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Saturday, May 2

T's About To Spill: Fifth Paddling Race, or Championship Day


Today was the season finale of the reality show starring the SSHS paddlers. It was the most intense, heartbreaking, and hope-filled episode yet.


T'Mar, the Manhoben stroker, reports:

Yes, this day was intense. We started off with a Sottera race. Lineup was (in order) Omi, Summer, Jen, Joanna, and Rachel. Sadly, I forgot who was in seat 4. Anyways, they were doing a 1000-meter race, and, regretfully, they missed the first turn. In paddling, if you miss a buoy or knock down a flag, you must go back and do the turn again. So that they did.

Then, when we thought all hope was lost, the team in lane two collided with the team in lane three. If I'm not mistaken, lane 2 was Southern. The crash was unlike anything I've seen before in my 2-1/2 months of paddling. The nose of Southern's boat hit the steerswoman of the other boat! It looked like it hurt. Anyways, the girl who got hurt got off her boat, and, according to a bystander, helped push her boat out of the turn. That, my friends, is cheating. According to another bystander, both teams were DQ'd. So we won. By default.

The next race was us, I think. The Manhoben Girls. To everyone's surprise, we lost our heat. Well, we came in three out of four. The only team behind us was Guam High. No surprise there. Anyways, Okkodo won. And I think it was ND who won first place in that heat. I was pissed. Like, really pissed. As soon as we were done, I went to my dad. Ha, I even started tearing. So he cheered me up(:

The next race was the Sotteru. The green flag went down, and everyone took their first stroke. Then Tony's paddle broke. Yeah, it snapped right near the blade part. He stopped paddling and looked back at us, the people on the beach. At first, I was like Tony, PADDLE! Why isn't he paddling? Then I saw what he was holding up. The next thing everybody saw was him jump off. Then the screaming happened. "DAMN IT!" Everybody looked toward the shouter. It was Coach Ron.

"TONY, YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO STAY ON THE BOAT! DAMN IT!" Then everybody turned to Tony. He threw his broken paddle toward the shore, and both pieces almost hit Jesse. He [Tony] started cussing and walked away angrily.

One of the girls on our team said that JP, the steersman, told him to get out. So basically, if its anyone's fault, it's probably Coach Ron's, for not telling us that if we started with six people on the boat, we have to end with the same amount. The mothers on our team told us to look happy, but I couldn't do it, and a tear rolled down my cheek. Back to Daddy.

Then the Manhoben Mixed race. I was quite tired from our first race, but I knew this is my last day with the high school season paddling, so I persevered. We did okay. I don't really remember the details, but I'll blog about them when I do remember.

After I raced two more heats after that Manhoben Mixed, I was truly worn out. I remember after my second race of the day, my left shoulder started hurting. Before one race, Coach Ron told me to "reach". I was like, "But my shoulder hurts when I do!" Then he yelled at me: "Damn it, Tami! That's what we've been practicing for!" or something like that. Hilarious.

Then the championships came. I felt like I was going to keel over in the boat from tiredness. But I didn't. The girls' race was really intense. I don't think I've ever paddled so hard or with so much emotion. I swear, I was mad, sad, and trying to make my dad proud so he could tell my mom how good I was. After the race, I wasn't very pleased. I knew we had got second place.

When you're sitting in seat one, you feel so much pressure when you're trying to catch up to another boat, or when another boat is trying to do the same with you. However, there's a conflict between how much you can handle and how much the rest of your team can handle. Also, if you change your pace too quickly, the timing will be off, and you'll lose anyway. I don't even know what I did during the race, but I distinctly remember trying to catch up to ND and paddling with all my might for the last 100 meters.

For the Manhoben Mixed, which was just a few minutes after the Manhoben Girls was also very extreme. We shaved off 24 seconds from last week's race. During the race, I heard Alex say something about keeping my eyes on the boat, but I kept glancing at the other teams. I think looking around at the other canoes is an involuntary action for me now. But, it turns out that Alex was talking to Aaron, who got scolded at by other team members for looking around. I guess I wasn't that obvious.

Blah blah blah...In my opinion, we did great. (my scale of greatness: weak, okay, good, great, amazing) Visit Kailee's blog for our standings and such.

email:statified21@hotmail.com

Meet T'Mar:
Tami’s the name
Blogging’s the new game
Simon Sanchez is the school
Where sharks totally rule
Fourteen is the age,
The volleyball court is my cage
I also like to paddle,
And school, I can handle
Need I say more?
See what my blog has in store.

-top banana of tictacoetactics

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