Yellow submarine

There is A LOT to say about DragonTug. Fortunately, equipped with his JC skills of summarising entire paragraphs into less than 100 words for 25 marks, Jerome will now begin to tell you, in a calm, stately and succinct manner, what happened last Saturday.

IT WAS THE MOST EXCITING, THRILLING, EXHILARATING AND ELECTRIFYING SATURDAY HE EVER HAD!!! WOO HOO!!! *roll around floor kicking leg in air for 1 minute… wait a minute, this sounds familiar*

The day started off interesting enough.

Instruction: meet at Big Bird Statue.
Result: went to Big Bird Statue.
Observation: nobody, no boats; no music, no crowd. How can this be DragonTug?!

Haha then EK called, apologizing profusely (she’s such a nice Captain…) and directed us to the spitting lion that has a fish tail. And there we were. Music, crowd, tourists, and Starbucks!

First race started our DragonTug experience with one big resounding SPLASH, literally. We trumped Okinawa before you can recount the 12 cranial nerves, and in our euphoria, headed straight for the lion’s spit and ended the wrong way up!

Haha this was the first capsize experience I had ever had and everyone remained all smiles, despite losing a few slippers here and there. After this we got so paranoid of the spit and boat Yellow One that the cox steered way clear of the lion for all subsequent races.

Despite a lull during the afternoon we had great fun with ice, beer, more beer, and ergo, which RG missed the best time by a mere 1 second! Argh… the pain…

(We interrupt this entry with a public service announcement. All athletes are kindly reminded that consuming alcohol of any form is strongly discouraged before strenuous exercise, because it increases dehydration and the risk of heat injuries. Thank you.)

After winning 2 out of 3 races for the Mixed Corporate, we advanced to the semi-finals against USA. The British team cheered us on right next to us and off we went, ahead of USA after 90 seconds!

With endorphins and adrenaline circulating at a HR of >120, we psyched ourselves for the finals. THIS WOULD PROVE TO BE THE MOST MEMORABLE RACE EVER.

The air-horn went off, both boats headed out. Screams and shouts all around. EK encouraging us on as drummer. We whacked the sea water. We sprayed. We splashed. Despite trailing at the start, we inched forward. Then we got close to their boat. Paddles started whacking one another. I was sure I whacked a hand or two (oops…). We pulled away, stroke by stroke. SS stumped side to side to gain balance of the boat. With all the energy and swing our boat was collecting water like a faithful rain gauge would in a thunderstorm. But we were now ahead!!!

And then, the moment came.

I remember vivdly, the sides of the boat going underwater. The edge of RG’s seat pad was floating already. But we continued to paddle. We were sinking. But we only had one thing in mind. The bloody FLAG.

Yet the steeliness of our mind could not overcome the laws of physics, and we capsized… AGAIN!!!

Obviously we were DQ. When the umpire announced MND as the winner the crowd jeered. They were cheering us on!!! What a gratifying experience. We lost but this was a fantastic race. Our team lost a few more slippers and seat pads, but we were treated to VIP seats on the pontoon, experiencing first-hand the tug boats exerted when surging forward.

Late dinner at Lau Pa Sat, everyone obviously still high from the experience.

Went home and nursed injuries on my leg and my paddle. But I was one happy man.

This is the first time I got so high without breaking any law. =)