Novices, episode II: First outing in a four

Got down to the boathouse in better time this time, but thought that novices weren't on because there was hardly anyone there. My friend Fran wasn't there, after having said she'd make a super effort to come down before taking off for Majorca that afternoon for a hen's week (much better than a hen's night). A Canadian girl called Angela took me and a Spanish girl called Andrea onto the ergs and we had a bit of a practice. That went OK. Angela told us to lift up our arms at 'backstops', but then told me my arms were too high so I put them back where they'd been and she was happy. We were supposed to be rowing in unison, but Andrea wasn't taking long enough on her recovery (the slide back to the front), so I didn't follow her. She started to follow me, and it went much better.

As we'd been practising, other people had put a four into the water, and two other people were nearby, ready to go out. Andrea had wanted to go on stroke side (port), and I'd wanted to go on bow side (starboard), having been on stroke the week before. Somehow, she ended up in bow, and I ended up at 2 on stroke side. Didn't matter that much. This boat at least had strap arrangements that meant we could keep our shoes on. The cox we had was a girl called Melissa who professed to be from Adelaide but had a very British accent. I was worried about the backs of my legs copping it again, so she helped me to raise the foot stretchers above any protruding structures. I wish now I'd also adjusted the stretchers back towards me, but you'll find out why later.

We got ready to go without incident, but I was so thoroughly disoriented about which way the boat was going to go that I put my blade in upside down. I was soon set straight and we took off upstream, I think with the stern pair rowing. The four was much less stable than the eight was, made more difficult by the fact that the guy in stroke was quite short (and undergoing the same problem as I had the week before with copping a wooden strut in the back of the legs), and the guy in 3 was very tall with long legs. Consequently, by the time the stroke guy got to full slide, the guy behind still had a way to go and had to hurry to catch up, throwing the balance of the boat out quite significantly. We got to the bridge before Jesus Lock and turned around. It's so much easier to turn a four than an eight length-wise, but much harder to stabilise it - with only two rowers in the middle of the boat to steady with their blades flat on the water, and stroke backing it down and bow rowing, you can picture why.

After this Andrea and I had a go in the bow. Again, I had to set the tempo for our strokes and I took it quite slowly to avoid balance problems like the other two had. Andrea followed me really well here and we got a very good (albeit steady) motion going. Melissa actually taught us how to feather properly, which is to turn the blade with your outside hand, and I had it going quite well for a while. If you do it quickly and confidently enough, the blade's squarish collar sort of clicks into the oarlock so you know it's in the right place. I had no messy catches here which I was quite proud of. I didn't feel very comfortable though - there seemed to be much less room in this boat. I always felt like I was going to knock the guy in front, and Andrea knocked me a few times. Also, I felt like I wasn't reaching forwards far enough and so ended up with the blade in the tips of my fingers which wasn't very stable at all.

We had a very experienced guy coaching us from the bank, and that was really helpful, because the cox just can't see through that many people - they can only judge what you're doing by the position of your blade. Melissa said that what she saw of my blade was good, and it's true that I did what I had to do, it just didn't feel like I was driving with my legs properly or leaning back at the right time. It felt like I was driving much too much with my arms. I think if I take the time to move the foot stretchers back towards my seat it'll be better. Angela told me that at full slide my hips should be level with the middle strut of the rigger. That will help a lot.

We turned again at the downstream end (nowhere near as far up as we'd gone the week before) and the stern pair led us off again. Halfway down, Melissa had the bow pair join in. It was a disaster - the balance went all to hell and Andrea missed the rhythm completely because she was trying to follow stroke's blade instead of the body movements of the people in front of her. I think we went in just after this. It was a very short session, which was disappointing, but still useful.

Two other guys hopped into mine and Andrea's seats - one very short and rather clueless French guy, and one tall, broad Australian guy who looks alarmingly like David Beckham. Andrea and I followed the bank coach up and down the river watching them and learning. David Beckham had to adjust his foot stretchers after rowing a few yards, but after that they got moving. With two tall guys and two short guys, the rhythm was really irregular, and clueless French man kept doing dumb stuff like only half-sliding, and then starting to slide before his hands/blade got over his knees, resulting in an awful mess. Even David Beckham kept catching crabs and had both his knees up between his hands instead of one. They went up and back about twice, then came in and we all helped get the boat out. David Beckham asked me how I'd gone but we had to concentrate on not dropping the boat before I could talk to him more.

It wasn't until we were taking the boat out that I realised that the boat was called 'Freddie'. Not quite 'Boy Fred' I know, but quite uncanny all the same. Luckily the same fate did not befall me as did my father. In fact, apart from putting my blade in wrong, I did nothing really stupid this time - which is heartening! We found out afterwards too that there'd been another lighter four we could have taken out (our one was another wooden antique that weighed a ton) but it would have been even less stable because it didn't have a flat bottom like our boat. Scary.

I've come to the conclusion that the club has a lot of non-English people in it. There are a couple of Kiwis and an Irishman as well as the tribe I've described. It's very refreshing. I gave in to Andrea's cajoling and went to the circuit 'gym class' they hold in the boathouse on Monday nights for a few reasons – not the least of which is to get my face seen so I get invited into a regular crew. It nearly killed me. I haven't done a circuit class for around 8 years and they use quite heavy weights. At the time I was keeping up with the aerobic side of it (surprisingly) and lifting all but the huge squat barbell, and felt quite good afterwards, but my muscles are paying for it now. And to add insult to injury, David Beckham wasn't even there! In fact, on a bank holiday after a cold foul-weather-day, there was hardly anyone there. Oh well, still glad I went. Had a chat to Mr Irishman.

Novices, episode I: Drenched but happy

Saturday was a nasty-looking day weather-wise, so I put on my comparatively recently-purchased and unworn spray jacket and went down to the boathouse. There were quite a few novices there, and I was designated as 'someone who can row' and put in the group going out in the 8. This was quite funny considering I'd only been to one other training session and only had a go on the 'erg'.

The 8 we were taking out was positively ancient and made of wood instead of the space-age materials they use these days. As a result it was painfully heavy, and took 10 people to carry it out of the boathouse. We got it into the water without incident and one expert and three novices with lots of experience took the bow 4 places. There was debate as to where to put the rest of us - in the end the two other guys took the next two places (4 and 3) which left me and Fran (the only women) for 2 and stroke. Lucky me - I was put in stroke, which is directly in front of and facing the cox, hence I couldn't see what the others were doing. Worse than that, it was me who was to set the rhythm of the stroke which is ridiculous seeing I hadn't set blade to water yet.

We had a few pointers before getting in the boat, and I learnt a couple of new things, such as how to get into the boat without sinking it. I got into my seat (relief at not having put my foot through the bottom of the boat) and got my blade in the rowlock (not sure what the technical term for this is). I was extremely surprised at how light the blades are. I had to move the foot holds back towards my seat about 5 notches, and the built-in shoes are huge and quite awful.

Anyway, we pushed off the bank and headed off downstream. It took me a while to get used to the side-to-side rocking, and then to the motion of the stroke. The bow 4 began us off and the rest of us had to stabilise the boat by dragging the curved side of the blade in the water behind us at the correct angle. Then the stern 4 (including me) rowed for a while with just arms, then for a while with arms and body. We got interrupted a few times with barges going by or other boats overtaking us (and I think at this stage I 'caught a crab', meaning my blade dipped down too deep in the water, slowed the boat and the handle nearly hit me in the face). We also did some exercises teaching us how balance in the boat works (quite scary how little it takes) and to try to co-ordinate our blades. We must have turned around at the downstream end, but I don't remember this. We went off back upstream and finally the stern 4 got around to rowing with a quarter slide, then a half slide and finally a full slide. The first quarter slide I did was a complete disaster. I lost my timing completely and my catch (the blade touching the water) happened before I wanted it to, and splashed all over the place. I finally got the hang of it, but the good technique I'd leant on the erg went completely out the window. At around this stage, the wooden cross-bar in the boat started bruising the backs of my legs and really hurt (I'm just too short!!).

Then there was a downpour, but we all outvoted the cox on staying out. Lucky, because the sun came out brightly not long after. At one stage we had six of us rowing, and the boat was flying. We then got to Jesus lock and had to turn around again. This was achieved fairly gracefully, but the bow 2 were a bit too eager, and took a great big stroke that brought us in rather sharp contact with one of the narrowboats. There was a man on the bank looking rather concerned, so it may even have been his boat. We beat as hasty a retreat as possible.

Having turned, I think the bow 4 took over, and got a very good rhythm going. Then we got to the other end and had to turn around again. The wind was blowing quite angrily and while we might have stopped in the widest part of the river, by the time we started to turn and let any traffic through, we'd been blown into a narrower part. With number 8 on the bow rowing, and me 'backing it up' we turned rather well under the circumstances I thought.

We then took off again upstream with the stern 4 rowing. The cox encouraged us to try 'feathering' which means that the blade goes in the water square (straight up and down) but as soon as you take it out, you have to flatten it to reduce wind resistance. Fran and I decided we were going to concentrate on just getting the rest right (Fran had been out 3 or 4 times) but the cox had us give it a go. Again, my catch was ruined, but I managed one or two strokes feathering and with a clean catch. It was dodgy because I was spinning the blade in my hands rather than just flicking my wrist, but I can read up on that and learn it properly for next time. I rather think that feathering is a bit advanced for the likes of me and Fran at this stage. While I was concentrating on my feathering, my blade came dangerously close to concussing a swan. It didn't seem the least bit concerned that a boatful of crazy people with long wooden things was coming dangerously close. The mallards seem much more sensible.

Anyway, after that I was worn out, and something else happened to stop us again, and the bow 4 took us back into the club (very gracefully I might add). We'd been out for about an hour and a half but it felt like 20 minutes. We got out, everyone else found their shoes except me, we lifted the heavy boat out of the water, and then over our heads (somehow) and half went one way and half the other and took the boat onto our shoulders. Then walked it back to the trestle in front of the boathouse and I got very wet and dirty socks. Then washed the hull (there's a really horrid oil slick on the river) and put it away.

It was very fun, and I'm looking forward to this Saturday, though perhaps I'd better have another week on the ergs to analyse how I can do it better next time. Or maybe I'll have to go out in 'the tub' (eek). 'The tub' is this tiny little thing that only fits two rowers and a cox. I think it's even more ancient that the wooden 8 because it seems to have fancy ironwork on the cox's seat.