This day was the most glorious
day weather-wise that I've seen in England ever. Imagine then how many
people had flocked to the Strawberry Fair on Midsummer Common. I heard later
that this fair is the largest independent, volunteer music festival in the UK, and I would
dearly love to know how many people came because it was absolutely packed!
There was everyone there from flower children, to wannabe flower children, to
heavy metal fans, to neo-Nazis, to families, to pikies, to wannabe pikies, to
just plain weird people (like a girl in a bikini top, pigtails, short tutu and
heavy boots). There were stalls with jewellery, clothes, food, tarot readings,
hemp products, drugs, all manner of alcohol and about three stages set up with
bands. I had to negotiate the masses to even get from my house to the river.
It was another slow start for
novices - there were only four of us to begin with, and so we had a go on the
ergs two at a time. Our coaches this time were Kathryn and Steve and another
young guy who was really cluey about technique as the bank coach. Steve said I
need to separate my technique on my recovery, which I feel like I've only just
integrated successfully. I have to consciously extend my arms, then lean
forward, then bend my knees to slide as three separate movements. Also, I'm
guilty of overreaching, and bending my back as a result, but I knew that and
will have to work on it. I picked Steve's brain about how to hold the blade, and
about how to use your feet to push too. It was good to just talk about it.
We had two more raw beginners -
one guy from Italy who looks like a shorter, more solid version of Orlando
Bloom (Pirates of the Caribbean) and a very small guy with dark skin (not sure
where he's from) who arrived late. Fran still wasn't back from Majorca and David Beckham didn't make an appearance.
After erging for a while, we went to get Freddie out again and got him down to
the river. We found seats and blades, and bank-coach-man worked out where to
put people in relation to their experience. Steve went in as cox, Ashley, who
is Canadian or American, had done some sculling but hadn't been in a four or
eight, so was put in stroke, I was put in 2 (bow side), Orlando Bloom in 3 and
other small guy in bow (Andrea sat out to start with). Ashley and I started off
by setting the boat and the other two rowed. It felt pretty secure from where
we were but of course we couldn't see what they were doing. The coach on the
bank was calling out some advice to them and they started moving at a pretty
decent pace. Steve asked them to feather and I could just feel the blank looks
- that was way too advanced for them.
We got to the Victoria Avenue bridge and turned. It was
quite stressful because Steve had no one setting the boat while we turned (ie
the two on stroke side were rowing and the two on bow side were backing it
down). So the boat was very unstable and I was just waiting to hit the water.
We didn't, luckily, and ended up pointing in the right direction. Ashley and I
had a go in stern now, but the boat had such a dangerous lean to it that it was
all I could do to even get my blade out of the water. I soon learned that the
only way to get any strokes in was to feather, since the blade was coming out
sideways instead of full face. We sort of struggled along with me getting in a
half stroke here and there until the motion ended up dying completely. Steve
and coach-man tried to explain how the bow pair were supposed to be setting the
boat, and we tried again. I don't think it was any more successful, but I think
all four tried to join in and it was a complete disaster. The whole thing was
made more difficult because the bow pair couldn't hear Steve - the speakers in
the boat weren't working even though the cox box (piece of equipment to plug in
cox's microphone linking to speakers) was, and the Strawberry Festival was
cranking out some very loud music. We turned again at the next pedestrian
bridge and Ashley and I set the boat while the other two rowed. Again, the
balance was fine when we were setting. I think we pulled in back to the club at
this stage.
Small man swapped with Andrea,
and Ashley and I chatted with Kathryn about what was going wrong. Meanwhile
coach man was trying to help small man and Orlando with how they were supposed
to be setting the boat. We took off again, and I was confident that Andrea
would fix the balance problems. I think the other two started to row,
reasonably successfully. We must have turned at the upstream end again, and
Steve asked the other two to watch mine and Ashley's feathering. I muttered
that that was all I could do. We moved to backstops, squared our blades, and
Steve started us off. We tapped down (lifted blade out of water) and did the
slide to catch our first stroke. The boat was leaning so far over, I couldn't
even get my first stroke in and we stopped almost immediately. Steve and coach
man corrected the hand height of the other two which immediately righted the
boat, and so Ashley and I got ready to go again. We did our slide again but the
boat immediately leaned again and I couldn't get my blade out at all. Steve
stopped us immediately again and got the bow pair to correct their hands again.
We were drifting all this time and getting close to various barges, and so
Andrea spent a lot of time doing one stroke to right us. Again we started off,
but the exact thing happened again where the boat was right but immediately
leaned as soon as Ashley and I started sliding. Andrea was getting frustrated
by this stage and asked what she was doing wrong. I was starting to wonder
whether it was something Ashley and I were doing wrong, since it was our
movements that seemed to start the lean. I think we might even have had another
go here before we turned. It was a nightmare.
We had one last try and finally,
finally, Ashley and I got moving and the boat was fairly straight. We got in
about 4 good strokes …. and then we had to go back into the club. It was
maddening.
There was a lot of talk as the
boat was sitting at the bank about technique that is not apparent on the ergs
(talk that I thought should have happened before we even went out). We put the
boat away and stood around a bit. Brian (Mr Irishman) finished his session in
which they'd rowed an eight downstream to the next locks (about 2.7km down the
river) and back. That's my idea of fun instead of this constant turning around
and stopping and starting business. He asked me how I'd gone and I couldn't
help expressing my frustration. The first thing I asked him was how to get into
a crew. He sat me down in the sun and gave me some good advice on how to offer
to sub for crews and told me who to speak to, and said I should keep coming to
circuits, and sign up for the mailing list on the website. He understood my
frustration because he'd been in the same situation a year ago. While we were
chatting, some coppers came up and berated us with a ho-ho laugh for being on
the bank instead of on the water. We told them we'd worked hard enough in the
morning. Thirty seconds later, some filthy desperate-looking pikies went past
on our side of the river and the coppers put their stern faces on and asked
them if they were going to make trouble. Completely unnecessary I thought,
since they were doing nothing wrong. After getting nicely sunburnt, I went on
my way.
At circuits on Monday Brian
managed to engineer my introduction (of sorts) to a girl who took my name and
email address as a possible sub for their crew. Fran was back, and we chatted
after the session, dodging boats coming past, as you do. She got involved in a
conversation about a crew for the bumps, and I sort of drifted into it with
her, before realising I was a ring-in to the plan. I wandered off before
butting in to say goodbye to Fran and Ashley. Ashley grabbed me and said to
Sikander (the guy who's organising that crew) that he might want another sub or
even crew member (because he'd heard me talking about wanting to get into a
crew). Fran agreed because she thinks I'm quite good. As a result, Sikander
also has my email address, and has included me in the crew email. Now one other
member of his crew has dropped out of the bumps. He wants to train three times
a week, so I guess I should show up, especially since Brian said that it's
useful to just follow a bank coach and listen and watch. I'll keep going to
novices because I don't feel confident enough to start race training (even
though novices is so frustrating), but at the same time I'm no worse than Fran
or Ashley. Hmmm, it's all a bit weird.
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