I suspect we've chatted before, haven't we, about my fascination with rowing and how I wish I had learned to row as part of a team. There is still time, of course, and I have checked some of our local clubs but none offer beginners' rowing for seniors.
As I read your words, I recalled taking my own kids to training before dawn, of carting them back to school for breakfast and then the many miles travelled between the various regattas. With this in mind, and now having his own son, my son has absolutely banned any thoughts of the little fella rowing - 'oh my god, Mum, all those early starts and the effort and exhaustion!' Shame really, as grandson is tall and has a rower's shoulders!
Maybe I should just buy a scull and teach myself! I've always been able to row in a dinghy, since I was a child and I've been kayaking for years (open-sit-upon) so I imagine a modicum of balance is there as groundwork.
Would you ever take up mature-age rowing? Methinks you should...
Ahh, it sounds like you would love it Prue! Too bad you were always the support crew and never in the boat yourself. Maybe your son will come around if your grandson gets a hankering to do it :) And you SHOULD just teach yourself. I've no doubt there are great tutorials on the interwebs.
I would love to row again. However, there are two strikes against it sadly. One is that because we travel so often for long stretches at a time, I would not be a reliable boat partner. The other is that my knee now seems to protest from the rowing motion. I tried it in the gym a few years ago and although I love that motion almost as much as walking, it really didn't work for my knee. I've done a LOT of strength training since then so I will try again.
Maybe we can figure out a way to both have our single skulls and workout together, virtually! 😃
I never get tired of boarding a boat in the dark, heading out into the elements, and witnessing the sun rising over the water, and the first time I experienced this thrill remains strongly lodged in my memory.
Another thing that resonated with me was the thoroughly urbanized setting Corte Madera Creek, spanned by a busy freeway and within view of maximum security prison. Yet the shore birds, salt marshes, sea air, and other tendrils of Nature seem irrepressible. A good thing!
Thanks for your thoughts Tim! You are so right about sunrises on water: magical. And that crazy Corte Madera creek: old shopping carts dumped on their side in the mud, graced by a snowy egret posing gracefully beside it. Irrepressible is the perfect word!
Boy, did this bring back memories. But of course yours are far more vivid than mine. I remember walking to carpool in the dark, the quiet car rides to the boathouse, and being on the water before the sun came up. After each workout, no matter what the hour, amount of light, threat of precipitation, or exhaustion, contentment, pride, and excitement washed through me. The light on Mt. Tamalpias, Greenbrae, and San Quentin were beautiful (despite it being a prison) and something few people experienced. The discipline, fortitude, and determination for us girls to row at this hour forever marked and impressed me. We were tough! And we remain that way.
I also credit, the PE teacher, Miss Reid, for getting up earlier than we did to take us. That commitment rose above the norm.
Experiences like this made us capable, strong women with a we-can-do-it attitude that we carry with us.
I agree with Carol that it's amazing that our parents let us leave the house so early in the dark to walk to the pick up spot. We had darn good parents.
Wow, you remember quite a lot too! I give so much credit to Miss Reid for all she did to create the environment that encouraged us to train like athletes. I'd never worked so hard in my life, physically, yet I enjoyed almost every minute of it. She trained us through so many sports, but for me it was crew that I loved the most. And I agree: the beauty of the early morning workout was a very special time and place that thankfully we all appreciated. Thank you so much for sharing your memories too!
It’s hard to believe we actually got to do that, Sabrina. And years before rowing became widely available to young women. 40 years later, In the 2010s, I had a violin student who attended a Virginia public school who was into rowing, and her practice was…. Yes…. after school! She rowed through college and into the nationals. The beat goes on: stroke, stroke, stroke! Ever grateful.
We did have such an amazing time. I remember it was quite thrilling to go to Corvallis Oregon for a big competition and see so many rowers back then. And I'm delighted it is still so popular as it is such an amazing sport. Glad you have good memories too.
The best thing about this Substack is learning about all of the cool experiences that you’ve had!
I had no idea you rowed! Or if I did, this old brain does not remember. Sigh. Being out on the slough as the sun comes up? Beautiful. And as I’ve always loved marshes, I can just imagine the quiet, with the sun reflecting off the water and the birds…
Dave rowed solo when we were first dating in Long Beach. I can’t remember if he also rowed here on the estuary when we returned from Madrid. I’ll have to ask him this morning!
Oh wow, I loved this, Sabrina! I'm behind on my reading, but I'm so happy to be catching up this morning.
Jim used to swim competitively and he has many stories of being taken to the pool at the crack of dawn every morning to practise when he was a child! That would have been my worst nightmare, honestly!
A friend at university joined the Boat Club, and they'd practise on the River Ouse (York) very early in the morning. She was very, very keen - she'd started from absolute scratch as a non-rower and threw herself into training both out on the water and in the gym, and paying attention to her nutritional and fitness needs - she was absolutely awesome. She was great fun, very vibrant, full of energy, and - how can I put this? - LOUD. I'll never forget the early morning she came stomping back to our accommodation shouting about how very, very cruel it was for one of York's TWO chocolate factories to have been making Terry's Chocolate Orange on the night shift, as the delicious scent had been settling heavily over the river.
'It was HELL!!!!!!!!!' she ranted. 'YOU LOT HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I GO THROUGH!!!!!!!!!!!' Happy memories! And she felt much better once I'd made her a bacon sandwich!
I love that story! Your keen friend reminds me a LOT of some of the University level rowers I knew. So much enthusiasm for everything! And my goodness, what torture to have to row with delicious chocolate smell and not get any! You were very wise to ply her with bacon sarnies 🤣
Once I got to University I learned how much more time I’d have to devote to it if I wanted to continue, and I was still too undecided about everything to commit to that one activity. But it has always been one of my treasured sports activities. Thanks for reading and commenting!!
Growing up in the Sonoran desert, I didn't even know rowing existed. It wasn't until I read "The Boys in the Boat" that I had any inkling of what it involved. And only now, reading this, do I have a sense of what I was missing. I love the picture you painted, and since I do drive along that stretch of 101 en route to Stinson Beach sometimes, I could see it, even smell it, so, so clearly.
Thanks so much for your kind words Lisa! I’m glad you were able to get a sense of it from that essay. I loved the boys in the boat book too! Luckily we had a great coach and a beautiful place to row. And wonderful classmates who all enjoyed the experience as well. It’s the full body exercise, as well as the coordination with crew mates together that creates the magic.
I suspect we've chatted before, haven't we, about my fascination with rowing and how I wish I had learned to row as part of a team. There is still time, of course, and I have checked some of our local clubs but none offer beginners' rowing for seniors.
As I read your words, I recalled taking my own kids to training before dawn, of carting them back to school for breakfast and then the many miles travelled between the various regattas. With this in mind, and now having his own son, my son has absolutely banned any thoughts of the little fella rowing - 'oh my god, Mum, all those early starts and the effort and exhaustion!' Shame really, as grandson is tall and has a rower's shoulders!
Maybe I should just buy a scull and teach myself! I've always been able to row in a dinghy, since I was a child and I've been kayaking for years (open-sit-upon) so I imagine a modicum of balance is there as groundwork.
Would you ever take up mature-age rowing? Methinks you should...
Ahh, it sounds like you would love it Prue! Too bad you were always the support crew and never in the boat yourself. Maybe your son will come around if your grandson gets a hankering to do it :) And you SHOULD just teach yourself. I've no doubt there are great tutorials on the interwebs.
I would love to row again. However, there are two strikes against it sadly. One is that because we travel so often for long stretches at a time, I would not be a reliable boat partner. The other is that my knee now seems to protest from the rowing motion. I tried it in the gym a few years ago and although I love that motion almost as much as walking, it really didn't work for my knee. I've done a LOT of strength training since then so I will try again.
Maybe we can figure out a way to both have our single skulls and workout together, virtually! 😃
I never get tired of boarding a boat in the dark, heading out into the elements, and witnessing the sun rising over the water, and the first time I experienced this thrill remains strongly lodged in my memory.
Another thing that resonated with me was the thoroughly urbanized setting Corte Madera Creek, spanned by a busy freeway and within view of maximum security prison. Yet the shore birds, salt marshes, sea air, and other tendrils of Nature seem irrepressible. A good thing!
Thanks for your thoughts Tim! You are so right about sunrises on water: magical. And that crazy Corte Madera creek: old shopping carts dumped on their side in the mud, graced by a snowy egret posing gracefully beside it. Irrepressible is the perfect word!
Boy, did this bring back memories. But of course yours are far more vivid than mine. I remember walking to carpool in the dark, the quiet car rides to the boathouse, and being on the water before the sun came up. After each workout, no matter what the hour, amount of light, threat of precipitation, or exhaustion, contentment, pride, and excitement washed through me. The light on Mt. Tamalpias, Greenbrae, and San Quentin were beautiful (despite it being a prison) and something few people experienced. The discipline, fortitude, and determination for us girls to row at this hour forever marked and impressed me. We were tough! And we remain that way.
I also credit, the PE teacher, Miss Reid, for getting up earlier than we did to take us. That commitment rose above the norm.
Experiences like this made us capable, strong women with a we-can-do-it attitude that we carry with us.
I agree with Carol that it's amazing that our parents let us leave the house so early in the dark to walk to the pick up spot. We had darn good parents.
Wow, you remember quite a lot too! I give so much credit to Miss Reid for all she did to create the environment that encouraged us to train like athletes. I'd never worked so hard in my life, physically, yet I enjoyed almost every minute of it. She trained us through so many sports, but for me it was crew that I loved the most. And I agree: the beauty of the early morning workout was a very special time and place that thankfully we all appreciated. Thank you so much for sharing your memories too!
It’s hard to believe we actually got to do that, Sabrina. And years before rowing became widely available to young women. 40 years later, In the 2010s, I had a violin student who attended a Virginia public school who was into rowing, and her practice was…. Yes…. after school! She rowed through college and into the nationals. The beat goes on: stroke, stroke, stroke! Ever grateful.
We did have such an amazing time. I remember it was quite thrilling to go to Corvallis Oregon for a big competition and see so many rowers back then. And I'm delighted it is still so popular as it is such an amazing sport. Glad you have good memories too.
The best thing about this Substack is learning about all of the cool experiences that you’ve had!
I had no idea you rowed! Or if I did, this old brain does not remember. Sigh. Being out on the slough as the sun comes up? Beautiful. And as I’ve always loved marshes, I can just imagine the quiet, with the sun reflecting off the water and the birds…
Dave rowed solo when we were first dating in Long Beach. I can’t remember if he also rowed here on the estuary when we returned from Madrid. I’ll have to ask him this morning!
Oh wow, I loved this, Sabrina! I'm behind on my reading, but I'm so happy to be catching up this morning.
Jim used to swim competitively and he has many stories of being taken to the pool at the crack of dawn every morning to practise when he was a child! That would have been my worst nightmare, honestly!
A friend at university joined the Boat Club, and they'd practise on the River Ouse (York) very early in the morning. She was very, very keen - she'd started from absolute scratch as a non-rower and threw herself into training both out on the water and in the gym, and paying attention to her nutritional and fitness needs - she was absolutely awesome. She was great fun, very vibrant, full of energy, and - how can I put this? - LOUD. I'll never forget the early morning she came stomping back to our accommodation shouting about how very, very cruel it was for one of York's TWO chocolate factories to have been making Terry's Chocolate Orange on the night shift, as the delicious scent had been settling heavily over the river.
'It was HELL!!!!!!!!!' she ranted. 'YOU LOT HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I GO THROUGH!!!!!!!!!!!' Happy memories! And she felt much better once I'd made her a bacon sandwich!
I love that story! Your keen friend reminds me a LOT of some of the University level rowers I knew. So much enthusiasm for everything! And my goodness, what torture to have to row with delicious chocolate smell and not get any! You were very wise to ply her with bacon sarnies 🤣
She was certainly enthusiastic, that’s for sure! And I know of very few emotional situations that a bacon sarnie can’t solve!
Once I got to University I learned how much more time I’d have to devote to it if I wanted to continue, and I was still too undecided about everything to commit to that one activity. But it has always been one of my treasured sports activities. Thanks for reading and commenting!!
Growing up in the Sonoran desert, I didn't even know rowing existed. It wasn't until I read "The Boys in the Boat" that I had any inkling of what it involved. And only now, reading this, do I have a sense of what I was missing. I love the picture you painted, and since I do drive along that stretch of 101 en route to Stinson Beach sometimes, I could see it, even smell it, so, so clearly.
Thanks so much for your kind words Lisa! I’m glad you were able to get a sense of it from that essay. I loved the boys in the boat book too! Luckily we had a great coach and a beautiful place to row. And wonderful classmates who all enjoyed the experience as well. It’s the full body exercise, as well as the coordination with crew mates together that creates the magic.