Monday, September 04, 2006
New Year New Face
RIT Crew is starting a new year. With this comes new faces to the team and to the coaching staff. We are excited to have Freddie Yust the women's coach return. We are also excited to see a new memeber to assist Coach Bodenstat. RIT Crew will have one of the eights on campus two days this week to show off and answer any questions new students have about crew. We will have two information sessions on Friday and Saturday from 7-8:30pm. Hope to see you for the new season.
Jenn Kolling
Jenn Kolling
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Where RIT Crew Began
RIT crew is still a fairly new team. Founded in 1993 by Jim Bodenstedt and a group of dedicated individuals. A crew is probably the most expensive team to put together. You need a boat, enough oars, enough rowers, a coxswain, and a coach. Of course a place to put the boat and oars is preferable. And usually you need a dock, or some shallow still water. And don't forget a motorized boat for the coach. There are a lot of expenses as you can see. But the dedicated individuals that started the RIT crew raised the money. They went out every weekend on Sunday, after all the parties, and collected cans. Most of the time the owners of the cans were too hung over to realize they were being robbed of their trash. This went on for months, load after load of smelly cans in the back of Jim Bodenstedt's little Subaru, until they had enough money to buy a boat. It wasn't the best boat. It was another team's used boat that they were getting rid of, but it was a boat. It was properly named the 5 Cent Return. The "Return" as it is called today buy the team is the heaviest boat RIT owns. It is never used for races anymore, because they have better faster boats. But every year in the fall Jim takes the novice rowers out in the Return. It has a wide hull making it easy to balance or set in the water. It is a "clunker". A boat that way too old to be used for anything other than practice. But its sentimental value to RIT crew makes it irreplaceable. Today RIT crew is one of the most competitive teams in New York. Proving so this year by having their two women's boats win, their varsity men get third, and novice men place fourth at the New York State Championships.
Thursday, May 04, 2006
Christmas Carols with Rowing Lyrics
Jingle Bells
Running through the streets, getting a workout in
We train hard during break, because we want to win;
Fans on ergos sing, making spirits bright
O what fun it is to ride and sing an erging song tonight.
Chorus
Jingle bells, jingle bells, sweating all the way!
Oh what fun it is to pull an ergpiece every day!
Jingle bells, jingle bells, sweating all the way!
Oh what fun is to pull an erg piece every day!
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
Weigh nuff now merry gentlemen let your shells all run
We've finished all our seat races, I still don't know who won
At an even dozen now, I guess our workouts done
oh tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy....
We Three Kings
We three kids from Prep school are
trying to tie a pair on a car
ropes all knotted randomly clotted
we aren't going very far
Oh Oh..
stern goes leftward, bow goes right
car goes straight with all it's might
portside leaning, different meaning
gives the coach an awful fright
Various authors from Row2k
Running through the streets, getting a workout in
We train hard during break, because we want to win;
Fans on ergos sing, making spirits bright
O what fun it is to ride and sing an erging song tonight.
Chorus
Jingle bells, jingle bells, sweating all the way!
Oh what fun it is to pull an ergpiece every day!
Jingle bells, jingle bells, sweating all the way!
Oh what fun is to pull an erg piece every day!
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
Weigh nuff now merry gentlemen let your shells all run
We've finished all our seat races, I still don't know who won
At an even dozen now, I guess our workouts done
oh tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy....
We Three Kings
We three kids from Prep school are
trying to tie a pair on a car
ropes all knotted randomly clotted
we aren't going very far
Oh Oh..
stern goes leftward, bow goes right
car goes straight with all it's might
portside leaning, different meaning
gives the coach an awful fright
Various authors from Row2k
If Your Rowing in Texas While Dick Cheny is Hunting What Boat Should You Row?
1. An Empacher - bright yellow so Dick Cheney doesn't shoot you.
2. A Resolute - sleek black carbon fiber so that if Dick Cheney shoots you, he'll think it's classified and keep it a secret.
3. A Hudson - so that if Dick Cheney shoots you, he can claim you were on Canadian property and detain you at Guantanamo till after the election.
4. A WinTech - since the new models have self-bailers and Dick Cheney seems to have a problem with leaks.
:-) all in good fun. This is how the brain entertains itself during a 25K erg piece.
Anybody have any others they want to post?
Marc Monplaisir
Nereid Boat Club, USA
2. A Resolute - sleek black carbon fiber so that if Dick Cheney shoots you, he'll think it's classified and keep it a secret.
3. A Hudson - so that if Dick Cheney shoots you, he can claim you were on Canadian property and detain you at Guantanamo till after the election.
4. A WinTech - since the new models have self-bailers and Dick Cheney seems to have a problem with leaks.
:-) all in good fun. This is how the brain entertains itself during a 25K erg piece.
Anybody have any others they want to post?
Marc Monplaisir
Nereid Boat Club, USA
10 Reasons Why Rowing is Better than Sex
Rowers are fond of many various t-shirts sayings. Changing slogans like Dunkin' Doughnuts to Funkin' Rownuts and IHop to IRow. One very popular t-shirt lists the top ten reasons why rowing is better than sex. And here they are:
10. You can row with minors and not get arrested
9. You don’t have to worry about where your oar has been before
8. Two words “Cox Box”
7. You can row with up to seven people at a time
6. Your oar will never give you an S.T.D. (except crabs)
5. Female rowers give Head races a new name
4. Let’s face it, it’s hot
3. In rowing there is a coach to tell you what you did wrong
2. After a good hard row everyone is satisfied
1. In rowing the catch is aggressive, the hands are quick, the slide smooth, the drive powerful, and the oar is always hard.
10. You can row with minors and not get arrested
9. You don’t have to worry about where your oar has been before
8. Two words “Cox Box”
7. You can row with up to seven people at a time
6. Your oar will never give you an S.T.D. (except crabs)
5. Female rowers give Head races a new name
4. Let’s face it, it’s hot
3. In rowing there is a coach to tell you what you did wrong
2. After a good hard row everyone is satisfied
1. In rowing the catch is aggressive, the hands are quick, the slide smooth, the drive powerful, and the oar is always hard.
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Rowing Terms
I understand that rowing terms are not universal. Crabs to most of the world are an animal, and to a rower they are totally different. Below is a glossary of rowing terms.
Beat: Number of strokes per minute
Blade: Flat surface of the oar, usually painted with the schools colors
Bow: Forward section of the shell
Catch: Point of the stroke where the oar enters the water.
Coxswain: Member on the team that sits stationary facing forward. The coxswain steers the boat, calls the beat, and plans the race. Usually a small person around 120lbs.
Crab: Upsetting action caused by the blade turning in the water making it difficult or impossible to remove from the water. Can hit the oarsman in the chest or face causing them to be ejected from the boat.
Drive: Part of the stroke between the catch and release when the rower is applying pressure against the oar.
Feathering: Turning the blade parallel to the water during the recovery, cuts down on the air resistance.
Finish: The last part of the stroke before the blade is released from the water.
Keel: Center line of the shell running from bow to stern.
Missing Water: Faulty catch when the oar is not fully set under water.
Racing Start: First few strokes of a race. Usually short and fast.
Beat: Number of strokes per minute
Blade: Flat surface of the oar, usually painted with the schools colors
Bow: Forward section of the shell
Catch: Point of the stroke where the oar enters the water.
Coxswain: Member on the team that sits stationary facing forward. The coxswain steers the boat, calls the beat, and plans the race. Usually a small person around 120lbs.
Crab: Upsetting action caused by the blade turning in the water making it difficult or impossible to remove from the water. Can hit the oarsman in the chest or face causing them to be ejected from the boat.
Drive: Part of the stroke between the catch and release when the rower is applying pressure against the oar.
Feathering: Turning the blade parallel to the water during the recovery, cuts down on the air resistance.
Finish: The last part of the stroke before the blade is released from the water.
Keel: Center line of the shell running from bow to stern.
Missing Water: Faulty catch when the oar is not fully set under water.
Racing Start: First few strokes of a race. Usually short and fast.
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Bridge + Panic = Crash
Glasses, an interesting character, and not the greatest coxswain, is the start of my story. Glasses was an indecisive coxswain. When there was something in the river in front of the boat, Glasses would just sit there and say, "Um, Um, Um, shit, Um, Um, well....” And then you inevitably hit whatever was in the river. Glasses never really knew how to steer around objects, or rather he lacked the ability to handle the situation. So one morning our coach, Clark, asked Glasses to row down river but to turn around before the Jefferson Rd. Bridge. The current was strong and getting especially fast around the bridge. Glasses attempted to spin the boat before the bridge but the current caught the side of the boat. This forced the boat into the bridge even faster. Glasses panicked, and then the rest of the boat panicked. We tried to pull our oars in, but this caused the boat to tip to one side. Then the water hit the full side of the boat and finished pushing us into the bridge. The water started to rush in on one side and forced the boat to stay leaning to one side against the pillar. At this point the boat cracked. Those who could, got out and swam to the shore. Those who couldn’t, hang on to the pile of sticks and debris already around the pillar. Panic really set in now. Finally, our coach came with her boat to get the men out of the water. Eventually the boat did split in half. After some time, a week or so, we rowed down to see that half of the boat had drifted away from the bridge. The remaining portion was only visible by the metal riggers popping out of the water.
As told by the Varsity Men
As told by the Varsity Men
Florida Joy Ride
Training in Florida is always an adventure. A week in Cocoa Beach rowing twice a day. People getting blisters from the sun and salt and from rowing for the first time in three months. We were wet docking, for some the first time. Wet docking is walking the boat out into the water as opposed to setting the boat in the water off of a dock. You get wet, therefore, called wet docking. So we head out one morning into the canal. Under the bridge we see a car starting to sink as it's floating across the canal. Out coach, Suzette, calls 911 in case there is someone inside the car. We continue to practice past the car and Suzette stays for the police to arrive. It turns out when the police got there they needed her boat to get the scuba divers to the car. So Suzette stays with the police while we continue to practice. We finally come back at the end of our workout to see a crane lifting the car out of canal. Later that night we learned that no one was in the car. Rather someone had taken the car for a joy ride, and to dispose of the vehicle they just drove it into the canal hoping it would sink. So, we must have found the car only shortly after the driver decided to "hide" it in the canal.
As told by Marylin Elliot
As told by Marylin Elliot
Friday, April 21, 2006
Gassy Boat
An interesting story is our team’s obsession with needing to go to the bathroom. It got to the point that in the morning, shortly before we would take the boat down, I would have to make a final pee/poop call. Well this is all well and good, but it did very little for the farting that occurred in the boat. Lovely old ripe ones that stank. Of course for the rowers this isn't a problem because they row away from it as opposed to me who has to row INTO it. Yuck. This go to be such a big problem that I started to listen for the fart sound or the rowers would warn me and I would close my mouth and hold my breath. This worked pretty well for a while till one morning the stroke was having some real bad ones. We had stopped so that we could do a start, and while we were sitting at three quarter slide she proceeds to lift her cheek letting one rip (that vibrated the boat) and then stern pair to a small stroke leaving me to SIT IN IT!!! This was a new kind of fresh and I tried holding my breath. But I had to call the start and as I went to inhale to yell I got a nice big mouthful that made me choke and start coughing. Needlessly to say they started with me still coughing away in the cox spot. Isn't that nice?
As told by Diane Seaver
As told by Diane Seaver
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Why do I love Rowing?
People outside of the rowing world ask, "Is rowing fun?" I think about the routine of getting up at 5a.m. for practice, the constant forward and backward motion on the slide, the twist of the oar on my rough hands and I realize that for most people no rowing is not "fun". There is something else about rowing that keeps people in boats and on the water. It's the physical challenge, the mental toughness, and family that captures people in crew.
Every day I get to wake up at an hour I know that I have nothing better to do at and test myself. I go out on the water and push myself to row as hard and as strong as I can. It's then when I think I have nothing left to finish my workout that I realize the whole next level. My crew was rowing a set of eight-minute race pieces one morning. We were getting tired our splits were creeping up above two minutes, when we normally hold a 1:50 split. For our third race our coxswain was working hard to get us to pull. And finally it clicked; as if a weight had been lifted we all moved the boat together faster. Our split actually dropped to a 1:45. My boat had reached what we thought was the end, only to realize that we had so much left in us. Every day I strive to push myself to that limit. Because, the exhilaration of feeling great when you've worked so hard is indescribable. It's like being forced down a dark tunnel only to find there's a door at the end with light behind it, all you have to do is keep going towards the door. There is a mental and physical drive in every rower to keep going.
I also feel like my boat is a family. We all make a commitment together to be on time. You can't row an 8 with seven girls. Once we're at the boathouse nothing is done singly. We all help with the coach’s launches, and the oars. We all carry the boat together. We all get into the boat at once, we all swing in unison. The entire crew moves together, we push together and we can all tell if one person is off. Each pair within the boat creates a little bond between them. The pairs get each others oars, they share jokes, and they must link up their strokes. When our boat gets together outside of the boathouse and practice we talk about crew as well as everything else in our lives. Everyone gets along, and there is a bond between us that we are proud to be rowers, we are proud to row for RIT. I don't think you get that connection with any other sport.
Jenn Kolling
Every day I get to wake up at an hour I know that I have nothing better to do at and test myself. I go out on the water and push myself to row as hard and as strong as I can. It's then when I think I have nothing left to finish my workout that I realize the whole next level. My crew was rowing a set of eight-minute race pieces one morning. We were getting tired our splits were creeping up above two minutes, when we normally hold a 1:50 split. For our third race our coxswain was working hard to get us to pull. And finally it clicked; as if a weight had been lifted we all moved the boat together faster. Our split actually dropped to a 1:45. My boat had reached what we thought was the end, only to realize that we had so much left in us. Every day I strive to push myself to that limit. Because, the exhilaration of feeling great when you've worked so hard is indescribable. It's like being forced down a dark tunnel only to find there's a door at the end with light behind it, all you have to do is keep going towards the door. There is a mental and physical drive in every rower to keep going.
I also feel like my boat is a family. We all make a commitment together to be on time. You can't row an 8 with seven girls. Once we're at the boathouse nothing is done singly. We all help with the coach’s launches, and the oars. We all carry the boat together. We all get into the boat at once, we all swing in unison. The entire crew moves together, we push together and we can all tell if one person is off. Each pair within the boat creates a little bond between them. The pairs get each others oars, they share jokes, and they must link up their strokes. When our boat gets together outside of the boathouse and practice we talk about crew as well as everything else in our lives. Everyone gets along, and there is a bond between us that we are proud to be rowers, we are proud to row for RIT. I don't think you get that connection with any other sport.
Jenn Kolling
