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Why We Love Rowing
March 2, 2004
By Maura Vizza
There were many moments in my rowing history where I hated getting up for practice at 5 a.m. four days a week, and was irked at yet another day of my inability to hold a pencil correctly because of sore and blistered hands. I was irritated at getting slide bites, a.k.a. little gash wounds on my legs from the boat, or leaving practice drenched from the oar of a fellow rower. I had plenty of petty annoyances with rowing, but they could not compare to my pure gratification in being a rower. I loved my teammates, our crazy antics, the inside jokes we'd tell over and over, the 18-hour rides we'd spend on a crammed bus or van, and all the hard work and pain we put into this sport together. I loved proving I could push my body and mind beyond previously existing boundaries. I loved the thrill of a race, going head to head with opponents while hearing some of my teammates grunting in anguish because they were pulling that oar with all their might. I loved going to the dining hall in sweat-laden practice gear with my team, and feeling proud to sit among that group of people while gorging the buffet options without a carb-counting care in the world. Being a NCAA Division I athlete just induced this sense of power and pride. I was stronger and more fit mentally and physically than many classmates, plus I had this incredible bond with my teammates, my good friends. To be part of this elite athletic configuration at a university was an incredible feeling of self-worth and honor. After graduation I spent a year without rowing and it left an empty space in my life. I missed it. Despite some fluctuating emotions about rowing, I can only look back on my experience with fond memories and no regret. Most rowers and coxswains have had some negative thoughts about our beloved sport at some point, it's natural. But something about rowing draws us back and makes us feel lucky to be part of a crew team. Maybe it's the extreme mental discipline, or the satisfaction of pushing through a tough erg practice, or the solid teamwork necessary to control and move a boat, or the thrill of flying down the racecourse alongside an opponent. Whatever sparks this enjoyment of rowing and being part of a crew, it is evident in the responses from some members of the Carolina rowing team.
"I love everything about rowing. I love my teammates and my coaches; they are an extension of my family. I love the sport itself; it challenges me every day, every time I sit down on the erg or take a stroke on the water. I love being able to succeed at something I love to do. Rowing has been a very essential part of my college experience and I wouldn't trade it for the world."
"I love how I can be best friends with my teammates, people I didn't even know before I started rowing. I love how my teammates and I leave practice after taking a 2k test and hop over to the next gym to win our intramural basketball game. I love how it doesn't matter how loud we talk in Lenoir, how funny we look with two trays full of food (each), or how normal it is to wear spandex around campus. I love the feeling I get as stroke when I feel everyone behind me rowing together when there is no rush or jump at the last second, but instead the boat is moving smoothly and perfectly every time the oars touch the water. I love how one minute I can hate it because I am awake at 5 a.m. freezing my butt off out on a dark lake where I can't even see my oar, and the next minute love it because I am awake at 5 a.m. with 18 of my best friends as we all freeze our butts off together out on the lake, rowing while the sun rises."
"I love how my team already spends about four hours a day together, but at night and on weekends we always seem to be hanging out with each other some more because we are each other's best friends. I also like the feeling I get after an erg workout when I look up and see the 'Carolina Rowing' painted on the erg room wall. It reminds me of just how special it is to be able to call myself a Carolina rower."
"I love thriving on competition. I enjoy pushing my body to its limits to find out the 'limits' I thought I had, have just been extended. I like seeing my best friends for a large part of the day almost every day. I like knowing that there is a group of people who will always support me. But most of all, I like to be out on the water and feeling eight people move as if we were one. I like it, sharing the accomplishments and defeats."
"I have always been an athlete and I was looking for a new sport that would test my endurance while having fun. Rowing was my answer. Who would have thought that by becoming a member of UNC's Rowing team I would make such wonderful friends that I can always count on in stressful times and joyful times? Not to mention you never eat alone. I've made some life long friends who help make such awesome memories for my college experience."
"What do I love about rowing? That's an easy question: everything, but most of all I love the fact that it forces me to make mistakes day in and day out and then have to take a step back and learn from those mistakes. Coming to Carolina I knew absolutely nothing about rowing as a sport and it really has been a great experience for me to be able to go out and learn something totally new and different. The team is great! We all get along well and it is nice that you have 40 other people that are going through the same things that you are, not to mention five great coaches that have all been through this before and know what it's like. I'm one of those people that thrives on competition and to me there is nothing like race day. Knowing that all the hard work you've put in every day for the past several weeks, months, etc., is going to pay off is the greatest feeling ever. It is not necessarily about winning, but about knowing that you and all of the other girls in your boat did their best too."
"One of my favorite things about being in a boat is being connected to your teammates without ever looking at them or speaking a single word. Rowers are connected by their ability to endure immense amounts of pain combined with an almost unbearable hunger to be the first across the finish line. It's one of the strongest connections I've ever known."
"I love the way that being out on the water and enjoying the ride on the boat is a sport."
"This team is like no other that I've been on. We have so many unique individuals and such a broad range of personalities that no one can really define us. However, I think this is why I love my teammates so much. Everyday there is someone different doing something great. We have girls who are driven, girls who are about having fun, girls who are quiet, others who are loud. Although small in number, our team is HUGE in variety. We reach all ends of the spectrum and because of this there's never a dull moment in Carolina Rowing."
"Unlike any other sport, rowing requires complete teamwork. It's not the kind of teamwork that you find in sports like basketball, football, or soccer. In those sports, the opportunity presents itself for one player to try to carry the team, but in rowing, it requires the strength, concentration, determination, and heart of the entire boat in order to get it moving. No one rower carries the boat; each contributes to that one fluid motion that is rowing. What I love about rowing is that because it is so unique in the sense of team, it establishes a bond unlike any other between teammates, a bond that transcends the idea of teammates and establishes life-long friends."
"I love my teammates and the fact that they look out for me, are there when I need support. They keep me going. They inspire me. I love the feeling of racing, the adrenaline that kicks in when you realize you have a chance to win this thing. I love the goose bumps and butterflies that hit me at the starting line. I love the coaches; they make the team more like a family. I love the fact that I can watch the sun rise and set in the same place everyday. I love being a Tar Heel. I love being an athlete. I love giving everyone high fives. I love the feeling after a good practice. I love making the boat move fast. I love rowing."
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