stopped rambling at 09:02 --Link to Post |
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