The GLRF Blog

On my first day in Copenhagen, I thought I would head over to the Danske Studenters Roklub for some time on the erg and some light weight lifting.  When I got into the erg room with 38 ergs lining the facing mirrored walls, people were standing around, waiting to get on the ergs. It seemed like a turnover, with one “class” ending and another about to start.

Little did I know what awaited me.  The coach told me to take a seat in the right side row if I didn’t want to row at full speed for 30 minutes. Okay, no problem. I like to plod along. After 2 minutes on the erg, I looked in the mirror and suddenly the entire opposite-facing erg row behind me was rowing in one huge wave, back and forth. Suddenly I was being told to pick it up… Yikes!  We did 10 on at full power, then 20 off, then after five minutes, I was told to reset the erg for 30 minutes and try to keep up. The national team rower next to me looked pretty fit but I thought I was keeping up, matching his pace stroke for stroke until I glanced at his split, 1:53 and mine was steady at 2:01.

Turns out this was the long distance rowing group who compete in 6 weekend events in the season, rowing 25km every other weekend. They row in the ocean and in larger canals in the Danish inrigger 2+ boats and three of them switch seats every 6 minutes, steer -> port -> starboard -> steer.  Winners accumulate 10 points for each event and then get a final 20 points if they win the last race.  The race takes about 2 hours. Talk about a sore butt!

If you haven’t seen Danish rowing clubs, you’re in for a surprise. They are like US country clubs with huge bathrooms outfitted with bay and after bay of wooden lockers and benches, and of course, a buffet dinner was served upstairs for the club members after their workout. (A dance class was underway in the main ballroom).

On my return bike ride to Chez Russell, the empty streets of Copenhagen were kind of freaky for a Los Angeles native at 8 o’clock at night. I counted maybe three car sitings on the road during my entire 15 minute bike ride.  LA at 4:30 am doesn’t even come close to that kind of street desertion. Great location for a spy movie or a sci-fi zombie movie …  I go back tomorrow night for 90 minutes of ‘fun with Rune.’  Now where did I put my flexeril and naproxen?

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The American Airlines coach cabin is very quiet right now as the flight is about four hours into the 6-hour stretch across the Atlantic enroute to Brussels. No babies wailing, the snoring has stopped, and even the restless European that wander the aisles have settled in for a nap. Not me. It’s 19:59h LA time. I’m wide-awake reading several days of the Wall Street Journal and finally, in the last issue, in the last section some good news for rowers.

The WSJ Personal Journal feature ‘Airlines Slash Fares to Fill Up Empty Seats’ reports that airfares on some international routes have fallen to ‘24 month lows and are 40% lower than last June.’ This is great news for rowers all over the world who may have written off the World Outgames as too pricey what with the oil spikes of last summer and the sudden downturn in global economy. The article indicates some ‘flights between New York City and Amsterdam, Madrid, or Frankfurt are now under $400 on Continental.’ There is even hope for our talented bisweptual rowing brethren down under: ‘… tickets between Chicago and Sydney cost less than US$1,000, down from more than US$2,000.’ From there, it is a quick hop across the pond to Europe. The article also mentions a secret bargain I discovered last year: Dublin, Ireland. Check airfares between all points in the US to Dublin and you’ll be amazed at the deals. From there, you can jump on a low-fare carrier and as the Danes say, “Get your ass to Copenhagen.”

Ready for some icing to go with that sweet carrot cake? If you haven’t been paying attention to the world financial mess, the US dollar is finally getting some strength against the Euro, which means that a World Outgames registration this spring could be even cheaper than 12 months ago.

The GLRF Outgames Regatta page has a Travelocity fare checker box that can give you a quick look at airfares. Check it every week for the next month and you might just find a price too good to pass up.

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We heard whispers of a planned rowing camp in Washington DC after the Austin camp was canceled.  We wondered what was up and stopped by the DC Strokes website and discovered the camp is ready for registrations.  Ideally, a GLRF member would submit the event for the GLRF calendar using the event submission button but that had not happened so we took the liberty of adding the event to the GLRF calendar, given that there are many DC Strokes rowers who belong to GLRF.

After we posted the event, we received an email from the event organizer asking if GLRF could promote the camp to the GLRF membership. Now this is where it gets awkward, or not, actually. It’s really very simple: any GLRF member can list a rowing-related event by submitting the event using the submit event feature, and it will go on the GLRF calendar.  If a club or organization wants to use the GLRF email list to promote their event, then that falls under the GLRF Regattas + umbrella, which is a paid listing.  Rowing camp listings  are $130 and regatta listings are $280.  There is bang for the buck for these fees: listings on the Rowing Camp page or the Regatta page, a newsletter listing, a separate message board forum, a seat search listing service, and targeted emails to the GLRF membership.

Why the fee? Shouldn’t GLRF support the community? Well we do, all the time. But we need the rowing community to support us, especially if the promotional activity will result in an increase in paid registrations for the event. There is no such thing as a free seat in the boat!

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How can you not love Danish rowing god Adrian T? He posts on the GLRF ALL OARS message board and he submits events for the GLRF calendar.  His latest event entry came in yesterday for the 2009 Tournoi de Paris Rower’s Stake Boat Race.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, a stake boat race is a relay down and back around a stake or marker.  The French call it un régate au piquet.  The race structure will follow a timed format for a 3,000 meter distance.  Boats will race along a 1,500 meter course, turn around a buoy at the end of the basin and race back to the starting line.  We set up a forum in the Calendar section of the ALL OARS message board so that GLRF members can chat about the event.

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The 2009 Copenhagen World Outgames just blasted their latest newsletter and it has some some rather interesting and edgy items.  First is their new ad campaign developed in partnership with the Copenhagen ad agency REPUTATION.  Talk about wild! It gives new meaning to the word diversity.  Can you pick out the rower, coxie, or coach in the picture?

Next is the latest registration offer – a Valentine’s treat: anyone registering for the 2009 World Outgames between 29 Jan and 22 Feb 2009 gets a free, all-week access pass to the world famous Tivoli Gardens in central Copenhagen.  There is some fine print, of course.  The pass is good for just one person, and not for two which is kind of implied in the newsletter promotion.  The good news is that if your partner is joining you and just wants to buy an Outgames visitors’s pass, they get the same deal.  Then we jumped over to the Tivoli website and discovered that there are two separate prices – one for park admission and one for amusement rides.  Updated 30 Jan 2009: After contacting the Outgames staffers, here’s the 411: a normal, daily pass usually costs DKK 85 (~US$15) so it is quite a deal in and of it self.  The pass only provides access to the Tivoli Gardens and nothing else.  However, Outgames pass holders get a DKK 50 (~US$9) discount on the multi-ride ticket (all-ride pass) from DKK 200 (~US$35) to DKK 150 (~US$26).

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What’s better than a date with Skyes North America rep Tom Gallagher?  We know several women and quite a few guys who can’t think of anything better but how about a 10% discount on a rowing shell?  Okay now that we’ve got your attention… get your fingers warmed up and prepare to transmit those entries!

Famed Australian racing shell manufacturer, Sykes Racing Boats, is rapidly approaching a big milestone: the 5,000th boat to come off their assembly line.  To help celebrate the big day, Sykes North America is offering a fantastic prize drawing to the person(s) or club(s) who submit the three closest picks to the exact boat completion date.

Sykes North America will award three prizes for the three closest dates:

• First Prize is a 10% discount on a shell purchase or a $500 cash purse
• Second Prize is a 5 discount on a shell purchase or a $250 cash purse
• Third Prize is $150 in Sykes merchandise and accessories

The rules for entry are pretty simple: you and your club have to be located in the United States or Canada, and you currently have to own a Sykes boat and/or your club or team has to own a Sykes boat.  One entry per person but if your club owns a boat, that means every person in the club could send in an entry.  Unfortunately, the folks who are using a Sykes boat in the Sykes North America rent-to-own program or the trials program do not qualify.

Send in your best single day guess to prize5000@sykesna.com  Deadline to enter is 15 Oct 2008.  Hmmm, we wonder if a few rounds of drinks might extend that deadline. What do you say Tom?

Oh, and here is some insider information to help you get a better shot at winning:

Boat #4600 was built in Mar 2008; boat #1000 was built in 1988; and boat no 1 was built in 1966, long before Tom Gallagher was born….

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If you’re on any gay and lesbian sports mailing list, you have probably been inundated with emails in the past two months about the 2009 World Outgames Early Registration promotion.  If you’re reading about this for the first time, the pitch is simple: save 20% on your registration fee if you register before 30 Sep 2008.

Since there are only 7 days remaining and human nature being what it is, many of us might be waiting, procrastinating, hesitating, mulling it over, or just thinking about it.

We used a currency converter to see exactly how much of a saving you can get from a 300 Denmark Kroner discount. Forget the 20% – that is so nebulous. Let’s look at cold hard cash:

• Americans save US 59
• Argentinians save AR 183
• Aussies save AU 70
• Brasilians save BR 108
• Brits save UK 32
• Canadians save CA 61
• Europeans save EU 40
• Hungarians save HU 9638
• Kiwis save NZ 86
• Mexicans save MX 634
• Russians save RU 1473
• Swedes save SE 288
• Swiss save CH 64
• South Africans save ZA 479

We just updated the GLRF Outgames page with new information on budget housing and added some content for those who are discovering the Outgames for the first time.  Yeah, it is a very expensive rowing event, in relative terms but you are also getting a lot of bang for your Kroner: no boat rental fees, mulitple event entries, no per seat fees, and two separate rowing events.  It begins to seem like a pretty good deal.

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We keep pinching ourselves so often it hurts. The GLRF booth is situated in the vendor village area of the Canadian Henley just 15 feet from the water. We have an unobstructed view of the first 1500m of the course! It doesn’t get much better than this! This video was shot on day 2 of the 2008 Royal Canadian Henley and shows the view and most of the course. As you can see, all the boats launch from this super long dock directly in front of our booth. At the end of the video, you’ll see a quad race crossing the 1000m mark. The weather has been hot, humid, cool, sunny, cloudy, windy, and rainy. Can we get fries with that too? Frequent thunderstorms have forced several races to be suspended over the course of 5 days – this blog update is written on Saturday. Day six, Sunday, will feature the morrning masters events and then more finals including a final only that Chris X. from Austin Rowing club will be racing. The biggest highlights have been the incredible talent from Mexico. The Panamex pair team has cleaned up and some of their other entries have also earned ‘Henley Gold.’ The Argentinians and Germans have done very well, and of course, Union Boat Club, Community Rowing, and St. Catharines Rowing Club, among others.

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Row for the Cure is a program that allows rowers to raise funds for the local affiliates of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.  We provide this explanation because although Row for the Cure is well known in the United States, it is less known to the broader GLRF membership.

GLRF had the honor of meeting the founder of Row for the Cure, Kathy Frederick, at the 2008 USRowing Masters National Regional Championship Regatta. Her booth was our rightside neighbor for the weekend.  The Row for the Cure regattas are fun events that bring rowers together and benefit a great cause.  GLRF supports Row for the Cure, because 28% of our current membership are women, and because some of our own members are breast cancer survivors.

Do you have to be a woman to support the fight against breast cancer? We don’t think so.  The terrible affliction strikes to the heart of all families, co-workers, and loved ones.  I was the last one to let go of my grandmother’s hand as she was wheeled off to surgery for a lump in her breast.  I will never forget her outstretched hand begging me to stay with her, the tears streaming down her terrified face, as she she went through the operating doors.

We have added the 2008 Row for the Cure regattas to the GLRF Calendar and we have added a forum in the ALL OARS REGATTAS + category – Rowing Events of Interest so GLRF members can chat and post about any of the events, split a hotel room, or put a boat together.  Need to get away? Why not plan a fly-in with your friends to one of the many cities hosting a Row for the Cure regatta.

Thank you.

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It’s that season again, when the straight and gay media go crazy over ‘out’ Olympic athletes. They are heralded for their courage in the face of public and team scrutiny. They are lauded for their public statements criticizing public officials or public policy. When a national rowing team roster was announced recently, we spotted a couple of familiar names. Undoubtedly there are more ‘family-iar’ rowers, on many teams around the world. Should we be especially proud of gay and lesbian Olympic rowers? The quick answer might be yes, because these athletes supposedly have had to endure super closeted lives, hiding their feelings and enduring the agony of living a lie. The real answer is that in today’s sports environment, most everyone on the team probably already knows and doesn’t care. The real focus is on winning, something that every athlete has had to prove every day and every hour for months if not years. The agony for many rowers, gay and straight, came in the last six months, when the Olympic lineups for each country’s rowing team were announced. For those who didn’t make the cut, thoughts of could have, should have, and would have flash through their minds as they compare and measure themselves against others and wonder why they weren’t selected. We doubt very much that being gay or lesbian is at the forefront of those thoughts.

As the rowers ramp up for the Olympics in these final days, they’re rowing upwards of 60,000 meters a day, and they are on the water three times a day. The last thing they are thinking about is their own sexual orientation or someone else’s. Their thoughts are a mixture of self-criticism, team criticism, extreme body awareness, hunger, thirst, and sleep.

These rowers, selected or not, have sacrificed their lives, their families, their relationships, and their careers for a chance to win. If you’re a rower, you know the hours of erg time invested, the endless pieces on the water in freezing rain and howling wind, and the physical pain to push harder in the last 500 meters on the course. Lets give everyone the same attention, the same respect, and the same awe for their Olympic orientation.

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