On the sad state of paddling sports here

There had been a mini-furore in a certain yahoogroup for kayakers recently, when a poor/smart girl acting as the role of facilitator enlightened a certain newbie kayaker (and the rest of the 339 members in the group) that

1. 'the tides these few weeks are unfavourable for us to paddle to or around pulau ubin..'; and that
2. 'u need to complete your two star before u can take a kayak out for an expedition'

A guy rightly pointed out to her that planning for tide movement for expeditions is necessary anyway, and that the 2-star rule only applies if one takes out a kayak from PASSC, his point being that this rule seems to have dumbly restricted the growth of kayaking brains in Singapore such that newbies think sea traffic channels can only be crossed by 2-star kayakers and beyond, as if it was God's decree or that some ill fate awaits lesser-certified (though not necessarily less abled) kayakers. And following that mail, self-righteous kayakers in the group one by one came out to defend her silliness with lots of extraneous words, as it he has specifically intended to criticise her, or that he had been wrong in any case about his comments.

Now, as all students in Geography knows, there are two cycles of tide flooding and ebbing each day, so I have no idea what nonsense she was sprouting either. Secondly, kayakers usually do a round trip to Ubin and back to mainland, so if you plan well even if you are paddling against tide for some hours for the other hours you will be going along with it. Thirdly, I have no idea why a resisting tidal movement can put off people who want to just go out and enjoy the activity. It's not a bloody race for goodness sake.

And what are all those people who keep reminding that guy that it is PASSC club rules for people to have 2-star cert to rent a boat and go for expeditions, when he already said that "If I'm not wrong, this only applies to club rules for PASSC"? His point is that PASSC has been breeding kayakers with a lack of common sense that's all. Kayakers who think that there are only three types of boats in the world and they are called 'slalom' (How that name got stuck to that kind of boat, I have no idea), 'dancer' and 'bandit'. Who never seen asymmetical paddle blades, two piece paddles, used real sea kayaks before etc etc. And worse of all, think the world of their limited knowledge in kayaking.

I didn't post a reply to all those because it's not worth my time. I only blog here about it to stand up for the brave soul who exposed the shallowness of someone.