Rip Curl Beach Volleyball 2008 Was yet another Laughing Stock
I woke up exceptionally early for the Rip Curl beach volleyball competition on a Saturday – last Saturday.
The gang delayed for some time and finally, we met up at Seah Lm Food Centre and the chicken rice stall was still closed to our disappointments. Jingkun was the driver and we reported in early to see the most astonishing volleyball competition event ever.
There were many volleyball courts being set up but almost all of them were reachable at the tips of my fingers when I raised my arms. At the height of 1.64 metres, I estimated the top of the nets were around two metres tall, which was probably meant for primary school kids. With the poles and nets set at such height, skill was definitely not the main factor to victory, and instead, any tall and average player could easily defeat an experienced opponent team.
Rip Curl Beach Volleyball 2008 was yet another laughing stock.
Why would the organisers set up such a beach volleyball competition with such lousy quality poles and nets? They should have organised a beach sepak takraw competition instead.
Every team had to pay a huge amount of price - more than twenty bucks for each member - in order to participle. The goodies bag including the Rip Curl top which probably cost the organisers less than five bucks had a plain white mug with the current Rip Curl's theme printing was such a great disappointment.
Some participants were probably tank tops collectors but the organisers made it a rule that every player had to put on the new top in order to play; if not for this stupid rule, I would definitely have the top wrapped inside the plastic bag and not adding on a burden to my congested wardrobe. Moreover, the tank top would definitely leave ugly tan lines on everybody under the torching sun.
This event was deemed a total failure to me.
What eventually happened to my team was that the first game was an easy win. We had a close fight in the second game and before we could catch our breath, the emcee announced our team for the next game. We lost totally due to the net. It was almost impossible to block the spike when the opponents played it a distance away from the net and when the height was so dramatically low. The low net made it possible for all incoming balls to travel more horizontally aligned, which was tougher to receive; we were totally not used to such game.
There was no tension for the net at all that there was once when the opponent spike and somehow the ball pushed the net towards me to hit my spectacle off my face. I guessed that was the reason why Rip Curl had to make every participant sign the indemnity form to cover their asses in case any player got injured.
Mingfa's team was a pity as well. Wilson most probably was not used to playing such immature net. Since not everyone seemed to be giving in full effort, they failed to break the omen as well. In their last game, Mingfa played as spiker instead and he certainly did it much better than anyone else.
The most pitiful thing was that they decided to leave the beach at around noon so that they could go for volleyball during the evening. We went straight to Redhill to collect a car for Mingfa's friend before going to the ABC market near Queensway for lunch. Seven of us shared a chicken and the meal was quite satisfying.
Our next destination was Vivocity and by then, we were left with Mingfa, Mingli, Weitat and me. We kicked a fuss when Weitat tried to throw his salary away again. We ended the day with Mingfa giving me a ride home and then Weitat and Mingli hit the muffin shop just in time before business was closed for the Saturday afternoon.
Labels: beach, lunch, muffin, shopping, vivocity, volleyball
... Skai (Kailun) dreams @ 3:22 AM
