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!