#20 You miss hitting a buoy by an inch

At every club there are always obstacles on the water. Sometimes you see them, sometimes you don't.

Once you get comfortable with the course, it's typical to get a little lazy with your bowing.  Being the overconfident person that you are you "forget" to check your surroundings and allow yourself to get caught up focusing on your stroke. Recipe for disaster.

You take one half-hearted look over your port shoulder - nothing. You continue rowing and call in your power piece. 3 strokes in and whoosh the buoy appears out of nowhere just skimming the end of your blade. Your heart skips a beat at the thought of almost disaster. Thankfully the rowing gods were on your side this time, and you managed to miss destroying your boat by an oar length.

AWESOME.

In the moment, sometimes you just forget to check your course...

#18 Finally being able to row after an injury

Getting injured sucks.  It's the same in any sport, not having ability train, perform and do what you love to do is the last place any athlete wants to be. All goals are put on hold, while your competition is out there getting better and faster. Pete Sampras puts it perfectly in his book A Champion's Mind; "It's a very depressing experience, and it takes all your willpower and faith not to sink into that bad place, mentally and physically."

Just like training, while injured you need to set goals for recovery. How long do you allow yourself to do nothing and recover? When do you plan on being back doing your sport?, etc. You need something to keep occupied and to keep your mind focused on something other than the unfortunate situation you are in.

The one thing you MUST remember, there is a light at the end of the tunnel!

Often coming out of an injury you know more about where you went wrong and where you can improve. Not everything is lost and you can come back stronger. The best example is of Silken Laumann, coming back from her horrific leg injury to winning an Olympic Bronze medal 10 weeks later. It's about perseverance, determination and never giving up on your goals despite any adversity. In the inspirational words of Justin Bieber...Never Say Never!

Awesome!

Boat strapping gone wrong....sooo wrong!
3 weeks after CK's injury she went on to win a Silver medal at the Ontario University Championship's!

#16 Seeing boats flip

Let's be honest, nobody's perfect. Bad strokes can happen, and sometimes by sheer fate they happen all together. You try to save it, but the second that oar slips out of one of your hands, you have to succumb to the fact that you're going in. Our only advice is....just hold on!

Even if it's intentional, it's still pretty funny.

Awesome!

#15 Rowing Personalities...Every Club Has One

We're not quite sure what it is about the sport of rowing, but it seems to attract some very unique personalities. Every club has them, they are normally a constant source of entertainment, frustration and are usually the butt of most jokes. Below are the typical rowing characters that you love to hate:

1) The Crazy One - This is person is typically known around the club for their unusual social and obsessive behavior, their unexpected outbursts, their bizarre outlook on the sport of rowing, and their complete disregard for their surroundings, which leads to many damages. Despite the crazy person's flaws, they have the ability to unleash their craziness in a race and because of that you want this person in your boat.

2) The D-Bag - This person is smart, good looking and unfortunately a TOTAL D-BAG. You'll typically find this person claiming to train way more than they actually are, lying about their erg scores, trying to sleep with any girl that will have them and always talking about themselves. They are a cocky and egotistical person, who will not help others and can't own up to their own mistakes. They are the know-it-all of every boat and yet have no results to back it up. From time to time you take sympathy upon this person because you see a good side to them and then immediately regret it when they live up to who they are by doing something D-Bag-esque.

3) The Over Controlling Master - This is the grumpy older person that you go out of your way to avoid. They impose ridiculous saftey rules, are always scrutinizing your every move, often think really old, heavy boats are perfectly fine for racing, and they don't like change. These people have been around the sport for so long, therefore they must know EVERYTHING. However, if you do get on their good side they will go out of their way to help you and can be quite nice.

4) The Overly Ambitious Novice - This person has never actually experienced real rowing or actually knows what it takes to be a good rower, however they believe that in a few weeks time they will be able to master the sport of rowing and win a few championship races in the 1x. This person frustrates the hell out of you and all you can do is wait patiently for their 'wake-up call', when they realize they actually don't know what they're doing.

5) The Negative Nancy - This person complains about everything, they are very unmotivating, not enthusiastic and the boat is somehow always tipping on their side. They are never willing to spend the time to get better and often bring down the crew morale. You wonder why this person rows because they seem so miserable doing it.

6) The No Brain - They are physically very muscular and pretty strong rowers. It is pretty difficult to hold a conversation with this person because they never seem to have a thought running through their head. They don't normally do much outside of the rowing world. They have a high pain tolerance because the thought of being in pain never really registers in their brain. You tell them to go and without question they go.

It's sometimes hard to live with them, but things would be so boring without them. And because of that we think all the different rowing personalities are.....

Awesome!

#10 People who erg to tone their arms

Rowing is a leg sport. Don't get me wrong your arms need to be strong, but in no way should your arms be taking most of the workload.

We can see how you would think that this is an appropriate upper body exercise, but from one rower to a non-rower, you're better off doing pull-ups and push-ups. One, you'll save yourself from looking ridiculous and two, you'll save your back. 

Despite the video's hilarity and our criticism, these little things provide endless entertainment for a rower, and because of that erging to tone your arms is...

Awesome!

#8 Novice Rowing

We all have to start somewhere, and in rowing that somewhere is not a pretty place. As a novice rower, you have no concept of good set, good technique or anything good for that matter, and it's common to think you are much better than you actually are. It's all about the learning curve, being coachable, staying positive during those days where the boat just can't get set, and remembering to have a little fun because in the grand scheme of things you're a novice rower and have a long way to go.

Fire and water don't mix.

And for all of those experienced rowers out there, share your knowledge and be encouraging towards those novice rowers because just remember...at one point you sucked too.

 

Encouraging laughter from the coach boat.

Awesome!

#7 Urban Dictionary's Definitions of Rowing

Urban dictionary knows what they're talking about.

1) The sport that consists of 1 to 8 people in which you row a boat with one oar each. It is extremely difficult and takes lots of different abilities. Most people think it involves only arms, which is so far from the truth. Most of the terminology can be related to sex, like the cox, crabs, and phrases like "In rowing, the catch is aggressive, the hands quick, the slide smooth, the drive powerful, and the oar is always hard." It is mainly a collegiate sport, but has been practiced around the world for ages.

2) A sport where people race boats backwards on water. It is arguably the most physically intense sport out there; it is not for the weak.

3) Rowing is the only sport to originate as a form of capital punishment. I still can't figure out why I like it so much.

Awesome!

#6 Erg Faces

There's nothing glamorous about erging. There's a love-hate relationship between rowers and the erg and we've yet been able to capture the love on camera. Instead, we've found these mixed emotions:

Over thinking it.

Anger.

SS seems to be enjoying this a little too much. Not acceptable.

Addicted to pain. Erging junkie.

Just plain Nasty.

Tears of pain. 

AND THE BEST ERG FACE GOES TO.........

Too scared to see his splits.

 

Possessed by the ERG

 No explanation needed. Erg Faces....

Awesome!