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Want To Row? Test the Waters.
Susan Dorn maneuvers her scull back into dock after a boating lesson on the Anacostia River with the Washington Rowing School.
(Photos By Lois Raimondo -- The Washington Post)
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She's not alone, says Rick Fitzgerald, editor of Physics Today magazine and president of the Capital Rowing Club, the area's largest, which is based on the Anacostia downstream by the Navy Yard and Marine Barracks.
"There are hundreds of adults who row regularly in the metropolitan area today," says Fitzgerald, who started rowing on a lark as a college student in 1990. "Throw in the high school and college crew teams, and there probably are thousands."
In June, when Fitzgerald's club hosted a "Learn to Row" open house, a free 90-minute introduction that included "water time" on 60-foot, eight-seat training barges, "we had 240 people come by who had never been on a boat before," he says. "Now a bunch of them are taking beginners lessons."
Brett Johnson, communications director of New Jersey-based USRowing, a national organization that oversees safety and training protocols and teacher accreditation, organizes competitions and assembles the U.S. Olympic rowing teams, says as many as 75,000 adults and college and high school students row regularly.
"There are a thousand rowing clubs nationally," Johnson says. "People come in off the street, get acquainted with the sport and, the next thing you know, their lives have been changed . . . as they discover the joy of rowing."
By the end of Cole's week-long course, only one student has fallen into the river -- a tip-over while trying one of Cole's racing boats. Nugent says she found rowing "very relaxing, just you out on the water," and wants to continue.
Mary Lane says she plans to join Cole's weekend program on big eight-seat racers, and Dorn says she'll have to wait until her kids return to school in the fall before continuing with a girlfriend she hopes will join her.
"But I'm hooked," Dorn says. "It doesn't seem to be a sport; it's maybe a way of life."
WASHINGTON ROWING SCHOOL On the Anacostia River at the Bladensburg Waterfront Park marina, 4601 Annapolis Rd., Bladensburg. Week-long course, $160. 202-344-0886. E-mailinfo@washingtonrowingschool.com.http:/
USROWING 800-314-4769.http:/
Other rowing organizations in the area include:
