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A junior’s visit to one of the 2008 GLRF regatta booths has resulted in the first registration from Mexico. The rower asked if they could join, after seeing that Mexico was not on the booth’s posterboard display of GLRF worldwide communities. The rower, from Mexico City, marks the fulfillment of GLRF representation in the North American continent. Mexico now becomes the 27th country in the GLRF worldwide community.
Although most rowing is concentrated in and around Mexico City, there are numerous rowing clubs in the Yucatan Peninsula as well as some clubs in the north and east parts of the country. Mexico recently distinguished itself by winning Henley gold at the 2008 Royal Canadian Henley in the Senior B Men’s Pair with a time of 06:32:03 and the Junior B Women’s Single with a time of 08:10:35.
The five-day event had some amazing competition with a huge number of junior programs from the east and west coasts, as well as collegiate and senior races. There were a number of entries from summer rowing programs, including Thompson Boat Center, Boston Rowing Camp, Mobjack Rowing, Penn AC, Los Gatos Rowing Club, and Milwaukee Rowing Club to name just a few, and of course, some big name senior competitive programs like Potomac Boat Club, and Community Rowing.
This is the regatta to be at in terms of energy: sixteen rowing vendors and a great layout with lots of foot traffic: JL Racing , Rubini Jewelry , Wintech Racing Boats , Hudson Boat Works , Sykes Racing North America , Empacher North America , Vespoli Racing Boats , Kaschper Racing Shells , Nielsen Kellerman Electronics (the Cox Box company) , Connect-A-Dock , The Rowers Edge , Regatta Sport , USRowing , Row Balance , Sport Graphics , and Klinger Engineering Boat and Trailer Repair . The USRowing staff should be awarded the “Golden Oar” for an amazingly well organized, totally easy regatta. All vendors’ spaces were marked upon our arrival, the tables and chairs we reserved were ready, and the Camden Country Parks department was soooooooo supportive, including providing a water truck every day to help control the dust.
The weather was hot, hot, and hotter, with some humidity mixed in for extra measure. The GLRF booth had the best vendor geography, in terms of location, view, and shade. The booth was positioned under the overhang of a huge tree so the shade was wonderful. The daily wind gusts made our many paper displays and brochures into flying objects that needed continuous recovery.
We saw some familiar faces and GLRF members: Tom C. from Rhode Island swung by everyday to say hi, and gay-friendly straight guy Matt from Chicago’s Lincoln Park Boat Club swung by to say hello – he won a silver in his double competition, of course … (ahem, some of us have been personally left in the wake of ‘Mr. Filippi Flash’ at the Chicago Sprints in 2006…). We had a number of new faces stop by the booth and look around, including two guys (juniors) who held hands inside the booth (but … not outside the booth). They were doubles partners as well as supposedly bf’s. Were they gay or just yanking our chain? Who knows but they were both super nice, bought some GLRF gear, and were quite the amazing ‘super rowers,’ competing in singles, doubles, and quads, sometimes racing the 2,000-meter course three times in one day. They both went home with some clinkage around their necks. We had a lot of girls stop by the booth some of whom shyly inquired about what GLRF was all about, and perhaps, maybe, and we are so hoping, a registration will be forthcoming from Mexico.
Tom Gallagher from Sykes Racing North America was a few booths down so we chatted everyday, when it got quiet. He unloaded a Sykes quad rental for the Southwest Development Camp, and rigged it with the Sykes “quick disconnect” riggers . Wow, wow, wow. So quick: click, click, and rigged. We cannot believe every club in the country doesn’t opt for this configuration. With quick disconnect riggers, you can switch out a quad to a coxless four in a blink of an eye (Tom says it takes less than three minutes), and the same with a double/pair combination. Essentially, you get two boats for the price of one. In addition, you can stack more boats in a tight racking environment by eliminating the rigging. We helped unload the DC Strokes Rowing Club’s latest acquisition, a Sykes split eight. The boat just came off of a long-term loan but you wouldn’t know it. The reconditioned boat just gleamed and looked absolutely new. The boat was transferred to one of the two massive Klinger Engineering boat trailers that was loaded with newly repaired boats headed out for delivery.
Jeff McIntyre of Hudson Boat Works, was our leftside neighbor for the duration of the regatta. We can now recite all the advantages to a Hudson boat and hull design in our sleep. Jeff seemed super busy helping kids and their parents demo some of the Hudson singles – it seems that parents are now buying their kids brand new singles to row in high school. Geez, wouldn’t that have been nice back in the day….?!
Speaking of sculling, it was hard not to notice some of the lean junior bods parading past the booth, stripped to the waist in their uni’s due to the heat. Whoah, relax there incensed parents… we’re not turning lecherous, just observing. Most of the boys were typically built: lean, almost skinny thin, but some showed the signs of sweep rowing at an early age and a predisposition to musculoskeletal development problems. One arm was built, almost bulky, while the other was so thin that it appeared to be almost atrophied. We observed one rower with a defined, v-shaped torso, more muscular than most junior rowers for his age, walk past. His lats were so disfigured it was almost shocking: the left side was normal while the right side looked like it had implants it was so big. The Europeans seem to have it right: no sweep rowing until age 17. One father who stopped by the booth commented that his son was already enduring musculoskeletal problems after his son’s coach had switched him from port to starboard. Within two weeks, he was in to see the doctor with major body problems. A rowing rule change from sweep to scull under a certain age would have profound implications to the United States rowing communities’ under18 racing circuit, the junior club programs and their equipment investments. Still, it is something to think about. We know that Xeno Muller likes to start his kids in sculling and from the talk at this regatta, the collegiate coaches definitely favor juniors with a sculling background.
Roger, Rob, and Tyler from Klinger Engineering were our rightside neighbors for the regatta. We only saw them for the last couple of days but you couldn’t ask for a nicer group of guys. It’s always nice when the rowing community doesn’t blink an eye when they see the GLRF booth. It’s called acceptance .
Good news about the new Community Rowing Inc. (CRI) boathouse in Boston. We talked to several CRI parents, one of whom serves on the board, and the word is that the new boathouse will celebrate its grand opening at the 2008 Head of the Charles in October.
Laura from JL Racing was in the booth directly facing us so we had some fun chatting about California rowing, the GLRF penchant for listening to Broadway show tunes on Sirius Satellite radio while we unloaded each day, and reviewing pics of her gorgeous (very blond!) male Rhodesian Ridgeback dog. Her husband runs a development camp out of Lake Natoma east of Sacramento, mainly for juniors. Given the number of GLRF members in California, Oregon, and Washington, maybe we should set up a west coast rowing clinic there, just for women, in the winter?
When we arrived at 6:45 am on Sunday morning to set up, the main ‘big top’ tent just across from us had all the tables arranged in rings of inner and outer circles for the 11 am College Fair. Nothing could have prepared us for the crowd of parents and their “rising senior” juniors that gathered for the recruiting session. A rising senior is defined as a junior rower preparing for their final year in high school (secondary school). The event, sponsored by USRowing, was packed. The parents and their kids lined up in front of the GLRF booth and then stretched back for a good city block, allowing everyone to notice the Gay + Lesbian Rowing Federation booth as they awaited their turn for admission into the tent. One benefit to this positioning was that the coaches had a chance to observe the GLRF booth. It is amazing how youthful, attractive, and very athletic all these recruiting coaches appeared. Ahhh marketing! Let’s hope our coaches’ membership category sees an up tick ! http://glrf.info/leblogglrf/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif
Oh, didn’t you know? We now offer four categories of GLRF membership: rowers, coxies, coaches, and race officials.
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.
Le Var; He’s an Italian rower but lives in France and when he clicked “submit,” he became GLRF member number 700. The GLRF membership continues to grow as an international community with new members joining from Europe, Australia, and North America. Europe now accounts for 24% of the GLRF worldwide membership.
The continued growth of GLRF is cause for celebration but our conservative estimate for a realistic worldwide community is 6,000 members. As the membership roster continues to grow, it will help to show the the size and scope of the worldwide gay and lesbian rowing community.
The 2009 Copenhagen World Outgames staff will be hitting the US eastern seaboard campaign trail in June. Outgames’ Director of Sports Tommy Kristoffersen and his entourage will be hitting four cities: Boston, Washington DC, Philadelphia, and New York City. Rowers can find information about the events in each city by visiting the
GLRF United States calendar panel , and of course, rowers can get a look at the planned rowing venues and formats at the GLRF World Outgames Regatta page.
GLRF members in each of the four cities will also receive the new ‘calendar and message board digest’ emails that summarize new message board posts and new calendar events. The weekly email program is part of the GLRF project to help strengthen local and regional community ties. Over the past two months, the GLRF membership database has been undergoing a conversion to a regional focus so rowers in a given locale can learn about local and regional events without being inundated with extraneous emails outside of their area. As an example, the Boston event will go to GLRF members in the New England region: MA, ME, RI, NH, VT, and CT. The other event emails will go to GLRF members in the following three regions: New York, Pennsylvania /NJ, and MidAtlantic. .
If you’re a rower, you have probably had “some” interaction with an erg, aka ergomoter – as in a rowing machine. Most in the community are familiar with the industry standard, a Concept2. Almost every rower groans when you mention the erg. Competitive rowers have spent hours and hours and hours on the machine, building their endurance and proving their mettle to the coach and team. The essential measure is your split, meaning how fast you can row in minutes in 500 metres.
I recall GLRF member @adtan, a one-time Danish national team member, relaying that his split time for 20 minutes on the erg was really slow, at 1:49…. Such a humble guy…
Recently, I stumbled upon a WaterRower for sale that was just too good to pass up. I had tried GLRF member @steveo25 aka Den Mother and Kapuna Steve WaterRower at his place in NYC and loved the smooth feel. I discovered that my uncle was also a devoted WaterRower user. But I always thought a piece on the WaterRower was just a nice walk in the park. Little did I know how brutal the workout can be. A 30 minute piece at a stroke rate of 24.5 not only whipped my ass but provided a new awareness to every major muscle group in my upper legs.
The biggest drawback to the WaterRower has always been the monitor. It was cumbersome and unrealistic. The new S4 monitor offers every conceivable workout you or your Lucifer-like coach could ever devise. So now you can really track your whipped ass progress (in my case) in excruciating detail. So what makes the WaterRower so different than the Concept2? The simple answer is the feel. It is sooooooooo smooth, and for a sculler, it really replicates the feel of the drive of the legs into the footrests. While the Concept2 uses air resistance, the WaterRower uses water resistance. The enclosed container takes advantage of the principles of hydrodynamics to create continuous and increasing resistance the faster you row. It also helps to fill the tank to the maximum recommended level if you really want to feel the ‘boat’ at full power.
Apples and oranges: I’m not sure that the split times easily equate between the Concept2 and the WaterRower but if you’re just focused on an excellent endurance workout, give the WaterRower a go.
When rowing was cancelled as a featured sport at the 2008 Eurogames, we had been in conversations with a local Barcelona rowing club about the possibility of European rowers participating in an independent coastal rowing regatta on the same weekend. Unfortunately, that did not pan out.
However, there is another possibility: the XIV Banyoles Masters Fest International Regatta 19 – 20 Jul 2008. It sounds like a lot of fun – a low entry fee of 35 Euros includes all races and a dinner party with lots of delicious Spanish food and lots of FREE beer, and a cocktail regatta on Sunday evening. So if you’re still yearning for some Spanish sun, check it out.
We receive a fair number of inquiries from members looking to row as they travel abroad. Our usual response is to suggest a posting in the country forum of the member’s destination. We in turn send out a message digest email to the GLRF members in that country, letting them know there is a posting and suggest that they post a reply. Those digest emails can be very helpful when there are a lot of GLRF members in a given region of the country. But what about those countries where we don’t have members or where there aren’t many members…? Then it can be a little more of a challenge.
Part of the value of GLRF is the existence of a connected community. For those others who don’t have a “family” (huge smile here), they are left to their own devices – referrals, and research on the web, and thumbing through the Rower’s Almanac . Most rowing club members attempt to contact clubs at their destinations. That requires advance planning and more work, along with the hope that the club will check their email, and be open to welcoming outside rowers. Here are some other tips:
share your experiences with us so we can expand our knowledge base as Anna did when she visited Beijing ; for you web savvy among us, what do you suggest as a medium to share the repository of knowledge?
contact boat manufacturers – we did this with Carl Douglas Racing Shells and with Cucchietti Racing Shells in Argentina. You can almost guarantee getting a nice row on a new boat!
contact your local boat manufacturer reps for your region – they may have some connections abroad. Drew Harrison, the North America NW Region Rep for Wintech Racing offered this advice for a GLRF member headed to the pacific rim: ” There is a terrific rowing course outside Shanghai where the provincial team lives and trains. It’s as nice as any man made course in the world and was the site of my first visit to China, the 1993 East Asian Games. We stayed in lodging at the course, but I don’t know how to describe how to get there or the names of any current key people there. Our manufacturing facility is 3 to 4 hours drive from Shanghai in the Hangzhou region.”
A Lisbon sculler’s registration heralded the entry of Portugal into the GLRF worldwide community, marking the 26th country to compose the worldwide gay and lesbian rowing network. Portugal has an active rowing community with clubs along the coast as well as inland. Many northern European crews train in Portugal’s temperate inland waterways during the winter months. GLRF mapped some of the many rowing clubs in Portugal.
The 5th International LGBT Tournament of Paris, a weekend multi-sport event, will feature rowing as one of the 14 sports disciplines. The regatta will take place on Sunday morning at the Base Nautique in Choisy-le-Roi, a s suburb south of Paris. The venue is easily accessible from Paris using the regional train service.
The format will follow what is traditionally called a “stake race.” Competitors will race to the end, round a buoy, and return, in a timed format style. The race will feature one category: 4x+ (coxed quad). A similar attempt to organize a regatta in 2007 fizzled due to a problem with sourcing boats. This year, the organizing committee has resolved the issue by focusing the race on one boat category.
Racing will take place during the morning followed by a picnic along the rowing basin. Due to tournament event organizational constraints, the registration must close by 16 Mar 2008 so all rowers are encouraged to register very soon.
GLRF visited the venue in December 2006 and will offer its Seat Search service and message forum chat for all members.
