Just got back from Spring Training in Tampa.
I dream of boats.
This week I
coxed the
mens novice eight. More of a
challenge than the
varsity, and you don't feel the boat
move under you as much, but it's there, the
potential.
(fresh souls..)
In the morning, we
launched at 5 AM, sliding the 8 through the blue-green water reflecting all of the lights of downtown
Tampa. The
reflections were so sharp it was as if we were suspended, cutting through the
bridges and emerging in some sort of a
sphere, encompassed by the brightening horizon in the
sky and in the
bay.
Morning, later
morning, afternoon, and land training started to run together punctuated by eat sleep and shower I started to
dream of
boats. In my
hotel room I'd fall asleep and feel the
bed swimming beneath me and think "
down to port" or "
starboards, raise your hands" and run through sprint
starts in my head.
three quarters, half, half, three quarters, full, high 10, settle 10 to a 32...ok, first 500-- this is our move for the leg drive. I want bow in 10...
And when I got up again
it was all the same. I'd stand up, carefully balanced, in the stern of our 18-inch wide 60-foot long
boat, explain the drills.
Focus on catching together at high ratings-- remember, arms and body quick out of the bow. I'd sit down,
(all eight, sit ready at the finish-- ready, row) and we'd row, and keep going.
Most crews train in
Tampa during the spring or
Melbourne. Coast Guard Academy,
Yale, University of North Carolina and others were there-- we raced the UNC men in a
head race, I cut them off with the
inside turn(
prepare to clash oars-- we're rowing through them!). Yale.... the Yale men had
ratio.
If you know what I mean.
(rowing pun)
And the
vandalism. Painting the
bridge is a
rowing tradition. For anybody who's been to
Boston, the banks of the
Charles are a good example. This
spring,
Michigan dominated by painting the 50' x 50' counterweight on the raised
railroad bridge downstream from the
boathouse with a huge 'M', yellow with a
blue background.. But on
Thursday night at
midnight, we took
Princeton's bridge. Stole a
launch, whipped out the
rapelling equipment, and 8
gallons of purple and white
paint.
NYU
Violent Crew
Novice 2001-- Pulling Together
Which started off as 'Pulling Togeter' but was quickly corrected. Were not distracted by drunken heavyweight UNC men jumping off of
bridges. Finished that at 4:30, changed, and went to practice.
Now back in
New York, to the
cold, dirty
East River.