RoW rOw RoW........rOw your boat...!!!

Confused? Please don be..i aint writing any rhyme…I’m writing about - rowing experience…!
I’ve always liked the adventurous things I’ve seen in TV. The things I knew I could never do….
For example, I saw the movie “Cliffhanger” and I thought climbing those gorgeous looking mountains would be fun… I saw “Vertical Height” and I thought Mount Everest was the most beautiful thing in the world and decided atleast once in my life time I will climb that majestic beauty… I saw the Free Willy series and I thought the sea was so enchanting and whales were cute, so I wan’d to check the deep blue sea and the whales…

Apart from getting my inspirations from TV, I also had other passions… I wan’d to get into any one of the wing of the armed forces( INA was my most favourite)… wan’d to finish the 3 years in NCC… Wanned to learn Bharatnatyam… BE able to dance western dance efficiently… Wished I could learn Ballet or Gymnastics… So on and so forth…

But……I’ve never-ever thought about ROWING… I used to enjoy watching it on TV though… As I always said, God brought this opportunity of being able to learn how to row, my way… A Rowing competition between companies, an event which the company I worked had been taking part for two years… Even this year it was taking part and wanted people to participate… I was skeptical about it in the beginning, but decided to try my luck at home and when I got my permission, I went for the practice.

I was marveled by the way things happened in Madras Boat Club… It has the honour of being 150 years old along with a great reputation… I wasn’t there to start my practice but just to see how everything went and decide upon whether I will continue or not………I loved it there and decided to continue…….

The next day, I was all set to take up my rowing sessions, I was there and went thru the warm ups and did the ergo…(Ergometer is a machine which helps u get an insight to the rower’s movements and the oar’s as well…)and then waited to get hold of the bank tub or simply a static boat. This is a boat where a person realizes how his movements are going to be and how he has to use the oars when he gets into the boat which can move……but unfortunately I dint get the chance to use the bank tub…And my coach came back from his coxing for others and thus started our circuits…they are nothing but a series or exercises to be don together without pause…and trust me, for a person like me who’s an alien to exercises, the circuits were tough…
Actually, I was wondering why we had to do so much of rigourous exercises after all the rowing…? The explanation I got was perfect…It goes like this….
When a 700 mts race is held, the first half will be a cakewalk and mostly the last 200 mts will be determining the winners...So, doing rigourous exercises when we think everything is over, will improve our stamina which will also help back to back racing as well…!

Brilliant isn’t it…..!

Only after getting into the water will I know how it feels to actually row a boat, both for pleasure and for a race…!!!
I am waiting to experience the feeling of rowing the different kinds of boats available…Scull, pairs, pairs-doubles, fours, fours-doubles, pleasure, out rigger and of course bank tub :-)

Sculling is one person handling both the oars and basic rowing would be in pairs or in fours where there are two and four people respectively with an oar each…In pair, the person in the front is called the STROKE and the one behind is called BOW (the first two are called stroke pair and the next two are called the bow pair in fours… This way, we got sculling pairs(two rowers with two oars each), sculling fours(four rowers with two oars each)…!

And finally, I went rowing on a boat that was not static…!

WOW…! It was such exhilarating feeling!!! I should accept that I was freaking out from inside coz the open span of water in front was scaring me a bit…

I was in pairs and am the stroke…I face the cox and I should say, mine was really tolerant with my squeaks and brainless behaviour of letting go of the oars for a couple of times…The boat rocks like a cradle when rowed in a wrong way…and I was really good at rocking the boat than rowing it smoothly…! After a couple of mins, I kinda got over my panicky feeling and felt real cool when me and my partner (bow) rowed steadily and the boat moved comfortably…!

I realized that fear can stop one from doing wat he/she wants to do or enjoy doing…I will not say, I was all that cool, but the panic did reduce gradually and in few more day, I’m sure it’l VANISH…!

But for that, I need to be real careful and remember the words of my cox as a MaNtRa: “Don even dare dream of letting go of the oars…” – holding the oars, help in balancing the boat and more importantly, STAYING THE BOAT…!

Now, I’m hoping I learn to do the rowing properly without letting my oars go and making sure don fall into the water…ah! And of course, not to take my cox and Bow along with me…!

Luv
aLiEn

P.S.: As reminded by my friend i jus decided i would also write down the very thought that i was gonna be on the boat, gave many a reason to laugh their heart out..!
Being a hefty person, the thought was that the moment i sat in the boat-it would go down to the waterbed as in loony toons and be sitting there with a glum look and waving goodbye...! A friend who was allegedly expected to be my patner when i went rowing in the water now flatly states, she aint gonna be my partner for she loves her life......! we used to laugh together thinking about ou fate as no one else for sure would not trust either of us andaccompany...This leaves the both of us - TRUSTING eachother.... :-)