60footwhitearrow

[60footwhitearrow]

Yo what’s up my niche audience of rowing tumblr users I have a very important question for y’all, without thinking too much about it which one is the worst?? Put your replies in the comments (or tags if you reblog) pls thanks u vry much, im gonna make a graph

1) a swept single, you race to see who can go in a circle the fastest 

2) a pair that is both stern AND bow-loaded, the coxswains must fight for dominance during the race. You get to decide what this means* 

3) a coxless 8x, wide grip and on the square, same goal as a normal race i.e. be the fastest boat to cross the finish line. 3 seat gets the mic 

4) an 8+ but the goal is to row OUT of time with everyone else and you are disqualified if more than 3 rowers end up rowing in time on one stroke. You do get an actual coxswain for this one for safety reasons**

*the only limitations are that no one is allowed to bring weapons/anything that could be used as a weapon, and rowers and coxswains must remain in their seats throughout the race

**please don’t ask me why the 8x didn’t get an actual coxswain, i didn’t think that far ahead

[60footwhitearrow]

Me, two seconds after opening a new tab: wait what was I going to do again???

Me, thirty seconds later: oh yeah I was gonna look up info on ADHD testing

[60footwhitearrow]

When you and your doubles partner both rush the slide but you both lose control at the same time so it feels fine 👌👀😩

[60footwhitearrow]

Rowers be like “I know a place” and then not take you because they have to get up at 4am the next day

[60footwhitearrow]

Rowers be like “I know a place” and then take you to the erg room

[60footwhitearrow]

Went for a row for the first time since March 11. I have...mixed feelings. I miss my team. I miss my river. I miss stroking a powerful 8 instead of a double. Yet, being on the water was awesome, as it almost always is. It feels a little like coming home. I didn’t get to say goodbye to my last season with my team the way I wanted to, but the sport is still here, and it’s not the end; it’s just a new chapter. I know that someday I’ll row down my river again. Someday I’ll sit in a fast 8 again. My time with my team is like the threads of a story that carry through to the end, all the way to the back cover—there will be a last time, someday, and some last times have already passed, but for now, I can remember and relive and reconnect, and that is enough.

[60footwhitearrow]

Wow books 1 and 2 Zuko really just hears the word honor and blacks out huh

[60footwhitearrow]

Do you remember the grocery store, Mr. Frodo? It’ll be spring soon, and the Red Sox will be at Fenway; and the cafes will be putting tables on the sidewalk; and they’ll be cleaning out the boathouses on the Charles; and eating takeout from the Armenian grocery store. Do you remember the taste of takeout?

[60footwhitearrow]

Lol if this doesn’t come off privileged and ableist as hell

November will end well. Things are being put into place to assure that 2020 will be an amazing year for me.

[60footwhitearrow]

Because at some point, we’ll run these backcountry trails again. We’ll get to hug each other at start lines. We’ll sit side by side on a log in front of the world’s prettiest lake. We’ll sing at the summits and hold hands.

This wait will make those reunions that much better.

[60footwhitearrow]

“2020 will be an amazing year for me” well it had better get a lot fucking better real fucking fast because these first 2.5 months really ain’t doing it for me

November will end well. Things are being put into place to assure that 2020 will be an amazing year for me.

[60footwhitearrow]

No offense but I’d like.......die for my coach lmfao

[60footwhitearrow]

Fellow senior collegiate rower who just had their season cancelled. I’m devastated. How are y’all coping with it over there?

Step one was a lot of crying. Step two was a lot of hugging. We are still kind of cycling through steps one and two, but each cycle gets shorter and less brutal. If you are en engineer/math sort, think damped cosine wave.

It sounds kind of silly, but I really think everyone needs to take some time to think about why they are devastated, what they can do to either modify plans or minimize the damage, and mourn.

It took us about 3 minutes after the final shutdown notice to realize that it wasn’t really the cancelled races we were devastated by. The day before, when we were told we could practice but not compete, we were pissed but no one cried. The thing that broke us is that we now had to say goodbye a lot sooner than we expected. Goodbye to our coaches, our boats, the underclassmen, each other, our favorite restaurants (the city shut those down too), and the campus that became our home over the last 4/5 years. We didn’t get to say a proper goodbye to a lot of things (no last time in our uni, no last run down our river, no last free queso night at the local taco shack, no last end of season banquet with speeches and thank yous and well planned goodbyes).

Once we figure that out, we decided 2 things. 1) We were going to hold onto each other in any way we could. 2) If we didn’t get to say goodbye to something or someone now, we’d give it a proper send off after this is all over. We will be back for the alumni regatta next fall. We will wear our unis again and beat the underclassmen down the Cuyahoga while we are at it. We will pile into a too small booth and eat an ungodly amount of tacos together. Team brunch is delayed by a few months, not cancelled. In the meantime, no one goes through this alone. We eat together, we find distractions together, we cry together, and we hug. The plans are laid for Skype calls all spring and visits to each other’s new homes this summer.

In terms of general advice, once we started thinking of this as a delay of most things rather than a cancellation of all things and stopped trying to be the team rock that doesn’t cry, it got easier. We cut the number of goodbyes we needed to say in the next week down dramatically and the grief became a lot more manageable.

Staying busy is good. Not being alone is good. Re-establishing a routine of some sort helps. We’ve had a lot of senior sendoff type informal dinners and activities. We go on runs and bike rides and do core circuit on our living room (small groups are that’s still left on campus). I signed myself up for a master’s program while crying over having to unpack my uni yesterday. Not sure if I recommend that as a coping method (bit of a big impulse purchase), but knowing I’ll be back on the water and racing in a couple months let’s me focus on saying goodbye to people rather than to rowing.

TLDR: most things can be rescheduled and while it’s not the same, it’s better than being permanently cancelled. The world is not ending and we will all live to row again. Don’t try to go through this alone. Keep busy and keep moving, but also give yourself time to mourn the plans and expectations you built over the last 4/5 years.

Sorry for rambling. I hope this helps. If you want to talk, my inbox is always open (and in theory messaging too assuming Tumblr isn’t broken).

[60footwhitearrow]

“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end”

-“Closing Time” by Semisonic

Here’s to next season. May it come fast and we be faster. May we all find our way back to the water, even if we do it in a different uni. May we all find our way back to each other, either in a familiar shell or across from each other at the starting line. There’s still a million races waiting for us next season and the season after that ad infinitum. The bonds forged in a boat don’t break.

[60footwhitearrow]

My college is shutting down and kicking us out for the foreseeable future. Spring season is cancelled. After Wednesday I’m never going to row with my team again. I’m probably never going to race again. Crew became my life in college and now it’s over and it barely even started and I don’t know what to do, like I knew it was going to end eventually, I knew this season was going to be my last and it would end after graduation, because even if I row again in the future it’s not going to be with this team. I just thought I’d have two more months instead of two more days.

[60footwhitearrow]

Never thought the day would come where I’d get stuck in the elevator yet here I am 🤷🏻‍♀️

[60footwhitearrow]

WAIT FUCK

I’m a simple person, I hear the low growled “no no, not I” at the end of That Unwanted Animal and I nut