Tried waterbiking with my kid as part of a camp by Natural Instinct. This was done in collaboration with Waterbike SG. It was overall an interesting experience for myself and I think that would be the same for the kids in the camp.
What is waterbiking?
I have never heard about waterbiking before. We are probably familiar with water sports like kayaking and surfing but not waterbiking. From a quick search, there is only one waterbike shop in Singapore, and that is Waterbike SG.
Basically it is similar to riding a bicycle but it is less responsive, in terms of turning direction, and moving forwards. Unlike normal bicycles, you can actually reverse pedal to travel backwards.
What are the requirements
For kids, I would recommend those who are 130cm or taller to participate as if the kid is not tall enough, he/she will not be able to touch the pedal. The instructor also mentioned that there are no chance of capsizing unless the weight exceeds 100kg. It was kind of hard to capsize unless there were extraordinary huge waves which was probably not common at Singapore’s beaches.
My kid did not meet the height requirement and was not able to pedal by himself so I had to pedal for him. So they put a board in front of the waterbike where my kid sat on, holding onto a bar. The board was not secured and so it could drop at any time, hence I had to control my speed a bit. I guess each waterbike is not meant for more than 1 person.
For other kids that did not meet the requirements, they enjoyed sitting on the float, holding onto the rope as a adult rider brought them out to the sea.
There were quite a few adults watching the waterbiking activity with kayaks and waterbikes, and the sea area was zoned up with visible demarcated floats so it was pretty safe.
How to sign up
You can try waterbiking yourself by signing up for a package on klook. A 1-hour Waterbike rental package starts at S$30, and it gets cheaper if you rent for more hours. I think if you travel all the way to Pasir Ris, you might as well get at least a 2-hour package at S$50.