Hello fellow NUS Windsurfers!!

Yesterday marks the end of the biggest race of our windsurfing calendar and I am very proud to share with you that we have once again overcomed NTU, SIM and SMU to be crowned overall champion in this year's Inter Tertiary Windsurfing Championship!!~

This year's event was held for the very first time at NSRCC and it really gives a feeling of windsurfing in a foreign land! Winds were very good, gusty and all of our NUS surfers put up a very strong show in all their races and we finally emerged as champions after 2 challenging days of racing and a total of 6 races!! The post race party was fun-filled with great food, games and even a lucky draw which gave away a top prize of a $3000 windsurf board (some old fat dude got it.. conspiracy!!!)!

Using unfamiliar boards and sails for the very first time for the race, there was much drama throughout the event with equipment failures, massive collisions, incredible, inspiring 14 yr old kids (who somehow entered our race) and even a protest and disqualification right at the end against a really sporting SIM sailor who was really the unknowing victim in an error caused by the organising committee who issued him the wrong sized sail!

Our representatives in the novice categories fought really well and hard and constantly battled the tough sea conditions and strange equipment. With their short windsurfing experience, they still managed to overcome the odds with Nick coming in 1st for the Novice Men and Samantha coming in 3rd for the Novice Women. Samantha had an amazing comeback which any athlete would have been proud of, clawing her way back into the 3rd place after having a very unfortunate initial series of races!! =)
Mei Si and Wai Seng, despite not getting in on the medals, displayed great tenacity, hunger for knowledge and never say die attitude that even weizhong would have been proud of!!

In the 6m catergory we have Jude and Squid (sometimes known as Tan Zhu Dong), our all-time favourite rivals, who battled fiercely against each other and also the ever improving SIM sailors. In the end, Squid emeraged top with a very comfortable lead and Jude, TAKING ONE LOOK TOO MANY AT SAMANTHA, finishing a very respectable 3rd!! =)
Their race was probably the most challenging one as their sails did not allow for much tuning, meaning they had to battle the increasing winds with their brute strength alone. Squid even had to fight a faulty mast foot during the 1st race, which left his sail separated from his board for the longest time!

Finally, in the 6.5m category we have our famous enthu and extremely loud but adorable ex-training coordinators Wei Zhong and Samuel (ME!) who also completed the event in style. Wei Zhong, despite a long absence in race training, continued his incredible pumping ways, with constant screamings on the water and forced his way into a 3rd place finish. Samuel did not disappoint (with his ridiculous 10 yr windsurfing experience) and eventually led the event right from the first race but also having to work hard to fight off an ever improving Squid and Jude who was not even in his category!! lol!

Even our coach Uncle Tan had a good 2 days of racing in the slalom event in the Singapore Open and emerged 2nd in the Masters Category! =)

Last but not least I would like to give my special thanks on behalf of the entire NUS Windsurfing Club to a special group of people who sacrificed so much of their time and energy during the two day race! These are the helpers who sat on the boats and suffered much labour and sun burn and helped to make this event a success and without them, there would not be us!!

Choon Peng, Esther, Willie, Karen, Sabrina, Chun Siang, Charissa and Wilson (exex chairperson!). Full marks for their attitude and love! =)

Thanks to our supporters Lisa, Jeron, Amelia and Calista and full marks for their bridge playing skills. ^__^
Also to the crazy-sailboat capsizing Jude, Samantha, Jeron, Lisa and steroid loaded canoeing weizhong, thanks for giving us a good show!

(pardon me if I missed anyone!)

Look out for more pics and race updates on our blog soon!~
Hope you enjoyed reading this lengthy update as much as I enjoyed typing it and see you at the next year's event!!~~

Cheers,

Samuel Chng
NUS Windsurfing Club Chairperson





haha. pardon me for the copy and paste. Just plain lazy to blog :P

ITWC starts today.

Hope NUS can clinch as many medals as possible and that coveted team trophy once again.

Good Luck guys :)

I chanced upon mr koh (my jc lit teacher) blog today. I'm so deeply impressed with the poems inside. Language is indeed the most beautiful gift for the human race.

Even though sometimes I suffer from mental blocks, poetry is still the best medium to convey the different feelings that I've experienced as a human. I shouldn't give up this integral part of me just because of some setbacks in writing.

Now my passion for reflective writing is revived again :)

It was a great weekend. I was supposed to spend the time sleeping at home but then ended up doing something else.

The fatigue started from last friday, I was in sch doing DISC personality test (for the fifth time in my life) with the Second Life exco, followed by crash course in SL building with silva. It was indeed a crash course because my laptop crashed just when I was about to get something done. Haiz.

Anyway after that I went aljunied to meet isabelle for supper and there was a sharing session with people from her company. The sharing session was really inspiring and I was super grateful to have attended it.

Got back home at about 6am on saturday and washed up and I was off to see the NTU Open. NUS really swept the entire awards for the 5m & 6m categories. Great Job guys! There was even a dedication at suntec fountain of wealth by sab and char. Good Luck for the upcoming ITWC too

Steamboat with the vietnam trip volunteers after windsurfing probably drained me out already. anyway I'll still want to wish jeffrey a happy 31st birthday! I can't wait for volunteering to start again (kinda missed it)

Sunday morning was Bukit Timah trip and I really enjoyed taking the DSLR take photos wherever I go. That feeling is just so great :) Photos are up on facebook.

Steamboat with mixedrice at my house was good too. It's been sometime since I met everyone already and I'm glad everyone is still well and healthy. I've had enough of hearing bad news around me already.

That's shall be all. I gotta mug.

I had my first french meal today. Wow.

Definitely an interesting experience.

Anyway, I realise I haven't been blogging much these days. Apparently that screwed up timetable of mine is causing me to skip my 10-8am sleep schedule, so I'm always feeling sleepy for all my classes (or perhaps the lectures are too boring?)

Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the worst days of the week. On tuesday, I've got like 8-10am class (the first time I had such early lessons) and the next class is like 6-9pm. So technically I got 8 hour break. After I minus the stats tutorial, there is still 6 hour break.

Wednesdays I have a 6 hour break inbetween (excluding the odd week tutorial) so its not so much of a good news either.

Given that I got so much time to study in school, my grades ought to improve this sem. Let's just hope for the best :)

Happy Chinese New Year to everyone!

I'm still figuring out whether to post this article because it's really personal. But then I seriously question the reliability of the medical report.

And like what xia said, "We all gain and lose certain things in life. But don't dwell on the bad when you lose something because you may be gaining something else in the process. Think positive and you'll be a happier person. "

If that's the path I'm given, there is no much I can do but live with it anyway.

According to this report, I run a very high risk of suffering from sarcopengia and edema. Check out wikipedia if you want to know more because its really very technical.

Apparently, my protein mass and bone mass is extremely low for a normal guy (which suggests my weight). This appears to be due to the low protein intake that I have. As such all my muscles are underdeveloped, especially my lower body. It seems that I have to start eating more meat and do resistance training to build up my muscles, before I suffer the fate of "lower body unable to support the rest of the upper body" which I don't know when will happen.

But the other problem is my BMR (basal metabolic rate) is also very low compared to average, which means that I cannot really burn the food I eat fast enough and alot of it becomes fats in my body. I have got like 18% body fat even though my BMI is just 19.

So the dilemma happens if I eat more, my BMI can afford to go up to 23, but then my fats percentage will shoot up even higher. But if I don't eat, I can't get the proteins to grow the muscles. The best option out of this is to convert the existing fats into muscles. According to the report, I need to gain 8.2kg to reach my ideal weight at 65.5kg. To achieve that, I need to -0.5kg fats and +8.7kg muscles. WTH!

And that's not all, I went up to wiki to check out on edema and I don't know a single thing after reading it. I still briefly remember what the person said, "in layman terms, you're overworking your kidneys." Doesn't sound good anyway. Hope I don't have to live with kidney problems for the rest of my life.

Life still has to go on. Now that I know about this, its time to start cutting down fats/salt and all the unhealthy diet and start exercising before these risks becomes reality. Too bad I can't become vegetarian because I still need alot of meat to grow my muscles. No more fried stuff for the rest of the year :(

Feel tempted to join, but I wonder if I got the time to do so or not. And I need to find team members to join too. Haiz

Oh man I'm so pissed off with myself.

I had this dream yesterday night and inspiration for a new plot struck suddenly. I could vividly construct out every single scene of the story and even the characters itself. But then, lazy me refuse to wake up in the middle of 3am to jolt down these points. I vaguely remember I even got the sequel plot ready too.

And now its gone :(

It's almost like eureka yesterday night. Haiz... why didn't I just wake up and write it down.

Anyway, I decide to revive Project X again. Seems like my passion for writing hasn't really died off yet.

School's starting tomorrow.

Sian :(

Same resolutions as 2008.

MY 2009 resolutions:

show more care and concern to those around me.
save up a $10,000 bank account.
master french to at least intermediate level.
achieve 4.0 GPA
level 1 heart-to-heart with mixedrice.

modules I'm taking this sem.

GEM2901 - Reporting Statistics in Media
PL2132 - Research & Statistical Methods II
PL3233 - Cognitive Psychology
PL3234 - Developmental Psychology
PL3236 - Abnormal Psychology

2 stats and 3 core modules. This is going to be one heavy-weight semester. Better mug harder.

I'm back from vietnam! It's definitely an eye-opening experiene over there. I'll blog about it when the photos from the different cameras are uploaded. For now I need to do my reflection for the year 2008. 2008 has been a fruitful year, lots of new experiences and friends made my life so much more colorful.

Jan - Leadership Development Course at Ubin change the way I want to engage my life.

Feb - My first baking class was fun. Fortunately we only get to see demonstration, so no worries about burning down the kitchen.

Mar - Exercising my brain with prisoner's dilemmas and crisis at sea scenarios.

Apr - Reflections and playing my part for Earth Day.

May - Club Gusto and Sichuan Earthquake made me understood how fortunate I am and I should play my part in serving back the community.

Jun - OMG! It's a great experience to learn how to faciliating students. (But the job is quite tough)

July - My most active month of the year. Bangkok trip, Windsurf Camp, SMRT challenge is so fun!

Aug - Second Life bug hits me again. Totally hooked on it.

Sep - Team Gusto heads out to recce for the year end Gusto Camp. Fort Knighters formed after a trip to Jurong Lake Park.

Oct - Kite Making during Club Gusto sessions under the guidance of Mr Seewa.

Nov - Contemplating political and social issues in the Mumbai attacks and CDAC Vision Building.

Dec - Windsurf totally rock my socks! (Internal Race was a total disaster though).

That's all for today. I better find container to store my Vietnam coffee before it spoils.

The Internal Race was a total nightmare.

The current was strong, the wind was light and it kept shifting. So in the end, of the 4 races, I only managed to complete one. The rest of the time, I drifted so far I couldn't even manage to reach near the starting line.

But this is not going to be my last race, I'll improve with every session I attend :)

I'm off to Vietnam in like 18hours. Will update the blog when I'm back.

Merry Xmas to all my blog readers :)

(Credits to samuel for sending me such a nice picture, just had to share it with everyone else)

Ok this is going to be a busy week. So I shall conserve my energy by catching as much sleep as possible. Oh man, Internal Race is coming soon, I better train more. Don't want to end up last :(

Monday (22)- Fort Knighters Ubin Trip
Tuesday (23)- Windsurf Training & Pri Sch Gathering
Wed (24) - Mixed Rice Nerdy Theme Party
Thurs (25) - Haven Study Group Xmas Gathering
Fri (26) - FDS/ Eddie's Hall Party
Sat (27) - Windsurf Training
Sun (28) -

Mon (29) -
Tue (30) - Windsurf Internal Race
Wed (31) -

I'll be away to Vietnam from 1-6 Jan. Those dates that are blank means I'm still available and free. Anyone free can sms me I'll go plan something to do :)

Anyway, photos from canoe expedition and mambo outing are up on facebook. I'm plain lazy to reupload here. oops

Looking at the number of things to do on my calendar, I'm just happy that this is the most fun-filled holiday ever in my life (for now).

Very appreciative of all the effort of those around me who helped plan for all these activities. I have to admit that I'm a very lazy guy. Most of the time I wait for people to plan stuff to do, sometimes I don't even help out. In the end, I complain that I'm so bored at home with nothing to do, especially when all I need to do is just to call/sms people and plan something out. This is a bad habit and it shall be my target for 2009.

Haven't had time for reflections during this holiday but I'll find time to do just that. That shall be all, its time for Internal Race training.

More photos from the camp (taken from samuel's waterproof camera)

Finally a nice pic of me surfing (without falling into the sea)

New profile pic :)

practising before heading out to sea

Offering milo at a "cheap" price

The Choonpeng Milo Store

Owner and the store assistants

Oops... sorry but the store is Class C

will post up the canoe expedition photos up soon. Looking forward to fri race training session.

Photoblog for the windsurf camp.

grand finale

the windsurf committee

YES to a successful relay race!

the broken mast

supporters cheering for their team

elite fight: sam vs jude

Just 1 word to describe: chaotic

Windsurfers unite

I just thought this photo was well-taken

Preparing for the relay race

tired and lazy to do our own BBQ

yiwei: the one who likes to BBQ marshmellow but don't like to eat them

flying the invisible kite

the kite was the most popular item in the camp (other than the windsurf equipment)

another committee photo.

Like what sab said," After the camp, I'm being to like windsurf even more :)" Very much indeed. Oh man I feel like joining the Internal Race but there are just too many pro around. Next day morning still going overseas. How?

Away for Camp 11-13 Dec. It's time to enjoy the sun,sand and the wind :)

While I generally welcome people to read my blog, I do hope that the readers identify themselves so that I can still get a sense of who you guys are.

In case anyone still doesn't know it, every time you click on the ads on my blog, you guys are helping me to earn money. haha. then I can give a treat when I get the money. The ads been there for almost half a year but I haven't even earn my first payment. Haiz...Low traffic to the blog :(

But that's not the main point, the ads also help me to identify blogs that visit mine. Most of the regular bloggers are my friends, but there is this particular blog that I hope he/she can identify himself/herself. http://away-wego.blogspot.com/ , If I know you that's good, if not I hope you can leave a tag or a msg.

Thanks a lot.

(pardon me if I sounded too harsh, I just don't feel good when I see unfamiliar readers who don't acknowledge themselves)