On learning to scull

davidn · Post by **davidn** » July 23rd, 2006, 3:20 pm

Things are improving for me. I've been on the water every Sat and Sun morning for the last month. I havent fallen out of the shell in a while now. Although I have had a few close calls, they are getting fewer and farther between.

This morning we had perfectly flat water, which was great. I had a much easier time keeping my hands even and not having one go high and the other one low. The rowing instructor also recommended that when I find myself in the one hand high, one low situation to try to bring them together to get evened out - sounds obvious but I hadnt thought to do that until he said that.

Am currently working on trying to sit up straigt and not slouch. My rowing instructor says to push the butt out. I think the intent is to combine that exaggerated pose with my sloch to get something in the middle, which is more of a sitting up pose i guess.

Byron Drachman · Post by **Byron Drachman** » July 23rd, 2006, 5:00 pm

My rowing instructor says to push the butt out. I think the intent is to combine that exaggerated pose with my sloch to get something in the middle, which is more of a sitting up pose i guess.

Pushing the butt out could also help avoid the "guy thing" of opening up early and using the upper body too soon. Let me pass along a tip I read somewhere on this forum. When I find myself slouching, I pretend someone is pressing a fist against my lower back. I found that tip useful.

Byron

mpukita · Post by **mpukita** » July 25th, 2006, 8:38 am

Bad OTW morning ... had to share this ...

Rowed bow seat in a quad. Caught two crabs. Usually catching just fine, rolling up early but this morning was just plain awful. Had another short person in front of me, but couldn't seem to ever get the reach she did. She'd come to the catch and keep hitting (or almost hitting) my blade ... funky angles. I kept trying to overreach at the catch, fully compressed, and could go no further. 80 minutes into a 90 minute session I realized that someone had moved the foot stretcher all the way to the very back (toward the seat). No wonder I was fully compressed and unable to get the angles right! Moved the stretcher ... problem solved.

Another lesson learned ... check the stretchers every time I get into the boat!

Will it ever end (learning new things)? Gosh, I hope not! Still fun, even on a crabby day.

Cheers!

-- Mark

dennish · Post by **dennish** » July 25th, 2006, 10:19 pm

These are great stories. I'm still learning, ten years on. Getting those oar angles right in a quad is one of rowing's huge challenges. I'm always the bow in our straight four. It has toe steering. another huge challenge. as soon as the rate and/or the pressure goes up, around the boat goes to port. If I know the rate or pace is going to change I try to get a point that will keep us clear of buoys, fishermen, snags, coaches launches, shores and any other obstacle on our port side. And I always insist that we have any boat we are rowing with/against on our starboard, no use asking for "drag it down, Hard" Ahhh the many joys of rowing. Thanks dennis

mpukita · Post by **mpukita** » July 26th, 2006, 9:31 am

dennis wrote:These are great stories. I'm still learning, ten years on. Getting those oar angles right in a quad is one of rowing's huge challenges. I'm always the bow in our straight four. It has toe steering. another huge challenge. as soon as the rate and/or the pressure goes up, around the boat goes to port. If I know the rate or pace is going to change I try to get a point that will keep us clear of buoys, fishermen, snags, coaches launches, shores and any other obstacle on our port side. And I always insist that we have any boat we are rowing with/against on our starboard, no use asking for "drag it down, Hard" Ahhh the many joys of rowing. Thanks dennis

Dennis:

"Drag it down" being what we refer to as "Check it down" or have I missed a command? Just trying to learn ...

-- Mark

PS/NB - Our Canadian rowing friends think "way nuff" is just too funny. I forget what they say, but it ain't "way nuff".

mpukita · Post by **mpukita** » July 27th, 2006, 9:03 am

Nuther lesson learned today. Got the stretcher check down. Today, I learned you should check your blades to make sure the collar has not slipped, or been attached improperly. Kept getting admonished by the coach for not going into the water square. Had soft hands, felt the "click", couldn't figure out what in the world was wrong. After half the session or more realized that the blade was not properly put together, so "square and buried" was more like "sort of squared, but not really, and buried". Kept crabbing, and felt like an idiot, until we figured this out.

Oh yeah, anyone else have problems with goose s**t on their docks? Huge problem for us. I took a header handling a quad with 3 women today. Slipped in the rain and goose s**t. Fell as we were rolling the shell over to put it into the water. Caused them quite a scare, as well as the cox. For me, a goose s**t backside. Embarassing, and smelly.

Not my week, although once we figured out the blade matter, rowing by fours, finally, worked, and we got into the swing, finally, which was very sweet. Can't wait for Tuesday morning now ... to try to do it for more than a few strokes at a time.

dennish · Post by **dennish** » July 27th, 2006, 9:20 am

Mark, Sorry, but I'm still laughing. Not at you, but at the shared experience/. Goose shit is a problem everywhere. When we haul the docks back to the boathouse from winter storage at the reservoir marina there must be about six inches of crap that have to be shoveled off. And carrying boats and launching them is a daily dodge. And for what its worth I still work daily on getting the blade squared in a timely fashion before the catch. And the catch itself, lordy what a task to do correctly. The catch and all things attendant has become the bane of my rowing life. Good news today, lightening and winds at practice time so had to bag it, so the catch will have to wait for the next practice. Big weekend of bicycle racing, so I will miss the club events at Dillion this weekend. Think about that. Rowing at 9200 ft at the Frisco marina. Beautiful. Thanks again for sharing. Makes my efforts seem a lot less frustrating to know that others are going through very similar stuff. dennis

Bob S. · Post by **Bob S.** » July 27th, 2006, 9:21 am

mpukita wrote: Oh yeah, anyone else have problems with goose s**t on their docks? Huge problem for us. I took a header handling a quad with 3 women today. Slipped in the rain and goose s**t. Fell as we were rolling the shell over to put it into the water. Caused them quite a scare, as well as the cox. For me, a goose s**t backside. Embarassing, and smelly.

In Long Beach it was seagulls and probably still is.

Bob S.

mpukita · Post by **mpukita** » July 27th, 2006, 9:53 am

Bob S. wrote:
mpukita wrote: Oh yeah, anyone else have problems with goose s**t on their docks? Huge problem for us. I took a header handling a quad with 3 women today. Slipped in the rain and goose s**t. Fell as we were rolling the shell over to put it into the water. Caused them quite a scare, as well as the cox. 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!

Byron Drachman · Post by **Byron Drachman** » July 27th, 2006, 11:22 am

Oh yeah, anyone else have problems with goose s**t on their docks?

Hi Mark,
There is a simple solution. You put some (usually orange for some reason) barrels at the corners of the dock and along the sides, run strings of small flags or garlan between the barrels. It sounds too good to be true, but this absolutely works like a charm. If you want, I'll take a photo and post it.
Byron

mumbles · Post by **mumbles** » July 27th, 2006, 11:33 am

Hah, you guys should just wait for mating season when geese chase your boat

My advice to one and all would be to learn to scull before you learn to sweep as you will find the sull-row transition much easier than the row-scull and will probably be able to row both sides.

mpukita · Post by **mpukita** » July 27th, 2006, 11:56 am

Byron Drachman wrote:
Oh yeah, anyone else have problems with goose s**t on their docks?
Hi Mark,
There is a simple solution. You put some (usually orange for some reason) barrels at the corners of the dock and along the sides, run strings of small flags or garlan between the barrels. It sounds too good to be true, but this absolutely works like a charm. If you want, I'll take a photo and post it.
Byron

OK, you may have something here Byron. We use white plastic buckets with just some type of plastic-covered line between them. Works just "OK" ... but not that well to avoid lots of mess still. Today was awful. Maybe the color and/or the size of the flags makes a difference?

mpukita · Post by **mpukita** » July 27th, 2006, 11:59 am

mumbles wrote:Hah, you guys should just wait for mating season when geese chase your boat My advice to one and all would be to learn to scull before you learn to sweep as you will find the sull-row transition much easier than the row-scull and will probably be able to row both sides.

Owen:

Our LTR classes start sweep, in 8's and then 4's, and then the second class is all sculling in quads. I like sculling better ... not sure if it would have been better the other way round or not ... hard to say ... challenging getting going in any event ...

-- Mark

Byron Drachman · Post by **Byron Drachman** » July 27th, 2006, 1:40 pm

OK, you may have something here Byron. We use white plastic buckets with just some type of plastic-covered line between them. Works just "OK" ... but not that well to avoid lots of mess still. Today was awful. Maybe the color and/or the size of the flags makes a difference?

Hi Mark,
Yes, the flags made the difference. Our boat club used to use barrels with strings a few inches above the dock along the edges, and that helped, but we'd still get ducks and geese on the dock. Since I installed the flags, the ducks and geese don't get on the dock any more. I'll take a photo tomorrow if I can remember to take my camera with me. I'm at that stage of life, as they say, where I've become interested in the here-after. I go to the basement and then say to myself, "What am I here after?"

The only time there is any poop on the dock is when the last one off the dock forgets to put the buckets back at the edges.

Some people install large plastic owls on or near the dock in order to scare the ducks. That might work for a few days, but eventually the ducks figure it out. Some people spray fox urine (available at hunting shops) on the dock. Again, that might work for a few days, or until a good rain.

Something I didn't try:

1) I was thinking of posting recipes for roast duck and fois gras on the dock.

2) Since the flags make the dock look like a used car lot, instead of a plastic owl I was thinking of a plastic used car salesman on the dock with a recording of him trying to convince you to buy a used Jeep Cherokee with 200K miles on it. Nobody would want to get near that.

Byron

mpukita · Post by **mpukita** » July 27th, 2006, 1:57 pm

Byron Drachman wrote: Something I didn't try:

1) I was thinking of posting recipes for roast duck and fois gras on the dock.

2) Since the flags make the dock look like a used car lot, instead of a plastic owl I was thinking of a plastic used car salesman on the dock with a recording of him trying to convince you to buy a used Jeep Cherokee with 200K miles on it. Nobody would want to get near that.

Thanks Byron ... I'll send the picture to our club trustees and see if they're interested in giving it a try. I was lucky ... I only hurt my pride, nothing else on me, and the shell survived unharmed, but the 3 women got the goose poop scared out of 'em I'll tell ya!

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On learning to scull

An update on my progress