Season starts

It's amazing what you find lying around a rowing shed when it's being cleared out. Above and linked here as a PDF, we found this rowing drills table that matches drills to technical issues.

I'm not entirely sure what all these are, so here's some youtube videos to get started. If anyone can enlighten us on the "stuff the duck" strill, the "OSA Full Pressure" or "toddies", that would be great. Here's some drill examples (some awesome, some not so much) to get you fired up for the season ahead.

Crossed arms rowing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTdUN9VNs4g

Catch placements:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ejp-HJJ1B8

Pause rowing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pK3DvvMsgbQ&list=PLED9074443FBB8641

And this is my particular favourite: How to get back in after flipping a scull:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhtv53MOrqA

A sad farewell

(A version of this also appeared in our newsletter)

Today we also have the sad task of announcing that our Executive Officer of about eight years, Helen Stevens (pictured above), will be leaving the WA Rowing Club at the end of April. We will be arranging a farewell sundowner for her - where she will not have to man the bar!). Helen has been a tireless worker and supporter for the club, often her actions have kept us out of hot water. If you see her, please thank her for her many years of service.

Helen joined us when we needed her most - we had just taken on a new full-time coach and the club has grown rapidly while she has been with us.

One thing I do know is the very many people I meet who have been married at WARC will often comment on how special the experience was for them - it is people like Helen who make memories.

For those who don't know, Helen is an accomplished sportswoman in her own right - a lawn bowls expert, actually and although there are few similarities between going for a roll and going for an erg, it is her understanding of how clubs work that has made her particularly valuable.

Thank you mate, from all of us.

And they're back: All the action from SIRR

And they're back: The combined University of WA Boat Club and West Australian Rowing Club nationals contingent have returned with enough booty to sink the the Francis.

Which is quite a bit, because I've tried to sink the Francis before and I swear that boat is intentionally trying to thwart my murder efforts. But as usual, I digress:

The team have returned victorious. And as far as I'm aware, in one piece.

For those who caught the action on TV, it's always a thrill to see our own athletes on the big screen (somehow even more exciting than watching them in real life) and I think we all cheered just that little bit extra to see Maia Simmonds. Firstly, they accurately pronounced her name - eventually. Then she was voted the "rower's rower" at the event. And then she went on to win the LW2X- world cup with past Olympian Hannah Every-Hall. As you do. It was a goose-bumps moment.

Anyway, some of the results are as follows:

Janelle Austin picked up a bronze for her position in the WA crew for the Victoria Cup, jagged a second in the Open LW4X-, and won the Open LW1X B-final by about three lengths. It's worth noting the time would have put her in the middle of the field in the A-final - a stellar effort.

For the lads, Matty Butz Cochran also picked up a win in a B scull final - the U23 in this case and he also won his event pretty much before anyone else had even left the starting blocks. Mat also had a berth in the Kings Cup event, as did some of our mates from UWA. There's some great pix of the Butz and a few other WARC friends in this gallery

Denika Kelsall medalled in the U19 quad scull (and convinced her fellow athletes to row in RED. Go sista!) and made the A Final in the hotly-contested U19 1x. She was also one of the senior members of the Youth Eight, which was a young crew with a bright future ahead of them.

Wakeford was there. He rowed. He's been very quiet on that front.

For Amy Bobbins Walters, she also made the B Final in the open lightweight single to race alongside Janelle, and had a great outing in the LW2X- with Alex Needoba from UWA. Bobs was also in the crew which picked up a silver in the open lightweight quad.

I am waiting on a summary of the equally huge, impressive and generally amazing haul from the UWA contingent, so come back in a while and I'll hopefully have it updated.

Meanwhile, a huge thanks to all the very, very many supporters who have stood behind these athletes and made the campaign possible. Very many know who you are and we have had your names pinned up in WARC for the last few weeks to remind everyone that for every shining star on the national stage, there is a veritable mountain of people underneath making it possible.

Saga of the Slips: Part Five

Fundraising Leanne Read from the Australian Sports Foundation is assisting us to set up another "project" which means tax deductible donations can be made to the rowing club, by donating money to the ASF which is then released to WARC.

We already successfully use the ASF for all sorts of things, and currently we have two  open "projects":

• Equipment
• Team Travel

We now hope to have a third, which will be:

• Capital works upgrade

Under normal circumstances, clubs would need a letter of support (sort of) from the land owner to do this. As the land owner is the Department of Transport but they are not the ultimate approvers of the work, they won't be in a position do to that.

So I'm hopeful the ASF will allow us to create the "project" without this piece of paperwork. We will also need to get a letter of support from Rowing WA, but I doubt this will be an issue.

Stay tuned, we will be looking for members past and present to dig deep to help replace and repair the deck.

You can find donation forms for our current projects here.

Approvals and project management

As previously mentioned in Saga of the Slips: Part Three, the Swan River Trust has advised we will not be able to complete this work under regulations and will have to apply for a Part 5 development application.

This will probably also result in us also requiring a Section 18 approval from the Department of Aboriginal Affairs.

Due to the complexity of the project and this further development, we are actively looking for a project manager who would be interested in taking on management of the works.

Amelia and Janet are putting feelers out in their respective networks, however if there are other club members who may know friends/acquaintances/rowing partners/exes/whatever with this sort of experience, please consider approaching them for help.

We'll need every bit we can get.

Saga of the Slips: Part four

Today we heard from LotteryWest. Sue from LotteryWest has advised:

• LotteryWest has been unable to determine broad community benefit. As I understand it, the launch area is predominantly available only to your club (with some use by other sporting clubs).
• Hence, this would not meet requirements of broad community access/benefit.

This means the following:

• DSR will not fund as as we are over water.
• DoT will not fund us as we do not have engines.
• LotteryWest will not fund us as we're private.
• Heritage will not fund it because we're *not* private.

There is a possibility that, having been knocked back on the record by other agencies, we may be able to revisit the matter with Heritage.

The life and times of Guy Negus

Thanks to Alan Salisbury for providing some background on past Patron and Kings Cup athlete, Guy Negus. The history of Guy Negus

1936: Joined the WA Rowing Club as a novice rower, and was in the bow of an eight when he won his first race.

1937: Easter carnival in Bunbury and Collie. Won novice races when Wests won the “Rose Cup.”

1938: Nicknamed “Tiger”. Was rowing at two seat when won the junior eight.

1939: Joined the Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Research and trained at Farmborough in England.

1941: Served on the HMS Quorn between Channel Island and the Orkney Islands on escort duties in Western Approaches.

1942: Commandeered a motor launch in Freetown, West Africa, on escort and convoy duties. . Took part in D-Day landings.

Later transferred to Canada to train as a Fleet Air Arm Pilot.

1944: Graduation coincided with the end of the war.

1946: Demobilised at the rank of Lieutenant.

1946: Rejoined the WA Rowing Club and was selected in the WA Kings Cup Crew, which placed third to New South Wales and Victoria.

1947: Selected again for the Kings Cup crew which was held in Western Australia on the Swan River, placed third again, (here's a picture of it). Also was in the champion eight, four and pair that year, and helped the club win the pennant.

1950: Was elected Club Captain and was a part of every crew which won a State Championship.

1951: Elected to the role of Treasurer.

1953: Organised and was part of the committee which formulated the Memorial Boat House Fund.

1954: Organised the purchase of the “Don Fraser.”

1956: Launched the Guy Negus four with the George Rogers pair. Raced at Ballarat’s Lake Wendouree in the WARC Olympic test four.

1958: WARC won the pennant – the first since 1947. Guy rowed in the championship eight, four and pair.

1959: WARC won the pennant… again.

1960: The Empire Games. Guy used his naval knowledge and with the help of club members, repainted the whole club house in one weekend.

1961: Club house rehabilitated and re-roofed.

1963: Guy introduced rowing to senior high schools.

1963-64: Organised and raised funds for the visit of 20 high school students to Henley.

1964-66: Low period in the Club’s performance.

1966: Started writing the WARC history 1868-1968

1967: Crews started winning races again.

1968: Presented the Club History of the centenary, and awarded Life Membership. Organised a coach for 80 club members who took part in every race at the Henley regatta in Melbourne.

1969: Migrated to the UK with his family – someone remarking that the club would fall without him. Guy replied that there would always be someone to keep things rolling along.

1970: Returned from the UK to attend the WARC annual dinner and visit family and friends.

1979: Was overjoyed when the clubhouse was listed as a heritage building – a move proposed by Bill Irvine.

1980: Visited Perth again to help sort out club accounts and the Memorial Boat Fund.

1986: Visited Perth and WARC.

1987: Elected Patron of WARC.

1988: (this isn’t in the original document) Updated the original 1868-1968 history to extend to 1988.

1990: Returned to Perth to christen the A Negus four and the O&M Negus. The latter was the first new boat for 20 years.

1991-1993: Continued to write to all heads of State to create interest and help from Government sources for finance and help to rebuild the clubhouse.

1993: Was overjoyed with the introduction of the DEET Scheme and financial assistance from the Commonwealth, assisted by the hard work of Richard Poole and Charles Somerset.

1994: Relinquished position of patron due to ill health.

1995-1998: Guy continued his financial support and interest in WARC, particularly as the club was reborn. Guy extended his written history of the club through to 1998, all from his home in the UK and completed prior to his passing. (The 1988-1998 part of the history is not currently held at the rowing club).

Easy Oar, Out bows you beauties, Home and dried. Rest in peace.

The incomplete works of Guy Negus:

Guy corresponded with many people on the subject of Wests. These are the letters we've been able to recover from our records so far.

• 1988 Negus accepts patron position
• 1989 Negus to B Salisbury
• 1990_01_19 B Salisbury to Negus
• 1990_02_03 Negus to B Salisbury
• 1990_02_13 G Negus to A Negus
• 1990_03_28 B Salisbury to Negus
• 1990_04_03 B Salisbury to Negus
• 1990_04_21 Negus to B Salisbury
• 1990_07_07 Negus to B Salisbury
• 1991 Negus to Eadie
• 1991_01_19 Negus to B Salisbury
• 1992 Negus to Byron
• 1993_06_29 Negus to B Salisbury typed
• 1993_11_23 Negus to Poole typed
• 1994_05_05 Poole to Negus
• 1995 Ninham to Anderson re earthquake
• 1995_11_20 Negus to Poole
• 1996_03_01 Poole to Negus
• 1996_06_27 Negus to Poole 1997
• Guy Negus history preamble
• 1997_10_24 Negus to Poole
• 1998_03_01 Negus to Poole
• 1998_03_17 Poole to Negus
• 1998_03_24 Negus to Poole
• 1998_03_25 Negus to Poole
• 1998_05_08 Poole to Negus

Saga of the Slips: Part Three

The Swan River Trust has just got back to us with the following: It is unlikely that we will be able to rebuild the slips as a permit under Part Five of the SRT regulations. This means we'll need to make a development application using this form.

This means the decision will ultimately go to the Minister for Environment following consideration from the Swan River Trust and consultation with other agencies.

Lord Mayor's Cup 2014: All the action

Well, the 2014 Lord Mayor's Cup is over.

To the athletes, thank you. Thank you for bringing great humour, enthusiasm and sporting spirit to our 25th event.

If you would like to continue rowing, we have another Learn-to-row course about to fire up, or if you are feeling a bit more confident with your skills, you can join our development squad. For more information, email captain@warowingclub.org.  (For those who have expressed an interest already, keep an eye on your inbox!). Without you, WARC would metaphorically sink - clearly we're quite good at literally sinking, judging by the photographs.

Check out the fantastic video put together by our audio-visual guru Dean Neal:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elnyTu1Iw5E

Results:

Men's 4+ Lord Mayor's Cup:

Won by: EQ A-Team From: Leighton Broad

• Jack Robson
• Steven Fenwich
• Peter Pabla
• Michael Caddick

Women's 4+, Alan Salisbury Cup

Won by: Oarvengers, From: Kinetic IT

• Claire Robinson
• Paula Murray
• Katie Keyes
• Melissa McCulloch

Mixed 4+

Won by: Eat, Sleep, Row, Repeat From: Fugro Advanced Geomechanics

• Lloyd Miller
• Ray Maujean
• Leonora Begaj
• Sharon Kendal

Men's two-minute erg sprint Won by: Lloyd Miller, 661m Runner up: Rob Taylor, 644m

Women's two-minute erg sprint Won by: Julie Jenkinson, 534m Runner up: Karen Koedyk, 523m

Captain Nemo awards:

Sunk: Nuclear IT Navy From: Nuclear IT

Sunk: Ajilon Avengers From: Ajilon

This event helps secure the future of our 145-year-old institution.

To the volunteers: I know for the organising team in particular, your lives were effectively put on hold as we put 25 corporate crews through their paces over a five week period, battling boat breakages, some challenging weather conditions and everything in between.

The proof of your ability shone on the day as we had what was, in my humble opinion, one of our greatest Lord Mayor's Cup events ever.

People are the greatest resource the WA Rowing Club has. The feedback and ideas from volunteers and LMC athletes alike is what will drive our event forward. So for everyone involved, please expect to receive a survey in the next week that will give you the opportunity to provide your feedback for the Lord Mayor's Cup.

In the meantime, we're already plotting purchase of new Lord Mayor's Cup-appropriate boats and merchandise for hte 26th event.

Congratulations to the winners, finalists, and all participants for coming on the day.

We could write a breakdown and commentary of events, however the old adage that a picture speaks a thousand words is difficult to argue with. With that in mind, check out the amazing photographs from Michael Smith! Click this image to go through to the photo gallery - you are welcome to download any images you like!

May your water be flat and your leg drive epic,

PBR and the WARC Management Committee