Went rowing this morning. For the first time in 30 years!
Got up in the dark and drove to the GPS shed at south Brisbane. Met 4 guys that I had met last Friday night at the Normanby pub (BGS old boys / parents drinks).
As an interesting aside, one of these guys Chris Hinton had coached my crew to some degree when I was at School. Don't remember the year but in those (glory) days, the regatters were on the held on the Milton Reach of the Brisbane River and the parents and coaches would follow the race by driving along the road on the Eastern bank of the river. The atmosphere was great with car loads of people ducking and weaving, each following their particular boat. The memorable things was that even though Grammar entrusted our rowing instruction to Chris, we were banned from travelling in or on his anchient Landrover. Soft top as I recall and generally transporting various universtity types and liberally lubricated with beer.
So anyway this morning saw Chris once again elevated to the role of coach and the four of us in the rowing boat. A few things have changed since 1980. We now had two oars each instead of the one previously. This aided balance but introduced a new complexity as the two handles cross each other. It seems that left hand goes above right. The other change was the stroke (the fellw at the back) has to steer with his foot. It appears that there is no longer the requirement to locate a scrawny 12 year old to steer(& insist on them not eating dessert. (For the good of country, God and I want your dessert anyway) ).
Four geriatrics with 8 oars proceeded to navigate city cats and floating logs. narrowly missing a State High eight that apparantly has a reputation of not seeing other boats. To start with we had three of us using our 6 oars to keep the boat stable while one person was coached in the finer points. Through a turtorial process this was increased to two and then three oarsmen. Finally a fourth oarsman just for two strokes. We did eventually manage to have the four of us rowing for upwards of ten strokes.
I should mention that we made it safely back to the pontoon without either the boat or the coach crashing into anything.
The morning concluded with coffee and breakfast at a nearby cafe. I do not recall that particular aspect as being a feature of school boy rowing.
The BGS slogan was 'two in a row in the year eight O". I recall mum making a cholcolate cake the night before and for her and, it was usually me, to come down from Toowoomba for the day. While I think you were meant to run back to the school it seemed many times that the yellow transit van was packed to the rafters with rowers as we drove back. The road to Toowoomba was one lane each way with no white line on the edge and we would rarely drop below 110kms/h. If there was anyone else travling with us then the only people with seat belts were the driver and front passanger. Henry
ReplyDeleteAh yes. Glory Days.
DeleteThere is an election apparantly up here. Maybe I could get a few new policies in place
* Down with bike helmets.
* Stop the vilification of speeding.
* Bring back the rowing on Milton Reach.
Dare I say Queensland needs Joh and the Nationals
:)
And I believe that BGS hasn't won a head of the river since. Or at least in living memory.