Rowing in Circles

First copies in the delivery room! Photograph © Row360

Greg Denieffe writes:

Row360 is born at just the right moment. It’s written by rowers for rowers. We are well and truly on the road to Rio now, with an exciting two years ahead. Our plan is to present the sport in a new light; to excite, invigorate and enlighten.

So writes Fergus Scholes, publisher, in his introduction on page 1, issue 001, of the new global rowing magazine ROW360. Thousands of printed copies were given away free, gratis, and for nothing at Henley Royal Regatta. I spied rowing folk of all ages enjoying their copies over their early morning iced coffees, lunch time champagne and afternoon Pimm’s. Not me; my copy was safely tucked away, magpie like, for later indulgence when I had returned to my nest.

So what’s it like? Well it’s the classiest launch edition of a rowing magazine that I’ve come across. Its coverage is truly global with articles by the Australian High Performance Director, Chris O’Brien, Maclom Scholes on the Devon Boathouse and rowing centre in Oklahoma City and Rachel Quarrell AKA The Rowing Voice. In fact, Quarrell contributes four articles that cover this year’s U.S. Selection Regattas, Henley Royal, World Cup II in Aiguebelette and the Belgrade European Rowing Championships. 

There are, as Row360’s Facebook page suggests, ‘interviews, news, articles, chat, lifestyle and all the trimmings from the world of rowing’. The cover features a photograph by Ben Duffy of Pete Reed, who is interviewed by Pete O’Hanlon. Reed has had a torrid year but has gained even more respect (if that is possible) in the way he has handled the whole dog allergy affair and his commitment to the GB eight. There are some additional photos of the shoot on Duffy’s website.

Is Pete Reed about to do what many of us long to do with the ergometer? Photograph from Row360 © Ben Duffy.

There is certainly something for everyone in this edition, from coxswains to coaches and those they train. I particularly enjoyed the articles, “Blazer Glory” by Jack Carlson, “Fluid Dynamics of Rowing” by Carl Douglas and the “Performance section” with results from the 2013 World Rowing Championships set alongside those of the 2014 European Championships and the first two World Cup Regattas of 2014. The headings for the men’s pair and men’s double sculls results may be a bit muddled, but with the addition of a legend setting out the venues and dates of the events, this section could be a real boon for rowing statisticians who are short of time.

There is even a short historical piece (more please!) by Simon Rostron, “Henley: A View from the Banks, Hats off to Hansa”, about the day in 1989 that the HRR course record fell below the six-minute barrier (checks old programmes – yes, I was there).

The Row360 team are continuing to enthusiastically promote the magazine with copies available at last weekend’s World Cup Regatta in Lucerne and copies will be up for grabs at the U.S. Rowing Club National Championships being held on Melton Hill Lake in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, between 16 and 20 July.

You can read the full 28-article, 112-page July/August edition for free here. The subscription rates for Great Britain and Europe will be released soon. At the American launch of the American edition of the magazine, which happened yesterday, the subscription rate for six issues for the U.S. and Canada is $79, which includes an e-magazine.

Perhaps the first 360 degree row as depicted by The Far Side.

'We are horrified to hear...'

Australian “Ergometer” from the 1960s – from the section “The Development of Rowing Equipment” on the website Friends of Rowing History.

You probably know that rowing machines have been around for more than 130 years. But do you know when the ''ergometer' arrived on the scene, in the sense of a tool which could measure rowers' power? In an old copy of the British magazine Rowing, its editor, Major E. A. E. Howell, wrote in the issue Vol.1 No. 3 February 1950 in a very English way:

'From Australia we are horrified to hear that professor Frank Cotton, The professor at Sydney University, has produced a specially designed rowing machine called Ergometer.

'On this machine he tested over 200 athletes. From among these he selected four “Guniea Pigs” to train as a crew. This crew averages only a mere 14 stone 8 lbs [92.5 kg]. They use oars a foot longer and blades “several inches” deeper than standard. Although they had not rowed together before last April, this Lichhardt [sic – referring to Leichhardt Rowing Club!] crew has won nine out of eleven races in its first season. It was only defeated for selection to compete in the Empire Games by a four established repute by a very narrow margin. We suppose this is all very efficient but to reduce sportsmen to the inhuman level of automatons, selected on scientific physical assessments, is, to our eyes, the negation of the ideals of a fine sport.'

How wrong he was, Major Howell.....

Ergs don’t Float, unless they’re made of Wood!

Greg Denieffe writes from England,

In the November/December 2012 issue of Rowing & Regatta (the official magazine of British Rowing) there is an excellent article about ergometer evolution called “Magnificent men in their rowing machines...” It is a brief history of the rowing machine from 1871 when the first patent was filed by W. B. Curtis right up to the modern ergometers in use today. The article mentions that “rowing machines were used in the rehabilitation of soldiers wounded in the First World War”. This can be seen in a short British Pathé video showing "Queen Mary Opening the New Albert Dock Hospital".

The article was written by a friend and old crewmate of mine, the indomitable Jim Flood. Jim is a British Rowing and FISA Coach Educator and is author of Know the Game: Rowing and co-authored with Dr. Charlie Simpson of The Complete Guide to Indoor Rowing. He has also written three free e-books, The ergonomics of rowing , Balance and Coaching achieving the best results possible. These are all available on the Rowperfect website.

I know Jim from his time in Milton Keynes when he worked for the The Open University and rowed with me at Milton Keynes Rowing Club. One of our most memorable races was the 31 mile Boston (Lincolnshire, England) Marathon in 2002 which we completed in 3 hours, 59 minutes and 50 seconds (ten seconds can be very important!).

Boston Marathon 15 September, 2002, Jim (bow) & the MKRC Vet C 4+ (the article writer in 2 seat).

Jim has recently returned from Alexandria, Egypt, where he was running coaching clinics at the African Rowing Championships. Development of rowing in poorer countries is very close to Jim’s heart and perhaps this is something that should concern us all, as it is FISA’s (World Rowing) inclusivity policy that is keeping rowing on the Olympic programme.

Another programme that Jim has developed is ‘Openergo’ which is a project to develop a low-cost rowing machine which can be made using basic DIY skills for a cost of £25/$40. The Openergo website has all the details and a short video showing a wooden frame prototype in use. There is also an angle iron frame version and a longer video here on which Jim provides commentary.

This Month's 'Rowing Related' Magazine is Out!

In yesterday's mail was the latest issue of the magazine Rowing Related. There is the section called 'Quick Catches', an article about the 2012 rowing season: about the people, crews, and teams that won the NCAAs, ACRs, IRAs, Youth Nationals, Henley Royal Regatta, London Olympics, London Paralympics, Senior and Junior Worlds, and then an article about the best athletes during the year: Female: Kim Crow (AU); Male: Hamish Bond and Eric Murray (NZ); Coach: Kevin Sauer (University of Virginia); International Crew: U.S. Women's Eight; Men's Collegiate Crew of the Year: Harvard Lightweight Varsity Eight; Women's Collegiate Crew of the Year: University of Virginia Varsity Eight; Event of the Year: The Head of the Charles; and Race of the Year: The Olympic Men's Eight. The interesting feature article, 'All Rise', is about Luke and Portia McGee.

And, of course... wait a minute, did I just write 'Rowing Related' as the name of the magazine? Ohh, I see now that it's actually just called Rowing. Well, all the articles mentioned above are by Bryan Kitch, HTBS's friend over at the blog 'Rowing Related'. An amazing man, Mr. Kitch, because not only is he running his eminent blog, he is obviously also writing 'everything' in the magazine Rowing, too. Well, almost everything, Marlene Royle has her 'technique' page, Volker Nolte doesn't even have a half page of his 'sport science', Rich Davis has a narrow column of his 'ask the coach', and a few others have their little blurbs here and there. Thank god, Andy Anderson - 'Doctor Rowing' - has his full-page piece, or, nowadays, even a little bit more (although, I think it funny that we readers have to go back a page to read the end of his article).

But, congratulations to Bryan for some well executed, well-written articles!

Loaded With Good Stuff!

I have just received the latest issue of Rowing & Regatta - and what a lovely issue it is! For quite some time now I have been wondering why on earth there was nothing about the upcoming BBC film Bert and Dickie in the magazine. But finally, in this May issue, there is an article about the film, just have a look at the wonderful cover showing Sam Hoare and Matt Smith portraying Dickie Burnell and Bert Bushnell, respectively.

Wendy Kewley, editor of R&R, had Patricia Carswell put together the article with long quotes by William Ivory, screenwriter, Sam Hoare, and Ross Hunter. The latter is a member of Leander and the rowing double for Smith/Bushnell in the double scull. There has been a 'rumour' that actor Hoare actually rowed at Eton, which he now brings up in the article. He says that, while he did go to Eton, 'I hadn't done a huge amount of rowing before I got involved in this project'.

Ivory also confirms that Burnell, although 'a rowing royalty' at Leander, 'was clearly such a modest man', which the readers of HTBS already know after all the articles about him on this blog. One question that this nice article does not answer is when this film is going to be on television. I guess, we all have to have our eyes and ears open.

Other interesting articles in this May issue of R&R are Martin Cross's article on the eventful 158th Boat Race and Martin Gough's article on the race between Oxford's Isis and Cambridge's Goldie, which Isis won. Furthermore, Gough also interviews Olympic champion Mark Hunter, and there are articles on the Oxbridge veterans' race, the Henley Boat Races, and The Great River Race. As for Mike Rowbottom, who always has a well-written interview published about an interesting 'old' rower, this time he has taken on Chris Baillieu, the Cambridge Blue, who is depicted in Chris Dodd's latest book, Pieces of Eight. Talking about Dodd, as always, he has a great piece on rowing history at the end of the magazine. This time it is about a voyage between London and Vienna in 1869.

HTBS congratulates R&R editor Wendy K. for a glorious issue loaded with good stuff!

Adieu Ramer

HTBS's Hélène Rémond reports from France:

On 24 May 2010, HTBS was happy to announce the new “improved publication, Ramer, of the French Rowing Federation, but issue 676, delivered in November 2011, was to be the last one. The decision was taken by the Federation’s Board of Directors to cease the magazine because the number of subscriptions had been going down, getting lower and lower since the beginning of 2011. In the last editorial, FFSA president Jean-Jacques Mulot explained: “from 3,000 subscribers, they were less than 2,000 of them in a few months [...]. This situation leads us, like other rowing federations before, to choose new means of communication that will rapidly be operational”.

Ramer had turned into a large-format magazine printed on recycled paper. The quarterly went from 44 pages up to 64 pages with more photographs. The interviews and reports did not only tackle French rowing - including Breton rowing, with champion Marie Le Nepvou, for instance - but also international events like the HRR and the Head of the Charles Regatta...


It is always sad to see a rowing magazine go down the pipes...

Fun With Church Boats

Just before New Year's, I received the last of the 2011 issues of the Swedish rowing magazine Svensk Rodd, edited by my dear friend Per Ekström. Although, the content is mostly about autumn events and articles by the Swedish rowing stars Frida Svensson and Lassi Karonen to mention a few, for the cover, editor Ekström has chosen a funny photograph taken from the Water Festival held in the village of Orsa in the province of Dalecarlia in July 2011. The only thing I know is that the rowers managed to pull the water skier 600 metres.

The province of Dalecarlia, or Dalarna in Swedish, has many clubs rowing in church boats, a descendant of the boats built by the Vikings. Mostly the church boat has ten pairs of oars. Here is a short clip from 2009 showing a start in this boat type.




Here is another clip showing the church boats from 'above'. The crews are all women. It looks like fun, doesn't it?

On Rowing Writing And The 'Old Guard'

In the latest issue of Rowing News for November, I read that rowing historian and writer Chris Dodd is coming out with a new book, Pieces of Eight. It is about coach Bob Janousek and the British eight that put British rowing back on the Olympic medal stand, according to the short 'contributor' introduction piece in the magazine, where Chris has a well-written article about the World Championships in Bled earlier this year. I don't know if it has to do with Chris being a Brit and/or belonging to the Old Guard of rowing correspondents, like his fellow countrymen Dickie Burnell and Geoffrey Page, but his writing always carries a substance while still having an easy-going way about it.

I guess those of you who are going to the Rowing History Forum in Henley later this month, on the 29th, will hear more about Chris's new book. Unfortunately, I will not be able to make it, but for sure Chris will share some information at next year's Rowing History Forum, which will be on Sunday, 11th March, 2012 at Mystic Seaport, Connecticut, USA. The previous day, Saturday, 10th March, there will be rowers inducted in the NRF's National Rowing Hall of Fame, also in Mystic.

Going back to the Rowing News: I am not saying that young American rowing writers can not write. I good example, whom I already brought up in an earlier entry in September, is Bryan Kitch, who also in this issue of Rowing News has some very good pieces published. Of course, of the American 'Old Guard' we have 'Doctor Rowing', Andy Anderson. In this issue of the magazine, he is writing about the rowing cartoonist John Hooten, who had cartoons published in the old rowing magazine The Oarsman in the 1970s and 1980s, but then suddenly stopped publishing his cartoons. Well, 'Doctor Rowing' managed to track him down.

So, two thumbs up for this issue of Rowing News, too!

Photograph on top shows Chris Dodd (on the right) together with HTBS's Tim Koch at Henley this summer. Photograph: Hélène Rémond.

Another View Of ‘Power & Grace’

Tim Koch writes from London,

Yesterday’s HTBS item on ‘Power & Grace - The 2012 US Women’s Rowing Team’s Calendar’ was thought provoking. I always feel mildly uncomfortable when serious female athletes allow their images to be used in an arguably ‘sexual’ manner. Male athletes pose in such ways as well but, in our unequal society, they are not taken less seriously when they do it (see ‘Nude Men of Leander’). Perhaps it is a matter of degree, the difference between admiring an athletic form, which I think is acceptable, and the thinking of someone like Sepp Blatter, the President of the International Soccer Federation, who, in 2004, suggested that female soccer players should “wear tighter shorts and low cut shirts...” The HTBS item on a painting of a ‘topless’ female rower produced some interesting comments. While we are on the subject of sexism, below is a picture of the cover of Rowing magazine from December 1960. The image is fine, but the text......

(Click on the picture to see a large image!)

R&R September: Olympian Michael Lapage

The latest issue of the magazine Rowing & Regatta arrived in the mail today. As always, R&R looks lovely and this September issue has 72 pages with interesting and well-written articles. In this issue alone, you will find articles about the World Junior Championships, Under-23 World Championships, Adaptive World Championships, World Championships, gig rowing, a new exhibit at the River and Rowing Museum on women rowing, six pages of news, two pages of obituaries, and comments, viewpoints, and British Rowing’s campaign “Explore Rowing”, and much more.

R&R has also started to publish a series of articles on British Olympic rowing profiles eminently written by Mike Rowbottom. First ‘profile’ out was Harry Blackstaffe (gold in the single sculls in 1908), followed by Jack Beresford, Junior, (five Olympic medals in five Olympic Games between 1920 and 1936). In this issue Rowbottom has interviewed the last surviving British oarsman from the 1948 rowing event, 87-year-old Michael Lapage, who rowed in the seventh-seat in the eight which took a silver medal. Just look at that magnificent photograph of Lapage on the cover!

The observant reader of HTBS might remember that Tim Koch wrote about Michael Lapage and his son and grandsons in an earlier entry posted on 7 September, "The Rowing Lapages", which has a rare film clip from the 1948 Olympic eight’s final on the Henley course.

A Nice Collection Of Rowing Stuff!

Actually, just by accident, I happened to come across Riverow Bookshop’s website, which offers a really nice lot of rowing books, ephemera, prints, and even some old oars. There are more than 125 different items, which has been accumulated by a collector during 30 years, according the book shop’s website. All of it is offered for $7,000, which seems a little high; on the other hand there are some really rare ‘goodies’ in this lot. Riverow Bookshop is located on Front Street in Owego, New York. To take a closer look at what is being offered, please click here.

Well Done, "Rowing News"!

Yes, I have to confess that earlier on HTBS I have been complaining about the magazine Rowing News. Even whining a little, I guess, for example here and here.

That is why I now would like to write that I was pleasantly surprised when I received the current issue (October 2011) of Rowing News two days ago. Here was an issue to my liking: Bryan Kitch of the eminent blog, Rowing Related, has several well-written and good articles about the World Championships in Bled (this article is actually a preview of the Championships which ended on 4 September), a new tri-state rowing club in New York, the under-23 Worlds on Bosbaan, and Rob Waddell. It seems that Kitch has established himself within the American rowing writing world – good for him, as they say on this side of the pond.

Alessandra Bianchi has an interesting article, “Hearts and Minds”, how to coach ‘clueless, carefree teenagers’. Now, this is one example of the type of article that I have complained the magazine has been lacking: articles and pieces about those who row – please observe everyone, I am not using the word ‘crew’ here – on a lower, grass roots level, meaning not an elite level (they might one day, but that is not what the article is about).

Finally, the always-reliable Andy Anderson, who never fails to write interesting and entertaining articles, has a nice piece about great international coaches of all time, “The Innovators”. The coaches Anderson writes about are: Thor Nilsen, Steve Fairbairn, Karl Adam, Rusty Robertson, Harry Mahon, Mike Spracklen, Al Morrow, Dick Tonks, Theo Körner, Jürgen Gröbler, Jutta Lau, and Nicolae Gioga.

Good show, Rowing News!

The Gallica Digital Library

Oxford rowers at Putney

HTBS’s Hélène Rémond has found a real gem that she would like to share with you. Hélène writes,

Founded in 1997, the Gallica digital library from the National Library of France offers over a million documents accessible for free: Books, Manuscripts, Maps, Images, Newspapers, Magazines, Periodicals and more.

Cambridge oarsmen, 1932

Lovers of rowing history can browse the pages at http://gallica.bnf.fr/?&lang=EN for the English version. With keywords like “aviron” for French documents, or “rowing”, you will find many images and book references. There is detailed information as to the author and the date of publication. You can browse the topic, forward it through social networks, get a copy of a document is subject to conditions... Enjoy !

To get more information in English about this digital library, please click here.

Picture on the left shows a Polish coxed four, 1932.

Boat Race Article By Hylton Cleaver

Hylton Cleaver is a name that pops up now and then on HTBS. Yesterday in the mail, I received a copy of The Boy's Own Paper of April 1939, a magazine I had won on eBay. The main featured article is by Cleaver, "Coxing in the Boat Race - and What It Feels Like to Row In It". The article is 3-pages long and written in a typical Hylton Cleaver way: entertaining, educational, and with a comparison to at least one other sport, in this case, boxing and tennis.

Cleaver writes, "What is true is that this Boat Race is not a strictly foregone fixture like the Derby or the Cup Tie; nor is there a fixed date for it and time of day. It is occasioned by a written challenge from the new President of last year's winners, and that challenge is answered, also in writing. otherwise there would be no race. There is no prize. The expense of the race is considerable, and is borne by the college boat clubs at the universities. nothing whatever comes from the public. That is why we watch it for nothing."

Next month, September 2011, it is exactly 50 years since Hylton Cleaver passed away. I think I will raise a glass to his memory!

Poke Around!

Rowing historian William Lanouette is right now in San Diego, enjoying morning rows at the San Diego Rowing Club, he told me in an e-mail. He also sent me a link to a great on-line library of sports books. Having tried several rowing related search words in the whole library, or specific publications, I encourage the HTBS’s readers to take a deep look into this library, or to quote the good Bill, “Poke around and have some fun!”

Here is the link.

(So, what has the lady on the tired-pumping rowing machine to do with this entry? Nothing really, but I found it when I was poking around for an image to go with this post. Funny, I thought...)

R&R Gets New Look!

On Saturday, the latest issue of the eminent magazine Rowing & Regatta arrived in the mail. Rowing & Regatta, R&R for short, is published by British Rowing and has the competent Wendy Kewley at the helm. I was eagerly awaiting this issue as Editor Kewley had sent me an e-mail telling me about the magazine's new lay-out.

"I say", as Bertie Wooster probably would have exclaimed, "it's looking jolly good". I was happy to see that "the coloured plates" with texts were gone. Although, I don't have the problem, I understand that some people might have a hard time reading for example a white text on a light blue background. Now it is what all magazines used to have: black text on white or light grey background - so, bravo, I say! With this issue starts a 2012 countdown for the coming Olympics in London next year, and over-all the magqazine looks very promising.

I have to mention that even my little column, "In this month", looks lovely. It somehow looks shorter than before, though, but it's the same length, 400 words. I was also very happy to see that HTBS was mentioned in an article by Mike Rowbottom, who always writes nice stuff. This time, he is writing about the famous Vesta oarsman, Harry Blackstaffe, 'Blackie', who became Olympic champion in the single sculls in 1908, 40 years old! Rowbottom is writing about the photograph on the left which was figured in a HTBS entry on 18 April, 2010 (see also 20 April, 2010).

Good Luck with the new look of R&R!

Watch Out For Smiling Ladies...

Working with a small magazine means that I, as the editor, get a lot of other magazines landing on my desk. Although, I love magazines, I seldom have the time to read, or even go through, them all. So, I really do not know why I began flipping through the pages of the latest issue of Arrive, May/June 2011. For those of you who do not know, Arrive is a publication published by AMTRAK (a blend of ‘America’ and ‘track’), which in other words is the National Railroad Passenger Corporation in the USA.

So, I started to read Arrive, maybe because of the smiling First Lady on the front cover; she caught my eyes and lured me into the magazine. And what do you know, on pages 50-55 I actually found an article about rowing on the Charles River in Boston, “River Bound”.

How very exciting, I thought – at first…. Then I read the first sentence and I sort of knew that reading this article could become a trying experience for a lover of rowing: “Boston’s Charles River is home to the Harvard crew team and….” stop, stop, and stop!!! To say "crew team" is redundant (read rowing historian Bill Miller’s explanations here, especially No. 2).

I continued to read the article. Just some sentences after the first one, I stopped reading again, because: “Every 15 seconds, another boater starts his 3-mile race.” Yes, I do know that “boater” can mean someone being out boating, but I cannot help thinking of my nice boater, the hat that I lost many years ago and which I wrote about the other day. The next sentence in the article reads: “I spot single and double sculls, two-, three [I say, very unlikely!], four- and eight-oared crews, many of them elite paddlers…” No, I would not dare to say that any “elite” oarsmen and –women would be “paddlers”. You paddle in a kayak or a canoe, and if you are doing it in a shell, you are probably not rowing or sculling very seriously.

Now I was feeling a little uneasy, where was this fellow, writing this piece, going to take me? On the next page was a major blunder: “Home to the 1852 Harvard-Yale [of course, a yalie would write ‘Yale-Harvard’] crew race, the first intercollegiate sporting event of any kind in America, the Charles….” – now, we all know that the first race between these universities was not on the Charles, but on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire!

Let me stop here, because the article just continues the same way: “paddlers”, “racing sculls” [he means “shells”; “sculls” are the oars], “crew teams”, etc.

Well, now you are warned, if you still would like to read this article, click on “River Bound”.

'I Crew' - I Don't Think So...

Now, Andy Anderson, writing as 'Doctor Rowing' in the magazine Rowing News, is a man of my liking. In the latest issue of the mentioned magazine, of February 2011, he answers a question from 'Jim' about the word 'crew' in the sentence "I row crew" and in the expression 'crew team', which the signature 'Jim' finds preposterous. Andy, 'Doctor Rowing', agrees - good man, Andy, I say!

Some months back, I was involved in an e-mail discussion about using the word 'crew' as a verb. Strangely enough, that discussion was also initiated by a man called 'Jim'! (Probably the same fellow, I would imagine.)

The school I went to in Sweden taught us children British-English, instead of American-English, so when I moved to Connecticut ten years ago, I was convinced that ‘crewing’ was American-English for ‘rowing at an American college’ where they only row in eights and fours. But I now understand that it is not that easy. Early on you only ‘crewed’ at American upper-crust educational institutions, like Yale, Harvard, Penn, and the other Ivy League schools, while, for example, they practise ‘rowing’ at Trinity College in Hartford (their web site says ‘rowing’). In his article Andy mentions the example "My grandfather crewed at Yale".

It is true that the Ivy League schools’ practise of the word ‘crew’ has by now slipped down to the lower levels, smaller colleges, clubs, community rowing programmes, etc, and therefore more and more people are using ‘crewing’ as substitute for ‘rowing’ in America. However, after living here for ten years, I still have a problem with ‘crewing’ instead of ‘rowing’. In Britain they would never say ‘crewing’ for rowing at Oxford and Cambridge, nor would I. To me, ‘to crew’ can never be synonymous with to ‘row’ or the sport of rowing, because you would never say ‘crewing in a pair’, or would you? And my apologies all around as I am a foreigner in this country and my mother-tongue is not American-English, nor British-English, but Swedish (even some Swedes would disagree on this as I am from the south of Sweden with a strong dialect of its own). To me, using ‘crewing’ at certain times instead of ‘rowing’ is bad English, or at best, sloppy English that can confuse the listener or reader.

It can also, quite honestly, turn people off from continuing reading a text, at least that is what happened to me some months ago when I began reading an article in the Rowing News about one of the United States' most prominent female rowers, a world champion as a matter of fact, who was asked what she was doing for winter training. She answered: "I erg". I stopped reading right there!

Anyone interested in the expression 'crew team', should read what rowing historian Bill Miller has to say about that by clicking here.

Pull! You Are Not Doing This For Fun, Are You?

The latest issue of Rowing News, December 2010, arrived on Saturday.

I must confess I have mixed feelings about this magazine. Although all articles are very well-written and the photographs almost all the time are incredible, the coverage is single minded. You can read about the top-notch rowers - ‘the best of the best’ -, or how to train to be one in that group, and which regattas they won. Articles are telling you how to eat and drink right, to train on the erg to hit the high scores (as a matter of fact, in the December issue there were several articles dealing with rowing machine work-outs), how to do the right winter training to please your coach, etc.

If you are a pleasure rower who is doing this sport for fun, as a recreational activity, rarely will you find an article in Rowing News helping you with your little endevour. But maybe the magazine knows that those women and men are not subscribing to their magazine anyway? Being the best (coming second never counts), I guess, this is the mind set of doing sports in the U.S., and for rowing, the way the governing body in this country, US Rowing, has its focus. Why, for example, has USRowing not launched a campaign like British Rowing’s successful Explore Rowing? Here you can find where can you learn how to row and scull, which waterway routes you and your friends should take to see the scenic views, which clubs will lend you boats, etc.

The competitive tradition in the U.S. is very strong; if you are doing it anyway, why not do it for winning gold by pushing yourself to the extreme limit? Or so the way of thinking goes it seems.

I am not saying that I did not enjoy Rowing News December issue, I actually did. Peter Van Allen’s article “The Right Fit” tells me a way to get my children to the right colleges so they can row, on any level. Topher Bordeau has a very unscientific article about why hard-pulling rowers produce more female offspring (they do?). Of course, Andy Anderson, a.k.a Doctor Rowing (seen on the left), has yet to write an uninteresting, boring piece. In this issue he straightens out the question what kind of rowers are sitting in the eight’s different positions, starting with the Stroke and down to Bow.

Here is a little of what Anderson writes about the position I mostly had during my short but lively racing career, Bow “is the artist, the stylist, the best dressed […] And how can it be that [he] is always so articulate, even after an intense session of speedwork?” And of course the question comes: “Could it be that [he] doesn’t ever really pull?”

Of course, I did, or so I would like to remember it. And to be honest, me rowing at bow was many years and many kilos ago...

Swedish Rowing Magazine Turning 20 Years!

My good friend Per Ekström, editor of the Swedish rowing magazine Svensk Rodd, is very busy these days. He is working hard on getting the last issue of the year out to the readers. I am guessing he had to shuffle some pages around after Frida Svensson became World Champion in the single scull in New Zealand a week ago. Svensson's victory is an enormous success not only for her, but also for Swedish rowing. Despite the many rivers, lakes, and the long coastline, rowing is not a big sport in Sweden.

However, Ekström's magazine is reaching almost 7,000 members of the Swedish rowing clubs, and they get the magazine for free. This year Svensk Rodd is celebrating 20 years. I have already told the story how Ekström and I started the magazine in 1990 in an entry on 19 March 2009. It seems Ekström has no intention to hand over the helm to someone else, which is good because few know more about rowing than he does. He has proven great editorial skills these two decades.

Congratulations to Svensk Rodd and Per, a jolly nice fellow and a good sport!