The event that makes you realize this sport is for you...

[sin_goodfellow]

Tribe,

I wanted to describe the experience I had wednesday evening that made me realize how much I love crew. I wanted to share it with you and hear of the event or events that made you realize why you love the sport/event you compete in. What gives you the drive to keep on trucking
when you feel like dying?

Wednesday evening practice started out as usual except for a strong cold wind blowing in off the ocean. We gathered in front of the J(HSU cafeteria)for car-pooling and headed out to the boathouse in Eureka. We arrived to find out that neither of the novice coxswains were in attendance. It seemed like we might not get to row that night... :x

Yet the men and woman of HSU are not ones to easily give up. Our novice coach, who is at least 6' 3" squeezed into the cox seat of one boat and my boat had the honor of being cox'ed by a 4yr veteran of the HSU woman's crew. I was put in 7 seat, which made me quite happy, but I also felt some trepidation while bringing the boat down. I had been told that if I rushed my slide once I would be put in the back of the boat.

I remembered that the only opponent I must truly worry about is myself and squashed that fear-reactivity with some performance breathing. 8) We completed our arms/arms&back/half-slide/full-slide pig drill in record time and proceeded to row by 6's. I was rowing in nigh sync with 8 seat(the stroke)and the boat glided with a supreme smoothness that cannot be described in words.

We transitioned into rowing on the feather and our coxswain brought us up to full-pressure to catch the other novice boat, her words calm and precise. We started pulling hard and a light but deceptively drenching rain began to fall from the sky. The calling out of our steady forward progress in catching the boat melded with the rhythm of the oar in my hand. I kept my eyes focused on the back in front of me, muscles slacking on the slide and activating like a bomb on the drive.

The rain and cold wind seemed like a blessing from my Norse gods as we passed the boat and rode our momentum out in a long glide. I did'nt rush my slide once.

We also rowed by all 8's for the first time that night. The boat-ups we had to do for hitting a rigger in the boathouse as we put our boat back in place just seemed like closure to one of the best days of sport achievement i've ever had.

Jesse Wells

ps: I added 25lbs to my squat that day as well, only 25 away from being able to squat my 200lb bodyweight. :D

[KAS]

Flow baby, flow!

You know it's funny. After reading this I should be thinking about my own experiences in sports but I am hung up on the serenity and bliss of the imagery in your post =) Of course I love the spray or the ocean and the ancient power of the pacific northwest so it touches my heart strings =) I suppose it helps that an old girlfriend of mine was a coxwain!

So back to reality...for me I can sum this up in a simple thought that seems to apply to all aspects of my life. Indeed it seems to be a core concept here at CST.

Flow. All of my best moments; the ones that remind me why I am doing what I am doing, have to do with flow.

I remember a time in the dojo when my ninjitsu soke had me working on a knife dissarm and throw. My techniques were distracted and unrefined. After a few passes he stopped me and told me to meditate for a while, to really sit down and release my tension. After about 10 minutes I came back into class and he immedeatly attacked me full speed. I responded without thought, form or effort and a split second later my soke was lying in the doorway ten feet away. All eyes fell on me as I stood tall with his tanto in my hand. It was pure flow.

In my own life this same concept is expressed on a regular basis. There are times when work consumes me like a fetid smoke. But there are other times when things just flow and my engineers are pacing forward in their work like a fluid organic machine.

Everyone has flow, but only the most skilled can call upon it at will. That is the essence of our training.

-Kyle