personal: this side up.
I figured I’d share this with both my personal and work blogs as it’s kind of funny and a little humbling. In my personal blog, I always write in smallcaps, so just ignore that fact, and hopefully you’ll get a laugh out of my morning.
my friend heath and i have been rowing every morning for the last 6 weeks. after seeing summer storm about two months ago, we both got the itch. i rowed for a summer in university (thats where the b&w pic of me comes from). i only did it one season, but i still had a good time.
well, we started at lake union crew in their learn to row class, and had a great time. thom, our coach was really patient, funny and entertaining. between heath, myself and a few others in the class, i think we kept the class interesting and lively for him too.
heath and i have since graduated from the learn to row class, and are now doing the sweep and skull program. 6:45am m/w/f mornings. let me tell you, it’s freaking early, but damn it’s fun. being out on the water, the weather has been great (for the most part), in fact today it was awesome. our new coach, has had heath and i in a boat called the marcy every morning. the marcy is a decent boat, its a 2 person skulling boat, great for beginners as it’s pretty wide and stable. we do okay in the marcy. we have a bit of a starbord strong pull, but we’ve been finding ways to combat it, and stay in a straight course (really funny using the words straight and heath and i in a boat).
so any ways, this morning, she puts heath and i in a new boat. the shimley. the shimley is a newer, narrower, faster boat. heath and i hop out into the water, and start going slowly, getting a feel for the new boat and such. one of the other rowers in another boat, asks us if we’ve “been in the drink yet?” we reply we haven’t and are planning on staying that way. (as if that isn’t foreshadowing) as we start to get comfortable, we start moving in this sucker. it freaking rocked. with no work, we kept it in a straight line, and we were just kicking ass and taking names (so to speak).
we got through the montlake cut, and we just finishing up a power 5, when both of us caught a crab on our starbord side… suddenly the port oars whipped out, and both of us lost our hands on the port oars. there is one golden rule in rowing: never let go of your oars or you’re going for a swim. anyone see where this is going?
yep, heath and i went for a swim in lake washington this morning. the water was not as cold as i was expecting, but it did take my breath away for a second. after treading water for about 30 seconds, we pulled ourselves onto the boat (which didn’t capsize, just leaned far enough for us to get out of the boat). we quickly realized that we were going to be able to get back and, and with a little work, we got back in even before our coach made it over to us. she handed us a pump and we pumped ourselves out and we’re ready to go again.
she was expecting us to be cold and wanting to go back in, luckily we were both wearing enough synthetics that we just took the cotton off (okay, it was only me and it was only my shirt). within a few minutes, i was dry again (my shirt wasn’t) and we were able to finish the practice. when we got back to the boat house, thom gave me a hard time about rowing without a shirt, until we explained the reason for my shirtlessness…
good times!!