Easter Rowing Round-up

Over the Easter Holiday the Shiplake College Boat Club headed south in search of some good weather in which to have a pre-regatta season training camp. As has become tradition in recent years, we based ourselves in Bordeaux for a week at Temple-sur-Lot. La-Base was the training centre that hosted 42 rowers and 6 staff members, here we had everything we could need to run a successful rowing camp, from indoor training facilities to lots of food and of course, the Lot River which is very wide, mostly calm and runs for 50km.

In order to be competitive in the Regatta season an overseas Easter rowing camp is seen by many schools as an essential part of the training preparation. The time on camp is precious from a coaching perspective as you have all the rowers in one place with nothing to do other than row, study, eat and sleep. It is agreed that one week of an intense rowing camp equates to around 3-4 weeks of training in a normal school term, so you can imagine the improvements that were made by all of the crews on our rowing camp. On top of the fantastic weather and training facilities, we also have fantastic coaching staff including Kara Wirt, our rowing yoga specialist. All the rowers had access to the expertise of Kara throughout the week, coupled with their excellent crew coaches, Mr Mackworth-Praed, Mr Settle, Mr Moffatt and Mr Jenkins. A special thank you must go to all the coaches for giving up their personal holiday time to come on the camp. We must not to forget the extra three days Mr Settle and Mr Jenkins took to drive the boat trailer to Bordeaux and then to Ghent, ready for the Regatta being held the following week.

Those who attend the camp were the J15s, J16s, 2nd VIII, 1st VIII and Girls Squad. A typical day would start with 7.30am yoga and Breakfast at 8.00am. Crews would then take to the water for either one or two sessions before having lunch at 1.00pm. After lunch was the all-important study time which was being used very productively. No one could have been training too hard as we did not find anyone asleep in their books! The afternoon session would begin at 5.00pm, with dinner being served at 7.00pm. Those who hadn’t had enough of rowing could go out for a sunset technical row to finish off the day. After six days of this regime, all crews had sore hands and heavy legs but they all got themselves up for a final Boat Club 2K race as the last session before packing up the trailer for its long journey to Ghent. All individuals and crews looked like they gained a huge amount from the camp and we are all looking forward to seeing the crews in action over the coming months.

Ghent Regatta

Following on from our successful rowing camp, Ghent regatta was held one week later. The group was made up of 40 rowers from J14 up to J18. For the J14’s this was not only their first rowing trip but also their very first regatta. The group met at school at 7.00am on Friday 13 April, from here three minibuses headed for the Euro tunnel to make the short hop across the Channel in order to get to Ghent. On arrival, all rowers rigged up and went for a training session before settling into the hotel in the city. The Regatta started early on both days with our first crew setting off at 8.00am and the last crew fished racing at 5.30pm, this made for very long, tiring days. Most rowers raced three times each day over the 2km man made rowing course right in the middle of Ghent city. A highlight for the spectators, but probably not for the J14 rowers, was the sight of the J14 events lining up at the 1km marker. Before the 1km races start, a rope is raised from the bottom of the lake, crossing the entire width of the lake to provide each lane with a dangling bit of rope. Each crew should then line up and take the dangling rope in their mouth in order to line up each boat correctly. Our crews tried to find any other way to hold the rope in order to avoid putting the filthy rope in their mouths!

The weekend was very tiring for both rowers and staff but it was a useful regatta in preparation for the domestic regatta season beginning in the summer term.

Results can be found here.