RowingRelated

Photo: Hannah Wagner Photography So, as it turned out, I bought a $4,000 teddy bear for my daughter—the price tag said £25 but all the extra lessons added a bit of markup. We lost on Henley Wednesday, for those just checking in. We drew Cork Boat Club in the first round; based on strong results at the Metropolitan Regatta, Cork Regatta, and individual international achievements they were seeded as one of the top four crews in the Thames Challenge Cup Eight event. The Wyfold Four, on the other hand, went in against Thames Rowing Club 'A' and yet Potomac was the seeded crew. Thames made Saturday; the Potomac four de-rigged on Wednesday as well. The draw is ruthless and to expect otherwise is a mistake. The Stewards' goal is to see the fastest crew win each event, not seed the round of 32 in a proper snake-draft bracket or make sure that the top four make it to Saturday or whatever it is. (Hell, the Princess Elizabeth Cup draw made no bones about giving a Wednes...

Photo: Hannah Wagner The Henley Royal Regatta draw took place Saturday afternoon, in a room with no air conditioning. Fate and the stewards smiled upon some crews, and seemed to laugh at others ( Cornell vs. Syracuse in the Temple Challenge Cup on day one—one assumes that had St. Joe’s or Drexel come this year, they’d have gotten Temple first). Not many things in life are decided by a Commander of the British Empire in a blue blazer with five Olympic gold medals picking your name out of a goblet, but Henley isn’t like a lot of things in life. First off, the Temple. The wording of eligibility used to exclude anyone that made a "blue"—i.e., made one of the top two eights of the Oxford-Cambridge boat race—or the American equivalent. This was typically enforced as no one from an EARC or PAC-12 first varsity eight. That was replaced with "won a U23 medal."* Never say never, but it's now conceivable that any of the top American collegiate crews with j...

It's go time (Photo: Hannah Wagner) Being in the right place at the right time doesn't feel so good when it's only because someone else was in the wrong place at the wrong time. That's a circuitous way of saying that your author, the 'super-sub,' is now about to cross the ocean. Not as a spectator, but as a replacement rowing in the big show. The short version is that Spencer blew his back out; Spencer, our five-seat, an Alexandria, Virginia native and TC Williams grad, a former Naval Academy oarsman, one of the first guys to come visit my wife and I after we brought our baby home, isn't going to Henley—and I am. Actually, that's the long version. The short version is that life's not fair sometimes, and I am benefiting from the misfortune of one of my closest friends and one of the best teammates I've ever had. No pressure though. But here's the thing: several weeks ago, during selection, I could have easily murdered Spencer with...

PBC launching at Henley Royal Regatta (Photo: Penelope Wrenn-Jungbluth) Ah, the role of the "super-sub." Since it's more of a footnote to the Sydney win that didn't happen, the men's eight at the world championships in 1999 doesn't get discussed nearly as often as it should—on this side of the pond, at least. The video is riveting (watch it below), and the tensions builds perfectly in the USA-GBR duel. That lay-it-all-on-the-line move we see from the GB eight at 1,000m (and would see at roughly the same spot at the 2012 Olympics) is just great stuff, and of course a portent of what they would be capable of in Sydney the following year. But the hero of that race is Tim Foster . British English has a rule that no title is silly if it's alliterative, so there he is, in seven seat; the Capital-S Super Capital-S Sub . He'll have his day defeating the Italians in the men's four the following year, and while the eight doesn't quite carry the...

Crushing the erg with PBC (Photo: Hannah Wagner Photography ) My first time racing after college was a blowout. We got up at the start and just walked away, a reasonably solid four that had been moving well together and didn’t see much in the competition to worry about. After 1,000 meters, it was over. But like, actually over. The race was only 1,000 meters long. The whole "masters" thing is weird. In practice, "masters" often means the above—a course of 1,000m. I have no idea how you could squeeze in 7,000 events at Masters Nationals (personal estimate) if they were the full 2,000m long; a shorter distance means you can run more races. More races means more racers, and more racers means more rowing. Great! We all know there's a self-congratulatory, breathy "rowing is the hardest sport" (see here and here ) mantra lots of folks in the sport love to celebrate—never mind the fact that in the NHL they play over 80 games per year, MLB over 160...

Training with PBC (Photo: Potomac Boat Club/Flickr ) Eight-time Mr. Olympia Ronnie Coleman used to say that tilapia ' thins the skin .' To look truly shredded before a bodybuilding competition, Coleman was saying you need to have a low body-fat percentage and be effectively dehydrated. The low-fat, high-protein, low-water tilapia is a superfood for this purpose. For the same outcome, Mr. Coleman might just try rowing in DC for the summer. We have waffles. Some teams spend the entire season preparing for and attending only one regatta; perhaps a Club Nationals, or a Canadian Henley, or Masters Nationals. Especially in a Henley year, the PBC summer—for better or worse—tries a bit to be everything to everyone; like Hemingway's Paris, it's more of a moveable feast . That's why we kick it off with a brunch. Nay, not just any brunch—the Strawberry Brunch. A joint effort of Potomac's Social Committee and men's team for years now, it's the effect...

Washington training on the Montlake Cut (Photo: RR) The 2018 Windermere Cup showcased two of the world's top teams in men's university rowing, and the final did not disappoint. While the Huskies took a lead of roughly a length early on their home course, Brookes never let go. Coming into the last 250 meters, it looked as if Brookes might have the change of speed to just edge Washington, but the Huskies executed their plan and held on through the finish line. In the end, 0.457 of a second separated the two crews. The Case for Brookes Oxford Brookes traveled about 6,000 miles to race Washington on the Huskies' home water. That's naturally going to have an effect on your performance, just as lineup changes might also alter your speed (for better or worse) in the last days before a race. The racecourse at the Montlake Cut is unlike anywhere else in the sport—yes, it's part of Washington's propaganda machine to hammer that point, but it's really true...

Part 2 of our series with Potomac Boat Club (Photo: Jordan Sandberg) The following is the second installment of our series on American Club Rowing, with Peter Clements of Potomac Boat Club. Here, Clements discusses what makes Henley Royal Regatta such an important experience for a club, or even elite rower. Why Henley Royal Regatta? Racing at Henley is running the Belmont Stakes, Preakness, and Kentucky Derby three days in a row (plus another two races if you're lucky), but in a jacket and tie, using borrowed equipment, and on perhaps the most difficult race course ever devised. Most important to consider is that in this analogy, you're the horse. Old newsreel footage of FDR watching IRAs in a special-built train car, or the gilded age yachts that allow old Bonesmen to follow Harvard-Yale hint at this sort of experience, but the deep, deep history on which Henley is built puts the Regatta in a class all its own. The spectacle and experience of the event makes it ...

The American Club Rowing Experience (Photo: Lauren Schumer) The following is the first in a new series on the experience of post-collegiate club rowing in the United States, one of the more under-appreciated—and yet perhaps the most historically significant—forms of American rowing. The series will examine a number of different factors, from balancing 'real life' with a rowing career, to building intra-club and inter-club culture, to preparing for international competition—that is, Henley Royal Regatta . Below is the first installment, thanks to Peter Clements of Potomac Boat Club in Washington, D.C. Welcome to the Club: A Modern Club Rower's Manifesto Erging became cool at some point between June 2nd, 2015 and March 2nd, 2016. Between Colin McCabe’s 5:39.4 making it to YouTube , and the creation of the (ironic..... or is it?) Fat Ergos Instagram . That has had an effect on masters rowing as well. For example: Maybe you were rowing at a nominally ...

Ohio State and Cornell face off on land (Photo: Madeline Davis) The following is the fourth and final installment from the Buckeyes' trip to England for Henley Women's Regatta and Henley Royal Regatta, thanks to senior rower Stephanie Williams.

John Graves with USRowing (Photo courtesy Carlos Dinares) Among the top sculling athletes in the U.S., John Graves has plenty of experience racing at the international level. Here, we catch up with Graves on his thoughts about the last quadrennium, racing at Henley Royal Regatta, and tackling the next chapter as we shift our focus to the Tokyo Olympics.

Buckeyes atop King's College, Cambridge (Photo courtesy Madeline Davis) The following is the third installment from the Ohio State Buckeyes as they continue their pursuit of glory in England this summer. Having already won Henley Women's Regatta (and set a new course record in the process), the Buckeyes have been enjoying a bit of sightseeing and connecting with local athletes and friends while preparing for Henley Royal Regatta , which is set to start in just a few short hours now!

Bucks on the river bank (Photo: Madeline Davis) What follows is the second dispatch from senior Stephanie Williams of the Ohio State women's squad, after a very successful weekend of racing in England.

Ohio State heads across the pond (Photo: Madeline Davis) The Ohio State Women's Rowing Team has landed in England, and is already gearing up to take on the field at Henley Women's Regatta tomorrow! We'll be posting dispatches from the team throughout their trip, which will include racing at Henley Royal Regatta —here, senior Stephanie Williams recaps the trip so far and introduces the team on the trip.

Views from the launch (Screen capture) This week's video offers a skillfully shot and beautifully edited look back at Henley Royal Regatta, plus a quick interview with the filmmaker, Molesey Boat Club's Adam Heayberd.

An epic week in Henley-on-Thames (Photo: RR Staff) This year's Henley Royal Regatta was not short on excitement, crashes, upsets, and even controversy. The one thing that's indisputable, in our opinion, is that it boasted the best coverage of any regatta in the world to date, including the Olympic Games.