Rowing

After our "almost move to Boston" visit with long runs along the Charles, 10 years spent by the bay in San Francisco and now time here along the Thames.....

I kept seeing people rowing and thought, "I'd love to do that". The beauty of being out on the water during the early morning - the peace of it - and the fun of doing such a sport really intrigued me.

Since October, when I am in town on weekends, I've started a beginners rowing class with Sons of the Thames.

To quote their website: Sons of the Thames Rowing Club was formed in Hammersmith over 100 years ago with the aim, still enshrined in its constitution, of furthering the sport of rowing in the Borough. Its name derives from the days when its members were the watermen and tradesmen of the Tideway, and it may even be one of the really early rowing clubs.
The course finishes in mid-December, and if you are 'good enough', the club will ask you to join. They train together about 5 days a week with outings on the weekends. The club building itself reminds me a bit of my sorority house - with a cook, creaky old victorian building with tons of charm - and they even have a little bar! So it's kind of a combination of sports and social club. They even wear letters of sort - as all members wear these jackets with SONS on the back.



I have just been out for my second 'outing' and although it was a bit rocky there were moments when the whole 8 of us in the boat were almost in rythmn, and at a time there were geese flying along the river, at our level, and we could hear them talking to each other.

I am learning all these new terms and new sports tasks such as: what is bow side, or a cox, and how to get into a boat wearing and then gracefully removing wellies, and how to help with carring a huge boat out of the water up a ramp.

I had a huge smile on my face all day!!!