Breaking Ice

The first practice back on the water after winter training tends to have extremely mixed reviews. For some crews the first day back is lackluster and everybody tells himself that “it is fine, we haven’t been on the water in months.” Though that is often true, I think that is where the first hints of doubt creep in where you wonder if it is ever really going to get better.

This was not the case on a cold Sunday morning this past week; but let me set the stage.


The water looked flat, partially because of the excellent conditions, and partially because the thin layer of ice was making it look so. It was the first time I have been forced to wear longs since I was in college (only Alex wasn’t wearing long because he is a monster), and none of us had taken a stroke in an actual boat since early November.

Before anything else, we found ourselves having to crunch through the ice, our oars punching through the thin layer of ice with every stroke. After the initial shock, I realized that even in the first strokes of our warm up we were matching up well. When we went to all 4 the boat was set.

Josh is sitting 4, I’m 3, Alex is 2, and Rob is bow. Alex says behind me how the boat feels more fit and I think, well we’ve put in nearly four million meters between the four of us. After our initial loop our coaches confirm what all of us are feeling; we could probably keep rowing at 20 strokes a minute at that same speed for another 10k without any problems.

For as long as I’ve been rowing I have always enjoyed the, what others might consider, poor conditions. I would laugh and joke about going through white caps, torrential rain, even snow one time in college. I mentioned for some crews the first row of the season can color their entire outlook. As we cut through the ice I felt the elation of rowing in “poor” conditions and firm conviction that this is going to be a fast boat.