Crew Team Picnic!!!

We were supposed to have a regatta on Saturday, but it was canceled...what's a crew team to do?! Never fear! Courtney was there! She came up with the awesome idea to have a crew bonding/picnic/fun day instead! Unfortunately I had to miss out on it :( I had company visiting from up north! Bummer! So, here to recap the day, the lovely Courtney sums it up:

"Justin started smokin the ribs at his house around 8 am and loaded up the smoker into the back of his truck, before he threw the smoker in he tossed a hand full of wood into the fire box and looked like a train drivin down fletcher, Dr. Thunder release his fury on me after jordan angered him (soda kept exploding) we were playin footbal (soccer) and Football americana (good football) when the boys were just playin around chris wirth got hit in the face, We cut a watermelon with a Machette, a good old fashioned BarBQ with lots of food, fun, and crazy friends. huge alligator was on the shallow part of the river, our pavilion was right next to the boathouse for canoes and kayaks can't be too far away from the water of course.

Night time came around and we had a movie night at Jon Campana's house where we ate popcorn and watched "the warriors" which is a 1970's cult classic!
shortly after the movie we sat around and told jokes, which soon led up to playing some 007 golden eye!!

halloween party set for the 30th!!"

I know I'm not the only person that smiled and laughed reading that!!! Here are some great pictures that help display the fun times our team has together even when we aren't practicing! :)

Ok, I lied! Water Practice again!

I know I promised you guys a post on gym practices, but the heavens opened up last night and I received an email saying practice was on the water!!!(!!!!!)

Ok, so we were supposed to row another technique 8 this morning, but one of our rowers never showed up (often things can get in the way of coming to practice, hey we're ALL busy college students!) :( leaving us with 7 rowable people, 1 coach, and 1 man-down who volunteered to take pictures and movies from the launch! (feel better soon Chris!!)

So, what's a crew team to do with 7 people? Obviously we couldn't row an 8...so Joana, being the genius she is asked Mike if her and I could row the pair..And to our great surprise HE SAID YES!!!!!!!! I was super excited! I had never rowed in a pair before, and never rowed port either...and today I did both! Successfully! But more on that later!

So that left 5 people, perfect! They took out the 4+ and had an awesome practice working and cleaning up their technique. Mike was raving about how great they looked and based on the videos that Chris took of them I HAVE to agree!! Awesome work today guys! Chris took so many great videos this morning, but here's one of the technique 4 looking sharp!!


So while Mike and the launch was hard at work with the 4, Joana and I rowed off into the abyss of the Hillsborough! It was so great! We rowed 14k meters! Yup! 14,000!!! We are insane, but it was so awesome being on the water, we loved it! Mike finally caught up with us and expressed his concern that we were dead at the bottom of the Hillsborough River somewhere hahaha! Here's a great video that Chris took of us in the pair:


Joana and I didn't get back to land until 9:30 a whole hour and a half after practice had ended, but we were greeted with the smiling faces of some of our straggling teammates who stayed to help out :) Thanks Kayla, Jon, Chris, Adam and Mike for staying to help and chat :) today was an awesome practice for everyone! I'm so happy to call you all my teammates! <3

On the Water Today

Another beautiful bright and early practice on the Hillsborough River in down town Tampa, FL! We had an exciting day on the water taking out 3 boats! the women's novice 4, the men's varsity 2 and a technique 8!

The excitement began with our coach Michael not being able to start the launch, after we had all already rowed away..Mike was bragging about how he could start any engine in one pull...har, har! He wasn't able to start the launch, and being the self-sure guy he is, kicked the boat away from the dock and kept on trying...unfortunately he only drifted down the river and had to paddle his way back to get a new boat lol!!

In the technique 8 we had a new comer! Welcome Adam! :) We're happy to have you join the ranks of Rowing Bulls!!! You did an awesome job today at practice!

Since I was rowing today, I handed my duties as club historian over to Mike, and he snapped some awesome shot of us (like the one above) and took a few videos too! Check out this one I just uploaded onto our new youtube Channel:


Keep checking our YouTube Channel because we're going to have an awesome video put up tonight!

Practice was awesome, laid back but hard working as usual! Tomorrow brings a day of gym practices, Oh the glory!!

Sarasota 5k Regatta Oct 2, 2010

 Our first regatta of the season, the Sarasota 5000 meter held on October 2, 2010! It was hosted by the gracious Sarasota Scullers in the beautiful bay of Sarasota. It was such a great team bonding experience! An awesome day full of fun and laughs, and not to mention first place prizes woohoo :)

We raced 5 boats and brought home 5 gold! GO USF ROWING!!
Our awesome rowers competed in these 5 events:
Men's Collegiate Varsity 4+
Men's Collegiate Varsity 2
Women's Collegiate Varsity 4+
Women's Collegiate Varsity 8+
Women's Collegiate Novice 4+

Congrats team!! Also, a big thanks to Chris from coming out after his surgeries just to cheer us on, you're awesome and we're all so glad to be able to call you our teammate! Thanks for coming to show your support :) Our next regatta is set for October 30! It'll be spook-tacular!!

New YouTube Channel

That's right, keeping with the HUGE advances for today, our YouTube Channel is up and running! Subscribe to it to ensure you don't miss any awesome USF Rowing videos! OOH OOH CLICK ME!

Check Out Our Pictures on Flickr

Check out our Flickr account for our gallery of pictures from practices, regattas, and gatherings! CLICKY CLICKY Click ME!

What Our Water Practices Are Like

Now that you're all caught up on what our Gym practices are like, let me get your feet wet a bit and tell you about our water practices! Because remember: Crew = rowing = water + gym

So, we arrive at the Stewart Foundation Boathouse in downtown Tampa at 6am, it's pitch black outside and I'm pretty sure I'm the only rower that's seriously awake haha. I'm very much a morning person! Anyway, So we all gather in the parking lot before moving to the boat house, where all the magic of crew is kept: the boats, and oars!

After moving all the necessary stuff to the docks on the Hillsborough River (ie the oars and launch, which is the little motor boat the coaches follow us around in), we get the boat! This requires almost the ENTIRE team, and when i say entire team, I mean the entire team of rowers for the day, haha, so normally 8 :) Getting the boat out looks like this:

Once we man handle the boat off it's shelf, we carry it out of the boat house, like this:

Once cleared of the boathouse we put this monster whale boat on our shoulders and walk it to the docks, basically we have the strength of Super Man.

So, we've reached the docks, now we put the whale over our heads:

Ok, so now it's ready to go in the water, so all at once we roll the boat in, and it looks sorta like this:

Ok, phew, hard work is over! Time to put the oars in the riggers (the things that hold the oars to the boat)

And...we're off!!

So once on the water (yay!) We do some boring drills (yawn!) but of course they are all necessary. For the first half of practice we work on our technique, listening to our Coxswain (I love you Joana!!) The cox is the person that sits in the front of the boat and yells at you to do things, of course they yell at us with love :)

The best part of practice is after all the drill and technique work, WE GET TO ROW A PIECE (or two, or three haha). Rowing a piece means to actually row without stopping for a certain amount of time. This is what makes it all worth it. Feeling the water gliding beneath the boat, the perfectly in sync strokes, getting splashed with water, and LOVING feeling like your hands are going to fall off!

So, once we finally row back to the dock, dead and sweaty and wet, we reverse the process, wash the boat and oars down, and put it all away. Practices always end on a good, positive note, and I know I can't wait until the next water practice!