Fall Rowing Fun: A Few Tips For NHRCS, New And Old

As I was launching in the dark this morning, I thought about the beauties of fall rowing (launching in the dark and the fog is not one of them, I must say.) On the other hand, when you make it up to Gilder Boat House and are turning around, the sky already a light grey and, if you are lucky, the pink of a new sunrise in streaks across the sky, it feels pretty darn good. You start your trip back to the club and -- if it is October -- there may be brightly colored leaves scattered across the water that you skim through.

Of course, you also might be turning around, the rain is just starting, and all you have gotten for your troubles is a long, cold, wet slog back. Oh well.

But here are a few things the fall rower needs to think about. First off, as it gets colder, it becomes more important to follow the law we are all supposed to be following anyway: every rower unaccompanied by a launch needs to be wearing a personal floatation device. The water is warm now, but as the air and the water get chillier, the possibility of a routine accident becoming dangerous grows. Here is the Stearns model that you will see most people at the boat house wearing.

And we who already own a PFD? Probably time to replace that CO2 canister that is supposed to inflate the darn thing.

While it is unlikely that you will run into our friendly neighborhood river police at the hour most of us row, scullers have been ticketed on the water at the Housie. It's not enough to have the PFD in the boat -- you must be wearing the darn thing.

Lights mist be used in the dark and in the fog. Convention at the club is a bow light and a red blinker worn on the shirt or cap of the stroke seat. Scullers should also be aware that the club only provides lights for club boats: private boats are asked to supply their own lights. You can tape a little flashlight to a bowmarker and buy a red bicycle flasher at any sporting goods store, or here's a set of inexpensive, good quality bike lights from Amazon.com. For some years I used an LED headlamp from Home Depot, which has the added advantage of allowing you to make adjustments on the dock in the dark. Optics Planet has a nice selection of head lamps here, and this one is the cheapest.

But if you want to be really snazzy, and actually legal, you might want to do what the cool kids do: buy a set of three LED silicon body rowing lights for only $40 + $8.50 shipping from Durham Boat Works. They come in a couple days -- which is nice, because I just lost one and had to replace it (anybody see a green LED lying around?) Starboard rigger gets a red one; port rigger the green one; and the white light wraps around the bow ball. My sense is that the coxswains appreciate being able to spot us and know which direction we are going (not always apparent when there is fog, the boats are separated by a substantial distance, or you have drifted into the center of the river.)

And did you know that you get a musical bonus when the lights are properly affixed? The first day I used mine, Paul Roy led his group in a lusty rendition of "Oh, Christmas Tree."

OK: here's a couple other things. I don't know if people are just trying to get away from me, but in the last two weeks I have seen three different crews of two to four rowers, rowing upstream on the wrong side of the river. This a a bad idea under normal conditions, because it is unsafe and against club rules, but it is a particularly bad idea in the fall because some people don't like to row in the dark, and are launching as late as 7:00 or 7:30. Everyone in the boat is responsible for the accident and damages, not just the person steering, so let your bow know if you are concerned. Although I have no forensic evidence to back up this statement, I would say it is significantly more likely that you will slam into someone who is not looking for you at this time of year.

Of course, we are all responsible for looking, aren't we? Yes we are. Keep your eyes peeled around the beach in particular: people doing head pieces are not supposed to cut over at the beach, but they sometimes they do all the same. Here are some other tips that will help rowers new to sculling, or new to the club, avoid accidents and dirty looks.

Don't stop for your water break and just assume that people bearing down on you will steer around you. Do clear out of the path of a faster boat approaching you, whether you are stopped or whether you are rowing, and always give that rower his or her chosen path (on our river, that usually means pulling out to port.) Well-intentioned as it might be, yelling to someone who is doing a serious workout "Watch out! Watch out!" while you are sitting dead in the water is impolite; you need to watch out for them and let that the other rower continue working out uninterrupted. And if etiquette doesn't persuade you, the brutal truth is that many of us over fifty don't hear very well, so getting out of the way is the sane as well as the polite move.

Do get off the dock as quickly as you can, both when launching and returning. Launching quickly is particularly important on head racing days when lots of people are trying to downriver for the same start time This is a good rule of thumb anyway, but those people practicing head pieces will still be rowing hard as they enter the docking area, and having people piled up waiting to dock has its hazards. As the weather cools, we all simply have more stuff to get out of the boat, but being a little dazed from your workout and chatting about what a terrific row you just had is the usual culprit.

Comments? Be nice now -- but if anyone wants to weigh in with other useful tips, now's the time.

Let's row!