What is Canoeing to you guys? I mean like, what is your impression of it ?A FUN Cca? Something interesting? When i first came into canoeing, as in more like when i first heard of a cca like canoeing, i have got to admit, my first impression was like whoa. This has got to be fun, or perhaps a chance for me to learn new things. It is a rather eluded cca, in my opinion, for to outsiders, little is known about it.

When i first heard of it, i had so many questions about this cca, as in like where in the world do people in canoeing train or whatever. Well, for a start, let me put this straight, canoeing is really an extremely boring cca , for all the mystery and intrigue that the name gives , (probably one associates canoeing with huge fun, even adventure maybe? or perhaps something close to water splashing and well, basically fun on water)

Canoeing, is basically a cca in which you paddle on a canoe, yes, however eluded this cca might be, that is the main objective of the cca - which common sense can tell you. But the truth is that there is much more to canoeing that what others view it as - a recreation .

More than that though. Canoeing gives hell training. And when i mean hell, it means real HELL ,training is tough and probably alot more tough than what you might normally consider a recreational CCA for fun. In canoeing, everything is hardcore serious. Everything and everyone is just about so hardcore that i feel so stumped.

Just to mention a few of what we do during training. 4k runs , lifting of heavy metal bars and doing exercises with them- from 9kg to 16 kg your pick , as well as various sorts of basic military exercises like pushups ,pullups and stuff situps crunches or whatever.And when we do this stuff , at one time we do each of these exercises in no less than 50 to 100 at once. And these exercises come in SETS , like well example 4 sets of about 5 exercises each doing about 50 per exercise. How much that is ? You calculate. And that is EVERYDAY.

We have training 4 days a week and everyday of training we do this stuff. Imagine that dude. If you think NCC is tough , how about this man. There was even once we had to do 1000 pushups . OMG.

Canoeing is basically differentiated between water and land training. Water training takes place at either Kallang or Mac Ritchie. [ Mostly Mac Ritchie, for the water there is calm , with few waves - that is only if there are many people sprinting at the same time , and it is alot nearer- about 10 mins from Hwa Chong.

Land training is mostly in school , of course, either in the gym or out on the track beside the school field, running either 2.4 , 4,8 or about 8km. [ All this depends on the coach or just about if there is competition coming then most trainings are water trainings] Nearest competition is the Nationals this April.

And that is only the basic training. NOT INCLUDING the punishments. Which is what one might say - extra . Alot people might ask what happens if you capsize and fall off your boat. In canoeing we actually have varieties of many different kinds of boats , with some built for speed but lacking in stability , with some built for stability but lacking in speed, as well as some built for speed and stability. But all these comes to a point whereby you will have to see which boat would ever let you excel in it. But all in all, when you train more and become experienced you would be able to excel in just about any kind of boat, in which you would find that you become very stable even when using the least stabillised boat. when you capsize you either wait for someone else to come and rescue you or you SWIM back to the pontoon , or shore to empty the water in your boat and start off. If you think swimming is rather easy, well, let me tell you guys, swimming is not easy at all, especially if you are lugging a 14 kg boat , with a whole hell of water in it , doing the mathematics alone can firmly tell you that you might well be lugging a 20kg boat , with your about 1kg paddle and with that bulky lifejacket, man it is seriously not easy.

You may well say that you can rescue yourself. But the simple truth is that it is impossible. Let me put this straight : Imagine you capsized. Your boat is now filled with water . And yet you are not even standing , you are in water with no hold on anything else except the boat itself in which you have to pull it. How in the ^*&^* are you going to empty the 20kg boat without even a firm grip on land with your two feet on the ground? Or you might think that you might go on the boat with water in it. But then again you are in water. What are you going to use to propel yourself onto the boat ? The boat is so heavy that you even find it a problem to push it along with you , much less shift it , in which your two hands are on one side of the boat, pushing the boat down and moving yourself up would only overturn the boat. Leave the boat overturned and the boat will sink and you will have to pay 1000 bucks.

And the truth is that if you were to capsize, you would be awarded 200 pushups for every time you capsize. Imagine if you were to capsize ten times. Good luck man.