July 2002

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July has been an eventful month.

Our team, the "Pancakes", came in third in the App Sci Volleyball Tournament at SFU. We won a book price, and some green apple flavored alcoholic beverages. One of my teammates insisted on drinking one before driving me home.

I also wrote and recorded some more, take a look here and here. I will upload more when I have time.

The annual Bowen Island Retreat & Kayak Trip (hosted by the supervisors of my graphics lab) took place last Saturday. There were about ten of us who braved the early weekend morning. We paddled before passing ferries and motorboats. The ocean stretched beneath us, wave after wave.

I got myself a blue kayak. It was made of fiber-glass, and had a grid-like bottom. Its name was Tesla, and had a twin brother I think called Tesla II. My supervisor got that other blue boat.

Just when we set out to paddle, the rain drops came to a stop. Soon, there were water fights on the great open, as we were each equipped with a pump. Then, in the blink of an eye, my supervisor capsized, then popped out from beneath the boat. At first I thought he did it on purpose, since he seemed to be the best kayaker of us all. He too claimed that it was for purposes of demonstration, and we all laughed with him.

After a while, the heat of paddling got to me. So I decided to park myself in the ocean and take down my thick sweater. I untied myself from Tesla and with the aid of a friend, stored my outfit in the waterproof compartment at the end of her boat. When I re-attached myself to the boat, my supervisor, who came back to patrol, notified me of my improper re-attachment: the tab that I should pull to detach myself from the boat in case of emergency had been misplaced beneath the elastics. I would become very thankful of him.

So I paddled on. Wind blew past me, and the waves rolled on. When I saw a bunch of us parked on the ocean, I stopped to see what was going on. Just then, someone attacked me from behind with a pump. Being tied to the boat, I could do little but wave my oar blindly in hope of scaring him off. Two pokes at his boat and I could feel it coming; I never knew it was this easy to flip upside down.

It was actually quite scary for a moment. I could taste the salty water, and it was coming into me because I was squarely upside down. I instinctively tried to swim out but then realized I was still tied to the boat. Running my hands along the rim of the elastics lead me to the emergency tab. Words of our kayak instructor ringed underwater: "the tab will never move."

Then, I was safe. The water was warm. I took a swim around my boat. I would have stayed longer if I didn't have my runners on. Someone closed in and helped me to flip the boat over. We had to pump a while before I was able to sit back and paddle.

When I got back into the boat, I realized that one of my lenses had fallen into the water. I asked if glass floated on water. The answer was no.

And you know what was funny about all of this? That day, only my supervisor and I fell into the waters. We were both on boats names Tesla, and there was a malfunctioning computer in our lab named Tesla as well. Actually one of my colleagues warned me about getting on a Tesla before we set out to venture. I could have listened to him.

Funny, I think Tesla disappeared from our lab today. I have a feeling that it won't be coming back any time soon.