PETA RULE
2008 Captain
Peta considers herself to be an accidental captain.
“It was a case of last girl standing,” the 28-year-old (who is still dealing with the fact Masters rowing starts at 27) has been heard to lament.
Peta’s rowing career started in 1993 at the Horsham-Dimboola regatta in Victoria’s Wimmera region. She was 13 at the time and now considers herself lucky to have been part of the last generation of rowers to learn to row with wooden blades. Like, not just the handles… the entire oar.
“I had a massive crush on a boy who was rowing at the regatta, and I was there printing t-shirts as a part-time job. In the end, I stuck with the sport and not the boy,” she said.
The love-affair with rowing lasted throughout her school years and Peta, with four other girls, became one of few State school students to compete in Head of the River events. Peta retired after gaining entry into a journalism degree in Melbourne.
“I joined the university’s rowing club but was told in no uncertain terms I was too short to row intervarsity and figured that was pretty much the end,” she said.
A degree, 10 kilos and a move to Kalgoorlie (where Peta worked as a journalist) later, and the one-time bowsider thought rowing was a thing of the past.
In 2004, she moved to Perth after scoring a job as a journo for the West and discovered the backward bug had bitten her again.
“I joined WARC because it was the only club I called where someone picked up the phone and told me to turn up. Although 5am seemed a bit difficult after almost six years off.”
Since then, the club has gone from regularly hanging on the tail end of the RWA pennant table to pushing for prime position and in 2007 was named Club of the Year.
Peta lost the 10kg, learnt to scull and has even been spotted rowing strokeside.
But only under extreme duress.
Post-script: Peta’s first home club, the Horsham City Rowing Club, still exists but horrendous drought conditions in central Victoria means the Wimmera River in Horsham is too low to cater for boats. The Horsham-Dimboola regatta was cancelled for the first time in 35 years in 2006, and is yet to start again as water levels are still unrowable in both towns.
2008 Captain
Peta considers herself to be an accidental captain.“It was a case of last girl standing,” the 28-year-old (who is still dealing with the fact Masters rowing starts at 27) has been heard to lament.
Peta’s rowing career started in 1993 at the Horsham-Dimboola regatta in Victoria’s Wimmera region. She was 13 at the time and now considers herself lucky to have been part of the last generation of rowers to learn to row with wooden blades. Like, not just the handles… the entire oar.
“I had a massive crush on a boy who was rowing at the regatta, and I was there printing t-shirts as a part-time job. In the end, I stuck with the sport and not the boy,” she said.
The love-affair with rowing lasted throughout her school years and Peta, with four other girls, became one of few State school students to compete in Head of the River events. Peta retired after gaining entry into a journalism degree in Melbourne.
“I joined the university’s rowing club but was told in no uncertain terms I was too short to row intervarsity and figured that was pretty much the end,” she said.
A degree, 10 kilos and a move to Kalgoorlie (where Peta worked as a journalist) later, and the one-time bowsider thought rowing was a thing of the past.
In 2004, she moved to Perth after scoring a job as a journo for the West and discovered the backward bug had bitten her again.
“I joined WARC because it was the only club I called where someone picked up the phone and told me to turn up. Although 5am seemed a bit difficult after almost six years off.”
Since then, the club has gone from regularly hanging on the tail end of the RWA pennant table to pushing for prime position and in 2007 was named Club of the Year.
Peta lost the 10kg, learnt to scull and has even been spotted rowing strokeside.
But only under extreme duress.
Post-script: Peta’s first home club, the Horsham City Rowing Club, still exists but horrendous drought conditions in central Victoria means the Wimmera River in Horsham is too low to cater for boats. The Horsham-Dimboola regatta was cancelled for the first time in 35 years in 2006, and is yet to start again as water levels are still unrowable in both towns.
