Another week in the books, and the first month is done & dusted! I’ll be publishing the top mileages and ergs at some point soon. Well done, and keep it up!

1. December is upon us, and it’s a busy month! There’s a PA Day on Friday and the first test week of the season is coming up the week before the holidays. Be ready & be healthy! We will be running sessions at Leander over the holidays–stay tuned for that. We will likely be starting them at 9am.

2. As Mike mentioned this morning, he has a limited supply of Westdale Rowing unisuits available. Please see him. It is not mandatory to have one for the winter indoor races, but you MUST have one for the spring season. If Mike doesn’t have your size, you’ll have to get one from RegattaSport. Instructions on how to do it are on the blog.

3. FYI to the parents, we are slowly increasing our fleet of ergs! There are now two near-new ones in house, and we have decided to add a third in partnership with the PE department. You’ll recall from the initial meeting, we talked about “capital purchases”. Ergs fall into this category. The two we’ve bought and the one we’re about to buy aren’t brand new, but they have VERY low mileage and have been used more as decorative furniture lately (as home workout equipment sometimes becomes!) If we were to buy ergs from the local indoor regattas, the cost would have been roughly $1150 each for an erg used just for that regatta. Three would have cost us $3450, but buying the used ones will cost us $1850. Needless to say, this is good news to our budget!

4. There are still a few outstanding cheques due for yoga/winter fees. Please get these in as soon as you can. Coaches get grumpy if they have to keep chasing!!!

5. We will incorporate “Hug-A-Llama Day” into our next Theme Thursday. Coach Mike LOVES “Hug-A-Llama Day” and will post more about it here in the next week. The ACTUAL day is on Sunday, December 9, however with Friday the 7th being a PA Day, we will celebrate the occasion on Thursday the 6th!

6. Coach Tom will be away from Wednesday, December 5 through Monday, Dec. 10. Coaches Mike & Peter will be running the practices as per normal. The workout for Thursday the 6th will be a team erg in place of what is there now.

7. The first Fortino’s Grocery Bagging Fundraiser will be held on NEW YEAR’S EVE! All rowers will be slotted into a two or three hour shifts between 10am-6pm, with 10-11 rowers per shift. If you have any preferences for times, please let me know. (Blocks will hopefully be 10-12, 12-2, 2-4 and 4-6, however this might change slightly….but you get the idea!) Those of you with unisuits, please wear them. Those of you who don’t have a unisuit, please wear any Westdale clothing you have! We will also hopefully have an erg onsite, with all rowers taking a turn showing the public what we do! (The erg is NOT a workout—you will be going back to bagging groceries, so nobody wants sweaty hands on their tomatoes!

8. The date has been set for the first indoor regatta of the winter! The Leander Indoor Championships is held right here in Hamilton, at St. Mary’s School, on Saturday January 12th. All of our local rowing high schools will be represented, and it will be the first opportunity for our novices to compete against other schools. For these regattas, rowers must register and pay for the regatta themselves, however you must consult with the coaches on what category you will be racing in. Entry fee is TBA. Registration is open at regattacentral.com. Experienced rowers can register any time, but ask if you aren’t sure which category to go in. Novices can go to the site and look around. Instructions on how to register will be put here at some point. Entries close January 8th at midnight, so there’s still lots of time.