Anyone here in a crew? Or have rowed before? Heads up!

Got a couple of questions!

Yes. I've been rowing for 11 years, coaching for three and have a few national championships under my belt. What are your questions?

That is awesome! From what country are you?

I'm relatively new to the sport, barely under six months in and I've yet to compete. Planning to go to HK or Malaysia for competition in another six months though because other than the Philippine national team there's nobody else here. Cannot wait, anyways.

Question (can't remember the others right now haha): Right at the finish when your oar leaves the water, is the blade parallel--flatly feathered--on top of the water or should it be on a slight angle? If you feather it flat, you can feel the oar locking against the rigger and it definitely helps with overall balance within the boat. For the longest time though, I've been doing it on an angle and it wasn't pretty for the most part. I only got to try the flat oar recently (due to a team mate's suggestion) and the boat ran awesomely; balanced and non of us were skimming. Any insight on this?

I'm from the USA. The answer to your question is going to depend on the rigging of your boat. Are you working with a coach right now? It depends on how the oarlock is set up, most of the boats I've been in have the blade at a very slight angle (barely noticeable). The important part is that you feel it rock into place in the oarlock. Regardless of how the boat is rigged, you want to hear that THUD as everyone feathers together. One of the big differences I've seen between winning crews and those they compete against with similar athletes is that the faster crews all really send the boat with the last phase of the drive, and you really hear them rocking the blade into place together. If you're interested in learning more about rigging, Mike Davenport has written an excellent book that can be found here: Amazon.com: The Nuts & Bolts Guide to Rigging, Tenth Anniversary Edition: Books: Mike Davenport

let me know if you have any other questions. feel free to email me at pkington@gmail.com