Winter Rowing – The Adventure Begins Neither snow nor rain nor… gloom of morn stopped intrepid Holyoke Rowers from venturing out on the river in the early hours of the winter solstice. We began on the ergs with the usual warmup – you know the drill: 20 strokes each: Arms, Arms and Back, ¼ Slide, ½ Slide, ¾, Full. Then it was time to slip slide down to the dock with oars and seats. The barge was bailed out, the snow swept off and Stephanie, our fearless leader, and 8 rowers got into the boat. The rowing was a little tricky because the rails were icy, which meant the seats couldn’t slide that smoothly, but we managed. We headed upstream as a bald eagle glided by. It was beautiful in the pale light with the snow dusting everything. And it didn’t even feel that cold except for some frozen fingers. After turning around and rowing with brief pauses at the catch we were back at the dock – and ready for scrumptious cookies baked by Karen D. Sue B.
Wednesday May 28: Many, many agencies continued the tireless search for the fisherman/boater who'd gone missing a week before. Every one of these trailers represents a boat on the water, including a fan boat from Westfield Fire, Hampden Sheriff, State Police, South Hadley and Holyoke Fire, and many more- drones, helicopters, divers, and Nick's father has spent every day on the river in one of our whalers. The Coast Guard Auxiliary spent hours inspecting all of our life preservers-- and adding whistles! They also inspected all of our kayaks-- you will notice their stickers of approval on most (issues that can be addressed were found on a few, and some were deemed "ok to use, but not quite up to earning a sticker." Quinn Builders continued working on the new deck. And - - spent the morning spraying the invasive plants- and poison ivy!! - on the bank. We can weedwhack along the fence line before next weekend's events making things a b...
Here are two great videos for winter training. First is an instructional dead lift video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCDzSR6bW10 . This guy is really good. Dead lifts with relatively heavy weight should become a staple of winter training. Ergometer basics for beginners: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYffzI0_He8 . For experienced rowers, it gets more interesting at 5:20, with the pick drill. At 10:30, a good example of legs only rowing, and at the end, some good stable, connected strokes. --Stephanie
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