Lemon Bay Crew Club: 'It's about all of us, together'

ENGLEWOOD — Rowing successfully doesn’t just require a back-and-forth sweeping motion of an oar. It takes coordination, conditioning, technique and teamwork — on and off the water.

Lemon Bay Crew Club offers a hands-on open house twice a year to introduce curious community members to rowing.

Beyond an introduction of rowing skills, crew club members beam with a passion for their sport.

Club President Linda McGinley said it had about a dozen people attend Saturday’s open house at Indian Mound Park in Englewood. Previously, for June’s open house, the club brought on a full boat’s worth of new rowers.

“We hope to get another boatful here today,” McGinley said. “This is the best way for people to get the experience of what it is like to row and get excited about it.”

Club members introduce the community to the various parts of a rowing boat, often referred to as a shell or scull. The club has singles, doubles and all the way up to an eight-person shell.

During the open house, the club members focused on an eight-person model to help people get a feel for how much teamwork is required for rowing.

Novice rowers row in groups of four and eight with a coxswain, and they always row backwards.

“The coxswain sees where we are going,” McGinley said. “That’s the person who steers the boat.”

The coxswain doesn’t row. Instead, they tug on a small wire string, moving a rudder to change the direction of the shell while shouting commands to the rowers.

“There’s speakers in the boat because the coxswain has a microphone to give direction,” McGinley said. “Nobody ever wants to be the cox because everyone always wants to be the rower.”

McGinley also noted that rowing has a fairly low impact on the body, which is exemplified in the range of ages of the crew club members.

“Everyone thinks rowing is all your arms, but it’s actually in your legs,” McGinley said, motioning to her thigh muscles. “One of the most important things is lifting the boat, and everybody has to be able to lift about 30 pounds to carry the boat on your shoulders.”

While the sweeping motion of the oar utilizes muscle groups in the biceps, shoulders and back, it’s the legs — particularly the thigh muscles — that are propelling the rower back and forward on sliding moving seat.

Crew club members demonstrated the correct motion on ergometers, emulating how it feels to row, and when they got it down pat, the novices gave it a go in the warm waters of Lemon Bay.

“While you’re rowing, it’s not just out recreating — although it is fun — but you really are cognitive of what you need to do to help the boat stay balanced and to have it smoothly move through the water,” she said.

Part-timer Englewood local Alyce Brown came to the open house to see what her friend liked so much about rowing.

“I wanted to give it a shot,” Brown said. “I enjoyed the whole motion of it and listening to the commands and trying to follow instructions.”

While rowers can certainly practice in a single, the sport is very much centered around a team dynamic.

“There’s nothing like the feeling of everyone synchronized and that boat is flying through the water,” McGinley said. “It’s because all of you are working together. It’s not about me. It’s about all of us, together.”

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