On learning to scull

[Byron Drachman]

Hi Mark,

Here is a link to our dock with the flags:

http://www.math.msu.edu/~drachman/row/no_duck_dock.jpg

This morning the next dock, the MSU varsity dock, was full of ducks. They use barrels and string. The ducks and geese don't even think about getting on our dock. I guarantee if you use flags like this you will never find any duck or goose poop on your dock. I noticed that when ducks get into a dock, they don't fly and land on the dock. They land on the water and jump onto the dock from the water. They probably don't want to get tangled up with the flags. I'm just guessing here. I'm not on speaking terms with the ducks. But as I said, the flags do work.

I'll send the picture to our club trustees and see if they're interested in giving it a try.

Ooops. I never even thought about asking permission to put up the flags at our dock. I just did it. People are very happy with the poop-free dock.

Byron

[mpukita]

Thanks Byron! Great picture and sounds like a solution to our poop problem.

Better to ask for forgiveness then beg for permission! Ha ha!

[LJWagner]

Cool that many more folks are sculling. My aged Pocock trainer sits by the side of the house, years since its been rowed.

My tips:

When your sculling turns to crap,or when beginning, stop and go back to basics.

Basics means:

1) first hands only, no power, no legs. Get a good feel for your balance in the boat.
2) if balance is bad, make it worse and try to row square, as previously suggested. Not sure if a good idea for beginners.
3) As things improve, try a bit of slide.
4) Don't add more if what you are currently doing is not good.
5) Little by little, more slide and a touch of power.
6) Once you can go full slide light, SLOWLY sneak in a bit more power.
7) And a bit more and bit more. Sometimes, you'll keep it all together until you are going all out. Really cool. Sensation like walking on a tightrope, that is slowly tipping downward and you are making yourself run down it fsater and faster, trying not to fall off (flip).

Hands vertically close. Too far apart, and soon you're in the water.

Hand rising ? Its a crab ! You are about to pull the boat over. Probably a cocked wrist. Roll the wrist straight and end the stroke, recover right there. Re-adjust your fingers on the oars so the wrists are straight when the oars are square to the water.

My worst days were also my best, as I went back to this and had a couple very good rows of up to 1000m or so at full power. Never went much longer than 1000m that way because I was going too hard, getting sweat in my eyes, and did not think I would get going that well anyway. But It was always great while it lasted.

Once I accientally went between a college 8 and coach's launch who were stopped (I was about 30). The starboard oars leaned them high out of the water to let me and my blades pass under (I did not know they were ahead of me), about 3 feet from their boat, and no one said a word. I was so freaked out by the near collision I lost it about a 20 m ahead of them and had to go back to paddling. They just watched me blast past in silence. I still have that weird image in my mind. Wish I could paint it.

I think I was also struggling, and handling, a lot of boat wakes in the marina that morning, having to adjust foot pressure constantly, so I was not looking much beyond the rear hull of the boat, just watching the wakes coming at me. Well focused. I eventually noticed being surrounded by launch behind to the right, eight too close along my left, and oars inclined over my wake, and more coming into view. They must have thought me a real idiot to not look where I was going. And I was. But they let me maintain my concentration until their boat and oars were out of danger.

[Rockin Roland]

As so many of you are experiencing hot conditions, now is the time to abandon your ergs and seek out opportunities to row on the water. Once you've learnt to row you'll find it far more enjoyable to go out in a boat for an hour than to spend that time stuck in a room on a piece of gym equipment. It may take some courage to break away from your usual erg routine to do it but the people that I know that have done it haven't regreted it.

The biggest obstacle in transition from erging to rowing/sculling is technique. Erging requires very little technique. Some elite ergers may like to think otherwise. However the reality of it is that a 6"8" 120kg bloke that pulls monster ergs cannot expect to jump into a boat and clean up the competition within a short period of time. It takes several years of constant technique drills in a boat before you can seriously challenge your peers.

Perhaps this is the greatest drawback for those wanting to row on the water. It gets very frustrating when you try and immediately apply the same power that you usually do on the erg, in a boat, but the boat wobbles everywhere and can't get up out of the water and run. Then a 17 year old girl, that only pulls 7:45 for 2Ks, just glides on by.

Too much power too soon (before your technique is ready) is your greatest enemy in a boat. You just can't bash away at the water with your oars and expect it to run well.

It is important that you have the following:

1) Good coaching so that you learn fast and don't develop any early bad habits.

2) A boat and oars that are correctly set up for your size and ability.

3) Loads and loads of time to spend on the water to develop the necessary skills to move a boat.

[Byron Drachman]

Great postings by LJW and Rockin Roland. Even during the miserable hot muggy heat we have right now it's pretty nice early mornings, a little before daybreak, on the river.

I would add one more thing: take a learn to row course, go to a rowing camp, or make friends with a good sculler and learn that way. First time out, go ahead and do some capsize drills (flip the boat on purpose and get back in.) You'll be more relaxed if you realize that flipping is not a big deal.

You should be warned that rowing on the water is addictive.

Byron

[Ray79]

rowing on the water is addictive.

Byron

Its like Crack - And I havent had a fix in weeks. Cant wait til Saturday.

[Joanvb]

.... For me, a goose s**t backside. Embarassing, and smelly.

In Long Beach it was seagulls and probably still is.

Bob S.

Probably just as dangerous and smelly!

Not exactly . Geese are a tad bit larger than seagulls...the Long Beach dock doesn't get too slippery or smelly (even with the occasional heron, egret, or a duck or two, but no geese). Seagulls don't make quite the sloppy poop mess, and when it starts to build up, it's hosed off. (Rain is rare...rowing paradise year round....Compelled to show a little Long Beach pride here. )
Links to dock photos (during boathouse remodel): http://www.longbeachrowing.org/images/P1010007.jpg
http://www.longbeachrowing.org/images/P1010009.jpg
http://www.longbeachrowing.org/images/P1010019.jpg
Stop spreading stories, Bob ...(and come back and row with us)
I do understand, Mark...I've rowed at places where geese share the water (and the dock)! Looks like you are finding solutions.

[Bob S.]

In Long Beach it was seagulls and probably still is.

Bob S.

Probably just as dangerous and smelly!

Not exactly :). Geese are a tad bit larger than seagulls...the Long Beach dock doesn't get too slippery or smelly (even with the occasional heron, egret, or a duck or two, but no geese). Seagulls don't make quite the sloppy poop mess, and when it starts to build up, it's hosed off. (Rain is rare...rowing paradise year round....Compelled to show a little Long Beach pride here. :) )
Stop spreading stories, Bob :) ...(and come back and row with us) :lol:
I do understand, Mark...I've rowed at places where geese share the water (and the dock)! Sounds like you are finding solutions. :)

Sorry, Joan. I didn't really mean to run down LBRA. I am still proud to be signed up as a member, even though it is just a supporting rather than an active membership. I think that just about any OTW venue is likely to have bird poop problems. One of my jobs as a kid back at Pt San Quentin was to put up the anti-seagull flags on our rental skiffs before I anchored them out where they would still be floating at low tide. Of course there were also the clean up chores when some of the bolder ones ignored the flags.

One of the tricks that the seagulls pull is drop mussels on the deck. John N. says that it doesn't crack them open, but stuns them so that they open up of their own accord and then the seagulls can get at the meat. Clever birds, but it does leave a few mussel shells scattered about the deck - well it beats having droppings and they are swept off easily.

Regards,

Bob

[Joanvb]

Thanks, Bob. You know I'm just kidding...and that seagull mussel trick is pretty clever (and, yes, a bit untidy!)...

[Rockin Roland]

Nice shot of the quad Joan however I'd have reservations rowing at Long Beach with all those power boats there. How many of those power boats stick to the 5 mph speed limit? Surely you must spend a lot of time rowing in their dirty water or is there an area you can row where they aren't allowed to go?

[Joanvb]

Good observation It's not as bad as it appears, except you don't want to be rowing around Naples, the residential island (4K around), after about 10:00 a.m. on a sunny Saturday or Sunday .

During the week most days, motor boats aren't a problem. Yes, the 5 mph is strictly enforced for the motor boats (not for the rowers, though! ), because of the havoc the wakes would play on the pricey docked boats (who cares about the rowers!).

Before 8:00 a.m. every morning, Marine Stadium, which is the last 1000 meters of the 2000 meter course, is closed to motor boats. This is great for an unobstructed, measured distance (250's and 500's marked, and a bike path running along the length of it). Rowers have to be out of that 1000 meter area after 8:00 a.m. when the power boats and water skiiers can have their fun. That's the only place where speed boats are allowed to go over the 5 mph (they can go out in the ocean for that, anyway, which is accessible from the bay).

Additionally, there's a 3 K "back channel" closed to motor boats at all times.

For those new to rowing in Long Beach, the biggest problem is usually knowing (and remembering) where the speed and other marking buoys are...Sometimes they get moved, and they seem to have shell magnets on them.
Of course, in warm weather (okay, so that's most of the time), there's a need for increased awareness of distance swimmers, paddle boards, kayaks, canoes, outrigger canoes, Dragon Boats (at least we can hear them!), and the fishermen bobbing in inner tubes.
Oh, my gosh, it sounds terrible...It's not....it's really a lovely place to row!
Thanks for asking.

[Bob S.]

Thanks, Bob. You know I'm just kidding...and that seagull mussel trick is pretty clever (and, yes, a bit untidy!)... :)

I didn't really take you seriously, but it gave me an excuse to tell a couple more stories. I must admit that bringing up San Quentin was a bit of trolling, but it was true enough. John may have told you about the chat we had at Boston, talking about our mutual experiences of having the children of correctional officers as our classmates.

Bob S. (just a mite off topic)

[mpukita]

Joan:

The hugest benefit you have out there is being able to row OTW all year round. We'd kill for that! Heaven ... even with the "traffic".



Regards -- Mark

[Joanvb]

Thanks, Mark
Downside...Requires tougher decisions in the winter about whether to erg or row...and, if one chooses the erg, enduring crazy looks from rowers arriving at the boathouse on a sunny winter day with calm water right outside the door.

[Byron Drachman]

Hi Joan,

Like Mark, I would love to have that choice all year long. I don't row if there are thunderstorms, if there are high winds, or if the river is frozen. Otherwise I row on the water.

Last year the rowing-on-water season was about 10 months long here (Michigan.) The river was frozen all of December and most of January.
When the water is very cold, I dress like an Alaskan kayaker (lightweight breatheable drysuit and kayaker's PFD to try to avoid cold shock) and use a rec boat such as Maas Aero, which is just about unflippable. The upside is that I have the river to myself in the winter when the river is not frozen. It sounds strange, but I've had some lovely mornings sculling during a light snow.

Hi Mark,

Back to the poopy dock, this morning I pushed a corner barrel in a little to make leaving the dock a little easier. That left two strings of flags lying on the dock instead of flapping at the edges. Next trip past the dock, the dock was full of ducks. The little buggers were just waiting for a chance to get back on the dock. So I returned to the dock, and put the barrels back at the edges with the flags back to bordering the dock. It's a little inconvenient to leave the dock and return with the flags in place, but it's not that hard after you figure it out. After putting the flags back, next time I passed the dock there were no ducks on the dock.

Byron