BOAT TECHNIQUE INTO THE WAVES PATCH
BOAT TECHNIQUE INTO THE WAVES FREE

Experiment with the length of your stroke when rowing long pieces in rough water. The slightly higher stroke rate will make up for the loss of run (glide between strokes)that you will experience in rough water.

When the water is rough, you need shorter, more frequent strokes and steady, smooth power. Keeping your knees low, by using 1/4, 1/2 or 3/4 slide, lowers your center of gravity and helps balance the shell. So allow your arms to always swing at the shoulder. Think of the oars as being attached to the body at the shoulder your arms are merely extensions of the oars and should respond to whatever movement the oars require to produce the correct positions during the stroke. If your blade hits a wave top on the recovery, a relaxed shoulder will allow the oar to bounce up and be repositioned at the proper recovery height, all without passing the shock through to your body. Loose shoulders allow the arms to act as shock absorbers in rough water, swinging to whatever position the blades require to stay at their proper depth during the stroke and the proper height during the recovery. In rough water, they are even more important.

Relaxed shoulders are necessary whenever you row. Relax, Relax, Relax The Shoulders and Arms! Loosening your grip also keeps the blood flowing, lessens the possibility of forearm cramps, and allows you to keep your feel of the water through your touch on the oars. This will let your blades stay at the proper depth in the water during the stroke, thus helping to balance you. This can be the single, biggest problem when rowing in rough water! Keep as light a grip as you can by easing the pressure of your thumbs on the ends of the oar handles and relaxing your grip so that your palm is not in contact with the oar handle. Never put a death grip on the oars to handle rough water. When rowing in the same direction as good sized chop or waves, it is best to angle the bow slightly to one side to avoid nosing into waves.

BOAT TECHNIQUE INTO THE WAVES FREE

In a few seconds the bow will be free and you can pick up the stroke again. To give the shell time to free itself, take the power out of that stroke and move your weight into the stern of the boat. You will feel your shell stall and may see the stern slide to one side, especially if your skeg is not big enough or mounted too far aft to stay submerged. The same technique should be used if the bow of your shell noses into a wave. As you become more comfortable rowing in rough conditions, you will find yourself able to row comfortably in larger and larger chop.

If the rough water covers a large area that you must row out of, start with easy strokes, adding power only if and when you are confident of your balance.

BOAT TECHNIQUE INTO THE WAVES PATCH

If the rough patch is small - just a couple of waves, a wake - you can ride it out with your blades feathered and on the water. Wait, relaxed, to find out how the shell will move before you take the next stroke. If the boat gets caught in an eddy or tossed suddenly by large chop, and you feel in danger of capsizing, pause briefly with the blades feathered. The same relaxed shoulders and light hands that allow good handling of a shell in flat water will smooth out the stroke and stabilize the shell in rough water by allowing the oars to stay with the water during the stroke. The first advice for rough water rowing is to relax and learn to work with the water. The strongest scullers are the most likely to fight the water, particularly by breaking at the elbow shortly after the catch. Once this happens, the oars can no longer provide stability during the stroke, and every bit of roughness in the water is transmitted to the body of the sculler, compounding the stability problem. The biggest problem for scullers on rough water is their tendency to stiffen their upper body, arms and hands.

ROUGH WATER TECHNIQUE Don't Fight The Water

Boat technique into the waves