MIT Rowing Club :: Welcome

MIT Rowing Club

The MIT Rowing Club provides a competitive and recreational (non-varsity) sweep rowing program for the MIT community including all students, staff and alumni. We compete at the Club level in many local and regional regattas and sprints.

Our 2008 FALL season begins on TUESDAY, September 2nd. Practice is at 6:00am sharp at the Pierce Boathouse (W8).

NEW MEMBERS - HOW TO JOIN:

The Rowing Club will host a booth at the Activities Midway on Friday August 29, from 4-6:30 PM at the Johnson Athletics Center. Please come to the booth and support the club.

On Saturday August 30, the Club will host an orientation/recruitment/social event for rowers starting at 5 PM in room 1-150. Bertucci's pizza will be served at 6 PM, and current rowers are welcome to come at this time. (You can also come at 5 PM to be entertained by Charles and the safety video.) At 7 PM, we will head over to The Field (http://www.thefieldpub.com/). You are also welcome to join us there.

If you can't attend either of these events, please send an email to row at mit dot edu.

The novice program starts up on Thursday, September 4th.

Fall Season
The fall season will start on Tuesday September 2 and end on Friday October 24. Our practices will be M-F from 6-8 AM at the Pierce Boathouse. Megan and Bob will be coaching, and we plan on hiring additional coaches. Based on feedback we received, we are planning on having several categories of rowers:

Men's 1st boat and Women's 1st boat:
These boats will go on the water Monday, Wednesday, and Friday every week with fixed lineups. Bob and Megan will coach these boats, switching every 2 practices (1 coach/boat). Rowers who are interested in being on these boats must commit to showing up every M, W, F for the entire season. They must also be available to compete at the Textile Regatta (Sunday 10/5) and the Head of the Charles (Saturday 10/18). Selection will be made exclusively by the coaches and will be based on observations made at practices and a mandatory 6K erg score.

Two pieces of information are necessary from this erg score: the total time and the average power (in watts). The erging must be done in the presence of a rowing buddy and must be certified by that person. The 6K erg score is due midnight Sunday September 7.

To submit your own erg score, please enter the information here.
To certify the results of someone else in the club, please go here.

An additional piece of information that may be helpful for coaching advice is maximum power output. This information is optional and does not need to be certified. It may be advisable to do this test on a different day than the 6K erg test. The information we request is the maximum power in 10 strokes, maximum power in 1 minute, and maximum power in 4 minutes (all in watts). To submit the maximum power information, please enter the information here.

Mixed boat:
Mixed boats will go on the water at least Tuesday and Thursday every week with variable lineups. Bob and Megan will coach these boats. Depending on the number of people interested, the number of days per week these boats go out may increase.

Novice Program:
The novice program will be held 6-8 AM Tuesdays and Thursdays, starting on Thursday September 4. This program is aimed at people interested in rowing who have no prior experience. The first couple of weeks will involve learning the details of rowing and 2-3 practices using the rowing tanks at the boathouse. We are still in the process of determining the details of this program and will release them as soon as they are finalized.

Saturday Practices
We are planning on resuming Saturday practices, which are held at 10 AM at the Z-Center.

2008 Season Officers:
Co-Presidents: Hansen Bow, Charles Moore
VP: Decker Ringo
Treasurer: Caroline Saouma
Race Coordinator: Mark Ashdown
Fundraising Chair: Waleed Farahat
Social Chair: Ulrike Baigorria
PR/Communications Chair: Fern DeOliveira
Equipment Manager: Ryan Tam

| Club Information |

Membership open to novice and experienced rowers and coxswains
Must have current MIT Affiliation and Zesiger Center membership.
Those under the age of 21 must take the MIT Small Boats Swim Test
Dues paid once per season, amount TBA, ranges from $90-$200
Contact row at mit dot edu for general club information
If you are looking for varsity undergraduate rowing, go here

If you are interested in sponsoring the MIT Rowing Club, please e-mail row at mit dot edu.

For more information about us, check out our constitution or take a less serious look at who we are and what we do.

Here are the slides from the Fall 2006 orientation meeting - includes information on the season, team policies, racing and more.

If you're confused about how or why a drill is done, check out this comprehensive list of rowing drills put together by Josh.

Wondering how you can make a difference? Giving to MIT and to the MIT Rowing Club can be done online by going here.

| Spring - Summer 2007 Archive |

Spring 2007 races include the Wharton Sprints in Philadelphia on 4/14. The MITRC fielded a men's 8, a women's 4 and a mixed 8 for the race on the sunny Schuylkill river against UPenn's Wharton School and Yale. The men's 8 and women's 4 came in second place in the sprint, and our mixed 8 glided along beautifully to cross the finish line first. As always, thanks to our generous hosts on Boathouse Row in Philly. And for posterity here is our mixed 8 crew:

Photo by Ryan Tam

Anna (cox), Emily, Lorraine, Boyd, Jason, Zlatko (not pictured), Mark, Amy, Joe

| Spring - Summer 2006 Archive |

Join us at Pierce Boathouse on Sunday, June 4th for the Azorean Whaleboats Regatta Event - a day when we will help celebrate the rich culture and heritage of the Azores (nine Portuguese islands in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean). These are traditional-style boats used by the people of the Azores to hunt whales. Several of these boats would be launched from the large whaling ship when a pod of whales was spotted. Each boat is entirely made of wood, including the oars. Each oar weighs about 50lbs and the boats themselves are approximately 1000lbs. On board there is room for 6 rowers, plus one man in the stern to operate the rudder and one spearman in the bow. The boats, coming to our Boathouse from New Bedford, Mass. were built with the help of traditional craftsmen from these islands. Volunteers from MIT Rowing Club helped to organize the Azorean Whaleboats Regatta with the support of MIT DAPER and in collaboration with lead administrators at the MIT Pierce Boathouse. The Boston Portuguese Festival is an annual initiative of the Consulate General of Portugal.

4/8/06
At the Wharton Sprints on 4/8 the MITRC bravely competed against valiant crews from UPenn's Wharton School of Business, Univ of VA Darden School of Business and Yale despite the heavy, cold rain storm. See Wharton pics here (thanks Ryan). The men's eight easily won the first place medal in the Experienced Eight event. MIT men also fielded a coxed four, which was mixed with the Wharton men's four into an impromptu eight that won an exciting first place medal over Yale in the Novice Eight event. Finally, the women fielded a coxed four that shared the first place medal with the Darden crew in the Women's Four event even after a boat collision off the starting line. The weather might have been miserable but not enough to hold us back... Many thanks to our gracious hosts and opponents and congratulations to all on a great start to the 2006 racing season!