Rowing

An eventful year in the world of rowing for Daren. Being essentially crew-less, I entered myself in the 1X at both BC Champs (my "triumphant" single debut) and Green Lake sprints. Got smoked in the former by Olympic hopefuls, but placed third at the latter. It all went pretty well, and my training at least brought some modest improvements on the erg. Then I joined the rowing executive, taking some entertaining minutes as Secretary. Plus, now I've moved on to coaching the open programme with Mr. Ling. Interesting times.
Resumed coaching at VRC for the summer of 2004, essentially picking up where I left off. I now have oodles of free time, and rowing in the 4+ was just about the most fun I've had with my clothes on since February. Wait, even that doesn't count.... Currently attempting to get back into shape, which requires reversing 5 years of engineering studies and all that that entails. I figure I've got ~6 months to prepare for BTB, at which time I'll smash my not-so-impressive PB of 6:54.5 (like I seem to say every year). -June 24th, 2004
Started coaching at VRC for the summer, and ended up competing at a regatta at the beginning of July. It was the most relaxed regatta I've ever been to, but it was still fun. That, combined with the BC Olympic Youth Academy I volunteered at and the Vancouver-Whistler 2010 Olympic Bid, has convinced me that I should really try to be competitive again. It'll take a while, but I'll start with training for the CIRC this upcoming February.

Below are my most recent scores on the rowing machine, aka the erg (short for ergometer):

2000m Erg Scores

?	?
May 20, 2005	6:54.1
January 15, 2005	6:56.6
November 27, 2004	6:50.2
July 21, 2002	7:22.9
February 4, 2001	7:05.6
January 27, 2001	7:20.5
February 3, 1998	6:54.5

6000m Erg Scores

20 Minute Erg Scores

?	?
March 23, 2003	4677
August 7, 2002	5016
January, 1998	5450

1998, Canadian High School Rowing Championships, St. Catharine's ON

There's me and Mike Garforth, pulling for all we're worth in the double sculls event. Notice the near-perfect oar alignment, relaxed shoulders and grip, and reasonably choppy water. If I remember correctly, we were barely beaten out in the semi-finals, but it was a good race despite the unexpected conditions.

1996, Canadian High School Rowing Championships, St. Catharine's ON

That's me in stroke seat (seat 8 from the left) leading the crew off on a start with the last senior eight the school had the pleasure of sending to St. Catharine's.
Behind me are Neil Armour, John McCormack, Michael Garforth, Rob Carruthers, Lester Lau, Michael Thouin, and Chris Bissonette. Jamie sits in the coxswain's (pronounced "cocksin"... um, nevermind) seat. (Andrew, help me with the names!)
Notice [most of] our obscenely beefed up arms, excellent but discontinued "singlets", and Oakley sunglasses. Damn, we look good!

1997 5AM Training, Vancouver BC

Here we see the eight 1.5 years later having one of our better moments as we coast past the breakwaters of False Creek on a bleak weekday morning. I'm not stroking this time, Boris and Darling thought I might develop some drive if I was moved to 4-seat. They were wrong, but the 8 sucked anyway. Remember I said "better moments"? For those with a discerning eye, take note of the different oar heights and the contorted backs of 2, 5, and 8-seat.

1998 BC High School Provincial Championships, Victoria BC

That's the Senior Heavy Quad (McCormack, Garforth, me, Armour) after winning the gold at the Provincials. Arguably the most exciting race of my life. Too bad we followed it with a 4th place finished in St. Catharine's. That was the most disappointing race of my life, but there was some cheap hard liquor just lying in a local cabby's glove box that would ensure my final high school rowing trip wasn't a complete bust. If only I had a camera when we got back to our rooms 3 hours past curfew into the waiting arms of our coaches...