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29 Jun 2009 - Vancouver; GLRF hosted a vendor booth at the 2009 USRowing Northwest Masters Regional Championship Regatta 26 – 28 Jun 2009. Under sunny skies, crews competed on mostly flat water with some occasional wind gusts that threw in a few start and finish complications (as well as booth display challenges). The event was held on Vancouver Lake in the city of Vancouver. For those who might be confused, there are two Vancouver’s in the northwest region of North America: Vancouver, Washington and Vancouver, British Columbia.
For GLRF, the event offers a chance to develop awareness among a large geographic representation of attending clubs and rowers: 45 clubs participated from Alaska, Texas, New Jersey, California, Washington, Oregon, and almost every club in British Columbia. This year marks the third time GLRF has hosted a booth at the Northwest Masters Regional Championship. GLRF members from Washington, Oregon and British Columbia stopped by to say hello, and even after 6 years of GLRF’s presence on the regatta scene, several rowers came into the booth with surprise and wonder having not known of GLRF’s existence. The GLRF Bisweptual shirts were the hot ticket as rowers brought their entire team to the booth to view the shirt and read the GLRF.info dictionary definition of bi-swept-u-al.
USRowing hosts regional masters events all over the United States. Traditionally, the events are meant to offer local competition where clubs in a given regional area are given a competitive priority in a race (if an ex-regional club wins first place, the highest placing regional crew will also earn a gold medal). The US northwest region includes Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Montana, Wyoming, and North and South Dakota. However, due to the tremendous increase in popularity for this event, the competitive priority rule has been suspended. As of this year, the competition is simply race and win. In the past four years, the regatta has experienced an exponential growth, with entries jumping from 500 to 900. This year alone saw a 100 + increase in crew participation: 970 people competed in 900 entries.
James Rawson, the USRowing Northwest representative indicated that time is so tight that the regatta committee has had to eliminate the traditional 20-minute breaks. The Friday race schedule starts after the coach and coxie meeting at 10:30h with races held on 6 minute centers from 12:00h to 18:30h and on Saturday and Sunday, races arer held on 7 minute centers beginning at 07:00h and extending to 17:30h and 15:00h, respectively. Rawson said that on a per capita basis, the Northwest Masters Regional Championship is as well subscribed as the US Masters National Championship, and has effectively reached its capacity in its current configuration and structure.
Brilliant sunshine greeted GLRF members and other rowers from six countries (AU, BR, CH, DK, FR, UK) who gathered for the third hosting of the TdP Régate on Sunday, 31 May 2009 at la base nautique de Choisy-le-roi outside of Paris (see GLRF photo set taken in December 2006). Held in conjunction with the end of May weekend-long Tournament de Paris, an annual three-day LGBT multisport competition involving 11 sports and 2 fun events, the rowers competed on a 1500m. course. The sprint competition offered two preliminaries, a petit final, and a grand final.
Since only 20 rowers gathered for the event, lineups were selected by draw and crews took to the water to race on a 3-lane, timed course. Races were held in the C4+, a coxed quad that approximates a “wherry” (english translation) which is slightly wider than a traditional racing shell with a higher gunnel and free water line. Crews took turns as coxies, and the fastest three times advanced to the finals.
The previous year, the race format had been a course au piquet, known in English as a stake boat race. Regatta organizer and GLRF member Gilles F. explained that due to a plethora of sailboats on the rowing course, the previous TdP had to use a timed, piquet head race format. Since the rowing venue is only 1800m., the format had involved a 3,000m. down and back relay around a buoy. This year, with the absence of the armada of sailboats, crews could race side by side.
Following the races, participants gathered for a delicious afternoon picnic hosted by the Voile et Croisière en Liberté Sailing Club in the expansive park grounds alongside the Parc interdépartemental de Choisy-le-Roi offices and rowing clubs, and with a spectacular view of the water. With some rest, rich sunbathing, and good chat, the group returned to Paris for the big closing party at the Bercy Village.
Three US cities have submitted bids to host Gay Games IX in 2014: Boston, Cleveland, and Washington. All three bids feature rowing in their sports compliment. Every bid must describe the venue, the organizational support, the expected participant makeup, the competition format, the anticipated budget and the cost for the sports fee for each participant. Current Gay Games event fees include both a participation fee and a sports fee.
Boston’s bid for the 2014 event is slated for the week of 26 Jul – 02 Aug 2014. The rowing competition is projected to be held on the Charles River, on a six-lane, 2k course over a three-day period, Monday 28 Jul – Wednesday, 30 Jul. Launch and recovery would be from the Weld Boathouse. The expected number of participants is listed between 100 and 150. The participation fees will be offered in a three-tier system for early, regular, and late: $135 - $190 - $200, respectively. The sports fee for rowing is $119. The Boston regatta would offer Novice, Open, Masters, and Adaptive events for men and women as well as the possibility of an Elite category. The bid includes the 7 most popular boat classes: 1x, 2x, 2-, 4x, 4-, 4+, and 8+.
Cleveland’s bid for the 2014 event is slated for the week of 09 Aug – 16 Aug 2014. The rowing competition is projected to be held on the Cuyahoga River adjacent to Lake Erie on a six-lane, 1k buoyed course over a three day period: Sunday, 10 Aug – Tuesday, 12 Aug. Launch and recovery would be from Wendy Park on Whiskey Island, a site that is a favored location by the Western Reserve Rowing Association for their summer regattas. The expected number of participants is listed at 80. The participation fee is slated to be $135 and the sports fee for rowing at $75. The Cleveland regatta would offer would offer Novice, Open, Masters, and Adaptive events for men and women as well as the possibility of an Elite category. The bid includes the 7 most popular boat classes: 1x, 2x, 2-, 4x, 4-, 4+, and 8+.
Washington’s bid for the 2014 event is slated for the week of 26 Jul – 02 Aug 2014. The rowing competition is projected to be held on the Potomac River on a six-lane, 1k buoyed course over a three-day period: Sunday, 27 Jul – Tuesday, 29 Jul. Launch and recovery would be from the Thompson’s Boat Center on the Georgetown side of the Potomac. The area is a frequent location for regattas from multiple rowing clubs in the Washington DC area. The expected number of participants is listed at 300. The hosting club, DC Strokes Rowing Club, has indicated that it would consider merging its annual Stonewall Regatta with the Gay Games regatta event. The participation fees will be offered in a four-tier system for launch, early, regular, and late registrations: $100 - $125 - $175 - $225, respectively. The sports fee for rowing is $100. The Washington regatta would offer Novice, Open, Masters, and Adaptive events for men and women as well as the possibility of an Elite category. The bid includes the 7 most popular boat classes: 1x, 2x, 2-, 4x, 4-, 4+, and 8+.
New in the bid process cycle for Gay Games IX is a new rule change that permitted the bidding cities more flexibility in their sports selections. Previous bidding requirements mandated that a bidding city offer all 22 “core” sports and then a selection of up to 8 authorized additional sports that together number no more than 30. Now bidding cities can choose to offer as few as 18 of the now 24 listed core sports, as well as new and additional sports to meet the 30 permitted sports.
The list of core sports has grown over the years with the expansion of aquatics from one to four separate core sports. Similarly, the list of additional sports has expanded to a list of 18 sports. Although rowing has never been included in the list of core sports, it has been listed as an authorized additional sport since 2002.
Members of the General Assembly of the Federation of Gay Games will vote on the bids at their annual meeting in Koeln, Germany the week of 26 Sep – 02 Oct 2009. The winner will be announced on 29 September 2009.
The 2011 Rotterdam Eurogames will feature rowing as one of the featured sports events. The 1,000 meter competition is expected be held in the new championship rowing course currently under construction just outside of Rotterdam. The 10 million Euro project will meet the FISA class A requirements for an international standard rowing course.
The news follows a vote by the 2009 annual general assembly of the European Gay and Lesbian Federation, which gave a resounding endorsement to the unique joint Eurogames 2011/2012 bids presented by the cities of Rotterdam and Budapest. The combined bid is intended to showcase the duality of the free Western European society compared to the more restricted Eastern European society. The bid cities have received letters of support from the government and sports officials including an endorsement by the chair of the Netherlands Olympic Committee, Erica Terpstra. The two cities will cooperate in a unique volunteer exchange programme and use a shared registration platform.
There are two levels of Eurogames: large scale and small scale. The larger event is held once every four years and the smaller event is held annually. Eurogames are licensed by the European Gay and Lesbian Rowing Federation and are considered to be the largest athletic event for gay, lesbian, and transgender people in Europe
Since 2004, rowing has been a featured sport in every ‘large’ Eurogames event. The last large Eurogames, held in Barcelona in 2008, had rowing as a listed sport but the feature was canceled just days before the opening of athlete registration. See related story.
[Edit: Unfortunately, rowing had to be scratched due to the delay in the construction of the rowing facility in Rotterdam]
Our news alerts caught this item: rower Spencer Duhm was written up as the youngest gay member of the lastest installment of the CBS show ‘Survivor.’ Now in its 18th season, the show is shot in Brazil where 10 contestants battle it out to see who is the last man or woman remaining. The article says Spencer, who is openly gay, rowed for the University of Florida. He had to drop out of school and off the team (obviously) to compete on Survivor.
Spencer has since returned to Florida and is back in school. No word yet if he has rejoined the rowing team. If anyone can get in contact with Spencer, please tell him we’d love to have him join the GLRF communuty (and do a rower’s perspective interview). Hey Spencer, great smile!
We just received an email announcing the launch of a new rowing poster design service, Brush Strokes Fine Art Rowing Posters. If your club is planning their upcoming regatta, consider creating a fine art rowing poster for the event. There is nothing more memorable than a framed fine art rowing poster to put on your wall to show your participation. With the advent of the electronic age, the practice of printing rowing posters has gone by the wayside as costs have escalated for design, printing, and distribution. As much as medals or trophys may be interesting, a rowing poster really helps anchor those memories and shows your friends your rowing addiction. A poster also helps build teamwork by allowing the entire crew to sign the poster, forever memorializing your boat.
For a limited time, owner Joseph Brin is offering free poster design services to GLRF member’s clubs.
Does GLRF get a commission from mentioning this? Nope. We just think it is part of what makes rowing a special sport and what sets it apart from the rest of the sports community.
GLRF member Karl S. relayed the news that the 10th annual Austin Winter Retreat has been shelved for 2009. Sara Mai Conway, Austin Rowing Club's new Club Manager, indicated in an email to retreat organizers that the club's facilities for the President's Day Weekend had already been booked by three visiting crews which effectively blocked all available launches. In addition, the annual Winter Warrior regatta, scheduled for Saturday, 14 Feb, would be taking up most of the Austin Rowing Club equipment.
The Austin Winter Retreat has been held every President's Day weekend since 2000. The event was first organized and run by Row Team Austin, the gay and lesbian rowing squad based out of ARC, and the dominant crew at the 1998 Amsterdam Gay Games. Following the integration of Row Team Austin into the Austin Rowing Club, the event became a profitable staple of the Austin Rowing Club. The retreat routinely hosted rowers (gay and straight) from Texas, Massachusetts, New York, Wisconsin, Washington DC, and California. The three-day event usually began on Thursday evening with a no-host reception at a local bar followed by twice daily on the water training sessions in both sweep and scull categories on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. On Monday morning, all remaining participants were assigned in two or three boats for a scratch regatta. The mix of social activities and a challenging rowing schedule each day made the event a welcome break for rowers suffering the winter blues in North America.
The 2008 Austin Retreat saw one of the largest attendance in the event's nine year history, with over 30 rowers attending the weekend including 8 women. Club members are looking to re-organize the event for 2010. Pictures of the 2008 event can be seen here.
If you have never experienced the Oartec Rowing Simulator, it is definitely worth the time to give it a go. Many in the rowing community say it is the best land-based replication of the full sweep and scull rowing movement.
The machine made its North American debut last year at the Head of the Charles. Since then, it has garnered critical acclaim and gained distrubtion agreements worldwide. What makes the machine so unique is its three-in-one capability to simulate bow side, stroke side, and sculling movements. It is the first machine to offer realistic land-based technical training for rowers and coaches.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubPVig8rWbw
The first thing you notice is that the machine is massive. It has LOTS of metal tubing and support. But don’t let that dissuade you from giving it a go. After one stroke, you’ll feel the familiar rowing movement from catch to release. Add some cameras, mirrors, and the guiding hands of a coach, and you’ll be able to feel and comprehend real-time that which you can’t understand in a boat.
Australian Matt Roach, the inventor, designer, and owner of Oartec, will be on hand at the Wintech booth at the 2008 Head of the Charles to provide information and give hands-on demonstrations.
We just got an email from Anil Lamba of Ankaa Shoe Exports. If you don’t know the name, you probably know his shoes since they are featured in so many rowing shells. We make mention of this offer not only because it is beneficial to the GLRF community but also because Anil is one of those people whose eyes show pure honesty, acceptance, and absolutely none of that discomfort that some of the other vendors exhibit as they pass the GLRF booth at regattas.
He is offering a special promotion price of US$37 per pair, delivered (yes, you read that correctly, shipping included) with a minimum of an order of 8 or more pairs. Now, if you truly want to look fabulous, you can add your club/team logo to the shoes for only US$1 more per pair but the minimum is higher – 24 pairs.
This promotion applies to any model and any size, and runs through the end of December, 2008, that is 31 Dec 2008.
Given the state of affairs with the US Dollar, many of you will probably want to know what kind of deal can be had for rowers down under, across the pond, below the equator, and all that sort of thing. We’ll give Anil a chance to reply directly on here but you can also email him directly.
Ah, the things you learn at regattas booths…
They’re back, the FISA racing shells. For those whose memories might have faded, FISA started an initiative in the late ’80′s to standardize raching shell hull designs worldwide. The idea was to eliminate ‘variations in performance’ due to various hull shapes and equipment. This was also probably a result of the sliding rigger boat design introduced by Empacher in 1981 which was banned by FISA just three years later, on 01 January 1984, because of the decided speed advantage it gave to all who raced in that boat.
The FISA racing shells were developed by the FISA materials commission and were offered to all boat manufacturers. Although the standard was never formally adopted, apparently many boat manufacturers did avail themselves of the designs. Some of the shells built from the mold specifications did in fact earn gold on the world racing circuit. Subsequent manfacturing innovations led to variations in hull design and construction as each boat manufacturer sought to distinguish their brand as the fastest boat. As a result, the FISA shells fell out of favor and disappeared from the brochures.
Now Chris Oxner of Mission Rowing fame and H20 Composites, has brought the design back as a way to provide a low cost, comptetive product for North America. Using their state of the art carbon kevlar construction processes, Chris is able to offer a remarkably low cost club racing shell in both the single and double categories.
