Premiering April 13th after the popular American Idol Season 9, FOX Network's new reality TV program "Spring Break Training" follows three rowing teams during grueling spring break training in Miami, FL; Edisto Island, SC, and Oak Ridge, TN.
The concept, first pitched to the network by Allen Eubanks of Oak Ridge Rowing Association, was to capture rowing the way social media captures it: raw, unedited, and 'current' footage from the warmest and most inviting venues in the country for spring break training.
"We first just wanted to showcase Oak Ridge Rowing Association and the Melton Lake venue to the country (and particularly US Rowing, our governing body), but it ended up demonstrating the personal struggles of college students during one of the toughest weeks in their lives," says Eubanks.
And tough it is. Cameras for this show have been placed on boats and even on coxswain's hats, on and off the water. You'll see slow-motion video of an ejector crab of a JV rower at full pressure, the laughter of his team mates and he is thrust into the cold lake, and the quick stifling of chuckles as he emerges. Real, unedited, embarrassing stuff.
From the "Coxswain Cam" during dinner you see cox'n Katie focusing on 6-seat Liz's red streak up her arm, her flushed cheeks, and her blistered, bloodied hands. Later, you accompany Katie, Liz and their coach as they speed up Oak Ridge Highway to Methodist Medical Center for treatment of a raging infection. Later video captures Liz as she is disciplined for over-gripping by sitting in a small room watching the US Rowing safety video on "replay."
Other cameras are employed as well. In Miami, actors with hidden cameras, posing as grad assistants or local residents, follow rowers as they have a "study group" at a local bar. You'll see Jason, a powerful rower from the engine room of the V8, study the bottom of a beer bottle, then study the shape of a similarly powerful Megan from the women's boat. Later you see them studying each other's uvulas.
In Edisto, the producers use a "Bow Seat Cam" with a sensitive voice recorder feature, which captures every time bow seat mutters about 3 seat's timing and 2-seat's slide rush.
Audiences are also treated to nature at its best: images of the dolphins on the Intracoastal Waterways, the stunning yachts on Miami's shores, and the Head Coach in a launch with no gas fading into the horizon as he is pulled by the tide to St. Helena's Sound. You also see the pre-emptive rescue by a resourceful sophomore before the sheriff boat arrives. Remarkably, he finds a seat in the varsity boat the next day.
The show is unrated. Viewers who do not like to see clothes that hold their shape when lifted from the floor, spitting (lots of spitting), vomiting, sequences of horrible rowing from kids who have no intention of being on the team but wanted a tan before third semester; or hear excessive swearing and/or passing gas, should change the channel.
After a screening last week, Eubanks and other coaches were thrilled with the results. "The rowing is great, the Chambers of Commerce love it, and boat builders are throwing shells at us like javelins to get them in the footage...."
"We are looking at a spin-off featuring the medical emergencies or perhaps the love matches from spring break with producers now."
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