@YellowSnow
@whlinder
Questions come to mind as I read. Every row boat guy picture I've seen yooz are in tank tops and shorts. You guys row in some miserable conditions on Lake Worshington. What do you wear? Do you feet get cold? Hands? Are you out there in your underwear like every photo I've seen, regardless of weather? In good weather, are the shorts anything special or just regular shorts and tank tops?
The tradition of collecting the loser's jersey. Is it still a thing?
Explain the season/year. Football for example, we all know, winter conditioning, spring ball, more conditioning. Fall camp - gaymes usually week before Labor Day.
What's the rowboat year like?
Are all races, meets, matches or whatever, are they called a regatta or is that specifically the race on the Hudson?
I've rowed on Lake Worshington in everything from 90 and sunny to 25 and snowing. Rowing shorts are pretty similar for whatever lycra type faggy shit triathletes or cyclists wear. You can't have anything baggy or it will get caught in the slides and you need something that will prevent a pouch fight with your junk.
The guys back then were definitely tougher to 2 reasons: (1) there was no Goretex in the 1930 so all there shit was soggy wet, whereas we had the option for waterproof wind breakers to keep oneself somewhat comfortable; and (2) they pretty much took the boats our in all manner of rough water (and sometimes sunk) as this was their only way to train. Our coaches just had us do rowing machine workouts when the water was too rough to train on, since the rowing machine achieves just as much training benefit for your heart and lungs as being on the water, if not more so.
Yes, betting shirts is still a thing. I have boxes of them.
I'll add from a season perspective, it generally like this:
Fall: Head race season, 3 mile long races.
Winter: transitioning to sprint races (in the northeast there is less or no time on the water here so it is winter conditioning and indoor rowing on tanks)
Spring: Spring season, 2000 meter races
Summer: National team stuff, pair training
I've been too far away for a while, but there is intentional training to raise your aerobic capacity during the fall and winter, then transition to more anaerobic work for the spring, since a 2K race is mostly spent anaerobic and you need that threshold as high as possible when entering the sprint season.
Also the boys back in the day had to move what is a much heavier wooden boat than the light AF carbon fiber boats of today. There have been plenty of gear improvements to make rowing more palatable for the masses and not just the TUFF Seattle liberals of yesteryear. Rowing "gloves" which go around the oar (you shouldn't wear gloves when rowing but there are devices which cover the oar handle and your hands), all the waterproof and windproof gear, etc.
Races are either a dual meet ("The Cal too high dual") or a regatta.
In terms of sinking, in terms of modern day rowing with rules and shit, the boat and oar are technically your flotation device. They won't sink. I've capsized and flipped an 8 on the Potomac in March with white caps and wind; in the same race our opponent actually snapped their 8 in half. No sinking. Old-tyme boats in rough weather? Probably. Those things are tanks; as a high-school freshman way back when we would take an all-wooden boat out from time to time and it was so heavy compared to a late-90s produced Vespoli 8.
