Are you missing your favourite yellow-capped water bottle? (Featuring: water! included! FREE!)
How about your beautiful blue water bottle? (Featuring: humid precipitation droplets! included! ALSO FREE!)
Or even your lovely green Thinsulate Woods “Lite-Loft” insulation bag to carry your crucial camping gear? (Featuring: NOTHING ELSE, JUST THE GEAR! what a win! TOTALLY FREE!) BECAUSE THEY ARE MISSING YOU SO MUCH.
They want to go home. Please, give them a home. They don’t like living with me. Seriously. I’m cruel and leave them alone in the den gathering dust. This is no life for a water bottle or air-mattress carrier.
So, if these are your items OR if you think you know the items’ owners (even if they’re from another school), please contact me so I can return these sad, lonely items to your possession.
It’s been a while since our last post, so we’re happy to say that we’ve got all sorts of fun info for you in this one!
INFORMATION!!! YAY!!!
Info for Mom!
First off, THANK YOU to all athletes for being so patient while we addressed equipment changes/availability and boating changes these past two weeks, including changes to race entries. We appreciate that you’ve all been very understanding.
Next here’s everything you need to know for the next two days:
Saturday, May 9th – Practice & Trailer Loading @5:45am at LBC
All athletes should arrive at 5:45am for a final practice before trailer loading. Practice will run from 5:45am-7:30am. Trailer loading will begin at 7:30am, and ALL boats must be fully derigged and loaded by 8:45am. The trailer will leave the LBC compound at 9am.
Sunday, May 10th – Mother’s Day Regatta (THANK YOUR MOM’S)
The Mother’s Day Regatta will be held on Henley Island in St. Catharine’s, Ontario (close to the Port Dalhousie area). Full information about event times and directions can be found here at Regatta Central.
Directions can also be found here on the Westdale Rowing blog, or here on Google Maps. *Directions say 45 min (approx.), but plan for 60-75min just in case you get lost or encounter traffic. This has happened to at least one athlete every year that we’ve coached.*
The Final Race Draw hasn’t been posted yet, but will likely be made available tomorrow on Regatta Central. Based on the Regatta Central preliminary schedule, these are the race times:
Event 6 – Sr. Women’s 63kg 1x – 9:10am (finals at 2:25pm) Event 7 – Jr. Men’s 72kg 4+ – 9:24am (finals at 2:32pm) Event 14 – Jr. Women 63kg 8+ – 10:20am (finals at 3:21pm) Event 15 – Sr. Men’s 72kg 2x – 10:34am (finals at 3:28pm) Event 18 – Sr. Men’s 1x – 11:09am (finals at 3:49pm *HOTSEAT REQUIRED) Event 19 – Sr. Women’s 4+ – 11:30am (finals at 3:56pm) Event 23 – Sr. Men’s 4x – 12:12pm (finals at 4:24pm) Event 24 – Sr. Women’s 1x – 12:19pm (finals at 4:31pm) Event 29 – Jr. Women’s 4x – 1:15pm (finals at 5:06pm) Event 12 – Jr. Men’s 1x – 3:07pm (straight final *QUICK CHANGE REQUIRED) Event 35 – Sr. Women’s 8+ – 5:48pm (straight final)
“Hotseating” is when an athlete goes straight from one race into the next race, and the boating change is made on the dock. “Quick change” is when an athlete has a tight turnaround time after their first race, but still has enough time to return the boat before launching in their next race.
Weigh-Ins: There are NO weigh-ins at this regatta. Instead, the regatta runs on an honour system.
A Message for Moms: If your athlete’s crew makes their final and finishes top three, then moms are invited to give the medals to their athletes. Please stick around if you can 🙂
Arrival Times: Athletes in the Sr. Women’s 63kg 1x & Jr. Men’s 72kg 4+ should arrive by 6:30am. All other athletes should arrive AT LEAST 3 hours before your race (or in time for the first Westdale race of the day, which is at 9:10am).
Supervising Coaches: Alessandra will coordinating/supervising the Men’s Team, Eben Prevec & Anise Truman will be supervising the Women’s Eights/Singles/Fours, and Peter DeNew will be supervising the Jr. Women’s Quads. Tom Beshoff will be assisting in the morning.
Rigging Post-Regatta: Please plan to rig boats on Sunday evening when we return to Hamilton. There MIGHT be an option to rig on Monday morning, but this will be dictated by the Club Manager (Steffan Wagner). We’ll let you know as soon as we have information.
What to Bring:
-Unisuit
-Long-sleeve top to race in UNDER your unisuit (often requested by race officials if weather is cold, windy, or rainy *the forecast is thunderstorms, so please bring this just in case!)
-Change of clothes (and extra socks – trust me!)
-Student ID
-Water (lots of water)
-Healthy snacks (trail mix, nuts, apples, granola bars, cliff bars, etc.)
-Lunch (and breakfast if needed)
-Rain gear/weather appropriate clothing (*BOOTS ARE HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)
-Sunscreen (*HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) *CHECK THE WEATHER – BRING BOOTS FOR THUNDERSTORMS*
What We Expect of You: You are expected to rig your boat, bring your blades down (when required), and ensure your crew is together. You should also know your race plan & be prepared with water/race-gear/food. Please be & remain with your crew once there’s 1.5h left to go until your race. If you have any questions, please find me (Alessandra), Eben, or Peter and we can assist you. Generally speaking, you should go to your primary coach if you have a question.
Resources for Parents: Our lovely parent reps, Dina & Brock Gadsdon, have kindly put together some informational material for parents planning to attend their athletes (what to expect, how to get there, Henley Island rules, how to avoid heat stroke, etc.). Please see the following documents for useful parent information:
1) Mothers Day Parent Information
2) Heat Stress Awareness Guide
I realize that this breaks the promise of my previous post, but an official announcement was given by Rowing Canada today that listed one of our Westdale Rowers, Luke Gadsdon, as part of the Canadian National Team’s CanAmEx crew competing at the 2014 CanAmEx Regatta between July 6th-13th in Lochaber Lake, Nova Scotia, and I wanted to post a notice to give the team’s support (congratulations & good luck, Luke!). CanAmEx brings a contingent of Canadian/American/Mexican junior national crews to compete against one another.
This is a great reminder of how your training & rowing experience in highschool can act as a stepping-stone to Canada’s Junior National Team & the U23/Senior National Teams over time. Hopefully we’ll have some more Westdale Rowers – both men and women – competing in the upcoming years! This too, could be you!
A few quick reminders, since I’ve been receiving a lot of texts & emails about tomorrow’s racing:
1) Sunday races can be found on the draw at http://www.regattacentral.com or by clicking on the weekend event list in my previous posts. All athletes should arrive THREE hours before their race, UNLESS they race between 8-9am. If you race within that first hour, then please arrive at 6am.
2) Directions can be found in the posts below, along with parent information.
3) You MUST bring your Student ID (photo ID from the school) in order to weigh in AND in order to race.
4) All coxswains & lightweight/midweight rowers MUST weigh in with their crew & photo ID. Weigh Ins open at 6:30am and close at 9:30am.
5) All athletes must remain 1h after the final race of the day in order to help load the trailer. We will then re-rig the boats that same day (Sunday) at Leander Boat Club. Monday will be completely off for all Westdale crews.
Last but not least, there’s a parents’ tent at the grandstand/finish line area. Parents & family (and rowers) are welcome to stay there to watch races if they’re not required at the trailer or in-water.
Please remember: due to the high number of races this weekend, I will only be coordinating the men’s team & women’s 4x/singles. Mike is responsible for all the women’s eights, so please ask Mike if you have a question regarding those races.
Westdale Rowing Community 