Saratoga News

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Saratogan Nancy Varnell straps into her shoes in the early morning darkness on Lexington Reservoir.

Water Music

When rowers hear the bubbles, they know they've achieved perfection

By Sandy Sims

Yes, it's pouring down rain these days; yes, the hills are slipping and the rivers are overflowing. But it's the start of the Los Gatos Rowing Club's masters season, and no matter what, the "row" must go on.

At 5 a.m. when it's pitch dark and very cold and most of us are snuggling up to sleep a little longer, men and women rowers from Los Gatos, Saratoga, Monte Sereno and even as far away as Danville and Morgan Hill drag out of bed, hit the road and wind their way to the far side of the Lexington Reservoir to the rowing club's boathouse.

Surprisingly, though, the women outnumber the men. Perhaps this is because rowing is among the fastest growing sports for women today. It seems to be the unique team aspect of this sport that the women love.

It's the team that pulls the women out of bed as surely as if the members were right there in the bedroom. "You know that your team is waiting for you, and you can't let them down," says Los Gatos resident Gill (pronounced Jill) Tyndall. "If you don't show, they can't row."

"The only things that stop us," Kirstin Cravens, Los Gatos resident and competition rower, says, "are lightning, heavy fog and sometimes strong wind--only sometimes."

"They have to show up no matter what, and I'm the one who calls it," Kevin Scully explains. Scully is a 23-year-old former champion Berkeley rower who coaches the Los Gatos master women's teams in his spare time. The masters category is open to those over 26.

"There's no 'I' in team," says the poster on the boathouse wall, and the teamwork begins before the rowers even hit the water. Under the boathouse's yellow lights, the teams warm up with 50 jumping jacks, 50 squats, 20 push-ups, sit-ups, stretches and more. After that each team lifts a shell off its rack; some of these boats are 60 feet long and weigh 240 pounds. They carry the shell upside down over their heads to the dock--carefully, as the dock is small and sometimes icy. Then, with military precision, the teams hoist the boats into the water, climb in and row onto the lake.

But there's more than guilt and sweat to this team thing. When the team is rowing in perfect precision and the rhythm is right, it's magical. It's fluid. It's power. "It's like nothing else," says Los Gatos resident Lynn Robinson. "You feel like you are flying."

"You know it's right when you hear bubbles," Cravens says. Last year Cravens heard the bubbles for the first time and didn't understand what that sound was until someone explained it to her. "It's actually the sound of the water rushing against the hull," Scully says. "The sound is always there, but you can only hear it when the boat is perfectly set and there are no other sounds." It's associated with the feeling rowers get when the whole boat is "swinging."

However, Robinson cautions that this is so difficult to achieve that it only happens two or three times a year. Longtime rowers know this feeling and are always striving for it. It's part of what keeps them coming back.

"When you get into the boat, you forget everything else and concentrate on all aspects of rowing," Cravens says.

That includes keeping your eyes straight ahead, perhaps fixed on the shoulder of the woman in front of you.

If you move your head even less than an inch, Scully says, you can throw the balance off. The shells are unstable at less than 2 feet wide and a quarter-inch thick. Balancing is one of hardest things, he explains. The whole sequence of moving the oars is quite precise and takes much practice.

The number on a team is determined by the size of the shell. There are singles, doubles, fours and eights. An "eight" has eight rowers and a "coxswain" (pronounced cox in). The coxswain sits at the stern (end) of the shell and steers with a small rudder. She calls out the rhythm and encouragement to the rowers. Not all teams use a coxswain.

Each seat in the shell serves a significant purpose. In an "eight," the two bows (the two rowers at the front) keep the balance of the shell. The rowers at the center of the team are referred to as the engine. The "stroke" is the rower at the rear, next to the coxswain. She sets the stroke length and cadence (under the direction of the coxswain). Weight placement is also important, with the lighter rowers on the end and the heavier rowers in the middle.

Then, too, there's the pressure the rowers exert on the oars. If the rowing pressure on both sides of the shell is the same, the boat goes perfectly straight. If the rowers on one side exert more pressure, the boat veers, and the coxswain must compensate with the rudder.

"This is a sport unlike any other," Scully explains. It's one where the whole is more than the parts, where precision teamwork makes it all work. "It's like a symphony," he explains. "If just one instrument is off, it throws the whole team off."

Most who show up in those wee small hours to row are in it for the pleasure, but some have become competitors. Of the 70 or 80 women rowers, about 15 row for competition. But then the masters program is only about three years old, and competitive rowing is only about a year old and growing.

"No one really wanted to compete," says Saratoga resident Cathy Wooten. But it seems Los Gatos resident Debbie Jamison kept nagging the women to get into competition, so last year they did. And a "fours" team, with Tyndall as the coxswain, was only seconds from beating the Sacramento State College women's crew (national champions) in a regional regatta. Quite a feat for a "D" team whose average age is 50 to 55. Then, with Wooten as coxswain, another "D" team took the gold medal in last year's nationals at Long Beach.

In order to be chosen for a competition team, the contenders compete at the club for fastest rowing time on the "ergs" (stationary rowing machines). The women in this masters group are just as enthusiastic, dedicated and excited as the college kids. Most of the women have never competed in athletics before. "I'm amazed at the depth of disappointment in those who don't get chosen to be in the competition boat, " coach Scully says.

People begin rowing for various reasons. Cravens started rowing when her knees began to give her trouble from running. Her son, who's a junior rower and a coach for the junior women, talked her into taking lessons.

Tyndall took it up at a friend's urging when Tyndall and her husband separated. "It really helped me get through the tough times," she says.

Wooten had been watching the juniors at Lexington as she drove Highway 17. "When I heard that a masters program was starting, I went straight from my aerobics class to sign up." She'd never rowed before.

Though some of the women masters are as young as 26, most of the women at the rowing club are in their 40s and 50s, and many have never rowed before. Some arrive fit, and others become fit. "We do 20 push-ups a day," Robinson says. She glows when she explains that until recently, women in the military were only required to do 16. "I couldn't even do one when I started," Tyndall says .

When rowers row and stick with it, they become obsessed, Tyndall says. It takes determination and commitment, but the rewards are worth it. Cravens and Robinson sometimes go running after the practice, but many go on to work.

That early morning on the reservoir has some sweet moments aside from rowing. Sometimes it's the joy of watching the sun rise or just being on the water. One morning the rowers were able to see the Hale-Bopp comet.

Anyone interested in information about the masters program can contact Gill Tyndall, master women's director, at 354-5467 or Dave Ehrhardt, master men's director, at 356-4444.

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