Still tweaking our racing schedule. I will let you know what the crews are as soon as the deadline passes. Expect to be racing on both Saturday and Sunday, with the possibility of heat(s) in the morning and final(s) in the afternoon. It’s very difficult to work in any plans around this regatta, unless in the evenings.

Athletes, please expect that if you aren’t competing in Welland, you will see a few days without rowing on your schedule this week. Trying to get the Welland boats a row in their formations. On such days, please supplement with an erg prescribed by me on that particular day. It is VITAL that we keep an eye towards CSSRA in early June.

For Welland, bikes are a GREAT idea for the parents. There is a path along the whole course, so you can watch the whole 2000 metre race, as opposed to a snippet of it in St. Catharines.

Athletes and parents will need to manage the rowers schedules in Welland. This is an important regatta for parent support—for both the rowers and the coaches. The coaches may need your help at some point during the day, so feel free to come by the boat park or flag us down on the trail—we may just take you up on it! The biggest place parents can help is in launching and catching crews coming into the dock. That requires carrying oars to the boat or taking oars to the oar tree and helping get the boat back to the trailer. Sometimes we’ll be able to do it….many times we won’t be there. To the athletes….if you launch or come back to the dock and we aren’t there to greet you, it doesn’t mean that we’ve abandoned you…it likely means we’re watching another race. My priority is to watch as much racing as possible so I can see where our weaknesses are and try to fix them.
To give the parents some insight on what the day is like for Mike, Peter, Luke and I, both days will start with a 4:30am departure from Hamilton to make it in time for the 6:30am coach’s meeting. We will have roughly 14 entries per day, which will be a possible 14 heats and 14 finals, which would be a max of 28 pre-race meetings and post race meetings. We also try to bike beside as many races as possible. Each race is a 7km return bike ride, unless we have two races back to back, in which case it’s less. If we’re able to hit the pillow by 9PM, it’s a bonus. That is one day. We repeat the same procedure on Sunday! A conservative estimate for this weekend would be 75km on the bike PER DAY, so you can see why this regatta absolutely shatters a coach!!!
While we highly encourage support for our teammates, the truth is that these days can be REALLY long. If it’s sunny and warm, the last thing we need is athletes spending too much time in the sun. Please be aware of YOUR race schedule and build in rest time. Welland is in the middle of nowhere and the boat park has very little shelter. Water and sustenance are VITAL. If you are staying overnight in Welland and have time between races, by all means go back for a rest.