Readers of this blog will notice I tend to record my activies on this blog and not express opinions, feelings etc. But this news affected me so much, I decided I need to write about it.
I was having lunch with a friend today when he asked out of the blue if I still do dragon boat racing. I told him no...I have a schedule conflict with Bay Area Dragons' training.
He then told me about the Singapore National Dragon Boat team tradegy. I found a few links on the web about this story, so will not repeat it here. Somehow, I had missed the news back in November.
I have only paddle a dragon boat 4 times (3 practice and a race), so I cannot call myself a dragon boater, but I definitely feel a little connection with the paddlers and was a little depressed.
As someone who enjoy paddle sports and had even paddle a dragon boat, I was shocked! Dragon boats are really stable(especially compared to kayaks). I don't expect it to flip at all.
Further, I am sure all the paddlers are good swimmers (most water sport enthuse are)and are athletic(it is the national team afterall). It just seemed so unlikely something like this would happen. Maybe they were tired just after the race (I know first hand how tire one can be after a race).
In one of the news article, it seemed like the teams were not required to wear life jacket. I can just imagine in order to gain an edge, teams will not wear life jacket since it is extra weight and is somewhat clumsy.
I guess any water sport is inherently dangerous, and this should be a lesson for all of us. I wear a boatsmarter.com wrist band as a good luck charm when I paddle, and I support their message of wearing a life jacket all the time.
My heart and condolences goes out to the Singapore National Dragon Boat team.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment