More First Night photos

ARC member Ham Richards has posted his album of First Night photos!  I’m still waiting for some awesome video footage to be edited but in the meantime, here are a few photos (more at the link) to enjoy.

Coach Barksdale takes a swim

From Competitive Men’s Crew Member Ron Yaw:

As most of you know, ARC has a annual Holiday Erg Challenge every year from Thanksgiving through Christmas.  Many members look forward to the Challenge with giddy anticipation and jump in with unbridled “enthusiasm”.  This year, Charles Barksdale, coach of the Men’s Competitive Crew, threw an additional gauntlet down to each of the men’s crew.  He was going to swim in Lady Bird Lake for two minutes for each person who beat his personal erg total.

At high noon, New Year’s Day 2010, Coach Charles made good on his word.  Three of the men’s crew beat his total of 149,500m.  Vince Perez, Don Kerth and Ron Yaw.  Check out the graceful dive into the lake and the polar bear-like treading water technique.

Most of all, congrats to ALL participants of the 2009 Holiday Erg Challenge!

More pics after the break. (BTW, I don’t feel to badly for Charles, the high New Year’s Eve was in the low 70′s.

first First Night Recap

And the biggest news is that we had a great first First Night experience on New Year’s Eve!  Here’s a first hand account from Virginia Hoffman; we’ll follow up soon with more pics and video of the event.

First Night Austin 2010:

Austin can have the most surprisingly nice winter weather, but unfortunately the weather report was dead on for New Year’s Eve – cold, 40ish, and winds somewhere between 15 and 20 mph, not including gusts. Given more than one cancellation of the Heart of Texas for similar conditions, it was questionable if the first Water Light Boat Parade would be over before starting.

(belated) Season’s Greetings! And First Night!

And we’re back on the air!  We apololgize for the hiatus, the usual maintainer of the blog was out of town for the holidays.

The big news is, of course, FIRST NIGHT, Austin’s artistic family friendly New Year’s Eve Celebration.  Right now, AUstin Rowing Club volunteers are hard at work (and have been since 8am) getting the boats ready for our First Night debut.

We hope you can come check it out; we’ll be on Lady Bird Lake, between the South 1st and Congress Bridges from about 9pm to 10pm.

Edit for better time and location information:

9pm – ARC Waterlight Parade on Lady Bird Lake

The best viewing will be from the West side of the First Street Bridge or Auditorium Shores.  Our parade should last around 25 minutes – don’t miss it!

Here are a few pics of the prep work:

Molly and Jessica look perplexed

Nancy Lee, Pat, Jack, and I honestly can't tell who that is in the blue on the left

More work on the boats

Austin Rowing Club’s Holiday Party Recap

Our annual Holiday Party was bigger and better than ever!  Lots of rowers from all parts of the club attended and the food was amazing as usual (thanks to Barbara Gibson’s hosting prowess).  Keep reading for some pics from the party and ARC Vice President, Paul Scripko’s recap.  (If there’s anyone who know’s a good party, it’s Paul. )

Amazing video

Hey Y’all, check out this amazing video ARC member Virginia Hoffman made about erging and the Holiday Erg Challenge!

And for a little extra motivation, here’s a video Coach Charles Barksdale sent out to the ARC Competitive Men a few days ago. It’s an entertaining compilation of clips from the last Olympics; I’m always in awe at how efficient and powerful the elite rowers are; reminds me just how far I have to go with my own technique.

Juniors Win Gold at Hooch

Hey Y’all,  a new post to catch us up on all the recent news.  This is a regatta report about the Head of the Hooch in Chattanooga, TN by Junior’s Head Coach Jennifer De Haas:

The Austin Rowing Club competed at the Head of the Chattahoochee Regatta on November 7-8 in Chattanooga, TN.  The regatta is the second largest in the country  with over 1750 boats racing and teams from as far away as Canada, Arizona, Ohio, and Florida.  This years Hooch brought gorgeous weather, fast race conditions and excitement of rowing.

The regatta started off with the teams priority boats.  The lightweight eight had their best row of the year to finish a solid 5th place.  Coxswain Avery Ashwill steered a great course in the tough conditions and gave her crew the edge.  Next to race the novice girls eight continued to dominate and won the event by 41 seconds over a team from Florida.  Stroke seat, Caroline Allan, took the stroke rate up half way through the race and held strong through the finish line.