A Day on the River: ‘Hey, we’re going rowing’
Morgantown Dominion Post
5 June 2011
By Devon Unger
Sculls and sweeps darted up and down the Monongahela River on Saturday,
during the Monongahela Rowing Association’s National Learn to Row Day
festivities.
The event, in its second year, gave members of the public a chance to
take a free crash course in rowing, and people of all ages showed up
for their chance to get out on the water.
“I’m going to sign up and take the classes,” said Carol Lagodich, 58,
of Morgantown. “I haven’t done much in the way of team sports and that
was definitely working as a team. I have a much better appreciation for
the difficulty after actually doing it.”
Lagodich rowed on the first eight-person sweep to take the water. In a
sweep, rowers use one oar in groups of two, four or eight and may use a
coxswain. The coxswain is a nonrowing team member who steers the boat
and helps synchronize the rowers.
As well as a four and eight-person sweep, there were two person sculls
and a few single sculls for people to try out. A scull uses one, two or
four rowers without a coxswain, and each rower has two oars, one in
each hand.
Gabrielle Lafata, a 19-year old Morgantown resident and student at West
Virginia Wesleyan, said she saw fliers for the event while
rollerblading on the trail and decided to check it out. She was one of
the first to try the single sculls.
“I did track for four years and cross-country for three years,” Lafata
said. “I learned how to row today, and if I get in tomorrow I think I’d
get a better workout and be able to enjoy the scenery a little more.”
The MRA youth program also was able to gain a few members. Twins,
Daniel and Aaron Flowers, 12, of Morgantown said they were surprised to
find out they would be learning to row.
“My mom woke me up this morning and said, ‘Hey, we’re going rowing,’”
Daniel said. “It’s harder than it looks, but its pretty fun going back
and forth. It’s good exercise.”
Aaron said he also had a lot of fun on the water, but was caught off
guard by how hard it was, and almost got pinned to the boat by one of
the oars.
“My oar got in the water and it was in the square position
[perpendicular to the surface], and it got stuck and it kept pushing me
back,” he said. “But it was fun.”
MRA member David Rosen, 56 from Morgantown, has been rowing since he
was 16. Rosen is disabled, and uses an “adaptive” boat specially
designed to work with the leg braces he must wear.
Rosen said rowing is an excellent way for him to stay in shape because
he can adjust how he rows to put less stress on his legs.
“The wonderful thing about rowing is, you can row with your legs, row
with your arms, and row with your back,” he said. “I can get a good
cardiac workout, and feel the rhythm of the river beneath me.”
MRA President John Duarte said he was pleased with the day’s turnout.
By 2 p.m., 18 people had signed up to take the Learn to Row course
offered by MRA, and another four people had signed up for a full
membership.
“We got a lot of people that wanted to try it,” he said. “For the
morning, this was a really good turnout. We managed to get two sweeps
out at the same time, so that was eight and four [people] right there.”
He said he would like to see 100 people come down to try out the sport,
but said if that did happen he probably wouldn’t have enough boats. He
also said he hopes people sign up for the course because it is so
difficult to become proficient in the limited time they had.
He hopes to start a class teaching people to row on single sculls on
Monday, depending on the number of people who sign up.
The course costs $300, $150 for the course itself plus a $150
membership fee to join MRA, and members must be able to meets some
physical requirements.
For more information about the Monongahela Rowing Association visit
www.monrowing.org.