Oar Painting

Out first EMM team volunteer effort was a great success. Thank you to all who painted, taped, sanded, and ran oars all over creation. All 72 oars were painted with one coat and around 40% with a second. I will let everyone know if we will have more FIRE RED painting to do next Saturday. Thank you EMM.

First Row ...

Here's the GPS track of our first row of the season. 

Maybe our next volunteer project should be to build a flow-control dam upriver.

Florida rowing center

Florida rowing center was awesome! Trip back...not so much (check in trouble, delayed flight, missed connection, unplanned night in Atlanta, extra stop in Charolette...AHHHH!). Don't have much time to share right now, but a few things were especially helpful:

1. You don't "catch" the water, the water catches your blade. Once the water has "caught" and "accepted" the blade, it positions it exactly as it needs to be.

2. Keep pressure on the pins throughout the stroke. I've always sort of lost track of my oars while rowing, creating a lot of instability. By putting pressure on the pins, I felt much more confident about where my oars were. I think we all profited greatly from this bit of advice.

3. Get the blades out of the water as soon as your legs are flat. You actually slow the boat if you don't.

As I was rowing around trying to concentrate on these things, I also thought about Rick's coaching, and how hearing things explained a little differently made me realize I wasn't really thinking about them too clearly. They had become abstractions that I tended to just skim over--like, you don't really think about walking.