State championships - My rowing adventure

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Postby Starbridge42 » Mon Sep 20, 2004 9:06 am

I'm going to regale you all with the story of my recent participation at the Queensland Schools State Rowing Championships.

It was a bleak Friday morning when we mounted the bus at around 5:30am. We were all excited and I managed to nab a seat at the back so there'd be plenty of people to talk to. The bus trip was uneventful but entertaining. We got to Wivenhoe, the site of the regatta at around 4:30pm and we rigged all the boats and set up our area. We then headed to the motel where we would be staying. That night we had a pasta dinner prepared by the organisers of the regatta. It was lights out by ten but Emma and Shelby stayed in our room until about 12 just talking to me and Rick. The next morning we rose at 5:00 and were on the bus by 6:15. My first race wasn't until 11:35 so I had a bit of a kip on the river bank.
At 10:40 we got our boat ready and set out on the river. After a four or five mintues we were at the 1km mark and started doing some warm ups for our race. It was nerveracking waiting for the race to start. We'd only had three training sessions in the quad and I was the new boy in the crew. Finally the race started. We gave it everything over the first 250 metres before settling the ratting down a little and increasing the pressure in the water. We started to pull away from the chasing pack and began to secure that first place, but then at the 750metre mark disaster struck, Brisbane Grammar School picked up the and started to catch us. Reidy, our coxen, began screaming at us to up the rating and give him pressure. We gave it everything, we drained the tanks as it were but with just 20metres to go I caught a krab (in rowing a krab is when, instead of squaring your oars completely when you take a stroke, they're on an angle and so the blade digs into the water and slows the boat down). We lost by four inches.

After the race I passed out and had to be revived on the bank. I was placed on a short term drip and given an oxygen boost, or so I'm told. I can't really remember I was unconcious.
Just half an hour later I was back on the water prepping for my doubles race. I was stuffed after 5 stokes but we kept going and we scraped the final qualifying spot by a bow-ball (like the proverbial coat of varnish), but we never had a chance in the final and came dead last. Our team mates from the quad won the final and became state champions in the U14 Boys Double Coxless Scull. Good work boys, we'll fight you for it next year  :;):. That evening I received lofty praise from our coach for my commitment and for not giving up even when I was running on blood and oxygen meant for the brain. I slept well that night, helped more than a bit by the Cowboys suprise victory over the Bronco's in the NRL semi-final that night.

The next day we rose at 4:30 and were on the bus heading to the lake by 5:30. My single scull heat was at 10:20 and I was extremely nervous, I felt I had something to prove after costing us the Quad Scull title (despite claims from coaches and teammates saying I nearly won us the damn thing). I went flat out in my heat over the first 500metres and then moved into a slower, stronger rating and held the leader until the last 100 when I let him break. The first 3 go through and he's just wasted valuable energy. A bonus for me. Two hours later was the semi-final. I'd received a poor draw going up against the eventual 1st and 2nd place getters for the state but I rowed my damndest and scraped the third spot. it was only after the race I learned only the top 2 go through. Shlt.

Nonetheless my time ended up being the third fastes in the state for U14 Boys Single. Watch out Sasha and Cale, I'll get you next year :).

The bus trip back was brilliant. In pitch black with all the lights off we talked (there was only 10 of us as most people had headed back to Rocky with their parents). First just stuff but then about more interesting stuff and we wrapped up with some shlt-scary ghost stories, special thanks to Reid and Alan for some brilliant ones. Francis from grade 8 was terrified out of her wits and I was secretly a little freaked out. Ben and James's well timed sound effects and grabs in the dark added to the effect.

We got back at 1:55am and I headed home.

An awesome but perhaps ultimately dissapointing result in the rowing but a fvcking awesome weekend.
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Postby 106-1093504160 » Mon Sep 20, 2004 9:11 am

next time your in OZ you should look up Laza, he's from western Oz
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Postby Starbridge42 » Mon Sep 20, 2004 9:49 am

Um.... I live in Oz.  But WA is like.... 28 hour drive away... through completely uninhabitable and inhospitable desert.
I didn't like Italy, it was like living in a foreign country - Ian Rush
'In most associations half of the committee does all the work while the other half does nothing. I am pleased to report that in this football club it is the reverse.' - Liverpool Echo
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Postby laza » Mon Sep 20, 2004 9:54 am

LOL thats really funny Judge im about  4000 kms from where Starbridge lives :D
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Postby Ciggy » Mon Sep 20, 2004 9:55 am

:D Just round the corner then  :D
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Postby who the hell is diarra » Mon Sep 20, 2004 10:08 am

Phew starbridge i got tired just reading that  :D   !!!
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Postby 106-1093504160 » Mon Sep 20, 2004 10:09 am

you could surf or swim there, you aussies are supposed to be good at that :D
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Postby 112-1077774096 » Mon Sep 20, 2004 10:36 am

i read it but maybe i am missing the point, or was there a point?
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Postby 106-1093504160 » Mon Sep 20, 2004 10:45 am

no point to this blunt pencil peewee
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Postby 112-1077774096 » Mon Sep 20, 2004 10:48 am

judge wrote:no point to this blunt pencil peewee

thanks judge. i read it a few times tying to find what i had missed. that was a waste of 10 minutes    :D
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Postby 106-1093504160 » Mon Sep 20, 2004 10:54 am

no worries
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Postby taff » Mon Sep 20, 2004 4:11 pm

Starbridge42 wrote:Um.... I live in Oz.  But WA is like.... 28 hour drive away... through completely uninhabitable and inhospitable desert.

Better than Birmingham New Street on a Saturday afternoon  :angry:
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Postby 106-1093504160 » Tue Sep 21, 2004 12:03 pm

better than birmingham new street full stop anyday
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