We literally covered rowing coast-to-coast and from smack dab in the middle last week, and yep, we saw some things:

It's Fun to Finish 1-2

When you are racing your training partner...and doubles' boatmate:

That was definitely the case with Ruthie Lacy (#1) and her OKC Training Center teammate Brooke Ruskiewicz (#2) in the U23 Light Women's Single at Summer Nationals--and they took the gold in the double to boot ahead of the New York AC later in the day.

Summer Nats was a Riot

After all, who doesn't have fun racing multiple time trials and doubling, tripling or even quadrupling up to get as many races in as possible?

The cheering from shore very nearly did become a literal riot, though, when one team yelling for their single sculler broke into the finish area and started to bum rush the line en masse:

Luckily, their coaches and the finish officials got them to stop and go around before they all wound up appearing on the FinishLynx photo of that final.

While the charging throng might have made for a cool "photo-finish" pic, especially with their fire-flame unis, and it was borne of honest enthusiasm it would have been a real bummer for the other scullers in the race hoping to get an accurate finish time - but it was crisis averted.

Send us your Selfie?

Always fun when we can bring you our pic of a team's podium selfie:

As well as the selfie, well, itself:

0.5 version courtesy of Coach Ciara O'Sullivan

We didn't get this one from Vesper but here is our version:

'Don't go chasin' waterfalls...'

'Please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you're used to...'

That is TLC's musical advice anyway, but we have to say that the waterfall on the Androscoggin River in Lewiston, Maine made for a pretty dramatic--and unique--backdrop for our photos from the Riverfest Regatta on Saturday.

A 'local' we chatted with said the falls are usually a trickle this time of year as most of the water is diverted, but there was a massive thunderstorm that rolled through the area from 2am - 3am that morning, so the river was an unexpected torrent during racing, and we were lucky to photograph it in full flow... might be the one time in rowing that a passing thunderstorm did something useful.

Running on Fumes

It wasn't just the athletes running out of gas after four days of racing in the heat:

Good thing the finish judge had some extra petrol on hand when the generator started sputtering with a handful of races to go on Sunday, whew.

When you tell row2k you are doing a coxn toss...

row2k will be there, for sure:

And good work here by this year's USA World University Games squad and their coaches for making sure we were ready to take the photo before throwing coxswain Dana Shearer into Lake Harsha--and for remembering to post a video to Instagram.

Shearer, by the way, is an 'alum' of row2k's 'In the Driver's Seat' column, and she and the rest of the World University Games team now head to Chengdu, China, where racing is scheduled for August 4th through the 6th.

What's in a Uni? From Coach to Rower to Coach to Rower

Y-Quad Cities coach Peter Sharis not only hopped into the Open 4- in Cincy when his team wound up short a bowman, but he also ripped off his "disguise shirt" at the end of the team's medal ceremony to reveal he was still wearing his uni, 100% ready to collect the silver medal he won with the four:

Coach Peter Sharis, 2nd from left, with son William, on left, and the rest of the Y Quad M4-

To be fair, Sharis did make the 1992 Olympic Final in the pair, where he rowed against some guys named Redgrave and Pinsent. Even though that was a few years back, he still has good enough skills to draw on coming down the track, plus subbing into the four was a chance to win a medal with his son, William, who stroked the crew.

Painter's Tape Hack?

Using painter's tape to put your club's letters on your tent? Pretty good hacking.

And we spotted more folks having fun with painter's tape out at Lake Merced:

Anyone want to help with a translation of those pictograms? James Taylor maybe?

Seems About Right

Yep, a lot of coaches feel this same way about outboards:

It's BAAAAACK

Ever get the feeling you are being followed by a purple hippo, regatta after regatta, recap after recap?

wild2k

These birds in formation did get us wondering...

...which came first, pelicans or Blue Angels?

Hey, We Know That Guy....

Not sure how much WWE our readers watch but we are pretty sure we saw the coach on the left here, Winter Park's Mike Vertullo, in the ring this week:

Check out the video:

Thanks for the Assist

row2k can't be everywhere--heck, the sprint from the medals stage to the finish line at Summer Nats with races coming down at the same time folks were getting medals pretty much did us in--so we are grateful for an extra set of eyes, with a camera.

In Cincy, the best assist award went to long time ref Lissa Heekin, who was helping the LOC run the venue at this past weekend. She sent us a few good pics for the scene galleries, but none better than this one of the Assistant and Chief Referees in their tricked-out, glad-it-is-the-last-day golf cart.

Sign Recovered

Phew, good to see this sign back on duty:

...after all, last time we spotted it in a Recap, it was at the airport, headed for a boathouse destination unknown.

Next up: Plovdiv

Now it is on to U23s, where the French coaches are the loudest folks on the bike path, you can’t let your swoosh show (at least not on your wristbands at the start), the flimsy bow numbers mean last week's Rowing Hack is coming in handy, and--two days in--the photo bibs and some boat name decals are still somewhere in lost luggage land.

Oh, and it is HOT...