Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen rowing terms that always need to be explained.

1. Weigh Enough - rowers use this phrase instead of the word stop... best part is it sneaks into your non rowing life...

2. Gunwale - edges of the boat...primarily handholds when lifting and carrying.

3. Coxswain - people always want to know how it's spelled. The Coxswain is the person who sits in the larger boats, steers and is the 'captian' of the boat. This person DOES NOT yell 'stroke, stroke'.

4. Head Race - fall races are 'Head Races' usually 3-4 miles, single file, against the clock.

5. Erg - the blasted torture machine we use for indoor training.

6. Oars - they are 'Oars' not 'Paddles'.

7. Sculls - an old fashioned term for boat...rowers call them 'Boats'.

8. Launch - as in 'Coaching Launch'. For some reason we call the small boats the coaches use 'Launches'.

9. Crab - a dastardly accident when a rower loses control of his or her oar. The blade gets trapped in the water by the momentum of the boat and the oar handle flies backwards either over the rower’s head or striking the rower’s chest. In extreme cases the rower can be thrown from the boat. funny when it happens to someone else.

10. Feather/Square - the turning of the oar after the blade is extracted making it parallel to the water/The turning of the oar prior to entering the water to make it perpendicular.

11. Repechage - the “second chance” race given to those crews which fail to qualify for the finals from an opening heat. “Rep” qualifiers move onto semi-finals or finals depending on the number of entries. Used in international racing and national championships.

12. Sweep - boats in which the rowers each use a single sweep oar. A sweep oar is longer than a sculling oar and has a bigger blade.

13. Sculling - rowers who row with two oars each.