Reprinted from "The Catch" Newsletter, Fall 2006
Yes, you Really can row and see what's ahead!
Buy Eva Belanger MacLeod
When our intrepid editor, Lew Cuyler, sent me to interview John Hartshone, a veritable forward rowing evangelist, my first thought was:"Rowing forward? Isn't that kind of... backward?"
To prepare myself, I read John's letter to the editor from the Spring Catch, checked out the FrontRower website, and walked backward in the dark to my Star for a week.
According to the website (www.frontrower.com), the founder Ron Rantilla, entered his "FrontRower equipped Alden Ocean Shell in the Blackburn Challenge in 1996, and "In rhe real-world conditions of a 22 mile open water race, competing with some of the best open water rowers in the world, the FrontRower proved its ability to outperform rear-faing sliding-seat systems in the same boats."
This I had to see.
When will my husband and I headed down to Cohasset (south of Boston) to visit John on Gulf River on a beautiful summer day I was fully prepared for a morning of merriment.
Well, the joke was on me, because it turns out that this is actually pretty cool. If you've never tried it, forget any pre-conceived notions you may have about forward rowing, particular Ron Rantilla's version of it. (Try searching the web for "forward rowing", or similar variants and you'll be surprised at the number of rowing forward interpretations out there. Who knew?)
My first (and most obvious) question to John was "Why?" His equally obvious answer was, "So you can see where you're going."
John said that he had heard of other forward rowing solutions, but was skeptical. However, once he got the rig and special oars from FrontRower, assembled it and took it for a spin in his Alden, he was hooked.
I fully expected to see a Rube Goldberg version of an Oarmaster (fixed seat with a...gasp!...backrest?...independently moving "pedals" connected to the oars?...oars with handles?...what's with the springs?), but this rig was obviously built by a man who knows rowing and who has thought an awful lot about it. (Check out how he tested - his idea of fun, mind you - each component of rowing to determine the optimum efficiencies: (http://www.frontrower.com/rowing-efficiency.html) .
I also wasn't prepared for how beautiful the rig was. It looks like a piece of art or the sort of one-of-a-kind piece of furniture that you'd find in an artisan show. Meticulously constructed of cherry and varnished to a high gloss, it felt, due to the craftsmanship, as if it were a natural continuation of the historical art and craft of the sport - a new idea in a traditional medium. And those adorable little oars! They look like they should be ceremonial, but John assured me that they worked quite well.
So you're probably wondering how it felt to throw the darn thing. Well, it felt very awkward at first - like operating a paddle boat crossed with one of those machines at the state fair that allows you, for a quarter, to manipulate a crane in order to obtain the desired results - a stuffed animal in that instance, a check-free, auto-feathered rowing experience in this case. However, the more I rowed it, the more it began to make sense.
A rig like this is such a blessing for adaptive rowers. You can easily row arms only (requiring a very light touch) or legs only, your back is supported, you can see where you're going, and certain technique challenges (feathering, checking, rushing the recovery) are mitigated.
All this and you still get regulation paddles, although you don't get to see them.
But I couldn't back up to save my life. And then I had this horrible thought that too much going forward might scramble my "normal" rowing synapses, leaving me prone to dropping the oars to tie my shoes, or wave at people, or rowing in a circle upon return to my Star.
I was most impressed with the potential for an entirely new series of bad rolling habits: rowing arms only while seated in a half Lotus position, rowing legs only while checking email on a PDA (okay - maybe that one's not so new), tearing down the river slouching and reading The Catch.
Mr. Hartshorne is a convert for life. He makes going forward look like the most normal effortless and elegant thing. I assumed that John had gathered a local following but that was not the case. "I'm surprised and disappointed that people take it for granted." he said. "I row by and fishermen don't even bat an eye."
It's not easy to ignore John's enthusiasm or the point he's trying to make. The man has an impeccable rowing and Alden pedigree: he has rowed for 40 years and is still growing his first Alden, a 1965 Alden 16, he's a friend of Lou Cuyer's, his wife Mary is an old friend of Marjorie Burgard's, and he's rowed with the late Jack Hubbard.
Not sure what the rules for the EBRoC will be under the new organization, but I would like to think we wouldn't discriminate based on rowing orientation.. If John is not permitted to row in the EBRoC, then at the very least he needs to bring his tricked-out Alden up to Nationals next month for everyone to Marvel at.
Price: $1,685 (before shipping and as of this printing) for a rig designed for use in rowboats canoes and shells.
Priceless: Seeing where you're going when you're rowing.
Buy Eva Belanger MacLeod
When our intrepid editor, Lew Cuyler, sent me to interview John Hartshone, a veritable forward rowing evangelist, my first thought was:"Rowing forward? Isn't that kind of... backward?"
To prepare myself, I read John's letter to the editor from the Spring Catch, checked out the FrontRower website, and walked backward in the dark to my Star for a week.
According to the website (www.frontrower.com), the founder Ron Rantilla, entered his "FrontRower equipped Alden Ocean Shell in the Blackburn Challenge in 1996, and "In rhe real-world conditions of a 22 mile open water race, competing with some of the best open water rowers in the world, the FrontRower proved its ability to outperform rear-faing sliding-seat systems in the same boats."
This I had to see.
When will my husband and I headed down to Cohasset (south of Boston) to visit John on Gulf River on a beautiful summer day I was fully prepared for a morning of merriment.
Well, the joke was on me, because it turns out that this is actually pretty cool. If you've never tried it, forget any pre-conceived notions you may have about forward rowing, particular Ron Rantilla's version of it. (Try searching the web for "forward rowing", or similar variants and you'll be surprised at the number of rowing forward interpretations out there. Who knew?)
My first (and most obvious) question to John was "Why?" His equally obvious answer was, "So you can see where you're going."
John said that he had heard of other forward rowing solutions, but was skeptical. However, once he got the rig and special oars from FrontRower, assembled it and took it for a spin in his Alden, he was hooked.
I fully expected to see a Rube Goldberg version of an Oarmaster (fixed seat with a...gasp!...backrest?...independently moving "pedals" connected to the oars?...oars with handles?...what's with the springs?), but this rig was obviously built by a man who knows rowing and who has thought an awful lot about it. (Check out how he tested - his idea of fun, mind you - each component of rowing to determine the optimum efficiencies: (http://www.frontrower.com/rowing-efficiency.html) .
I also wasn't prepared for how beautiful the rig was. It looks like a piece of art or the sort of one-of-a-kind piece of furniture that you'd find in an artisan show. Meticulously constructed of cherry and varnished to a high gloss, it felt, due to the craftsmanship, as if it were a natural continuation of the historical art and craft of the sport - a new idea in a traditional medium. And those adorable little oars! They look like they should be ceremonial, but John assured me that they worked quite well.
So you're probably wondering how it felt to throw the darn thing. Well, it felt very awkward at first - like operating a paddle boat crossed with one of those machines at the state fair that allows you, for a quarter, to manipulate a crane in order to obtain the desired results - a stuffed animal in that instance, a check-free, auto-feathered rowing experience in this case. However, the more I rowed it, the more it began to make sense.
A rig like this is such a blessing for adaptive rowers. You can easily row arms only (requiring a very light touch) or legs only, your back is supported, you can see where you're going, and certain technique challenges (feathering, checking, rushing the recovery) are mitigated.
All this and you still get regulation paddles, although you don't get to see them.
But I couldn't back up to save my life. And then I had this horrible thought that too much going forward might scramble my "normal" rowing synapses, leaving me prone to dropping the oars to tie my shoes, or wave at people, or rowing in a circle upon return to my Star.
I was most impressed with the potential for an entirely new series of bad rolling habits: rowing arms only while seated in a half Lotus position, rowing legs only while checking email on a PDA (okay - maybe that one's not so new), tearing down the river slouching and reading The Catch.
Mr. Hartshorne is a convert for life. He makes going forward look like the most normal effortless and elegant thing. I assumed that John had gathered a local following but that was not the case. "I'm surprised and disappointed that people take it for granted." he said. "I row by and fishermen don't even bat an eye."
It's not easy to ignore John's enthusiasm or the point he's trying to make. The man has an impeccable rowing and Alden pedigree: he has rowed for 40 years and is still growing his first Alden, a 1965 Alden 16, he's a friend of Lou Cuyer's, his wife Mary is an old friend of Marjorie Burgard's, and he's rowed with the late Jack Hubbard.
Not sure what the rules for the EBRoC will be under the new organization, but I would like to think we wouldn't discriminate based on rowing orientation.. If John is not permitted to row in the EBRoC, then at the very least he needs to bring his tricked-out Alden up to Nationals next month for everyone to Marvel at.
Price: $1,685 (before shipping and as of this printing) for a rig designed for use in rowboats canoes and shells.
Priceless: Seeing where you're going when you're rowing.