Hard to do any "what happened this week" stuff without mentioning the eclipse.

It was unbelievably cool experience, especially if you got a chance to catch up with totality in a spot with zero cloud cover--which row2k did after a mad overnight-and-all-day, plane-to-minivan dash from Trials in Sarasota to Totality on the Vermont-Canada border.

The William Smith crews, lucky enough to have Geneva, NY, in the path of totality, enjoyed the show on the water as seen in this video sent to us by Paul Bugenhagen.

Here is another view from inside the boat.

As did the Brown Women, and this Penn guy, who apparently has a fast erg score. If you have a great "rowing while eclipsing" photo, send it in to us and we'll spin up a gallery.

Coast-to-Coasting

This was the first truly massive weekend of the spring, with 45+ galleries, from Boston to Seattle, Philly/Jersey to Clemson, and from Sarasota's Trials to San Diego's Classic.

The photos run the gamut, from podium poses in the sun:

to places where it still feels like winter:

Especially if you're racing a single first thing in the morning on the Cooper...brrr.

So let's dive in to what we saw.

Thirsty Winners

Who maybe should have stopped at the beer tent to fill up first.

FLA Locals

Swipe right to see the full menagerie of fauna taking in the Trials racing.

Youthful Presenters

The Crew Classic starts 'em young:

And when your mom is two-time Olympic champ Susan Francia (and grandma just won a Nobel Prize), it is only fitting that you get a medal of your own to wear on the job.

Confident Coxswains

This one was pretty sure the race was gonna go well.

Kelp Catching

Takes a village of happy volunteers to run any regatta:

But in Mission Bay, one of them has to have a rake to help keep the course clear.

How Do You Know...

That this is a photo of a sculler? Answer at bottom.

How it started...

2023 Crew Classic:

How It's Going

2024 Crew Classic:

Quad by Pairs

The struggle is real.

Flip Fishing

Looks like he's got a live one on the end of his oar here on the Cooper.

But the fish are bigger in Philly (as we saw in the Recap a few weeks back!)

Standing, second and third from left:

They were celebrating their win in the Grace Rett Memorial Cup with their Purdue teammates...even the one who showed up late to the photo.

Lots of Let's Row! Fun

This past weekend also featured a gallery of indoor rowing, covering CRI's Let's Row! Championship for the kids at the many schools around Boston and Cambridge who partner with them in the Let's Row! program.

Formerly known as the YETI, it bills itself as the largest one-day indoor erg relay in the world, providing a fun day "in" for 5th grade through HS, from these schools.

Already spotting the camera--kid's off to a good start!

row2k spotted some of these kids erging at HOCR last fall, and here is a full report we did last year that talks about the background of the event and CRI's efforts with the Let's Row! program.

There has always been a "run around" or "field day" vibe to this event, but they went all in this year, with open (not organized) pickleball, cornhole and basketball, and a sponsored fitness/hang station staffed by a couple of fitness folks including a women who was on American Ninja Warriors. Check it out in the row2k galleries.

Don't Try This For An Eclipse, BTW

Definitely not a sanctioned way to watch an eclipse...

...though definitely a sanctioned way to catch winks mid-regatta.

Just A Big Guy and His Coxswain

You can see more of this not-so-odd-to-rowing-folks couple here and here in the galleries.

Familiar Faces

We spotted a heap of folks at the Crew Classic who've done collegiate interviews or "In the Driver's Seat" columns with row2k, like the Dartmouth grad in the stroke seat here, Tanner Mathison:

Tanner shared his story about the rowing connections in his family way back in 2010. We also spotted former USC rower Sofia Sobotta, MIT Lightweight Richard Sollee, San Diego's Emily Cary, Stanford Lightweight Emily Molins, and Driver's Seat 'alums' Margaux Hart from UCSB and Carly Legenzowski in the Texas 1V.

Horns at the Start

Speaking of Texas coxswains:

This is how you know it's a Texas coxswain who's not ready at the start, alright?

Hay! Talk About The Last Straw

We'll have to check at the Flick next week and see if he's still there.

Answer: if you said 'left over right' you are a sculling guru.