RowingRelated

Julius Hirtzberger will be running our Instragram account this weekend at #WRCVarese The first World Rowing Cup of the 2016 season kicks off today (Friday) in Varese, Italy, and thanks to Julius Hirzberger , you've got a behind-the-scenes look at the regatta this weekend.

Flat water in Tampa, with the Princeton Tigers (Screen capture) The Princeton Tigers almost didn't make it to Tampa this year. But then they did. And they crushed it.

We've had a lot of fun at RowingRelated in 2015—our biggest year yet. And we couldn't have done it without you. Here's what we mean by that.

The Huskies ran through the Cascade Curtain on Wednesday (Photo courtesy Washington Husky Crew) Across the U.S., Canada, and the world, rowers saluted veterans with photos, articles, and remembrances on Wednesday.

Huskies on the dock, Conibear Shellhouse  While the Intarwebs might be blowing up today with Back To The Future  references (after all, it's 10/21/2015), yesterday was all about a blast from the past in Seattle, where the Washington Huskies donned vintage kit and rowed with wooden oars in wooden boats for 'an upcoming documentary.'

And we're back! After a week-long sabbatical following the 2015 RoRy Awards , celebrating the best of the best from the 2014-2015 season, we're ready for the 2015-2016 season, with the Head Of The Charles now less than two weeks away. But before we get into the racing, it's time to congratulate the finalists and select a winner from our September #rowingcribs Instagram contest!

Epic screen capture from Henry Fieldman's new video This week's video comes to us thanks to Henry Fieldman, coxswain of the British men's coxed pair, and details the harrowing journey that the crew endured along the way to the World Rowing Championships this year. Let's just say, it was touch and go for a while there.

David Watts and the Aussie M4x training on the Rotsee (Photo: © David Watts) The third and final World Rowing Cup of the year is already well underway, with the heats earlier this morning and the semis and finals upcoming over the weekend

Matt Miller (right) training with the U.S. men's eight (Screen capture) World Rowing Cup II is just around the corner, and the U.S. men's eight is gearing up to head over to Europe for their first international competition of this pre-Olympic year. And, thanks to the work of  Mike Gennaro  and  Matt Miller , we've got an inside (read: banter-laden) look at just who these guys are donning the red, white, and blue in the big boat this season.

This week's video is a one-on-one, in-depth interview with Washington Husky men's coach Mike Callahan  thanks to Kevin Shoop, and discusses the culture that Callahan and staff have created within the confines of the Conibear Shellhouse. More than that, it provides a context for what has been the most successful men's rowing program in the U.S. for the last decade, and sheds some light on Callahan's own background and reasons for choosing Washington.

#rowerswakeupearly Instagram contest Thanks to everyone who submitted photos to our Instagram contest! We were blown away by the quality of the submissions from all over the world, and we struggled to narrow them down to a final 20, with our overall winner to become the RR Facebook cover photo for the month of April. Selection criteria included overall composition and image quality (resolution). And so, without further ado, the finalists are...

The winning photo, thanks to @radcliffecrew On Monday, we announced the 21 finalists in our Instagram #RowingRelated Winter Training Photo Contest, and today, we've picked a winner. Congratulations to Harvard-Radcliffe Crew for taking first place for this gorgeous shot of the Harvard heavyweight men walking up the dock during their Florida training camp! As promised, the winning photo will be the RowingRelated Facebook page cover photo for the month of February—and, frankly, it looks awesome !  Sunset on the Manatee River @harvardheavies #wintertraining A photo posted by Harvard-Radcliffe Rowing (@radcliffecrew) on Jan 20, 2015 at 3:44pm PST Thanks to everyone who participated in the #RowingRelated photo contest this winter—we were blown away by the quality of the entries, and choosing a winner was a very difficult process, to be sure! It has been great getting to follow and learn more about all of your winter training trips (and associated mustache ...

The light at the end of the tunnel... (Photo: B. Kitch) Suffice it to say, we've been stoked about the response to our #RowingRelated Winter Training Photo Contest on Instagram, not least because our audience has been logging winter miles in some very beautiful places (maybe winter training isn't all that bad?). Thanks to you, we've gotten to see some beautiful sunrises in Portugal, dramatic clouds over Florida, thick fog and brilliant sunsets along the California coast, and much more. So, after two weeks of entries, we've had to narrow it down to 21 finalists—a difficult process, and we appreciate everyone who tagged us, mentioned RR, or used the above hashtag to share their best rowing photography. Selection criteria included overall composition and image quality (resolution). And so, without further ado, the finalists are...

This week's video comes to us via 2014 world gold medalist Nathaniel Reilly-O'Donnell , who put together a solid little training montage from his squad spring training trip to Avis, Portugal last year. Nifty angles and waterproof camera cases clearly came in handy, and you can add the soundtrack to your current winter training playlist (if you haven't already). Particularly useful for coaches are the sequences starting at around 1:00, giving an inside view of the boat and the hands and body moving away together, as well as a front-end drill and square-blades rowing that follows. Of course, Reilly-O'Donnell and his GB teammates ended up taking the world title in the men's eight in Amsterdam, successfully defending their 2013 title in the event, despite an up-and-down year for some of the crew (most notably Pete Reed , who struggled with what ultimately turned out to be an allergic reaction for much of the early season). And speaking of winter training, our #Rowin...

There's no denying it. Rowing is a sport that is as visually beautiful as it can be physically brutal. The early mornings and late evenings set a dramatic stage, and every now and then you get something completely unexpected. Not long ago, we ran our first rowing-themed weekend hashtag project via the @rowingrelated Instagram handle. The theme? Winter training. While the number of submissions wasn't enormous, the quality was, quite simply, impressive—we tasked our followers with documenting some aspect of their training this season, using the hashtag #RRwintertraining, and, as promised picked a few of our favorites to share. And, the photo below is our overall winner—a fantastic shot of a foggy training session in Southern California thanks to Wisco alum and Long Beach Junior Crew coach Erich Hanxleden . You can follow Erich via his Instagram handle, @racedayeveryday . Congrats again to Erich, and thanks to everyone who submitted images for the #RRwintertraining project...