Episode VI: Restoration of peace

There was thankfully no rain in sight, though Fran said that had been the best part about Tuesday. The college bumps were happening downstream, and so the river was closed until about 8pm. The plan was for the crew to meet and go down to the bumps at 6.30 to watch though only a couple of us got there (Liz and Richard). So we met as a group at 8pm at the boathouse and watched the first of the college boats come back just after. Kat the coach had injured her back and so we had Matt’s wife Maggie to coach but no cox. Ashley put his persuasion skills to use again and got Greg the resident Kiwi with beer in hand to cox for us.

There was an extra guy called Martin (I think) who turned up this time – he was the short guy in stroke in a previous episode. Also, Ewan showed up, though he had made it clear he won’t be here for the actual races. I asked Richard what he’d seen of the bumps and he told me. We had a good chat here, and I found out that he’s from Western Australia and is in agriculture. He’s here on a 2 year working holiday but is finding the salaries too low. He has quite a broad accent and so when I asked whether he was from inland he admitted that he’d lived and worked in the country for 3 years. He asked about my situation. He seems like a very nice, intelligent person. ‘Down-to-earth’ as Fran puts it. He asked me if I was going to novices on Saturday, and when I said it wasn’t on and I was going to watch the college bumps with Fran he said he’d come along.

Maggie injected some sense after the last free-for-all session and had us on the ergs in pairs to check our technique. Shame Sikander wasn’t there....  Richard and I started off on the ergs. She had some advice for him but couldn’t seem to find anything wrong with me. The other pairs had a go and then we got the boat out under Greg’s tutelage.

We had pretty much the same boat setup except Fran and I swapped – after someone suggested (possibly incorrectly) that shorter people were better nearer the bow of the boat, but certainly that it was better to have people of like sizes in pairs. Fran is much taller than me, so it made sense and I was eager to head off the problems I’d had on Tuesday before they happened. Martin took Sikander’s stroke seat and Ewan and Allan did half a session each in 7.

S – Martin

7 – Ewan/Allan

6 – Richard

5 - Fran

4 - Liz

3 - me

2 - Matt

B – Ashley

Greg is well-built though not terribly bulky but he swore ferociously into the cox box when he tried to fit his backside into the compact cox’s seat. It was hilarious, particularly with his silly vowels. I moved my foot stretchers, checked the band-aids on my thumbs and had a chat to Liz. Once we’d numbered off we pulled out behind a huge barge and the stern four started rowing (I was now in the bow four). Greg had them do the drill of arms, then bodies then gradual slides. Then the same with the bow four. That part of the river is very windy and we had a bit of a clash of blades with another crew, then got a little close to the barges tied to the bank (I don’t think it was all down to Greg’s drunk driving). We stopped here and Maggie gave us some really sensible, constructive criticism. Then we caught up with the barge which had just stopped in the middle of the river. We crossed to the other side and got around to find a woman on the front of the barge roundly abusing someone on the shore. Greg gave us a muttered commentary and suggested that they work on their boating skills, finding some choice names for them. Very amusing.

We set off again but with the stern six this time. Martin’s stroke was fairly good in pace, but Greg zeroed in immediately on the slide. He had us all thinking about controlling it and slowing it down. He had a system of counting – one (catch), two (finish), three (arms out, bodies over), four (slide). That was even too fast for my liking, but it was still worlds better than Sikander and certainly got the crew thinking along the same lines. It was a glorious still night with no traffic on the river that late, and it was so satisfying to not be rowing like the clappers and having everyone in tune much more. Greg had a great way of swapping pairs in and out so there were always six people rowing and there was continuous movement but we were getting rests. I was using my legs, so my back wasn’t sore, I wasn’t out of breath, I had time to get my hands out and to square my blade and I could concentrate on my feathering and got a really good snap happening with it like the college crews do. As a result I didn’t have to look at my blade to see if was squared, because I could feel it (that’s just a result of practice I’m sure).

We got to the same point in the river that we’d turned on Tuesday, turned and pulled in to the bank so Maggie could talk to us. She gave individual feedback on the stern four, but didn’t really see us in the bow. I think of that as encouraging, because if we’d been doing something really bad she would have noticed. Ashley had been early with his catches which really jolts the boat, but I think he improved by the end. In fact with a perfect crew, the motion of the boat would probably be constant, with no jolt at all with the catch (which I’m well used to by now). Allan jumped out, Ewan jumped in, Greg was handed another beer and we set off again. We rowed with all eight all the way back. Our start from backstops was really messy again, and so we tried again and it was better. In balance terms, after every finish there would be blades skimming the surface and any leaning on the boat seemed to favour the bow side. I found that my blade was catching accidentally when I squared, but I worked around this. The lean went to stroke a few times though – the leaning movement was regular and slow but obviously still not ideal. Greg kept on about slowing the slide down and the balance got better. He could actually feel tension in the boat and told us that we had to relax and expect the balance to go a bit wonky. The effect this had on the balance was quite magical. Every time he said the word relax, something changed. In addition, he asked us to add ‘two pips’ to the slide, then ‘three pips’ and finally as we were nearing the home stretch, there were about three isolated strokes when there were no blades skimming the surface after the finish, meaning the balance was perfect. The first one of those was an exciting moment, and I think everyone felt it.

It was about 9.30 when we pulled back into the boathouse and we pulled the boat out, then swung it to heads and it was so much easier because no one was exhausted!! Someone hosed the boat off and Richard and I wiped it down, having a bit of post mortem. We put the boat away then all had a chat in the boathouse. Maggie reiterated that we need to slide together and that we need to square early. She said you should watch the person in front of you but keep stroke’s blade in the corner of your eye.

I came out of this session quite euphoric. I decided there was nothing more satisfying than completing a stroke as a crew and hearing blissful silence on the recovery. There’s an appeal for me with this medium similar to playing in tune in an orchestra. I’m hoping that everyone has learnt something from Greg and his session and will keep Sikander in check if he stays in the stroke position. It’s vital. I’m sure that Greg would have got stuck into him had he been there.