To add a news article, you need to register/login.
The Florida Rowing Center is eagerly awaiting the completion of their new boathouse on Lake Wellington in West Palm Beach Florida. The boathouse is part of a new community center complex and will feature two boat bays. For those FRC alumni who are holding their breath, the boathouse is located just feet away from the old outdoor awning where the sculls were housed.
The fully enclosed boathouse has two roll up doors and wheeled racks for the brand new shells that are featured at the start of each season.
Speaking of which, the 2016 - 2017 season opening day is 16 Dec 2016 and will run through 30 Apr 2017.
The rowing center offers three programs:
3-day session
4-day session
7-day session
Within those programs, the center offers three class options:
Sculling Camp
Beginner, Learn-to-scull
Experienced sculler
Each participant receives individualized coaching, videotaping with critique and take-home video, use of the rowing center's equipment, daily hot breakfast, and of course, a FRC t-shirt.
The
2017 World Outgames has opened registration for the 26 May - 04 June 2017 event.
Early bird participant registration is available now through 29 August 2016 (well, ... they said in the announcement ... before 30 August 2016) for US$150. They are also offering a deferred payment plan of 40/30/30, with 40% due upfront and then the balance due, in equal payments, in the next 60 days, or 40% due now, 30% due in another 30 days, and then the final 30% due in another 30 days after that.
On 30 August 2016, the participant registration fee will be US$250. Keep in mind that we are emphasizing 'participant' because there are two fees, a general participant fee that allows one individual to just be part of the World Outgames, as in participate. Then there are sport-specific fees for each sport. For rowing, the sports fee is US$125. From our read, it appears each participant can register for as many rowing events as they want.
We started a registration because a search of the website does not actually show either the participation fee or the individual sports fees. The participant registration fee information came from an email.
As usual for rowing events at gay multi-sport events, there is no rowing-industry electronic registration. Instead you register yourself as a participant and then you select one or more sports. Attached are several printscreens of the registration process to prepare you for how the registration works. For rowers, you can check up to three forms of rowing:
rowing (which means for single scullers)
rowing pairs (which means for those wanting to row in a 2x or a 2-)
rowing teams (which applies to those wanting to row in a 4+ or an 8+)
The registration part of the website appears to be running on a separate software script. There does not appear to be any help screens or FAQ or help pop up buttons. For individual rowers who will all eventually be registering, the registration screens can be/will be daunting/confusing. What we suggest is to just register your participant part first, and then come back to add your rowing selections later. Why? If you check all three forms of rowing, the system wants to know your team name or team captain, or wants you to create a team, right then. If you don't have that information yet, you're stuck. The form won't move you along to pay. You keep getting an error code.
If you don't pay and save, it appears everything is saved as a cookie so if you return and click register, you will be right where you left off. Oh, one other thing - there doesn't appear to be any published refund policy so plan for the worst ... no refunds.
Now, about the venue:
The information you see when you click on the the venue link is a mish mash of two rowing clubs. Literally!
1. The images show the building for the Miami Beach Rowing Club, which is in Miami Beach.
2. The venue says 'Miami Rowing Club.' Look for the stadium icon below the images. That is a completely different rowing club that is two long bridges away from Miami Beach.
3. The address also shows Key Biscayne, which is the postal address of the 'Miami Rowing Club.' Actually the Miami Rowing Club is on Virgina Key, which is before Key Biscayne but hey, that's just details. Take a look at the map. Zoom out. You'll see the locations of Miami Beach and Virginia Key.
Add a comment if you're confused, or you just want to hash tag a thought or two or say the system is rigged ...
When rowing was cancelled as an event at the 2015 Eurogames in Stockholm, the 34 rowers who had originally registered for the event were left with non-refundable airline tickets and the option of requesting a refund for their Eurogames registration or participating in another event. The choices were not appealing and two GLRF members from Denmark, @adtan and @runegartner, decided to organize an alternate event. After contacting two local rowing clubs, Stockholms Roddförening and Hammarby Roddförening, Adrian and Rune were able to organize two alternate events: a rowing tour around Stockholm and a regatta at Magelungen rowing course.
The rowing tour, which was held on Friday, 07 August, using boats provided by the clubs, launched two flotillas, one from Stockholms Roddförening and the other from Hammarby Roddförening, at 10h00. . Some of the boats were the classic 4x+ inrigger which easily handled the sometimes large swells encountered outside the shelter of the islands, but four brave rowers held a steady course in spite of some large waves, in a quad racing shell. Because of the count, one rower showed everyone the meaning of coastal rowing, by taking to the waters in a single coastal rower.
The perfect summer weather allowed the rowers to experience Stockholm and its many islands from its best side: the water. Large tankers, ferries, powerboats, and water scooters zoomed around the boats, with smiles and hand waving ... and without regard to the wake they created .... The warm northern sun seduced two rowers to jump into the water when the Roddförening flotilla stopped for a break in the middle of the open water way. We'll leave it to GLRF members @runegartner and @boyd0094 to say whether the decision was insane or delightfully refreshing ...
The two flotillas approached from opposite sides of Stockholm, and eventually the boats rowed around Djurgården and rendezvoused at Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde for a picnic. Friends and husbands met up with the rowers for the lunch. The gathering had a very international makeup: Swedes, Danes, Englishmen, Dutchmen, Germans, a Hungarian, a Nigerian, and an American. After a long and relaxing rest on a grassy knoll, far above the geese dung near the shore (Canadian Geese is one more immigration problem that European countries are facing ...), some rowers switched out boats so they could enjoy a different return boat trip and the two flotillas landed, as planned, at 15h00.
The regatta, which was organized with support from the Gay and Lesbian Rowing Federation (GLRF), was held on Saturday 8th August. The rowers raced in three boat categories: coxless fours (4-), double sculls (2x) and quads (4x) over 500 m. The crews competed against each other across age and gender categories using handicaps based on FISA Masters ideal racing times. Eighteen crews participated – including a local double scull crew from Stockholm. Magelungen provided a beautiful and calm setting with perfect rowing conditions and a buoyed, six-lane course for the many close races. Faced with no medals, GLRF went to work to create a medal worthy of the regatta's location and the skill of the gathered rowers. The result were big, huge medals with a pink and blue coat of arms design and a Swedish colored neck ribbons of blue and gold.
After the regatta was over, the rowers gathered at the Eurogames outdoor closing ceremony and with their medals on display, it seemed like every eyeball in the gathering turn and ogled: what is this, who is this? Wow .... Yeah, we're rowers. Get in line ... and we'll teach you how to row or just give you a quick course in how to ... st***e.
All of the rowers owe a huge thanks to Stockholms Roddförening and Hammarby Roddförening – and Robert Vigert @robertvigert in particular – for making the two rowing events such a success and an unforgettable experience!
The sports director of the 2015 Eurogames, Micke Forslin, notified the rowers registered for the regatta that it was cancelled. The reason for the cancellation was the lack of adequate registrations (only 28 rowers had registered).
The organizers of the regatta offered their sincerest apologies for not being able to host the event. They advised all registrants that they could see a a full refund on their registration fee.
Attempts are currently underway to salvage some kind of rowing event for the rowers who are currently registered.
[Edit: Two alternate events have now been organized for rowers, a recreational row around the islands of Stockholm, and a scratch regatta at Magelungen.]
They called it Stonewall On Steroids. A record breaking number of entries and a 25% increase in participants pushed the XXII (22nd) Stonewall Regatta to an almost record capacity for a one-day event. The official regatta tally was 251 entries from 26 clubs with the most distant entry coming from Los Angeles. That record number of entries pushed the total participants to a count of 525. Unnoticed by the organizers, the DC Strokes Rowing Club, that fact pushed the Stonewall Regatta up a notch. USRowing classifies regattas in three categories: small, medium, and large. Small regattas are 0 - 499 participants. Medium regattas are 500 - 999 participants, and large regattas are 1000+ participants.
Congratulations Stonewall Regatta. You are now a medium-size regatta!
Led by the experienced team of Elisabeth Morgan, Joe Henderson, and Susan Jacoby, and 12 other committee members and an amazing group of volunteers, the 2015 Stonewall Regatta was a grand success. Under party cloudy to mostly sunny skies, rowers raced on Sunday, 07 June 2015 from 08h30 to 16h30. Mostly calm waters and little to just light breezes made racing easy and the infamous Washington DC humidity decided to take a day off. Debris on the Anacostia River was almost nonexistent. The rascally tides that hold sway on the Potomac River and the Anacostia River made their presence known as the stakeboats began to move around 11h00. Unfazed, the USRowing race officials shifted to floating starts and race starts remained on schedule.
This being Washington DC, the brilliant accountants and statisticians who make the US government function immediately set to work to explain the jump in race entries. Was it an increase in eights? Actually, the number of eight entries was down slightly. Was it from a particular club or in a particular boat class? As Joe Henderson, registrar of the regatta explained over a mai tai at the after party : "there was no real cause ... entries were up almost 25% across the board."
Following the regatta, rowers gathered at a special private party at Vida Gym's rooftop bar and pool at the Washington Navy Yard. Rowers relaxed around the pool, in sectional firerpit seatings, and hung out at the bar to discuss the finer points of their wins and near wins. Very few regattas have such fancy digs for a post-regatta party. Kudos to Brian Forehand for putting together an amazing evening!
GLRF hosted a booth at the 2015 USRowing Southwest Regional Junior Championships at Lake Natoma, east of Sacramento, 01 - 03 May 2015. Other than some afternoon winds gusts, weather was perfect for the racing and crews were racing for finishes as well as qualification for the USRowing National Junior Championships in June at Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota, Florida. The regatta had 570 entries from 35 clubs, including several from brand new juniors clubs.
The racing was incredibly competitive with three races being called by photofinish.
The juniors went crazy for the GLRF biSweptual shirts and the wild spandex shorts. We lost count of the number of parents who came by to say how great it was that the GLRF booth was at the event. Thanks Mom and Dad!
GLRF hosted a booth at the 2015 Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships at Lake Natoma, east of Sacramento, 25 - 26 Apr 2015. The weather seemed to be a carbon copy of the previous year, with a massive rain storm on Friday evening and then perfect weather Saturday and Sunday. Crews from 36 clubs competed over the two day event. University of California Santa Barbara had the most first place finishes but crews from lesser known schools like Lewis & Clark, Western Washington University, and Humboldt State University also recorded first place finishes
The GLRF booth was a crazed with people as crews snatched up the new Port and Starboard Curious shirts, the discounted Naked Rowing calendars, and the wild spandex shorts. The Humboldt State crew that came in first in their race had all purchased wild pink zebra shorts and they were the talk of the race as the crews came down the course!
A big shout out to the 6' 5" hottie rower from UCSB who bought the GLRF Come Out and Row shirt and wore it around the regatta all weekend.
GLRF once again hosted a vendor's booth at the 2015 San Diego Crew Classic, 28 - 29 March. The entries were slightly lighter this year due to a scheduling conflict with the women's Pac-12 Challenge. Even so, crews from all over North America converged in San Diego for a weekend of typical California rowing: sunshine and calm water.
It was great to see GLRF members from both the East and West coast who stopped by to say hello and catch up.
This year marked the launch of the latest GLRF t-shirts, Port Curious and Starboard Curious. The t-shirt design was a result of a rowing good samaritan who had stopped by the GLRF booth at the 2014 Head of the Charles. He declared that he had an idea for a shirt and he would give it to us for free if we promised to make the shirt. We said we might, if we knew the concept. After he revealed the idea, we smiled and said, yep, you have our word.
Fast forward to the 2015 Crew Classic where the shirts were put on display and guess who stops by but the rowing good samaritan who jumped with delight at seeing the shirts on display. Needless to say, we were happy to wish him well with a complimentary shirt and pride in our chest that we kept our promise.
Credit for the shirts must also go out to GLRF member @Bob715 who did the final editing for the back of the shirt that made it so wildly popular among the booth visitors:
GLRF doesn't usually reveal our members' true identities but we are happy to give a hint to those rowing folks in the know. He signs his emails as BBBBBB!
GLRF increased its country membership representation once again when a current member updated his profile to reflect his residence in Zimbabwe. GLRF now counts 42 countries with members.
With the new GLRF Countries application, we were able to bring the GLRF Zimbabwe country page online in less than an hour.
Although rowing in Zimbabwe is not well-known, the country has had several recent high profile rowers winning at the Under 23 World Championships as well as compete at the 2012 Olympics.
A recent World Rowing article, highlighted the accomplishments:
And where does one row in Zimbabwe? At the Hunyani Rowing Club on the Mazowe Dam, of course!
Nigeria became the 41st country in the GLRF Worldwide community when a member registered from the city of Abuja. With the addition of Nigeria, the GLRF Africa - Middle East region has expanded to 6 countries: Israel, Kenya, Nigeria, Qatar, South Africa, and the United Arab Emirates. For those who wonder about rowing in Africa, there is a strong competitive rowing presence. Take a look at this article in GLRF Categories: African Rowing Championships extend medal spread.
When thinking about Africa, most people think of Egypt or Kenya or South Africa. In fact, Nigeria is known as the "Giant of Africa," with a population of 174 million, making it the most populous country on the African continent. Nigeria's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the largest in Africa, exceeding US $500 billion, overtaking South Africa, and ranking as the world's 21st largest economy.
A warm welcome to our first Nigerian member, and we hope he will spread the word and encourage other rowers to join from around the African region!
