Australia Bound

Posted on: September 28, 2009 | musiclover | 1 Comment | Print Article | Rate Post:

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By Heidi Zemach for Seward City News

The Kenai Crewsers, our local rowing team, has been out on Bear Lake, and sometimes Kenai Lake, practicing enthusiastically for an upcoming Australian Masters Championships Competition in Penrith, Australia in early October. They have been spending an hour and a half on the water six times a week, rain or shine, only canceling when high wind creates white caps.

“The goal is to just get as much glide on the boat as you can after putting the oars in the catch and pushing hard with your legs. That’s basically what it is,” said Sue Faust, who will be Australia-bound as one of the ten rowers, plus their coxswain and coach, spouses and children. It’s all in the spirit of fun and exercise, but the competition aspect keeps the rowers trying their best, Faust said.

The team is bound to encounter more competition than usual, as 37 other boats, maybe more since, have signed up to participate in the same races. In addition to Alaska rowing contests, the group attends Masters World Games somewhere in the world every four years. They have already been to Canada and to Australia, and they also try to compete somewhere in the United States once a year—such as in Washington, Oregon or California. The Crewsers’ regular competition is usually against two or three boats in Soldotna and Anchorage.

The most important thing in rowing, basically, is coordination, hard work, balance, and efficiency of movements, Faust explains. If you dig too deep, you’re wasting energy. If you’re not getting in soon enough, you’re missing out on a couple more feet of water. The coach oversees and critiques the group’s progress from another vessel she maneuvers nearby. The coxswain, who rides in the back of the boat facing forward, shouts out orders to rowers on how to steer the boat, who row facing backwards.

The coordination is even evident as the team lines up before practice, four on either side of the eight- boat, which sits stacked on a tall stand. The orders are given in a clipped, military-style manner to lift the boat and move it forward, and then to march it to the edge of the lake. Getting in the boat also requires military precision and finesse so that it maintains its balance. The same synchronicity is needed to position and move all of the oars at exactly the same time as the boat takes off, and glides across the lake.

The team practices two forms of rowing: Sculling, where everybody has two oars each, and Sweeping, where everyone has just one oar. Sculling oars are a little shorter and lighter than Sweeping oars, but are still very long. The Crewsers’ team boats include singles, doubles, quads, and eight-boats.

The Kenai Crewsers are the oldest rowing team in Alaska. The group started 13 years ago with a simple notice on the post office bulletin board in Moose Pass, said Wendy Bryden, one of the original members, along with Terri Orr. Bryden, who had been running for exercise, decided that rowing might be a good way to cross-train—and she’s been doing it ever since. Rowing is a great physical workout for your whole body, working all of the muscle groups, with low impact on the joints—on a par with cross-country skiing, team members say. It involves the body core when you lay back and pull on the oars, and also your arms toward the end of the stroke, but it especially works your leg muscles.

The group invites new members to sign up, but as all but 2 or 3 regular rowers currently are women, they would especially enjoy having some additional men on board. Rowing is open to people age 14 and up, with some of its members in their sixties. Although practices are held every weekday evening and Saturday mornings, individual rowers can chose to participate on the days that they are available, and aren’t expected to attend every practice. Australia-bound are Nancy Anderson, Rhonnie Berklund, Wendy Bryden, Becky Buchanan (Coxswain), Sue and Harold Faust, Lori Landstrom, Terri Orr(Coach), Tanya Sandefur and Tom and Lori Swann, Scott Allison (coach).

Other rowers include Fred Georges, Amy Hankins, Tara Riemer Jones, Nick and Jeanie Moseman, Nancy Saylor and Craig Williamson. 2009 Novice rowers are Jennifer Carrick, Lisa Correa, Emily Gustafson, Cristan McLain, Cindy Ranta and Katie Springman. For information contact Sue Faust at gonerowing@gmail.com or Google Kenai Crewsers.

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