Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2009

This boat-rowing crew rocks

On some days at Falls Lake or Lake Wheeler visitors can see long, slender boats gliding smoothly across the water, powered by four or eight crew members pulling on many oars in perfect syncopation.

It has to be harder than it looks.

"When the boat hums, it feels so amazing, like a runner's high," said Nancy Blom, a coach with the Triangle Rowing Club.

"But when someone in the back messes up, it makes us have to push harder," Triangle rower Brian Munger said. "It takes lots of coordination to row without looking. When I first started, I would just stare at the oar, and then it became natural."

Munger, 17, lives in North Raleigh. The Raleigh Charter High School senior is one of 10 members of the Triangle Rowing Club, which was to travel Saturday to Boston to compete in the Head of the Charles Regatta. The event is the world's largest two-day rowing competition, according to the event website.

Two local youth teams, teenagers who once belonged to the Raleigh Charter High School rowing team and the Wake County Rowing Club, applied to the regatta months ago and were admitted through a lottery system, Blom said.

Row, row, row your boat

On a recent warm fall day at Lake Wheeler, the kids went through their paces. Some practiced in eight-man boats, others in teams of four. Each boat also held a young coxswain (pronounced kocksun) who sat in the stern, steering, motivating the rowers, and coordinating their power and rhythm.

Munger said the Head of Charles Regatta is his largest rowing competition ever.

"I am definitely excited," he said.

The Triangle Rowing Club is a new organization, formed when the Wake County Rowing Club merged with the Raleigh Charter High School rowing program, which was discontinued last year.

Brian Giles, 15, a sophomore at Enloe High School, was a member of the Wake County team who competed against Raleigh Charter.

"At one time, we were each other's rivals," Giles said. "Now we're one big family. It was pretty easy to merge."

Rowing is almost unheard-of in these parts. Blom, who moved to Raleigh from California's Bay area two years ago, started participating in the sport in 1983 when she made her college crew team on a bet with her roommate. Now 44, she still keeps in touch with her former team.

"The team aspect of rowing is incredible," she said.

A total-body workout

Blom estimates there are up to 250 youth rowers across North Carolina, with 44 kids on the Triangle team this season. Charlotte has a large youth rowing program, and there is a youth team in Asheville, Blom said.

Rowing attracts kids who are not typical athletes, Blom said. "Many young people who take up rowing have siblings who have done it," she said. "It also attracts kids who are drawn to anything unusual or different."

Munger likes to play baseball, but Raleigh Charter doesn't field a team, so when friends encouraged him to try rowing, he loved it. "It's fun and it's different," he said.

Giles, a soccer play who has been rowing for two years, has a brother who did it.

"I started in the eighth grade, and I enjoy the sport," he said. "I always get a thrill at the start of a race." he said.

Both boys agree they get the best workout from rowing. One would think the sport would require upper body strength, but athletes rely on their legs for power.

"Rowing is hardest on our legs and back," Giles said.

"When I row, I get a better workout than when running," Munger added.

Thinking of college

The Head of the Charles Regatta will be a three-mile race upstream.

Munger said his team's fastest time in a four-man boat is 18.27 minutes.

Giles says he'd like to get a scholarship and crew in college. Munger is considering crewing on the club sport level when he goes to college. Neither can imagine life without it. Coach Christine Shaffer agrees.

"Rowing is a lifelong sport," she said. "All you need is a boat, oars and water."