We had our second “on the water” session in our Learn to Row class tonight at MRC. Tonight was significantly better than the first night. We did a much better job of setting (leveling) the boat and we had a more authoritative coxswain (she said it was her first time, but I find that hard to believe) which gave me more confidence. We did a number of drills tonight. First we rowed four at a time. In this configuration either the bow four or stern four will row while the other four level the boat. This is nice as even if you really mess up the four that are leveling will keep things generally stable. We then did six at a time, which is the same story just with six rowing and only two leveling. I was in seat 6 tonight on port side. I liked that spot better than seat 5 that I was in last time (the bow seat is seat 1 and the seat in front of the coxswain is seat 8). Tammy was stroke seat or seat 8 tonight and did an awesome job setting the stroke for the boat.

At the midpoint of our class we actually started rowing all 8! That was very impressive. The first stroke that you all make together just launches the boat forward. It wasn’t pretty at all times as we are very, very green but it was pretty good. Apparently our class is progressing fairly quickly.

Tammy and I are both enjoying the class. I really like the team atmosphere of rowing. It reminds me in many ways of riding a pace line on the bike. I find the technical terms enjoyable (again, like cycling) and I like how you work together to create such amazing speed on the boat. We are both interested in continuing into the novice program at MRC which allows you to row in eights for the season. Who knows, maybe we’ll get in a league. 🙂

See first class and rowing pictures.