“Rowing has taken over my life”
As the annual Head of the Charles Regatta approaches, one Watertown High senior describes the pull of the sport she loves
October 15, 2014
The Charles River is right around the corner for the students at Watertown High School, but not everyone knows the extent of the community that spends mornings and afternoons out on the water.
The author (third from left, in black visor) practices on the Charles River with her teammates from Community Rowing in Brighton.
Every afternoon I rush over from school just over the Watertown border to the Community Rowing boathouse in Brighton for practice. I am a senior at WHS and a varsity rower/coxswain at CRI.
My rowing journey began during the spring of 2013 when I participated in a learn-to-row program. I was immediately hooked on the sport. That summer I prepared for tryouts on the girls’ novice team, but two weeks before tryouts I broke my wrist. I was encouraged by the nice people at the boathouse to attend tryouts even with the broken wrist. I made the team.
Rowing is a full-body workout that has no age limit, and is a very difficult competitive sport. (Tip: A rower’s strongest muscles are in the legs, not the arms.) Rowers place the oar in the water with excellent technique, attempting to balance a boat while moving, and push with the legs to move the boat through the water.
Some 11,000 rowers are expected to come to Boston Oct. 18-19, 2014, to participate in the 50th Head of the Charles Regatta, an event which is expected to draw 400,000 spectators to the banks of the Charles River.
Practice is excruciating. Weather conditions and stern coaches push rowers to their limits. Rowing has taken over my life — competing for novice season in the fall, winter training, Florida team camp, varsity in the spring, and the Pan American Festival in Mexico (representing the Costa Rican national team) during the summer — and I love it!
This year, as I prepare for college, I decided to find another seat in the boat: coxswain. A coxswain has a lot of responsibilities: steering the boat, encouraging the rowers, and keeping them safe. Currently I participate as a cox for the girls’ varsity team.
One of the biggest events for rowers is the Head of the Charles Regatta, which will take place Oct. 18-19. (In the fall, there are “head” races, in which the boats compete against the clock.) This year is the 50th anniversary of HOCR, the event that crowds Boston for the weekend with an nearly 11,000 athletes competing in 61 events, all watched by some 400,00 spectators.
Participating in Head of the Charles is an experience that every rower dreams of, and I hope someday that I can compete in it. Being in the heart of Boston, the rowing community here practices on the same race course every day and we feel proud when thousands of spectators stand on our bridges and cheer the sport on.
The Boston skyline provides a scenic backdrop for rowers, and some 11,000 are expected to come Oct. 18-19, 2014, to participate in the 50th Head of the Charles Regatta.
If you like to push yourself, be a leader, or would just like to spend some time out on the river, I encourage you to try rowing. The benefits are incredible!
Hope to see you on the river; and who knows, maybe you will be racing in the next HOCR!
(For information on Community Rowing, go to the CRI website at https://communityrowing.org/index.php. For information on the Head of the Charles Regatta, go to http://www.hocr.org/.)
–Oct. 14, 2014–
