Just completed my 1 Star Kayaking course yesterday at Changi Water Venture, survived it and came back tall, dark and handsome (please dun flame again). Suffered from some bruises on my legs which I do not know how I got them and bodyache all over when I woke up today. The course was not that tiring though, it's just that most of the time I use brute force and not that much technique which resulted in all the straining.Started off the first day with some basic theories on the kayak and soon after entered the sea to try out the different strokes. Before that did the 50m swimming test, which I practised the day before as I'm a real bad swimmer. Realised that I think to much of it, because we were swimming parallel to the shore in shallow water and everyone will be able to swim with floatation jacket on. Went on to all the capsize drill, basic strokes and all were fine except initially I was rather unbalanced. The only problem came during the part where we learn to embark onto the kayak without support. Either my legs are floating in front of me, or I'll fall off the kayak while climbing to the seat and at times capsizing the kayak as I fall off. Tried a total of around 10 times before I finally manage to get into the kayak. Spent the whole afternoon kayaking around practising all the strokes and playing catching using kayak as well.
On the second day focused more on the rescuing techniques so plenty of chances to capsize until I do not feel anything about capsizing anymore. Continued the day with some other technique and games and and we covered the entire syllabus rather early. Therefore the instructors gave us a 'sneak preview' of what we will learn in the 2-star course and I got a bit tempted by the skills that I can learn as well as the fact with the 2-star can kayak out of the pathetic small rectangular boundary. Finally at the end of the day received my 1 Star Cert which gives me the license to rent kayak in the future. Yeah!!
The 'SMU Jump'
License to Kayak
