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
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Urine Water
Lindsey and Jen. Two great rowers and definately unique individuals. It was New York States last year in May that thier individuality got our crew covered in urine water. It was a typical May regatta, cold and wet. However there was an exceptional amount of wind. Boats were being swamped with water rushing in from the sides. Bowballs, normally 5-6 inches of the water, were only 2-3 inches off the water. As crews were lifting boats full of water up over head from the dock sheets of water came pouring out along the length of the boat. Crews were soaked, it was just a nasty day. Our varsity boat decided to take a water bottle out with us to bail the water out. We set out for the starting line. I periodically held the bottle under my strokes seat to get the water rushing up to the stern of the boat. We finished our warm-up with some time to spare. It was then that Lindsey mentioned how she had to pee. We didn't have the time to let her go outside the boat, which was a task in itself. I told her to hold it, and row harder so we finished sooner. It wasn't but a few minutes later that Lindsey and Jen decided they were soaked enough and there was enough water in the boat so that no one would notice if they just went in their uni's. Two of my varsity rowers had decided to pee their pants before the race instead of waiting until the race was over. So now, I'm bailing out the water in the boat and all I can think about is their urine and how much of the "water" was really from the wind. During the race I wasn't able to bail the boat anymore so whatever water and urine was in there had to stay until we made it to the docks. When we got to the docks there was an inch of "water" in our boat that we had to lift over head. Again as my crew lifted their boat over head all I could think about was Lindsey and Jen peeing in the boat and how much urine was now being dumped on my crew.
As told by Diane Seaver
As told by Diane Seaver
