Life's no easy cruising for Ms Daphne Pang, at least for now.

Every Tuesday and Thursday morning, she is up by 5.30am so that she can dash off to Tanjong Beach at Sentosa for about an hour of training with 15 other Singapore Paddle Club (SPC) teammates.

They will represent Singapore in the upcoming Hamilton Island Cup Outrigger Canoe contest in June in Australia.

After training, she's off to her office in Toa Payoh where she works as a senior public relations officer. At 6pm, she hurries back to Sentosa for another hour of training.

In outrigger canoeing, which Ms Pang picked up four years ago, the most challenging part is changing crew without losing speed or time. Two members from a support team's boat will jump onto the six-man outrigger canoe as two on board jump out.

Teamwork is very important in this four-hour, six-paddler competition and Ms Pang is not taking it lightly, since it is her first.

She trains five days a week and most of the weekends.

While her parents are very supportive, her social life is inevitably affected and she mostly mixes with members of the club.

But Ms Pang, who is in her early 30s, does not see this as a problem as the SPC is a 'fun club' which believes in the motto 'paddle hard, party harder'.

She often goes out for dinners, parties and bonding sessions with her teammates.

The team will face Australian and Hawaiian competitors who are much bigger in size. But she is undeterred as the team is training very hard and 'it's not about the size, but what you do with it'.

She gets her motivation from her teammates and does not regret having to give up her free time to go through the intense training.

She said: 'It's a lot of fun. We have the sun, sand and sea, so what else can you ask for?'

This article was first published in The Sunday Times on May 25, 2008

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