aWAKE IN SINGAPORE
I’d be meaning to try my hand at wakeboarding for ages but of course given my propensity for laziness, it just didn’t happen till a couple months ago, I was reminded again of my commitment by the Singapore team winning the SEA games.
So I did it.
I got off my ass, rounded up a group of friends, booked the wakeboard session and coordinated to get to that super isolated corner of Singapore in Punggol called Marina Country Club.
Next thought,
WHY DID I WAIT SO LONG?
Fear of being complete crap at it was one - which turned out to be a completely WELL-FOUNDED fear.
So all I do is hold on, go from crouching down to standing up whilst leaning back and then keeping my butt in and then turn the board to face the boat and whatever happens to holding onto the handle for dear life?
Yesyesyes, don’t worry - its easy!
(me mentally) Erm dude, that statement is practically a tongue twister to say and when you’re actually in the water theres less time to do all that than it takes to say it!
But so said my instructor cum boat driver cum only person in the boat who knows how to wakeboard so I trusted him.
Repeat that conversation about 5 times and you’ll get an droplet of how much sea water I was drinking!!
On the plus side, floating about on your back with a life vest strapped to you staring at a beautiful sunny sky whilst waiting for the boat to make a U-turn is really quite pleasant (:
And then the boat approaches and you try to flip your body with a block of wood strapped to your feet and with flailing arms swim/scramble/paddle towards that elusive handle, with a cacophony of SUPPORTIVE friends laughing from the safety of the boat - FUN TIMES! :D
Thankfully, it only took me a litre of seawater and a half dozen tries to learn how to wakeboard - I use the term wakeboard loosely, in my case to mean standing up for a good 5 seconds (hey we all have to start somewhere!)
If you’ve done cable skiing before, it takes even less time - my fortunater friends were able to stand in all of 1 or 2 tries!
And of course if you’re a guy theres always the option of just DIE DIE ALSO DON’T LET GO CAN LIAO
Full disclaimer: said guy told me the next day that he couldn’t even lift up his arms
So there, three perfectly acceptable options to learn how to wakeboard successfully! (: Plus its an excellent work out especially with said clenching of butt muscles (:
Also, did I mention the weather - its AMAZING!
Its definitive, no arguments allowed: THERE IS NO BETTER WAY TO ENJOY SINGAPORE THAN IN A BIKINI ON A BOAT WITH SEA SALT SPRAY, HOT SUN AND A BEER IN HAND.
Full disclaimer #2: I do not actually recommend a bikini whilst wakeboarding unless you are the kind who enjoys nipslips -___- You have been warned!
Full disclaimer #3: Okay, we didn’t actually have beer on the boat BUT WE TOTALLY SHOULD HAVE cause its amazing and we sincerely regretted not and so I say so (:
And then to round off the whole afternoon I fully recommend parking yourself at the seafront of Marina Country Club to enjoy the sunset and a chilled tower of Tiger, which for once actually tasted quite decent, particularly when served in these most adorable Tiger beer shot glasses.
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I wakeboarded with Ryders, paid $400 for 4 hours (2-6pm) shared by 5 pax bringing it up to a total of $80 for an entire arvo. Sure its not the cheapest recreational activity but trust, its WORTH IT! (:
http://www.ryders.com.sg/
600 Punggol 17th Avenue Marina Country Club
63863891
Also, if you don’t have the luxury of a car, share a cab with friends from Yishun and take the Seletar North Link which goes through the old airbase. Once you see the warehouse with all the boats stacked up on your left get the cabbie to drive really slowly - theres actually a small pavement entrance demarcated with several stone road boulder-pole-thingums* where you can walk 100m into before hitting Marina Country Club. This route is a lot faster because otherwise the cab driver has to drive all the way to Punggol and then all the way in again - I would say it definitely shaved a few dollars off our cab fare which turned out to be $12 - not too bad!
* I tried googling for the correct term which yielded me nothing hence my convoluted description
