Rowing in Difficult Conditions

I learned more this weekend about what I am capable of doing in terms of rowing. Specifically, I learned about what kind of adverse conditions I can row in and what kind of risks I am willing to take. This comes from having a better understanding of my own abilities and the abilities of those rowing with me.

I learned that I can row in adverse conditions with a coxswain I don't know – there are more good coxswains out there than I realized. In the two years I have rowed – I am still learning quite a bit about the sport – I have found three coxswains that I have learned to absolutely trust: one on the Lafayette and two on the Occoquan. They gained my trust through our rowing experiences together, both in practices and in races. The specific experiences included expert turning, smooth docking, quick commands, and good decisions in races. I have often joked that if “coxswain X” told me to row staight for the shore, I would do it”. I have rowed with several other coxswains. Many of whom I consider to be competent, but people who have not yet earned my absolute trust (that “row into the shore” kind of trust). I have also rowed with a couple of coxswains I do not trust based on experiences in crashing into docks, running aground, or receiving confusing commands.

This weekend, I was nervous about rowing in windy conditions with a coxswain I didn't know well. We ended up scratching that race because not everyone in the boat was comfortable going out on the river when winds were forecasted to be 20 mph with gusts up to 40 mph (and, honestly, who is?). I did row later in the day, in a four instead of an eight, and with a coxswain I had never met. Rowing with a coxswain I had never met was a leap of faith. I took that leap based on the trust I had in the experience of the three other rowers with me and the visible weather conditions. While the wind was still blowing, the clouds had cleared away and the sun was now shining brightly. It is amazing what a bit of sunshine will do for me. When the sky was grey at my house and I saw a bird flying backwards in the wind, I didn't imagine myself racing at all. When midday arrived and those strong winds blew the clouds away, I felt better about the prospect of rowing.

I wish there was a way to judge coxswains I meet before going on the water with them. I asked our coxswain Maxim (we called him Max) what boats he had coxed and how many times he had been on the river that day. Happily, he had been on the river twice already coxing an eight and a four. He had just the racecourse experience we needed – local knowledge that was as recent as it gets. I still got into the boat with him without knowing how much overall coxing experience he had. I suppose I also transferred the trust I had in our Racing Director Eleanor to Max because Eleanor had found the coxswain at the regatta that afternoon. That is not a logical risk analysis.

The end results was that Max was a very good coxswain. He was aware of discomfort or nervousness in the boat. He counseled us to stay calm and focus on our recovery technique to keep the boat set as we rowed in very stiff winds and choppy water up to the start. During the race, where we had better water conditions, he kept us to row hard and to keep up our pace. The only item on which I disagreed with him (and where I pretty much ignored his command) was his call for us to increase our strokes per minute above 30 during the last 500 meters. This is something that works for high school rowers, but I knew my boat mates well enough to know that racing our spm above 30 would not speed up our boat. I know I would begin to shorten my strokes and deliver no additional power to the boat.

In terms of my own abilities, I learned that I could row in the stroke seat in windy conditions. This is something I had never done before. I was able to set the race pace that I wanted (and we won our race, beating at least one boat that we expected to be beaten by) and get through the gusts of wind that buffeted our boat during the race. The more challenging row, though, was getting up to the start when the wind was blowing more steadily hard. There were a couple of instances where it felt as if the wind lifted our boat on one side out of the water. I was able to avoid panicking; I attribute that ability to the miles I have rowed on water in the last two years. I have had a few occasions rowing in windy and choppy conditions so I knew what some of it felt like (the difference in racing this weekend was that the air temperature was 40 degrees colder than my previous experiences). The row to the starting line was not fun, but I was able to do it. I enjoyed our row during the race. We might have had the best 10 minutes of weather for the day. We were hit by gusts of wind, but the steady stiff wind that hit us before the start lightened as we raced down the course. We even had one short section where the winds seemed to die down completely and we made good time with strong strokes in a set boat.

I and the members of my club need to take weather conditions seriously. I believe I did. I was willing to scratch my early boat when there were the worst of conditions. The weather did improve throughout the day. The sunshine made me feel better, but that is not a logical improvement in the weather conditions. I need to keep that in mind when evaluating future conditions. I did learn, however, that I can row – and race – in windy conditions.