The FrontRower changes all of that. Now rowing can be done for the pleasure of being on the water (and with high quality exercise as a healthful byproduct).
The FrontRower gives you three ways to row your boat:
For some owners, the FrontRower enables them to plan and take the journey of a lifetime. For others, it gives them healthful cardiovascular exercise on a regular basis. For still others, it allows them to engage in other interests (such as photography, bird watching, or fishing), while propelling and steering their boat with their feet.
The FrontRower is so easy to use that many people who are not able to row conventionally can row quite well with it. This includes older people and people with disabilities such as arm or leg amputations. See adaptive rowing.
Most FrontRower™ owners use their row boats for enjoyable cardiovascular exercise or just "messing about". But it is becoming the systems of choice for long distance rowing.
Some notable long distance journeys that have been completed
by FrontRower™ owners are:
· Philly Joe Koladziejski: more than 6,000 miles along the southern and eastern
coasts of the US from Texas to Maine
· Herman Stiphout: over 400 miles along the western coast
of the Sea of Cortez
· Bill Siersdorfer: 260 mile "Texas Water Safari" human powered boat race
· Charlie, Mathew and Ian (three 12 year old boys from the Tsimshian tribe of southeast Alaska): 156 mile "Rite of Passage" journey
circumnavigating Revillagigedo Island on the coast of Alaska
You can read about these and other FrontRower owners on Ron Rantilla's blog “Gently Up the Stream”.
The patented FrontRower™ is the only rowing system you can row hands free. It is build exclusively by Ron Rantilla Rowing Systems in Warren, Rhode Island, USA.
The FrontRower can be used in canoes or touring type rowboats. If you already own a suitable canoe, you
won’t need to buy another boat (it may require some minor modifications to the canoe.)
If you want something really special, and have ever had the desire to build your own boat, you can build one of our Odyssey touring rowboats from a kit or plans. The Odyssey 18 rowboat (which can be used with one or two FrontRower rowing systems) takes about 100 man-hours to build from a kit. Working a few hours a day, it takes about 30 days to complete one, including paint and varnish.
The FrontRower is the only rowing system you can row hands free, using only your legs to power and steer your rowboat or canoe. Or you can add you hands for full body rowing, with the power to outperform conventional sliding seat rigs in the same row boats or canoes. And you row it facing forward (instead of backward).
The FrontRower fits in touring type row boats and canoes. It is the first rowing
system designed from the ground up for practical and comfortable long-distance rowing (or touring). It is fast and efficient and very easy
to use.
Until the FrontRower came on the scene, anyone considering touring by row boat had to contend with an awkward rear-facing position, had to sit on an uncomfortable seat without any back support, and had to keep their hands on the oars in order to control and propel the boat. Little or no consideration was given to the comfort or enjoyment of the person doing the rowing.