SPC's Beach Day Out 2011

Singapore Paddle Club have their headquarters

situated on Prime Land (they're on Sentosa). They have
their own DragonBoats. They have outrigger canoes of all
shapes and sizes (OC6s, OC2s, OC1s). They have sponsors that
range from San Miguel Beer to software companies to pubs.
They win in almost all DragonBoat races they enter in
Singapore.

All seem to be bright and rosy, right? Nope! They have a
problem. They lack people who will paddle their ocean craft,
they lack people to give out the medals they have won to,
and most of all, they lack people to drink their
San Miguel Beers :-)

Hence the recruitment drive called SPC's Beach Day Out.

As I have said in my first post about this BDO, you pay
a nominal fee and you're free to take all their boats out for
a spin! After that, when you're thirsty, you go get yourself
a 100+ or a San Mig Light ... and then you go out and paddle
again! You do this until 6pm or you get drunk,
whichever comes first.

My friend, PaddleMate #2, told me that there were supposed to
be 60 odd people who are supposed to be there. But in the end,
even those kids who were just playing around in the beach got
themselves registered and tried their hand at paddling. In the
end, the event looked like a company outing!

I helped out in manning the bar for a few minutes and the number
one question I have been asked was : "Is this a weekly thing?".
So the intention of generating interest is definitely successful.

I got to try OC6s, ocean kayaks and a standup paddleboard.
Interestingly, a lot of people find standup paddling fun!
I wonder if it is still fun when the racing starts ? :-)

Anyway, the thing about this recruitment drive is it
attracts mainly two types of people : the competitive ones
and the just-wanna-be-fit ones. ...and let there be no
doubt about it, SPC is a competitive club.

The thing is I'm quite sure that, after the
BDO, SPC will have been swamped by emails
from both competitive types and just-wanna-be-fit types
on how they can get on board the club.
Let's see how the ExCo manages to identify and cater
to the needs of these two types of would-be paddlers.

So, enough yakking and here's a short video of what went on.
... and if you say you didn't enjoy the video, then you
need get your doctor to check if you still have a pulse :-)))

Edit : you may also view the video here